It's so quiet in the ruins

7 March 2012

We're all a bit slow this morning. But I can also sense that some of the ladies are keen to get going. We have some shopping in stall, after all.

Our first stop is a leather factory. These Turks are good businessmen, I have to say. They manufacture leather clothing for some rather large designers, but always make a few extra than the orders, which they can then sell in their factory outlet. And they clearly know how to lure tourists. We are given a fashion show, showing off the best (and probably most expensive) jackets first, before we are taken to the outlet store, filled with hundreds of beautiful leather and fur garments, and what feels like even more very keen sales staff. I very quickly attracted the attention of a lapdog-like Turkish saleslady, who followed me around like my friend Rufus yesterday. Those who know me well will understand how much I enjoy such behavior. Argh! But for those who were planning to buy leather goods, this was a good option. The choice of styles and colours were vast, the staff extremely professional (Niel's lapdog could even understand our Afrikaans!), and the leather is just such a beautiful soft leather. And if you persisted, you could bargain them down to half the price.

The next stop was another ancient city. This time it was Perge. You can tell how repetition easily gets to people when you look at their photo's. Today, I ended up taking photo's of all the various types of flowers at Perge. The choices were not vast, but I still had lots of fun.

After lunch at a Antalyan mall, we visited the Archaeological museum, which houses a multitude of marble statues. The Turks are particularly thankful for the statue of Heracles that found its way back to their soils.

Our plans were to set off to the historic part of town, and also perhaps get a glimpse of Antalya's market, but somehow a quiet late afternoon seemed more appropriate. Tomorrow we will resume our adventures.

Did you know: When looking at Roman sculptures, when the sculpture is naked, it means that it is a sculpture of a god. But when it is clothed, it is simply a normal person.