Visit a bazaar

“We decided to walk around a little in the souks to try to get an idea of the souvenirs we still needed to purchase for folks back home. It was painful. There are so many shops, sensory overload cripples you. It’s loud in much of the areas so you can barely hear anything. It’s deathly quite in others so it feel like everyone is listening to you. [...] If the sights, sounds, and smells don’t deter you from shopping, then the haggling will. You will never know how much something costs. Ask, and the shop owner will attempt to corral you into his store, barricade you in with a wall of goods, and then harass you until you buy or start cursing (at least in my experience).”

“It is so much more fun to visit a bazaar with three charming young women then it is to brave the stone maze alone. During my second visit I was a lot less scared, nervous, naive and even a little less lost. I have to admit that shopping with three women did, at times, severely test my patience (they just had to have that particular dress from that particular stall, which they couldn’t find), but altogether it is a much more gratifying and quite often hilarious experience.”

“The Grand Bazaar is also spectacular. One of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 60+ covered streets and over 3,000 shops: it is very easy to get lost! My first proper experience of haggling (if you don’t count the time in Tunisia when my dad tried to swap me for camels) was semi-successful – I definitely talked the shop-owner down, but don’t really think I came away with a bargain.”