My favorite thing to do here is go to the bazaar on fake-Saturday and shop. Sometimes then it feels like National Geographic. I mostly stick to the jewelry street, picking up pretty if not authentic things, and chatting with store-keepers who teach me names of stones. (Last weekend I got three small gifts from three different shops, a testament to hospitality).
I've taken my time on the rugs, asking around. This isn't the best scene in the country; most shops sell machine-made Iranian and Turkish acrylic numbers. The new Afghan-made are plain designs in either navy, red, or orange.
What I ended up buying were a carpet off the floor of the shop, and a prayer rug someone dragged out of their storage closet because the foreigner likes old rugs. It's safe to say whoever sold them made a chump of me. The substitute guard who helped unload them from the taxi was indignant that I'd paid so much for dirty old carpets. You can buy new ones. But in bargaining, if they're happy with the price, and you're happy with the price, it's a good sale. And so we were.
After help from the regular guard to wash them, and three days drying in the sun, I put them in my room. I'm very pleased.
5 comments:
They are beautiful and what especially makes them rare is the story which accompanies them. Great buys=great momentos!!
FUN! It looks like my moms house :) They lived in Cairo and the UAB years ago and she has a ton.
I actually have two on loan while they are overseas right now... so I am interested, how did they have you clean them?
Fun! They look beautiful. Do you have one in your room? Don't you have a dirt floor in your room? Wonder how you will get them home?!?! Wish I could go to the market with you. What treasures! What fun! Love-
Mother
Wonderful, thank you, Hannah, great to see them. They do look beautiful. Lovely to see the strategically situated guard cat, as well.
I love how the cat made herself at home on the carpets.
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