The Olivium

The Olivium – that sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Something you’d travel thousands of miles to see like the Hippodrome, or the Coliseum. Well for some people, perhaps, but it has never been on my bucket list. Nevertheless, on our last full day in Istanbul, and both out of “must sees” and tired of crowds, our destination is a Turkish outlet mall an hour or so away on the metro.

So after actually sleeping in a bit for a change, and booking some reservations for flights and hotel in Cappadocia (our next stop), we’re off. While we’re open to whatever we may find there, the real attraction is deals on leather goods. A few nights ago, I bought a jacket at a shop on Istiklal Street that I affectionately refer to as my Fonzie coat, so now we are in need a little something for Leather Tuscadero.

Getting to the mall is surprisingly easy, particularly since we don’t know exactly where it is, but only the metro stop to get off the train at. As far as we are out from the center of town, its clear we’re not in the touristy area anymore, and it’s a nice change to be able to see typical Turkish life.

The mall itself is a bit of a disappointment (for me at least) but we do manage to find a few things (some dress shoes for me and a handbag for Angela, who swears she only has three at home). The highlight for me was actually not even in the building, but a bakery across the street where we picked up a small box of pistachio baklava, by far the best I have had here.

By the time we make it back to the hotel it is after 6 pm, so besides getting some quick dinner (falafel again), catching up on some work that I need to get done (blah), and packing our stuff up so we’re ready to check out in the morning, we’re pretty much done with Istanbul. Our flight out is at 8:40 am from the smaller (but further away) of the two city airports, so we need to be up early and to the bus by 6:00 am.