And I Didn’t Know I Even Wanted a Turkish Carpet!

                         The beginning of the end!

If you are not in a carpet buying mood how do you end up in a carpet store? It appears that if you are on any kind of organized tour (even a small one of eight people) in Turkey, Istanbul, Ephesus, Cappadochia, or anywhere else, the tour will end with light refreshments (no obligation of course!) in a carpet store. As a warm-up to the presentation you can sip Turkish tea, Turkish coffee, fruit juices or get serious with wine or beer. The last two might give you a good excuse for what likely will happen later!

Next you are educated about the many types of Turkish and other oriental carpets. You learn to count the knots and admire the silk on silk (prohibitively expensive) and appreciate how some carpets have taken years to complete. Then you are moved on the more reasonable options like silk on cotton, wool on wool, etc., etc. On top of all this add age and more money. In some stores you will even be given the opportunity to see the ladies weaving on a carpet so you can appreciate the complexity of good carpets.

While enjoying the education, seemingly tens, hundreds, or maybe thousands of carpets have been unrolled before your group, each more beautiful or unusual than the last. At the end of the education, the teacher-head guy is joined by many other of his assistants (salesmen) who give you the individual attention you so richly deserve. They want to know what you especially liked of the “tens of thousands” of carpets piled before you. Don’t flinch or you are putty in a good carpet salesman’s hands. For those who show any interest at all you are taken to a separate show room featuring more of what you like, and away from the distractions of all those “other” people. If these guys were selling cars I would now have a whole fleet of vehicles!

Here, I would like to alert all of you men about the “man vs. woman” issues in a carpet store. My observations and experience tell me that women show a lot more interest in carpet shopping. They must certainly contain an extra chromosome that says they “need” a new carpet! If your spouse will not let you wander off by yourself, you are probably “cooked” and soon to be the owner of a wonderful new Turkish carpet! The issues will now be how complex, how big, and how much. I have often told my friends that I am married to one of the “world’s greatest shoppers” and I know that I have been marched to the edge of the cliff when I am asked “Do you like this one or that one?”

I know that a lot of people really enjoy the combat of bargaining and arguing over the price of the object to be purchased, especially where the art of negotiation is a way of life. My “wonder woman” and I do not fall into this category. We leave disappointed salesmen all over the world. They have to console themselves with having sold the “carpet of the day” with the highest profit margin they have had all week. Go figure!

We do always figure we got our money’s worth and if both parties are happy it must be a fair sale. I am sure we are happy because we have gotten free shipping, free insurance, no sales tax, and they pay any customs fees. The salesman can now still feed his family even though we have been offered a second cup of tea as we are warming up our credit card. So stop by our place any time and admire our new Turkish carpet hallway runner. We charge only a very modest admission charge!

(Published in December 2008 The Good Life Magazine)

Can I Dance the Tango?

Surely, if we wanted to learn the tango, we should go to the source. The source is Argentina. Now, I really did not want to do the “dance”, but a trip to Argentina and on to Uruguay is right up my travel alley. Several years ago we had a lovely Argentinean high school exchange student live with us. It obviously created an interest in seeing the “Paris” of South America.

We have made two trips to South America in the last three years. It is a very long flight, but the good news is that nearly all the flights to South America are at night. You do get a chance to sleep, and the time passes quickly. There is also no great time zone change so you arrive relatively alert, if not exactly refreshed.

Our trip was one of the city visits we like, where we stay in the same place for several days and use the hotel as a base for exploring on our own. We were lodged in Buenos Aires in a nice small hotel (we usually avoid the large chain hotels) right on the 14 lane main boulevard through the downtown of the city. We visited in their spring season which was the fall in the U.S. The weather was beautiful. We explored on our own the first day and enjoyed a half day city tour the next day. Our personal exploring style is to check out the grand sites, visit the parks, get a feel for the culture, and learn how the people live.

We try to accomplish this by watching the people at play and at work. We visited the supermarkets, government buildings, shopping streets, boulevards, the grand hotels, cemeteries, subways, the main tourist sites, and where the citizens congregate. And do they ever congregate in Buenos Aires. Each day there were demonstrations in the park opposite the Presidential Palace and the streets fanning out from there. This was the same palace where Eva Peron had addressed her citizens. Public speech and peaceful demonstrations are a long held Argentinean tradition. We never felt unsafe watching the demonstrations or at anytime in Buenos Aires. It is a large city with a lot of interesting neighborhoods, but very walkable.

Before moving on to Uruguay, we did a day trip by train, bus, and boat to the Tigre River delta, north of the city. This is a major resort suburb of the city and consists of several islands with wonderful summer homes and weekend get-a-ways. The second part of our visit started with a one hour flight to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Uruguay is the smallest country in South America, and an easy visit in conjunction with a trip to Argentina. Montevideo is situated on the eastside of the Rio de la Plata River as the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The city contains half of the nation’s population and is very laid back and provincial when compared to Buenos Aires. Montevideo is easy to walk and has a wonderful La Rambla pedestrian walk through the center of the city. There are wonderful Atlantic beaches making for great people watching. Our hotel was right on the beach, but also only five blocks from the city center, the best of all worlds.

