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Published: October 16th 2012
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We were on an organised tour for this day - Kusadasi is in Turkey. One of the main attractions there is the huge number of Greek and Roman ruins found there at Ephesus which is a gloriously reconstructed city. Lots of rubble I say.... sorry but am not a lot into the history or seeing so much of rocks etc... but do appreciate that others do. There was also remains of the municipal baths and a brothel. One area which I found fascinating was the communal toilets where you could sit next to many people .... not my idea of privacy.
From there we went to a carpet making factory where everything is made in the traditional way and quite fascinating to watch. We saw how the silk was taken from the cocoons and spun ready for the silk carpets. Many of the carpets made take up to a year to make! After showing us how the silk is spun we saw how the women weave the different carpets and also the ones where the most experienced weavers do the most intricate designs.
After this we were taken to a large room and offered tea, turkish coffee, wine or
some other drink which had a licorice taste... not nice - so opted for the white wine. Then the show began - the host then showed us a flamboyant and amazing display of carpets - two to three other men stood and then flipped then out in unison - it was a really incredible show of their carpets -very impressive... then came the hard sell - this place had several rooms where they took you into or coralled you in to show you what they think you might like and try to sell it to you..... no go with us - they were beautiful but nowhere to fit one in our humble abode.
Most of the toilets on these excursions - at least in the women's toilets were squat toilets... not fantastic and nowhere to hang your bag - also had to pay in most public toilets. As usual too, not enough toilets for women so when there was a line up - John stood outside while I used the mens' and so the other women followed suit or would use the disabled toilet.
On the way out - as you would expect, there was a huge souvenir
area you had to go through before you got out of there and yes I succumbed and bought one of the nicest and most useful handbags ever in the best soft leather - it's so nice! ( and a reasonable price too!)
After this it was lunch time and we were taken out in the country for traditional pancakes made by the older women in the community they make them by hand and then cook them in an old wood fire oven. We had the choice of sitting at tables or on cushions on the floor... yes we sat at a table. We had savoury pancakes which were really nice and a bit unusual.
When we got back to Kusadasi we were left to our own devices so we had a walk around the town which was really very nice - we found an outdoor hotel with wifi so sat and had a drink or two and caught up on our emails on our iPad. We loved that at one bazaar we came across a sign saying "Genuine Fake Watches" also the men selling some items said to us - please don't keep walking while we're trying to
sell you something or take your money from you. They were great and not high pressure selling like we've seen in some countries - these turkish people were really easy to get along with - happy to accept a no.
We would be happy to return there - had some great leather coats and other leather items for sale everywhere plus jewellery but they seem to be very nice people.
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