After yesterdays long bus journey, todays short jaunt across a plateau was welcomed. We visit a silk road hotel of long ago. It is a short stop. Not terribly much to see. 3 evil eyes later we board the bus. Lunch, same as it ever was. Passing from the plateau we enter the Cappadocia region. Craggy hills dot the landscape. Houses are cut into the rock. Hillsides look like pictures of the south-western US deserts. We stop at a weaving center. Ladies sit on small cushions weaving all around the room. Silk worms are converted from cacoon to thread and what seems like 1000 rugs are unfurlled around the room. Wool on wool, wool on cotton, silk on silk. The just keep coming.
Reki is provided, an awful liquorice flavored grape based liquor. Wonderful if the taste appeals to you, but I am not appealed. Becky and I fall in love with a 4x7 rug from a region in Western Turkey. Light blue turquoise boarder with 3 crosses in the middle. The issue comes in the price. $1,100 down from the original quoted price of $1,500. We likely could have driven it lower, but not low enough. We must part with it, but a smaller rug from the same region comes out. I am a bad negotiator and tip my hand in the wrong way saying $400 max. The quote $750. Drop to $500, then $450, and finally if we take it home with us...$400. Deal. It is a beautiful rug. Handcrafted and lovely. Not the rug, but a lovely substitute that we will love. I feel in my heart that we did well, but my gut nags me with some tiny bits of doubt. If income were disposable I would perhaps feel better, but AAAS has fallen through. No sense in wondering and fretting over what I could have and should have done differently, but I find it hard not to think about it. The more I reflect, the position would have taken me in a direction I have increasingly felt wrong for me. This door has closed. I accept it and will move forward as must be done.
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