After a weekend's fruitless search for karaoke, five friends and I had our need of cash mistaken for an interest in purchasing a rug and were ushered into the carpet store behind our chosen ATM. Turkey is big on rugs.
Over the course of 4.5hours, a brother-sister, third generation, carpet-selling duo unfurled rugs, adjusting the size, type (cotton-on-wool, cotton-on-silk, wool-on-wool, never cotton-on-cotton), and color in response to the non-worded noises made by the six of us, sitting on a silk-on-wool-covered couch.
We were taught about the different rug types, how most Istanbul dealers would try to sell us nylon rugs, where the "secret messages" were in each rug and what they meant in the context of the nomadic woman who made it, how long it took to make each rug, how the price was justified, and how our grandchildren would be able to inherit the rug.
A collective 1600 TL ($1100) was spent. Having only 5TL and an expired drivers license with me, I didn't make a purchase. My lack of means was quite timely because after the fourth hour the price of my purple wool-on-cotton Bahtiyari flat woven, double knotted, and embroidered carpet dropped from 750TL to 600TL to 500TL, or 550TL if I also bought the smaller Kilim rug (underneath) that I also liked.
I'm hoping for more rumors of a military coup, causing the Turkish lira to fall further. If it does, I will email Hassan and Asude.
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