Turkey
I just loved Turkey. It is just so interesting to go to a so…. Well what is the right word… alive country after Europe. Turkey is so colorful, people are so loud. It just makes me feel…. Intense! Turkey is definitely the way between Europe – Middle East and India. It is just a mix of everything!
The best way to describe Turkish is… they could even put a price and sell their own mum…. I am sure that if you bargain you could even get her for half price. Unless she is a good cook (Turkish food is one of the best in my opinion!) then you would have only 30% discount! Hahahha. They are just the best in the art of bargaining!
First Stop: Istanbul
Istanbul is much bigger than I had ever imagined! It is also much more interesting than I had ever expected. Oh I had never seen so many carpets shops in my life… there were always 1000 people trying to pull us to inside of carpets shops wherever we went. And they offer you everything… apple tea… good complements… for a good “business”. It was so funny to see how they are born for that… if you know what I mean….
My mum, as expected, arrived in Europe looking forward to going to Turkey to buy a carpet. I had the impression she felt she was in the paradise with so many carpets and shops around her! Oh God! She wanted to buy everything she saw…. And worst… she even didn’t think about bargaining!? We visited around 50 carpets shops for day (I am not joking!). So I decided to forbid her of buying a carpet for the first 4 days (and 200 visits to carpets shops ahahah!) we were in Istanbul. So it could give me the necessary time to learn the best strategy to get the best price! (After 100 arguments she agreed with me hahah!). It was my mum birthday (50!!!!) on the 5th day we were in Istanbul… thus I had to allow her to buy the so expected carpet. (It was her birthday….I didn’t have any excuse!). We already knew the prices, and she already knew the carpet she liked most! We went back to the shop had the best prices. The price of the carpet she liked most was us$600. (God! Far, very far from my budget! Also very very far from my mum budget! These high numbers never match with my budget philosophy!) No way we would pay it… never! After almost arguing with the shop manager… have left and came back to the shop 1000 times….refused 300000 cups of apple tea saying he was poisoning us to buy the carpet… etc… we bought the carpet for us$65! Great, isn’t it?! But the greatest thing was that I was offered a job in the shop!!! (Considering that in Turkey only men work in the commerce … I suppose women on their mind only understand about kitchen!!!) Hahahah! That was so funny! The shop manager said that I was worst than the Turkish sellers in bargaining! I had never thought I would learn so fast!!! I was so proud of myself!!! So now if I don’t get a job in Oz or even not back in England…. I can go to Turkey!
Second Stop: Capadoccia
It is a so cute and beautiful. Place where the film Troy has been filmed. There, we visited some subterranean caves which were habited by different civilization ages ago (before roman times - I don’t know to write the name of the civilizations in English - and finally by Romans)… and also houses caves made in mountains. It was my preferred place in Turkey.
Third Stop: Pamukale
White Calcium Mountains, with some little water lakes. Just a park (as there is not much around!), but good to relax.
Last Stop: Ephesus
Roman Ruins. Quite expensive to get in… as I had already seen many in Italy… better to miss it!
I don’t need to say that I also ate a lot in Turkey… you may have already imagined it ! ahahah!
Highlight in Turkey… I suppose you can imagine… hahahah! Of course is its food! Hahahah! Best ever!