Magic Carpets and the Grand Bazaar (Day 8 - Kuşadası, Turkey, Part 5)

This is my final post about Ephesus!  It was such a memorable day and I've enjoyed revisiting it with our pictures. After our lunch we were taken to a carpet shop.  We were told by the cruise line there would be an "optional" carpet demonstration.  We were a long way from our ship, so there was nothing optional about this demonstration.  But there were some interesting points.

These carpets are handmade using only natural materials.  In this pot are cocoons. Silk is produced by several insects, but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing.

She was spinning a machine that pulled the silk from the cocoons.  We were able to touch the silk and it is very strong.

Our group was then lead into a large showroom.  This is when things got a bit uncomfortable.  They started bringing out carpet after carpet after carpet.  They were absolutely beautiful and super soft.  Then things got really uncomfortable, when after about 15 minutes, each of us had our own personal carpet salesman.  Bear in mind, the prices on these were $400 to $10,000!  We felt so much pressure.  "Do you like this one?  How about this one?  Let's go in this other room..."

We finally escaped and tried to make our way back to the bus.  We were with one of the couples who sat with us at lunch and realized they had a maze set up.  Next there was a large jewelry department.  As we were shaking our heads about the pressure in the carpet room we saw this huge sign and just had to laugh!

We weren't home free yet - next we walked through the perfume department.  Then we walked through an area that had all kinds of electronics, trinkets, and bags.  Les and I were just looking around with no intention of buying.  A fellow came up to me and said, "I know just what you want!"  Les said, "Good luck with that buddy.  I've been married to her for 25 years and I don't know what she wants half the time!  If you figure it out, I want to know your secret!"  I laughed and said, "I don't know what I want half the time either!"  We made it back to the bus with our money still in my purse.

We were told on our cruise ship that the Turks are the original fakes - in other words, don't expect that Gucci purse to really be a Gucci purse!  Our bus finally took us back to the port and dropped us off at the Grand Bazaar.  This is a large collection of stores boasting "leather" goods and "Genuine Fake Watches!"  Hey, at least they were honest about what they were selling!

Les and I aren't really souvenir buyers.  We'd rather spend our money on experiences and food, and bring home lots of pictures (I know you're very surprised to read that!)  But we still wanted to see the Grand Bazaar since we had some time before we needed to be back on the ship.  We wandered in and out of shops, saying "No, thank you" over and over.

We overheard a really funny exchange in one of the stores.  I think it was 3 or 4 young women and the conversation went something like this:
YW1:  "You can't buy that, you don't have room for anything else!"
YW2:  "I know, I'm just going to have to buy another suitcase!"
YW1:  "I can't believe you're gonna do that..."
YW2:  "Well, actually I'm out of money, so I'm done!"

Les picked up a pair of Beats headphones for 15 Euros.  Then I saw some "leather" purses I liked, but wasn't sure if I wanted to spend any money.  I love having a smallish cross body bag for when we travel.  There were some pretty ones for about 20 Euros (about 22 US dollars.)  I hemmed and hawed around and couldn't decide.  The salesman said, "18 Euros."  Hmm... I said "How about that one?  But do you have it without the Prada stamp?"  I knew it wasn't a Prada purse and I'm not going to buy something that I know is a fake and try to pass it off as the real thing.  He had to do some digging and then I was still hesitant.  "15 Euros," was his next offer.  I hadn't even tried to talk him down, I really don't even like doing that!  So for about $16 I came home with this little pretty, which will be making appearances in future posts from our trip!

It was finally time to sail away to our next port!  Goodbye, Turkey, you gave us so many amazing memories!

A beautiful sunset as we sailed away...

and two very happy travelers!

More pictures HERE!  And if you've fallen behind, all the posts I've written about our trip so far are collected HERE.