We did take the half day tour of the city to get a feel for all the important buildings with a visit to the nation’s gorgeous capital building. Our one adventure out of Montevideo was by a guide driven car visit to Colonia del Sacramento, a two hour drive north of the city (but half way across the country). This small town is a UNESCO World Heritage City and dates from the 17th century. It is wonderfully preserved and fun to explore. Our tour was a bit unusual in that the guide spoke limited English, but the other passenger on the tour was a young woman from Brazil who translated for us. What a hoot!

The whole trip was a great visit and one which was safe and inexpensive. The dollar is very strong in South America, as compared with Europe, and this destination is a trip you should consider. Oh, by the way, I did not learn the tango, but we saw a lot of the dance, even on the streets. I don’t think being short and round is the proper body for the Tango!

Just thinking about the tango is exhausting!

(Published in the Spring  2007 issue of the ABA JD Record)

Surviving shopping time on your vacation!

                                    Find a chair!

There are a lot of things you can do while traveling. Visit historic and cultural sites. Soak up the sun on the beach. Just lay back and recharge. Take day trips to explore the country. All these are wonderful ideas, but if you are married to the world’s greatest shopper, the plan is to really explore the shopping. It doesn’t matter whether it is a high end women’s store or a grocery market. The “Y” chromosome kicks in and I am along for the ride. With my vast background on this “walk along” I thought you would like some suggestions on how to handle the experience.

Absolutely take along a book to read– and grab the husband’s chair as soon as you enter the store. Particularly if you are in a women’s clothing store and your spouse is trying on clothes, you can blow a lot of time. The book won’t solve the damage to the credit card, but it does help the time pass. If you definitely do not want to agree to a purchase, don’t even go into the store, just lean against the wall outside and tell her you want to absorb local culture by people watching. Even better, plan a solo event so you can go do something by yourself, thus avoiding the shopping thing, such as visiting the Podunk military museum to check out the uniforms and weapons from the 13th century.

If there is something you want to buy, she is usually so excited that you are “buying” into the shopping thing that anything goes. Unless you really like the search for the perfect office staff gifts, don’t ever begin bringing back those cute little native crafts, magnets, local candies, etc. From experience it can be mind wracking and very stressful finding 20 cheap things that don’t fill up the suitcase!

Don’t ever agree to a big purchase when you are half way around the world. No giant clay pots, large paintings with huge frames, complete sets of dishes, etc. unless it is to be shipped home. When in Bethlehem (Israel, not Pennsylvania) my wife on the 2nd day of a 14 day trip buys the perfect olive wood crèche scene weighing about 40 pounds. If shipped it would not arrive by Christmas, so I get to keep lifting this (I am now sure it weighs 60 pounds) box in and out of buses, hotel rooms and on to airplanes. From experience (including paintings carried on to airplanes) please put your foot down, exercise your rights, no more huge (in retrospect I think it might have been 80 pounds) travel purchases!

Try to reach an agreement with your spouse that you don’t have to do all of the Christmas shopping on this one trip. There is a lot to say for moderation. Stepping over the quantity line can become a very large problem. It seemed like such a good idea at the time to buy everyone (and their uncle and related siblings!) an Irish sweater when exploring western Ireland. There must have been 10 or 12 sweaters that we had to figure out how to pack for the return trip. The good news was that at least they didn’t weigh anything close to the 90 pound crèche.

It is not shopping, It is …..

“Learning About The Current Culture Of The Region”

When traveling if you visit just the museums and the churches you learn only about the history of the country, but if you visit the supermarket you find out how the people shop, what they eat and much about how they live. I admit I do usually have at least one day when I am serious about shopping. On this day I am looking for local items that will make for unusual Christmas gifts for the family and of course items that will remind me of the trips we have taken. ( I would like to note that those inexpensive works of art that are unframed so they are easy to take home can end up being very expensive by the time they are framed!) The rest of the time I am merely enjoying the active and very different life styles of people from around the world, I am not shopping! How can you understand people who live in England if you don’t spend a fair amount of time at Harrods? It would be like going to Ireland and never eating in a pub or buying a sweater.

By the way, to put Tom’s comments about shopping into perspective you should know that the crèche was purchased on the 5th day of a two week trip, actually stayed on the bus most of the time, and weighs 10 lbs.         Mary Ann Warren

(Published in the Winter 2007 issue of ABA JD Record) (Published in the Fall 2007 issue of Experience Magazine of the American Bar Association under the title of  “His Story: Survival Skills” and “Her Story: Cultural Education)