Istanbul Spice Bazaar

Last weekend I toured through the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul.  It was not as impressive as I thought it would be, but it was certainly not the tourist trap that the Grand Bazaar was.  In this Bazaar you can of course buy spices, but you can also buy sweets, nuts, and teas.  This Bazaar is one of the oldest bazaars in the city (built in 1660) and is the second-largest covered shopping mall.  

I myself bought some Turkish saffron, which is actually dried safflower.  They also sell Iranian saffron and Indian saffron (which is actually turmeric, not saffron).  The Iranian saffron is the most expensive because it is actually saffron.  Here's a great article online that talks about saffron and suggests recipes to use it in.  

I thought about buying what the vendors call "Turkish Viagra".  This "viagra" is invariably some kind of sweet but since I don't eat sugar I wouldn't have any use for it myself.  Vendors in the bazaar advertise it as "Turkish Viagra--5 times in the night".  In fact, the vendors in the Bazaars can sell to you in all kinds of languages.  As you walk past, they will call out to you in whatever language they think you speak.  It's a good way to see what nationality they think you are.  Apparently I appear to be Spanish to most people, but a minority of vendors thought I was Italian.