Kusadasi,
Turkish Aegean Coast,
Turkey
Friday, November 14, 2008
No tour today only Rug Shopping in the Bazaar. This is supposed to be the best and least expensive place to buy a "hand-made" Turkish Carpet. They are Right. Not more than 500 meters from dockside there were more than 50 places to buy carpets. We hit here at the end of the Season so literally everything was on sale from carpets to "Genuine 'Fake' Rolex" and other high priced brands of watches to leather goods (purses, shoes, jackets etc) to all of the typical touristic junk. The sellers were ready to sell and Mary was ready to buy. Every carpet store you walked into the sales people threw down every rug in the place at your feet so you could "try" them out. Then out came the apple tea so you would stay longer and feel obligated to buy a rug. If you showed complete disinterest you could leave without any problems but if you showed interest they showed every size of carpet from the small 1' x 2' carpets right up to the full 16' x 16' room sized and everything in between. Mary managed to get a good deal on a wool on cotton 2' x 3' with her colours (blue, red and something else) which she will use as a wall hanging. She then continued to shop for other nicknacks (Christmas presents for those of you who don't speak the lingo).
