Knitstanbul Part 2

I left off just where things were getting interesting - the knitting section of the Grand Bazaar. I scored. Not too much because I had to get it in the suitcase, but still pretty well. No ball was more than £1.25 and some were 25p. Good stuff. Firstly 5 colours of sock yarn, of which these are 2.

Then some acrylic but very soft and lovely colours. I would have got more, but space demands constricted me. Such a shame.

Some lovely metallic (plus another of the sock yarn colours).

And lastly some ribbon yarn which I thought might make another floaty scarf.

Elsewhere I also got a load of beads, gorgeous rayon embroidery skeins and other goodies.

One of which is these lengths of beautiful flowers which I saw made into necklaces.

And last but not least, my fabulous shoes.

At this point we moved to hotel number two, which was very modern and luxiourious.

Sadly it coincided with us both getting stomach bugs. Poor Pooch.

We still managed to enjoy ourselves though and especially at the Pere Museum who had a huge exhibition by an artist I hadn't heard of but who I definitely love - Fernando Botero. This is a sample:

I just adore the face of the clown on the right. His paintings were quite astonishing, especially when collected together. I especially loved the pastiche ones like his version of the mona lisa and of course this one.

The most memorable part of this second part of the holiday for me was undoubtedly the turkish hammam scrub I had in the hotel's spa. It was an unusual experience. I started off with a kind of sarong round me but that rapidly vanished. It really was an amazing experience. I was sitting on warm marble next to a little fountain running with warm water. The guy had a silver bowl and kept using it to ladel water over me. He scrubbed me all over with a loofah mit which removed a horrifying amount of dead skin. Then it was face down onto hotter marble covered with a towel to be literally covered from head to toe with soap suds which he then massaged into me all over. Then back to the warm marble seat to be sloshed with more water and he washed my hair too. I came out literally floating and feeling like I was high. Since we got back I've been looking for a place in london for a similar experience and darling pooch has got me a voucher for one for my birthday. Huzzah!

Since I've got back I have been patchworking and adding to the tutorial page of this blog. Having used my travel jewellery pouch extensively on holiday I am thinking it is a perfect place for handmade present inspiration as well as rainy day moment.