Wherever you are in Sultanahmet Square -- be it the Blue Mosque, Ayasofya, Topkapi, Hippodromo, T1 tram stop or Basilica Cistern -- an English speaking man will approach you.
He will tell you that the Blue Mosque is closed to visitors at the moment. Or that it is open. Because mosques give free entry to visitors, but close during the multiple times of prayer through the day, Western travelers have a great deal of anxiety about walking to a mosque, only to find it closed for services.
These men may well care about your ability to see one of the most famous mosques in Turkey.
But what they really want is to get you into their carpet shop.
There always have been carpet touts. But with a sharp drop in American and Western European visitors, those who comb the crowds work even harder.
I was off the beaten path, taking the picture of a burned out, but wonderful old Ottoman building.
When developers want to build on a prime spot, it is astounding how many "coincidental" fires clear out an historic building that until razed, prevents land holders from building a taller, bigger structure.
A man shared my concern over the loss of another part of Old Istanbul.
Soon, he asked me where I was from (I knew he was a carpet tout by then).
Instead of Miami, I said Ohio, my birthplace.
He responded that his uncle was a from a gritty, blue collar old Ohio town.
I thought it was total BS, till he said the name of the town: Ironton.
Nobody could have made that up.
No one, unless they were from there, would know about the gritty Ohio River town, named for its Pig Iron industries, wracked by all factory town ills since the 1970s and at 10,000, about 2/3 of its peak population.
(story to be continued tomorrow)
I cannot find a website for the shop.
Ottomania is in Sultanahmet Mahalessi at Tuvakhane Sokak No. 17.
One of the relatives has an email of: varolmetin@hotmail.com
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