Antique Shopping

I spent today with my good friend, Aysegul, shopping around Ulus (an area in Ankara) for some cool antique furniture. Saman Pazari, the area we went, was chockablock full of antique stores, and some really good fabric stores. (SIDE NOTE: I'm trying to find some good fabric to cover our dining room chairs. Aysegul, with her good eye for design, chose some fabrics that I was skeptical about, but of course her superior expertise reigned supreme (note the Iron Chef reference). We brought the samples home and of course the fabrics I wanted really looked silly, and hers looked wonderful! I will definitely take the hubby with me next time so we can choose something together and I can get going on this project.)

I think so far that has become my favorite area in Ankara. In addition to some really cool antique shops, the houses are just adorable. It's so quaint that you almost feel as if you have been swept out of Ankara for a moment, and transported to an adorable central Anatolian village. Also just behind the area is a huge castle, and also Ankara's oldest mosque, built in 1290! An amazing, but exhausting day!

My exhaustion was exacerbated by the fact that I taught my first yoga class last night, followed by dinner, drinks and live classical Greek/Turkish music performed by a friend of ours at a local taverna. We we lucky enough to be joined by my good friend Becky's mom from Washington, who happens to be in town at the moment. We came home at an unreasonable hour, naturally, and I woke up just a few hours later to teach a 7:00am yoga class! I think I'll call it an early night tonite.