14 April
As luck would have it, the ship offered a shuttle to the city center and so at 11 am we headed out. We were scooterless today because I read that they weren’t allowed where we wanted to go. Not a problem. It was a short walk.
First stop was a bank for some Turkish lire. Three cards and not a one worked. Oh well credit card it would be. But then I saw another atm and this one worked. Off we went!
I made the fatal mistake of looking in a shop window and asking the proprietor if he had any puzzle rings-we were in Turkey after all. He didn’t but knew a guy… and the next thing you know we are being lead through the bazaar on a hunt for treasure.
After much weaving in and out of the back alleys we came to a gold shop. The owner sat us down and then left to get some rings. He brought back three for me to look at. Two were identical 12 band rings, and the third was a standard 6 band ring.
And the. The bargaining began … his first offer was astronomical! I countered with half and was of course rejected but I expected that.
The problem was he wouldn’t budge. He weighed the gold and doubled the price for the labor. I wouldn’t have it. But I wanted that 12 band ring. After searching the cost of gold and basically calling the man a liar, I walked out of the store. This trick didn’t work. He saw Americans and thought $$$.
Our ‘guide’ came over and tried to get me to change my mind. Eventually I agreed to purchase only one 12 band ring and leave the 6 band ring behind. After I paid for the first He tried again to get me to purchase the others. At a higher cost! Needless to say I left them behind. It's not the best photo, but this one is 3 colors of gold. A lovely ring.
One man ran off to get the box-standard book box with hidden key...yawn. Another started having me try on leather jackets. Now in 2017 I had already purchased a leather and chinchilla jacket in Turkey. I didn’t need another but played along. And then!! I saw a lovely black jacket with a white hood.
And all was lost. George told me to set a price and I gave him the $2000 hand signals. The ‘guide’ offered his first price of $650! Then much to my surprise told us if we paid cash he would sell it to us for $500. I was so shocked I just said yes. No bargaining at all. Fool! But in my defense I had seen the same jacket in Germany 3 years back for $2000. I felt I found a great deal.
After paying we took our leave and headed off for the Agora.
This was a wonderful place to visit. I hadn’t seen it before. In all honesty I didn’t even know it was there. We rounded a corner and were able to see many of the ruins from the backside. After paying our €12 entry fee we wondered amongst the ruins for around two hours. I think the most impressive thing to me was the underground shops.
After we had spent a great deal of time inside the Agora we returned to the ship, but first lunch. We had a nice breakfast of hard boiled eggs bread and olives and a lamb kabob.
We then walked over to meet the bus. When we arrived we were a half an hour early. We decided to take a walk along the harbor front to get back to the ship. I plugged in the wrong address. And discovered we had an hour and a half walk ahead of us. We decided to hire a scooter, but didn’t have the mobile app download it. In the end we both laughed when we walked around the corner and there was our ship. The entire walk along the waterfront was absolutely beautiful and only 20 minutes long.
We boarded the ship, cleaned up and headed to dinner as usual. Tomorrow is Istanbul.
15 April
Istanbul day one
We woke up in the morning and decided that today we would go for a scoot. Our plan for today was to go to the bazaar And from there we would go over and check out Hagia Sophia and blue mosque. We have both been in Istanbul before a couple of times and still had no real plans for the day.
Istanbul is not a scooting city! We ended up walking most of the way to the bazaar. When we tried to enter the bazaar we were told no scooters allowed. So we folded them up again we were told no scooters allowed. Our scooters are smaller than the baby carriages and way smaller than the motorcycles that they were letting in. I was threatened with calling the police and knowing Turkish jails I just said these guys don’t want my money and we turned around and left.
From here we found a traffic route to scoot over to Hagia Sophia and take a photo from the outside that’s all I wanted. Unfortunately for us, the Turkish president was in town today and Hagia Sophia was blocked off. I only wanted to take a photograph but was pushed away by a police officer. We walked across the street and took the photo. Next we scooted over to the blue mosque. I was reminded to put on a headdress to go inside, even though we didn’t want to. And we took a couple of photos and headed back to the ship. Our first day in Istanbul was a bust.
After we returned, George took a nap and I went out for a walk to find some fresh milk. The ship only has UHT milk and to me that isn't milk. I can't stand the taste of it and even though I've asked numerous times for fresh milk, I'm just not getting it. I guess I should drink sodas instead. Anyway, I found a Carrefour a few blocks down and picked up some milk, a few cans of Esse, and some olives. I didn't climb the steps to the larger grocery store. It was just a bit too high for me after todays pushing of the scooters.
16 April
I awoke around 11 PM and found an email from our friend Oskar. He sent me an email address of a gentleman in Istanbul who makes puzzle rings. I am mediately sent off an email hoping that we could get in to see him tomorrow morning early early.
We woke the next morning knowing that we had to be back on the ship by 3 PM. My intention was to travel to Iskalal and buy some jewelry and Turkish trousers. When I woke as always I read my email; the puzzle ring Manufacturer wrote back. He would meet us at 10 AM. George I got up right away and took off. We left the terminus and walked to the nearest tram station. I had research the route and within 25 minutes we were at the office of the puzzle ring designer. When we went into his office we had a absolutely wonderful meeting. He showed us many rings many of which were rings that we already have. The traditional Turkish puzzle ring. But he did have quite a few rings that I did not have designed by people like Oskar and Bram and others.
One of the most interesting things about the day was to be able to watch a ring being produced from start to finish. I had asked for a ring that looked very similar to our wedding ring but it has 6 bands instead of three. They had one but not in my size. They did have a half a size smaller and the ring maker's apprentice made the ring into my size and then polished it, shaped it, cleaned it and in the end we had a couple of the bands gold plated so that it was a silver gold silver gold pattern on the ring. This to me was an absolutely amazing process and I recorded chunks of the entire thing which can be seen on my YouTube channel as soon as I have good Internet again.
While we were in his office, he called a friend of his who is the oldest living puzzle ring maker in Istanbul. The man began making puzzles in the 1960s. And came over and gave us a bit of information on some of the puzzles he produced. When we showed him the 12 band ring that I had bought in Escobal just a few days earlier. He told us that this was one of his bands and that we could’ve gotten it for half the price if we had bought it from him instead of the shop that we did. Having said that I’m glad I bought it anyway because I don’t know if I would have gotten it.
At the end of the day we had purchased nine different Puzzle Rings from this guy and I ordered three more which he will send to me in Florida. I am so happy that we have friends all over the world and that we are able to go and see things like this. This trip to Istanbul visiting the ring maker today was so much more fun than going and buying more jewelry for myself or a new pair of Turkish trousers or going and seeing another museum or an old building again. This was an experience that both George and I truly enjoyed.
We stopped for one last Turkish lunch.
This evening we joined our friends Rod and Merry for a traditional Passover Seder dinner. Living in Boca Raton Florida I figured it was time I went to one and saw what it was all about. I can only describe it as being interesting. We were told they rushed through the first part of the Seder because they were no children. Because of this, they didn’t have the stories they normally would. We did learn about the salts and the sweet and the parsley and we ate some matzoh and drank the four glasses of wine as is traditional. The dinner itself was nice. I have experienced it, my curiosity has been abated. I can understand what it would probably be like if we were not on the ship. We went to bed early because tomorrow is another day and we will be in Lesbos Greece.
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