An inspiring day.. No joke..

Turkey for you, Turkey for Me..I can't believe Mike Tyson gave that girl VD..Thanks, Adam Sandler, for my opening but now it's time to talk turkey. I am convinced the itchy bumps on my feet is bubonic plague. I don't want to be quarantined, because that's not fair to Dr. Ken and Melinda.  It's awkward enough that our table for ten only has four people(Duncan and Hines are still MIA) but if we get quarantined, Jim will file for divorce. Dr. Kevin and Melinda may opt out of dining with us anyway, since we gave them the link to my blog. Oh!!  I apologize for making last night seem like such a dud.  It wasn't. Sure, Jim blanked on the theme from "The Walking Dead" and I apparently slept through every episode I've ever watched of "Grey's Anatomy" (which was every episode of "Grey's Anatomy") but the fantastic headliner in the theater(oh, how I love when the amazing orchestra welcomes us nightly, playing the theme from "The Love Boat" against a background of glittery stars) was tailor made for me, He sang "being Alive" and "Bring Him Home" and "You Can't Stop the Beat" which are three of my favorite songs from three of my favorite musicals. ("Company" and "Les Miserables" and "Hairspray") I think a RC Cruise line member is buttering me up right before the quarantine. The plan today is to visit Ephesus, where we'll witness rug weaving. The tour description said we'd come back filled with "facts and culture" and I said to myself, "and bullets" since ours was the only cruise ship that felt safe enough to land in Turkey. We get to the point of departure and I see wheel chairs and canes and nobody under one hundred years old.  I see step stools for the first time to help we short people get on the coach bus. (Although I could audition for the Rockets by now, having learned to lift my legs sky high to get into the shower) On board, we were given water bottles and safety pins with a decorative bead on them and were told it was for warding off evil, and I was trying to figure how to put a safety pin into my itchy foot.  Oh yeah, I thought this trip with geriatrics and no crowds would be only something to make fun of, especially when every octogenarian seemed pre-occupied with the amount of steps and the temperature outside...And.... I couldn't have been more mistaken.  Turkey was the most eye opening, historically significant, and important excursion we've taken.  True, Greece was more pleasing to the eye(I will have dreams about rugs that look like dizzying kaleidoscopes tonight) but I walked away from the trip a changed woman.  It's about time, huh? Our guide looked like Jasmine from "Aladdin."  Her English was near perfect..as was her personality and devotion to feminist causes.  She asked everyone where they were from and then wanted to know this:  "Is anyone here from Philadelphia?"  I raise my hand and Jim quickly tries to stop me.  Our wonderful guide, Raife, (rhymes with "Taffy") comes closer to our seats.  She is smiling so I know she was joking, but she said she needed my help in finding a fugitive who apparently is hiding somewhere in southeastern Pennsylvania.  I tell her "all I remember about Philly is the cheese steaks!" and she whispers a name and walks away.  Jim, who watches stuff other than "Wheel of Fortune" bonus puzzles explains"that's the guy responsible for the coup!  Didn't you see it on CNN?The one that happened right after the bombing of the Istanbul airport?")  Raife tells us the entire history of this part of Turkey and I suddenly realize I'm in Asia! I've covered two continents in one trip! She is a very modern woman who prays five times daily for reasons akin to meditation. There are some women in her country who do not have that option.  Their job is to please men in the bedroom and kitchen, to work their knuckles to the bone weaving rugs all day and raising the kids while their husbands sit and drink tea and play cards all day in cafes.  The misogyny here could break you into tiny pieces. ..and this was all stuff I gathered just from the bus narration..long before we visited the mosque.  She asked the octogenarians and us:  "Who knows where the oldest rug in the world is found?" and I answer:  "My bedroom??"  Raife was clever, as she said her country is proud of Dr. Oz but embarrassed by the Kardashians. (aren't we all?) Our first stop was at a Turkish market where Jim had baklava and strong and bitter but delicious coffee before we saw a delightful show with a Cleopatra theme.  Raife talked to us a lot about her continuing education, and how she needs to raise her eight year old daughter as a feminist,  and how tough it was to grow up being one of four daughters.  Her father's chauvinism, nurtured by the culture, really socked it to her Mom's mental health. After the show, she took us to a private mosque but warned the seniors on the bus that it required walking up ten steps, and some stayed on the bus as a result, and I'm so glad I did not, because it was the most spiritually enlightening experience of my life. It makes my bubble wrap skin crawl when I think that Donald Trump wants to ban beautiful women like Raife from entering our free country. The day was completed with a visit to a carpet factory, where we sat on benches and watched weavers and drank complimentary apple tea.  It was a spectacular day..and an important one.  We were encouraged to test out the silks and wools of the woven tapestry in bare feet, but I didn't want to give all of Turkey bubonic plague.  Loved every minute of this trip! Oh, and please come to Turkey!  Tourism, their greatest industry is down seventy percent.  Turkey is bullied for being westernized..I cannot tell you how unfair that is.