Travel Journal

2002-10-19

Big sticky-out wings

When he admitted that he'd been off by an hour when he gave us a revised landing time, and remarked that one of us had alerted him to the problem. "Passengers 1, Pilot 0."

When he explained that we couldn't pull into the gate because we obviously have "these big sticky-out wings", and the ground crew needs to clear away everything that would be underneath them at the gate before he'll pull up. (He had to tell them twice to move the stuff.)

Anyway, we were very amused, and now it's bedtime!"

Istanbul

Carpets

This morning we got up a bit late, getting to breakfast around 9:30. The food was interesting: cheese, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, yogurt, fruit, and various kinds of bread, served as a buffet. I particularly liked the tart, crumbly white cheese, and the tomatoes were wonderful.

After breakfast, we visited the rug museum on the grounds of the Blue Mosque. I was amazed at the way the carpets were displayed- some were even hung in front of windows with the sun shining on the back. We didn't really understand it that well, because there was very little explanatory text (in any language), but the class we took on tribal carpets did help.

Then we headed in the direction of the Archaeological Museum, and while we were puzzling that out, we were accosted by a nice young man who, you guessed it, owned a carpet shop. He was so nice, we agreed to go visit his shop, where he and his partner offered us tea (the apple tea is delicious) and showed us carpets, in between discussions of politics, cultural differences, and outrageous flattery. Once it became clear (to all of us) that we might actually be serious customers, they insisted we eat lunch together on the carpet they were trying to sell us. In the end, we succumbed, and spent WAY too much money on carpets for the dining room and the living room. I have no idea whether we got a "good deal", but we think the carpets are beautiful, feel that the price was entirely fair, and like the guys who sold them to us. We're having them shipped, and should receive them in about 4 weeks.

The guys are both from the Cappadocia region, where we're going later in the trip -- one of the rugs we saw (but didn't buy) was made by the younger fellow's mother when she was 18 or 19!

(Hmm, there's a certain similarity between the way we bought a house on the very first day we ever looked at houses, and the way we bought a carpet the first day we looked at carpets. We're either extremely decisive or seriously gullible.)"

Blue Mosque

Carpet Shopping

Archaeological Museum

Istanbul