OMG the waterway is so busy. We experience more than one fright as we seem to narrowly miss other boats on our journey along the shore. There are boats from the size of one man fishing dinghies to cruise liners. It reminds us of the traffic on the roads. We saw an unusual small two man city council dinghy with a worker plucking rubbish out of the water with a net attached to a pole. Men line the rails of the Galata Koprusu (bridge), all with long fishing poles attempting to catch sardines. The cruise affords and uninterrupted, with the exception of large ferries, view of the old city and takes up past the areas where the wealthy live on the water front. There is a mix of building types with a number of wooden clad homes along side cement apartment blocks. Of course, as we are reminded by each tour guide, Istanbul is the only city in the world to span the two continents of Europe and Asia..
Once the cruise is over we are back onto the bus and taken to one of the cities high points Pierre Loti. This area sits on the summit of Eyup Sultan Hill where you will find a cemetry built on an almost vertical slope. We take a cable car ride down the side of the cementry to catch up with our tour bus at the bottom and we are then unceremoniously dumped back in the old district of Istanbul.
We located a laundry service just down the road from our hotel and dropped all of our clothing, with the exception of what we were wearing and our smalls, off to be washed and dried. The cost of having all of our clothes washed came to a princely sum of 30 Lira ($19).
After another lunch sampling lentil soup and salad we decide to tackle the complex shopping area called the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market. 
The crowd of both locals and tourists is overwhelming. I can't imagine how busy it must be in the summer months. Ron expresses a little discomfort walking amongst so many people. I attept to check out the prices of goods in the Grand Bazaar but again Ron expresses his discomfort.
Perhaps we can wonder through the market when we return to Istanbul on our Greek Island cruise in April.
I have to add that being constantly accosted by the shop and restaurants owners has been annoying. Every metre or so you are approached by a man wanting you to either shop at his premises or sit to order a meal or coffee. Only men work in the shops and restaurants. We have only seen women working as cleaners.
A curiosity pointed out by our previous tour guide is the currency buying and selling that is conducted over the mobil phone by men at the end of every day at the Grand Bazaar. We witness this as we walked through the Bazaar on our way home. Small groups of men were gathered in the narrow allies and not unlike the stock exchange would be calling out to each other. It was especially obvious in the section of the Bazaar where the jewellery is sold. Our tour guide also mentioned that wealthy farmers did not show their wealth by buying big houses or flash cars, instead they remain in their family homes, continuing to drive their favourit tractors and spend their money on gold. Apparently gold is easy to sell when required and does not attract the attention of the government for taxing. It would explain the full mouth of golden tooth caps that I saw in a woman's mouth that we passed in the street. Shorely it was not done for vanity!
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