Rain is predicted today – so we decide to get up early and head to the ferry first thing, in order to beat the rain when we are at the Tuesday flea market in Kadikoy. Kadikoy is on the Asian side of Istanbul (we’ve never been when we have visited Istanbul in the past) and there is a farmer’s market there every day, but on Tuesdays there is a huge flea market as well. We’ve read about it and want to check it out. If the timing is right, there is also a restaurant there that gets great reviews – so we were hoping for lunch there.
We walk over to the Ferry dock early, with a few sprinkles falling on our heads. We catch the 8:20 ferry easily – 4 TL each – that’s like $1.60 US. It only takes about 15 minutes, so we are on the Asian side in no time! Now to find a taxi. It’s raining when we arrive and there is a huge bus area outside the terminal building, but no taxis that we can see. We start to walk to the street and find one taxi just sitting there. Available? Who knows? We’ll ask!
Yes, he’s available but speaks no English – well, very little. He can’t understand what we want, and keeps asking if we have a card (you know, those little business cards hotels and restaurants give you with name and address so the driver can read it). We don’t and he says he can’t take us. Then he says something “market”? We dig out our printout from this blog where we found the market and get lucky – we have the Turkish name for the market. Phew. He says he knows it and off we go (cool side note: the cabbie’s meter is a digital read out in his rear view mirror! We’d never seen that before – pretty wild).
Supposedly you can walk to it, but it is confusing and takes forever. You can also take a bus or metro – but that was confusing too – so we opted for the cab. He’s driving us through town, then out onto the highway and way away from the river and the main shopping area where we were. Ed and I both look at each other and shrug – this might not be right – but we’ll just take a taxi back from where ever he drops us!
He finally gets off at an exit, and voila! There is the market – just as described. Cool – and only 12 TL (we’re hording our Lira because we don’t want to have to get more and get stuck with it since this is our last day in Turkey). We hop out and start exploring. This place is mammoth. And fortunately it is all under ‘tarp’. 
The vendors are putting up tarps, almost like a huge patchwork tent, so that none of their stuff gets wet. So we are protected from the rain as we walk past tables and tables of underwear, socks, trinkets, toys, carpets, clothes, knock of purses and watches (of course watches!). There are some great buys here – like Jeggings for only 15 TL (less than $6 US). But unfortunately there is no way to try them on – so no way to buy them, that’s for sure! Bummer.
We walk to and fro for a while, entertaining ourselves by watching a dog pull at the ropes that keep the tarps suspended. He’s going to town – and when we return a few moments later, he’s actually unwound quite a bit of it and it’s all around him now. Cute! We head to the food part of the market and love looking at the huge heads of cabbage, fresh fish, beautiful ripe melons that are just huge, red ripe tomatoes and artichoke hearts floating in water. Plus the raisins and nuts. It’s all pretty amazing!
Unfortunately we can’t use any of the produce, it’s so tempting. But we can use the pistachios, which are only 30 TL per kilo here. Sadly though, we don’t have enough TL, only Euros, and there isn’t an ATM in sight – we even go out of the market to walk around a bit to find a bank. No such luck. So we go back inside and pantomime (no English here either!) Euro – we’ve done the conversion, should be 10 E for the kilo, so we pull out 10 and show it to the kid with the nuts, who calls over one of the guys sitting near the table, who stares at the Euro and strokes it, and then talks to the other guys sitting with him, and then finally tells the kid to give us the pistachios and hands us back 10 TL. Ok – sure – whatever! We’ve got the nuts. Deal done!
Successful, we leave the market and wander the streets looking for a taxi. It’s sort of haphazard how you get them, you literally stand on the street and wait for one to stop. You can sort of do the hailing thing – but it doesn’t always work. They just stop – or not. Our guy figures out we are heading to the ferry – and off we go. This time we go through town – which makes us feel better – and we can see why it is complicated to walk to the market – and REALLY far. Taxi is the way to go. The way back is only 10 TL, and we’re deposited right at the terminal.
It is way too early to eat lunch, and we don’t want to shop, even though this is the place to do it – very local. So we hop back on the ferry and head back to Karakoy.
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