The Grand Bazaar is a small covered city where more than 10,000 people work
A quick tour of the souk, a little haggling and they leave with their purchase, in which the typical pendants with the Turkish eye, the traditional kilim or ceramic bowls with the mevlevi (famous dancers for their spinning dances) .
Travelers leave having visited, but without having known the ins and outs of the souk that go beyond souvenirs. For this reason, here we propose you to discover its secrets that are eagerly awaiting to be heard.
The Grand Bazaar keeps many secrets, and the shop assistants are its best guardians
Our journey begins when we get off the tram at Beyazit Kapalicarsi, the closest stop to the Grand Bazaar. Soon you will begin to see stalls and more stalls.
A large network of shops has been created around the souk where you will find rugs, jewelry, scarves and everything you can imagine.
It's kind of gigantic Trail, but don't get distracted. In truth, until you have crossed one of its 22 doors, you will not have entered the Grand Bazaar.
We look for the gate 1, the main entrance next to the Nuruosma-niye Mosque, and that already on its façade reveals the year in which it was built: 1461.
All entrances are flanked by security arches and two or three policemen with metal detectors.
Grand Bazaar main entrance
SPANISH IN ITS STREETS
Upon entering, the shopkeepers attentively await the arrival of tourists. Each one, stationed at the door of his shop, as he does Muzaffer Ceviz, when he sees me he greets me in Spanish "hi how are you?".
He has guessed where I am from with a single glance. He invites us to have tea at his rug and kilim stall. He has been in the business for 10 years and says he speaks Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English, Italian, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese; At least long enough for you to walk out of there with a rug under his arm.
“Tourists feel more comfortable if you speak to them in their language. We all speak multiple languages. It is necessary to work in the souk.” The shopkeepers of the bazaar may be the ones who speak the most languages in the whole city.
Carpets are one of the most common objects in the stalls of the Grand Bazaar
We leave Muzaffer's post to continue exploring. Getting lost in its streets is inevitable and more than recommended.
We walk aimlessly through its corridors where the hustle and bustle is continuous, among tourists who ask the price of a lamp while a man crosses briskly with a tray full of teas. He is in charge of taking them to the shopkeepers who are looking for entertain tourists with a drink while closing a purchase.
The Grand Bazaar is a small town where more than 10,000 people work. It has a post office, two small mosques, banks, exchange houses, cafes and restaurants.
Soon one of the franchises of the turkish Chef Salt Bae, who became famous throughout the world with the video of the 'Turkish steak', turned into meme meat.
LAND OF MEN
One of the things you will notice after spending a while in the bazaar is that most of the people running the stalls are men.
You will have a hard time finding women, there are very few. One of them is Esra Ozavar, that she works in a jeweler's following in the footsteps and business of her grandfather.
“When I started there were only 2 or 3 women. People at first thought I'd quit when I got married." She has been 30 years and counting.
Esra was chatting with two friends from other neighboring jewelry stores when we entered her store. They are Ilhan Guzelis, who has been working in the bazaar for 50 years and Ivan Kojtpdof, who surpasses him with 60 years of experience.
Traditional Turkish slippers in the Grand Bazaar
Although they tell us that the oldest man is Huseyin, 95 years old, that he started working in the market in 1937 as a shoe shiner. "If you want to find him, you have to go to the leather shops, he is always there."
Ilhan offers to give us a tour to show us some of the shops and introduce us to some of the more storied shopkeepers. This Aramean could be named 'Ambassador of the Grand Bazaar'.
He knows the souk with his eyes closed and has been present at the official visits of the queen of the Netherlands, Prince Charles and his wife Camila, among others.
She speaks proudly of the Grand Bazaar, although her gesture changes when she tells that with him, the fourth generation, the family tradition ends. "I have two sons who are engineers but they don't want to know anything about the business."
A labyrinth of streets where you can get lost and let yourself go
MEMORIES OF A GOLDEN TIME
It seems that the golden age of the Grand Bazaar is a distant memory as you listen to Ilhan speak of earlier years when American and European tourists numbered in handfuls.
He tells us that In its origins “the souk was made up of only two streets of stalls and the rest of the land was patios, destined to keep the horses of the merchants who came from all over the region to do their shopping.”
With time and necessity, more stores were opened. Today there are more than 4,000 and there is no position that is empty.
The Grand Bazaar smells of spices and steaming tea in every corner
We stop in front of L'orient, a small shop located in the antiques area. Here the aisles are narrower and the stalls are not as big as in other parts of the souk.
Murat Bilir greets us and invites us into his shop, where there is only room for a small desk and two chairs.
The rest is taken up by the antiques it sells: "cultural objects that are portable and made of copper, brass, and bronze." Murat is 70 years old and 50 of them have been spent working in the bazaar.
Between silver candlesticks, clocks and incense boxes he remembers his beginnings, “I was 15 years old when I started. It was summer and I spent the holidays working as an apprentice. I started from scratch, carrying the objects from one place to another, or cleaning the entrance of the store”.
He remembers that “tourists fascinated him. He carried an English dictionary in his pocket and a notepad to write down all the new words he learned”.
Fifty years later, he has perfect English. and on the door of his store he has a newspaper clipping hanging with a photo in which he is seen as a younger man with Laura Bush, the wife of the former president of the United States.
His stories give to spend the rest of the afternoon entertained. We say goodbye to our exceptional guides promising that we will return and we leave asking Murat a curiosity:
“What is the most expensive item you have in the store?” to which Ilhan steps forward and responds with a smile, “Which of all do you like the most?”.