Minn, we go each and every year to Cass Lake, about 15 miles from Bemidji. Somehow DH heard about it (from one of his coworkers, I think) and now he knows the lake so well that he can go to his favorite spots and fish without a depth finder (almost).

Great report, PG, thanks for taking the time to post it. I am in the early stages of planning a Turkey trip next year, and this was very helpful.

Did you bring the rugs with you, or shipped them separately?

Thanks, xyz. I found others' reports very helpful when I was trip planning, and am glad that I am able to pay it forward.

We brought the silk rug back with us, as it was small enough and light enough to carry easily. The other rugs we had shipped -- they took about five days to arrive. They were cleverly "shrink wrapped" in a heavy plastic, and were about the size of a really big bed pillow. The only hitch was that someone had to sign for them (a good thing, considering their worth), but we're at work all day. So we had to have them held at a FedEx office and we picked them up there, which added a couple of days to the delivery time. Other than that, they arrived without a hitch.

Did the store ship them, or you took them to the post office + ship them? I read stories about rugs bought in Turkey, supposedly shipped, and either never received, or different rug received.
How did you do it?

Also, did you know anything about rugs before buying them? I read other stories about rugs bought in Turkey that turned out to be made in China...how did you know what to buy?

Maybe I should stop reading such stories, but we usually bring something for home from our trips, and a Turkish rug would be great, so I'm trying to educate myself. Thanks

Hi xyz99 here is a post from some time ago but rules are unchanged, hope it helps and Happy Travelling; (a bit of homework is always good)

Murat

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...n-istanbul.cfm

We are thinking of a trip to Turkey next fall. What was the weather like for you?

We had pretty good weather for the period of Nov 4 thru 13. 70 and sunny most of the time in Cappadocia, 50 and rainy for a day around Hattusas, 60 and nice in Ankara, and 60's and nice in Istanbul.

Murat, as always, great advice. Thank you!
I think it's safe to say that 1) we know nothing about carpets, and 2) we don't know how to haggle. Pathetic, I know, but that's who we are.
So even though we will probably not bring any carpet back home, I'm sure there will be lots of other things for us to buy and remind us of Turkey.

The store shipped the carpets. We had an official invoice, and the salesman's card. When we purchased them we thought that we had agreed to having them shipped so they would arrive at our house shortly after we did (Nov. 1), and when they didn't arrive by November 6, I got a bit stressed. So I sent an email to the email addreses on the invoice (which matched those on the card) asking about where they were. The next day I got an email reply from the salesman (Ali) with a tracking number, and then I got an automated email from the shipper (TNT, maybe? They handed over to FedEx here, apparently). And then the next day I had a voice mail from some Turkish-sounding guy with a Chicago area code (maybe they really do have a brother-in-law in Chicago) urging me to call him for more information. Turns out that they *shipped* them on November 2; it took them five days to get here, and then the transfer to FedEx, and then we weren't home to sign so we had to have them held at the FedEx facility, yadda yadda. We finally had them in our possession on Nov. 9. But they really went over and above to communicate with us about the status of the shipment.

I had always figured that if they just didn't arrive, I'd contest the charges and VISA would help us out.

As for knowledge about rugs? We certainly aren't experts, but have done some shopping here, and some good friends have purchased several large rugs, so we had a general idea about the prices and characteristics of wool-on-wool, wool-on-cotton, and silk. We also got "papers" for the wool rugs, detailing their provenance. (We were told the silk rug was new, as no one gives away or sells a silk rug. And no one walks on them, except the sultans, and they're all dead.)

Did we get cheated? Are the papers in any way true? We have no idea. But we are happy with the rugs, comfortable with the price we paid, and it is what it is.

purduegrad,
Thanks so much for such an enlightening report. I'm just starting to plan so your details will be invaluable. Excellent writing!

Thanks for such a helpful report!

A rug update -- we got a "Happy New Year" email from one of our rug salesmen, and last week he called. Apparently a cousin is participating in a rug show in Chicago and we were invited (urged) to attend. And buy another rug. Gotta love 'em!