Greetings from Greece. Those of you suffering through a Canberra winter probably won't want to know this, but I swear it is about 4 billion degrees here in Athens! Before I move on to boring you all with tales of ancient ruins in yet another country, I figured I should wrap up my last few days in Turkey.
I know my last post was done from Ankara, but I had obviously not uploaded all my piccies at that point. For starters, I hadn't told you about the carpets. We went to see carpets being made by hand. A small one like this lady is making can take about 7 months to do.
No need for Gaye to panic that there is about to be a shipment of carpets on her front door - I resisted the urge to buy anything. I did however sit for a few minutes with a silk carpet in my lap and patted it like it was a kitty cat (it was sooooo soft). The carpet salesman only wanted to talk to me about Harry Kewell. Go figure.
I did not however show the same restraint at the ceramics workshop. Unlike the trip to the jewelry store or the leather factory, the carpet and ceramics place at least gave us a chance to learn about the traditional designs, and the traditional techniques for making the items (for the record, purchased nothing at the jewelry or leather goods store either!). The ceramics were so very pretty.
I am the proud owner of several pieces (some of which are from the turquoise section on the left of the picture). Gaye also gets a ceramic bribe for letting me mail it all to her house!
Remember the rock formations that we flew over in the hot air balloons in Cappadocia? Well they took us to see some that resemble things (like when you look at clouds and think you can see a frog or a gremlin). This one is pretty obvious...
(a camel for those with no imagination)
This one apparently resembles Napoleon's Hat. Took me bit to see it, but got there in the end...
And this one is the kissing couple...
I also finally got some good shots of the caves in Cappadocia.
The caves I mentioned previously that are now hotels? Well apparently you can pay about $500 a night for a room in one of those!
Managed to sneak a piccie of a real camel as well. I say sneak because you were supposed to pay the crazy man to take the piccie of the mangey camel. The camels did not look healthy.
In my last post I talked about the tomb of Ataturk and how amazing that site was. Well this is the building that houses the tomb.
All around the site are a military guard (it is a military site). They have guards who work on 45 minute rotations, standing perfectly still. In theory. I only watched them for about 5 minutes and watched them fidget and move. In their defense they were standing in blistering sun. I would have keeled over. Someone made the call that the tomb looked like it being guarded by storm troopers from a distance...and they were right.
In Istanbul we did many of the things you'd expect. We went to the grand bazaar, where very store keepers kept asking me if I was Brazilian (huh?).
We also went to the spice bazaar (quote of that trip being the store keeper who said to me "Madame, I help you spend your money" - I don't need help kind sir!)
I managed to convince one store keeper to let me try different types of Turkish delight. My favorite was the pomegranate and pistachio.
We then went for a cruise along the Bosporus. We checked out the cruise ships. One was a Costa. Cue Italian/Titanic jokes.
It was quite a pretty little cruise...
There was a (unfinished) house along the water that Forbes magazine have as one of the most expensive in the world. It recently sold for $120 million. This is it.
We also spent a day walking through old town. In the hippodrome I thought I was in Egypt...
We of course went to the Blue Mosque...I had a hard time getting a good pic with all 6 minarets and none of the construction site in front of it (hence why there are only 4 in this pic).
It was stunning inside. I want a blue mosque themed bathroom in my future mansion. The tile work in there is amazing.
We also went to Hagia Sophia, which ticks another of the world's biggest dome structures off my "seen" list...
So that is a wrap for Turkey. I will leave you with what I think is the jewel in my snow globe purchases so far this holiday. The Vespa shaped one I got in Italy wasn't bad, but I think this fellow might be though to beat...
I know my last post was done from Ankara, but I had obviously not uploaded all my piccies at that point. For starters, I hadn't told you about the carpets. We went to see carpets being made by hand. A small one like this lady is making can take about 7 months to do.
No need for Gaye to panic that there is about to be a shipment of carpets on her front door - I resisted the urge to buy anything. I did however sit for a few minutes with a silk carpet in my lap and patted it like it was a kitty cat (it was sooooo soft). The carpet salesman only wanted to talk to me about Harry Kewell. Go figure.
I did not however show the same restraint at the ceramics workshop. Unlike the trip to the jewelry store or the leather factory, the carpet and ceramics place at least gave us a chance to learn about the traditional designs, and the traditional techniques for making the items (for the record, purchased nothing at the jewelry or leather goods store either!). The ceramics were so very pretty.
I am the proud owner of several pieces (some of which are from the turquoise section on the left of the picture). Gaye also gets a ceramic bribe for letting me mail it all to her house!
Remember the rock formations that we flew over in the hot air balloons in Cappadocia? Well they took us to see some that resemble things (like when you look at clouds and think you can see a frog or a gremlin). This one is pretty obvious...
(a camel for those with no imagination)
This one apparently resembles Napoleon's Hat. Took me bit to see it, but got there in the end...
And this one is the kissing couple...
I also finally got some good shots of the caves in Cappadocia.
The caves I mentioned previously that are now hotels? Well apparently you can pay about $500 a night for a room in one of those!
Managed to sneak a piccie of a real camel as well. I say sneak because you were supposed to pay the crazy man to take the piccie of the mangey camel. The camels did not look healthy.
In my last post I talked about the tomb of Ataturk and how amazing that site was. Well this is the building that houses the tomb.
All around the site are a military guard (it is a military site). They have guards who work on 45 minute rotations, standing perfectly still. In theory. I only watched them for about 5 minutes and watched them fidget and move. In their defense they were standing in blistering sun. I would have keeled over. Someone made the call that the tomb looked like it being guarded by storm troopers from a distance...and they were right.
In Istanbul we did many of the things you'd expect. We went to the grand bazaar, where very store keepers kept asking me if I was Brazilian (huh?).
We also went to the spice bazaar (quote of that trip being the store keeper who said to me "Madame, I help you spend your money" - I don't need help kind sir!)
I managed to convince one store keeper to let me try different types of Turkish delight. My favorite was the pomegranate and pistachio.
We then went for a cruise along the Bosporus. We checked out the cruise ships. One was a Costa. Cue Italian/Titanic jokes.
It was quite a pretty little cruise...
There was a (unfinished) house along the water that Forbes magazine have as one of the most expensive in the world. It recently sold for $120 million. This is it.
We also spent a day walking through old town. In the hippodrome I thought I was in Egypt...
We of course went to the Blue Mosque...I had a hard time getting a good pic with all 6 minarets and none of the construction site in front of it (hence why there are only 4 in this pic).
It was stunning inside. I want a blue mosque themed bathroom in my future mansion. The tile work in there is amazing.
We also went to Hagia Sophia, which ticks another of the world's biggest dome structures off my "seen" list...
Once again, it was quite beautiful inside. Though the structure itself has been rebuilt many times due to earthquakes and fire. Speaking of the former, we had a 4.9 near Istanbul on Thursday night. Honiara really has gotten me a little too used to them, I barley battered an eyelid.
So that is a wrap for Turkey. I will leave you with what I think is the jewel in my snow globe purchases so far this holiday. The Vespa shaped one I got in Italy wasn't bad, but I think this fellow might be though to beat...
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