We know how to play this game

From Mark...
We had a very interesting day today. We started at the Spice Bazaar and due to my love of food, I purchased $200 of spices. (...that'a spicy meatball!) Now Cindy thought that was a bit much but kept it to herself except for her one subtle response... THAT'S A BIT MUCH! We then started walking with our new Norwegian friend Siri and we were approached by a Kurdish carpet salesman who gave us an excellent suggestion on where to have lunch and asked us to return to his upscale carpet store. We decided not to go while eating some terrific kabob but somewhat to our surprise, he appeared at the exact moment we were paying the bill. I was just amazed at the coincidence! We decided then not to be rude American and Norwegian tourists, so we accompanied him to his five floor showroom, where we had some nice Kurdish coffee. Siri had already provided us with some wise carpet shopping advice, which was first to do your homework at home, learn about the different carpet styles and of course don't buy spontaneously. Armed with this important carpet-buying strategy, Siri buys a 150 year old Kurdish carpet for as much as I bought my second automobile. Cindy, not wanting to be upstaged, begins to show that "twinkle" in her eye. Knowing how Cindy helped me negotiate her last car (she asked the car salesman, "why is this car so cheap!"), I stepped up to the plate and successfully shredded $300 of the price of a Turkish carpet that of course cost nearly as much as my third car! Having been so successful at saving money, we decided to go find a place for a drink. On our way, we run into our new Canadian friend Dave and we preceded down to the Bosphorous, where a man standing outside a seaside restaurant, tells us that if we dine at his fine restaurant, he will give all four of us our first drink free. We could not believe our good fortune and immediately said "well, I guess so." We honestly did not realize how expert we needed to be in math, due in large part to how they charged for their seafood in liras by the pound of fish that they brought to our table. Fortunate for us, Dave has a Masters in Finance so he responds, "I'll have meat!" We take some time and finally order our dishes, and to our surprise, the meal was splendid and we had to spend some of our remaining liras anyway. With this incredible day behind us, I can't wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow when we travel to Asia.