Michelle and I went down to the Kemeralti this weekend to scout out some Turkish treasures. Just as we were done shopping we happened to run into Mustafa. If you recall in a previous trip to the Kemeralti, we followed Mustafa into some strange alley ways and ended up on an awesome tour of a Mosque and then happened on a "great price" for a couple of Turkish rugs back at "his" rug store. It was a nice surprise to see him and he helped us find a merchant to sell us a gold coin for a wedding I'm attending in October. It's customary here to pin a gold coin on the wedding dress of a new bride as a gift. Later, when the bride and groom need money, they can return the gold coin to any gold merchant and sell it back for only a 2 YTL loss ($1.80). Of course the coins are expensive and super tiny. You can tell it's size compared to the penny but it is also super thin. BTW, in case you were wondering, attached to the ribbon on the coin is a Nazar Boncuk or "Evil Eye". After the gold merchant, Mustafa carried us back to the carpet store...luckily they didn't try to sell us any rugs. Anyway, just thought I would share.
