I was telling you in a previous post about the estimated number of mosques from Istanbul.
Yet, no matter how hard I tried finding such an estimation for the number of shops from Istanbul, that I could not find.
Strange for me having an entire post shops related for someone who does not find a pleasure in shopping but a necessity.
And still, I am , because you must be warned: shopping is insane here.
A shop for everyone, a scent for everyone… no, let me rectify: hundreds even thousands.
This might give you an example. Can you pick just one? Be honest…
First time when you arrive is almost exhausting: the number of shops with at least the same number of vendors… can you imagine?
And the Turkish vendors are not your usual vendors.
No sir, Istanbul s tradition of selling is in their DNA.
From the smallest shop to the biggest one, never too aggressive.. just in a perfect balance.
And you will find even in the shopping section a blend of modern and traditional, just as I will exemplify below.
Here you will find this tiny, colored, crowded street, with hundreds of shops.
It won’t matter that you probably aren’t looking for anything special on it.
You got on it from curiosity and you will be trapped by its charm.
How would you advertise your products if you would own a shop? Definitely not on the ground.
Just tilt your head back here for a second:
That is creativity and thinking out of the box, in the heat of the street.
Can you feel this streets pace? Can you handle it? If they can, you can, and you move to the next one and so on.
Ok, getting you out off there because perhaps you are a tad fancier and these are not your crowds. Istanbul has that covered also.
Fancy enough?
And if everybody is taking photo after photo, and since marketing pays off.. why not having an Instagram ready display?
I must confess: that’s a delicious trap my dear reader.
While you’re be focusing your camera , your brain will understand from the lavishing sweets that you NEED to have that sweet tooth sorted out.
And without any shred of remorse you will go in and let yourself carried away by strings of caramel, syrupy cakes and roasted pistachio.
That was also a spoiler for the next posts in which I’ll cover Turkish food, sweets, teas, coffees and.. cats.
Andreea Radu 