Family Business

Having family in Turkey really made me feel like a local, mostly because they're the only people in this country who think I'm good at speaking Turkish. Spending time with them was magical, and spending money was comical. The highlight of my trip was probably the (two) time(s) we bought carpets. Let's begin.

The first was completely accidental. We were walking to get coffee in Sultanahmet and a man accosted us on the street, in the most charming way. He convinced us to join him in his old wooden house, with carpets literally pouring out from the windows, for homemade türk kahvesi. Which turned into apple tea. Which turned into Efes. Before we knew it we were drunk and he was throwing in table runners as gifts with the two carpets we had just purchased.

As entertaining and perfect of an experience as it was, the hysterical part came the next day when we were walking by his shop and the man somehow spotted us and ran out to invite us in for more Efes. 'Mama please!' he said. He knew he had us. Not even an hour later we were walking out with another carpet. But this one was for me, so I didn't complain, even though Simi nearly had a panic attack as we haggled for the third addition to our recently acquired collection.