Selcuk, Turkey

did i say "life is GOOD"?? it is! and wonderful amazing things keep happening for us! i sure do hope our "good karma" bank account holds up for awhile longer! we went to Selcuk to spend the day going to the museum there and to a mosque.... did that, and also had a sweet adventure.

as we parked and got out of the car we were greeted by a friendly fellow who started out with the usual pleasantries of "how are you?" "where are you from?" "oh, yes, i've been to Oregon" and of course invited us to take a look at his carpet store. we ever so pleasantly told him that we'd already bought carpets and just couldn't buy more, and that we were headed for the museum. he told us where the entrance was and wished us a good day. we really did enjoy that museum... one of the best i've seen! the displays were all well-lit and had interesting info posted beside them... and also in english. we spent at least an hour there, or more, and on the way out i noticed an art exhibit/sale and went in. one of the first paintings i saw was of 2 women spinning on turkish spindle and knitting... and of course, i fell in love with it.. but it was cost prohibitive. an old man approached me and said his wife had done all the paintings there, so i asked him about my favorite one and he told me his wife spins and knits! of course, a lot of the conversation was done in pantomime. he showed me a smaller painting of an old woman knitting and it went much better with my budget... so it's coming home with me! will take a photo of it later!.

when we came out of the museum, there was our new best friend...Ali! wanting to know if we'd like to go now to see his carpet shop and we said what we were now seeking was a place to eat! guess what! he knew a place just around the corner... so he took us there. his friend/partner,

AliBaba (seriously!!) owns a small Kebab place, so we went in. and this turned out to be another of those lovely experiences! Ali and brother Mehmet run this place and Ali also has a carpet shop next door. we had a lovely genuine Turkish lunch... including a "pancake" which is like pita dough with spinach and feta sandwiched into it and grilled.

this is AliBaba's wife cooking in the kitchen (above) and grilling the pancakes below.
after lunch we went next door to AliBaba's shop and he showed us how yarn is spun on a Turkish spindle! and also demonstrated how the double knotted rug weaving is done. isn't that a sweet face? really a nice man!
here's Ali (the first one) with Mehmet in front of the kebab house.
below is what i'm calling a drive-by shooting... taken from the car as we drove by a carpet shop.