Sounds like the less well traveled (at least by tourists) parts of Turkey are a bit less organised than the rest.
It's a bit rough when even the people in the tour group beat you up!
Yes, the people at A1 Lebanese Bakery thought they were much beset upon.
I don't think the speed issues were related to the iinet upgrades as they sorted themselves out last night - I think it was just the particular web sites that were a bit slow. The connections problems were all internal.
The hotel gave out room keys for rooms that were missing essentials like walls!
ReplyDeleteThis place is like "Get Smart". To get to my room I need to climb a flight of stairs, go down a corridor, turn and go along another one and then turn and go along a third. Along the way the lights gradually light up ahead of you, three lights at a time! I hope we don't have an emergency because I don't know any other way to get out.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first place where the air conditioning works. It has the usual bling - in this case sequin bedspreads and faux pictures which are actually a refrigerator and a cupboard! It has velvet covered ottoman bed heads and velvet curtains.
Julia and I looked at the bazaar today. Before we went I explained my theory of shopping to ian (who wrote the notes but is the best of our guides) that I would just look and not spend anything for 24hours.
ReplyDeleteAnyway Julia spied this scarf shop absolutely full of Turkish women. Then we realized that all the scarves were 5 lira ($2.50) each. I found two i liked - showing different weaving techniques - and one had holes in it. So I showed the holes to the shop keeper and she offered it to me for 2 lira,so I bought two scarves for 7 lira! Ian was very impressed as they were half the price he had just paid for coffee. I think it was expensive coffee!
We saw a lot of fabric shops in the bazaar as well as crochet, habidashery, Tunisian crochet and wool shops. There were also a few tailors. Julia took us into a crochet shop and after we had looked at a few pieces the owner indicated that he had others, so ju!is said yes. I told her I thought he'd said bigger, so she tried to stop him, but he didn't understand (or it was too good an opportunity), and he came back with an enormous piece! We got thoroughly lost, and tried to retrace our steps. We missed a turn but navigated our way out. We then knew where we were,so we got home easily enough. It was actually quite good as we came out right near the old customs house which our Turkish guide said had an interesting courtyard. So we went down another side alley to find the courtyard. It was worth seeing.
ReplyDeleteWe have three guides ian, Susan and the Turkish one who might be ahar. Ian is the archeological expert and true to the notes is very verbose but he makes up for it as he is willing to answer questions and is a nice person. Susan is a Turkish expert, having lived here for many years. She is responsible for managing the tour and tells people what to do. She knows Turkish, but not as much as to make herse!f entirely understood - for instance she couldn't get across to reception that my safe was dead. Ahar is our Turkish guide who is supposed to have led many tours to this region, and trained Turkish guides. He has less English than the other Turkish guides i have had and offers poor explanations and doesn't really answer questions.
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