Katro: Giving the US a latro

It’s been a while since I last wrote (I had to check what my last post was!) so I have tons to catch up on. I have an hour of Internet left in this cafe so we’ll see how much I get done.

We had a blast during our full day in Kusadasi, which was around June 12 I think. First, we went to a leather factory, which I was expecting to be informative and not the most exciting thing. Boy, were we surprised! We got whisked away to our own private fashion show, complete with a runway, fitting music, and complimentary beverages (I had apple tea, so delicious!) We saw the models show off various leather jacket styles, and then someone explained a little bit about Turkish leather to us.

From there, we went to the showroom, where all of the jackets were nicely displayed. I was not initially planning on buying anything but figured I could look because I’ll need cold weather clothes for Boise. The salesmen helped us try on coats to find the perfect styles, and in the end about half of our group of 13 walked away with Turkish leather jackets. Mine is long and deep brown and I love it! My adrenaline was pumping as my bank account took a bit of a hit, but I am so excited about my purchase.

From there, we went to an archaeological museum that had artifacts found at the Ephesus site. Then we went to the carpet factory, where we saw women making beautiful rugs and learned about this Turkish art. Once again, we had a private viewing, and we even got free pide (Turkish pizza) for lunch there.

After that, we went to the location of the Temple of Artemis, which is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Then we went up a mountain to the House of Mother Mary, where many believed the Virgin Mary lived a long, long time ago.

Finally, we went to Ephesus, which we had heard was one of the most spectacular sites on the trip. At first, the columns and statues looked like the same as everywhere else, but we turned a corner, looked down the main street, and understood the enormity of the town that once had a quarter of a million residents. We got to see a lot of the site, including a beautiful library and huge theater. What a day!