Turkish Oddities

As I traveled through Turkey, I ruminated about the plot for The Man on the Istanbul Train. I knew I'd need to go to the Haydarpasa station, take photos, and swipe a train schedule. I knew I'd need to take notes on the tram lines in Istanbul and on any archaeological sites we encountered in the Anatolian Plateau. I didn't know the Egyptian Spice Market would play such an important role so I didn't take nearly enough photos there. (Thanks, YouTube)

I did get some great shots of things I'll bet you've never seen.

How about an exploding cucumber?  Ecballium elaterium grows wild there. If you touch its spiny seed pod with a credit card or something it explodes, sending a poisonous mixture of seeds and gunk about 10 ft into the air. I got a glob on my shirt.

How about a huge, disc-shaped boulder tucked into a slot in an underground city? In Cappacodocia, we walked through the narrow passages of an entire, multilevel underground city used by early Christians when their new religion was still outlawed. These boulders, rolled across the passages would wall invaders out, or maybe in, horrors! Guaranteed. It reminded me of a scene from Indiana Jones. In this photo you have to look closely at the top center and find the curved edge of one on the left side of the passage.

When they want to unwind the nearly invisible silk threads from a cocoon, the rug weavers dunk the cocoons in hot water, then poke at the mass with a sort of whisk broom, The broom picks up several dozen threads which are then spun into a . . . thread. A bigger thread, but still almost invisible. They use natural plant dyes, which fed beautifully into my story because my protagonist, Lacy Glass, is a botanist who specializes in plant pigments.



Have you learned something today?