Blogs from Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 41

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856I'm giving the carpet buying experience its own entry because I took a lot of pictures. Although we did not opt for the silk carpet, we enjoyed seeing how the silk threads were teased out of the cocoons, then wound together into thin threads, then wound together into thicker threads and possibly wound again, depending on how thick your thread was going to be. We also saw how the dye was mixed into vats and how the weaving was done. We also found out that the lowly silkworms, after being boiled to death in their own cocoons, were shipped off to Scandanavia to become skin products. Also, here are the two carpets we bought.... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856From what I understand, you don't get the best deal on your purchases if you go with your guide. I can say, however, you do get to shop in some really nice places with very personalized attention. Avanos is known as Pottery Central in Turkey. During our visit the kids enjoyed throwing pots/vases, whatever on the kick wheel while wearing "clown pants" to protect their clothes.... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856Day 2: Still jetlagged. I got the kids to sleep by 11pm, but I didn't nod off until about 3am (That's 8pm at home). Hopefully I'll have that sorted out in a day or two. Josh was up by 8 and we let Kate and Alex sleep until 9. We decided to try the hotel breakfast which had the advantage of being both close and free. There was a huge array of breads, spreads, fruits, vegetables and olives. There were also a couple cereals, veal sausage and boiled eggs. I think the highlight for everyone was the honey served on the comb:We spent some time back at the room writing up our thoughts on yesterday and then went downstairs to ask the best way to get the the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. I know ... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856We had bubble baths and slept for 12 hours. Now we are venturing out in search of food. Our hotel room has a really great view of Ankara, including Ataturk's tomb. We are also across the street from a Metro station. With that, Josh proclaimed, "Ankara is in the palm of our hands!" Alex saw a ferris wheel and is lobbying to go to a theme park.I already blew the fuse on my power converter. Apparantly I need a transformer, not a converter for the heavy duty work. As a result, I'm low on computer power. We'll upload more details and picures after I get more juice.... read more

Samir's article. Title explanation: Why be forced to do something dumb when you can do something dumb at your own will? Anyway, way back ın Kashmir we came back from our road trip {alive} to our houseboat. In our last few days there we went to a floating market...hunky dory, hunky dory....had a water fıght...hunky dory, hunky dory...Jamil fell into the lake...hunky dory, hunky dory. Parting from Kashmir and flying to Delhi was possibly one of the hardest things we'd ever done. Parting from Delhi was possibly the easiest. We stayed in London a little, then flew here, to Turkey. We landed in Istanbul, where we visited underground cisterns, the famed blue mosque and two museums {one wıth an awesome nucleur sub parked in the front}. Also celebrated my birthday there, junk food, movie, junk ... read more