Fig and Olive

I’ve been to Turkey before, and the Istanbul itinerary was pretty much the same: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Bosphorus Cruise, Topkapi Palace, DolmabahcePalace, Belly Dancing show  and of course some Bazaar. After the 3^rd time round in the last 3 years, I finally get bored – kinda predicted now.

So, I also have visited Egyptian Bazaar thrice (called so ‘cos it used to sell goods from Egypt during Ottoman Empire). But this time, the local tour-leader was quite persistent to lead us to his acquaintances’ shops. I was quite annoyed by that he did that. He led us to away from the Bazaar’s entrance and go from a side gate near New Mosque. I couldn’t separate from the group, the bazaar is huge, I just don’t want to go missing in the midst of spices and Turkish delight; the shops all looked the same to me. So, I followed the group walking towards New Mosque, to the left side of bazaar. And guess what?! It was a heaven place for me, we crossed a flowers’ market. So many plants and flowers there. I started to pay attention for the way, I thought “I need to come back to look at those plants and flowers”

Here is the emergency map, in case you want to visit this market. Pics are taken from here, here and here. 

I was too busy with the plants that I forgot to take any picture. Who cares about pictures when you are in plants haven?

L-R: New Mosque, Flower Market, Egyptian Bazaar

Luckily, to my surprise, one of my group members  is a green-freak too and he accompanied me to check out the plants there. The sellers were nice too; I guess not many tourist visits their stalls. So, we both fell in love with olives trees, so we decided to get one for each. And we saw some black fig tree, and we got a couple of it too. I was so happy!!!  (though, now I kinda regret not getting the famous Turkey pomegranate tree >.<)

They are doing fine now. Here are their pictures, taken today.

Olive

Fig

I also got some tulip bulbs. I shared it with Mr.ES and Ling. I hope they are doing well on their side; cos mine is definitely failing here. 

How I smuggle it, is my own secret. Won’t reveal it here. I am totally proud of my mischievous act!