ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
A year and a half ago, I had the opportunity to take a long vacation in Turkey. We began in Antalya, rented a car, and in two weeks were in Istanbul, where we spent another week.
The highlight was Eskisehir, the city in the stone and ceramics center of the country which is in close proximity to the villages that mine meerschaum. Eskisehir is a city about half way between Istanbul and Ankara. Before we got there, many Turks questioned why we would plan on going to Eskisehir; to them, it's just an uninteresting city.
It is illegal to export uncarved meerschaum, so although there are carvers in Ankara and Istanbul, the multi-generational carvers are mostly in Eskisehir. If you ever visit, be sure to tell them that you are a pipe smoker, because there are different grades of meerschaum, and a number of the pipes that are sold in Turkey are meant for tourists who don't plan on smoking them. Knowing you are a pipe smoker, they will direct you to the best of them. Also, I would like to suggest that although bartering is the norm in Turkey, try not to get too great of a deal, because in my opinion, 30 to 80 euros for a beautiful well smoking pipe, bought from the artisan who you met, who made it is worth close to full price. (Isn't that what fair trade is about?)
If you go, pack your own tobacco! There is only one commercially available Turkish pipe tobacco, and it is difficult to find. I did not find any until I was at a shop on the Asian side of Istanbul. Contrary to what you would expect, pipe smoking in Turkey is rare, and the only pipe smokers in Turkey that I met were in Eskisehir, and guess what? They smoke imported European pipe tobacco, which they sell under the counter, (because they aren't supposed to have it), at prices just as high as in Canada.
Eskisehir was a great experience. By Turkish standards, it is a young city. It is modern, and the home of a lot of young people attending university. The food was great, and although the language barrier was greater there than in any other part of Turkey which we visited, the people were very friendly. There is a thriving arts district--cobblestone streets, men playing dominoes, and drinking tea, parks--where there is a concentration of pipe makers, like you wouldn't believe. There are also painters, glass blowers, sculptists, carpet weavers.
I visited the Luletasi Musesi, the Meerschaum Museum, and bought 4 pipes from three different pipe makers. Instead of opening all of my photos and saving them in a smaller file size to upload them, I started a wordpress site so you can see them all.
https://eskisehirphotos.wordpress.com/about/
The highlight was Eskisehir, the city in the stone and ceramics center of the country which is in close proximity to the villages that mine meerschaum. Eskisehir is a city about half way between Istanbul and Ankara. Before we got there, many Turks questioned why we would plan on going to Eskisehir; to them, it's just an uninteresting city.
It is illegal to export uncarved meerschaum, so although there are carvers in Ankara and Istanbul, the multi-generational carvers are mostly in Eskisehir. If you ever visit, be sure to tell them that you are a pipe smoker, because there are different grades of meerschaum, and a number of the pipes that are sold in Turkey are meant for tourists who don't plan on smoking them. Knowing you are a pipe smoker, they will direct you to the best of them. Also, I would like to suggest that although bartering is the norm in Turkey, try not to get too great of a deal, because in my opinion, 30 to 80 euros for a beautiful well smoking pipe, bought from the artisan who you met, who made it is worth close to full price. (Isn't that what fair trade is about?)
If you go, pack your own tobacco! There is only one commercially available Turkish pipe tobacco, and it is difficult to find. I did not find any until I was at a shop on the Asian side of Istanbul. Contrary to what you would expect, pipe smoking in Turkey is rare, and the only pipe smokers in Turkey that I met were in Eskisehir, and guess what? They smoke imported European pipe tobacco, which they sell under the counter, (because they aren't supposed to have it), at prices just as high as in Canada.
Eskisehir was a great experience. By Turkish standards, it is a young city. It is modern, and the home of a lot of young people attending university. The food was great, and although the language barrier was greater there than in any other part of Turkey which we visited, the people were very friendly. There is a thriving arts district--cobblestone streets, men playing dominoes, and drinking tea, parks--where there is a concentration of pipe makers, like you wouldn't believe. There are also painters, glass blowers, sculptists, carpet weavers.
I visited the Luletasi Musesi, the Meerschaum Museum, and bought 4 pipes from three different pipe makers. Instead of opening all of my photos and saving them in a smaller file size to upload them, I started a wordpress site so you can see them all.
https://eskisehirphotos.wordpress.com/about/
