New Shoes

The whole shoe thing started with Walter.  He had brought an old pair of his father's shoes that he didn't care about bringing back home.  They not been worn in 30 years and wihtin a day or two, the crepe sole started to pull away from the suede top.  We were in the middle of our day at this point and he still had to get back to the hotel. Someone had the bright idea of using a bulldog clip and that helped, although it came off and had to be reapplied frequently, and even when it was fastened, it clinked on the cobble stones.

While Eric went ahead with the students, Walter and I walked through Istanbul's shoe district to see if we could find someone to fix it.  Well, no as it happens, but we did manage to get some strong epoxy to try to fix it ourselves.  And if you think explaining epoxy in a tiny shop in a different language is easy, think again!

That night, Walter was odered to get both top and bottom as clean as possible and he must have spent hours on it, as it was as spotless as it could be.  After breakfast we did the buisness and he put his suitcase on top to weight it down for the next 24 hours.  It worked, but then the other shoes started to go and at that point Walter lost his enthusiasm for the project.

Eric, meanwhile, was lusting after a pair of handmade leather shoes, a desire that started well before this trip.  He does not like having any sort of seam over the top or sides of the shoe.  "Not like" is perhaps misleading  - he hates seams!  I had no idea that this was a fairly radical stance to take until I started keeping an eye out and found practically no male shoes that didn't have a seam of some kind..  On our last day in Safranbolu, he had found a real cobblers shop with what were his dream shoes right there on the top shelf!  But the shop was shut and we would leave the next morning too early.  Feeling like a child locked out of a candy store, he took us past the shop on our way to dinner and pressed his nose to the window in despair. 

At this point we had only known our guide Pinar for a few days.  But she became Eric's new best friend that evening.  She immediately whipped out her cell phone and rang the number on the door front, and had someone from a neighbouring kiosk come down and open up within minutes.  Eric made his choice, paid the neighbouring shopkeeper and left a very happy camper.


Shoe lasts waiting to form new shoes

a pair of new ones in situ by the stove

a bevy of brown and black options

looks like something a Pope would wear but what do I know?

a very happy Eric outside the cobbler's shop

A day or two later Pinar herself was in need of another pair, and grabbed these as we went past a stall on our wanderings in Amasya.  The whole transaction took about 28 seconds. That is called oportunism - or power shopping.
 

My own transaction took a bit longer of course.  While in Goeme in Cappadoccia, one of the students spoke a bit wistfully about a pair of shoes she wanted but were a bit expensive.  I asked if we could bargain them down a bit would she buy them?  Yes!  So, seven minutes before we were to meet the bus and move on, she and I and other fashionplate went to the shop and tried pair after pair of pretty little shoes, not brilliantly well made but nice, and I was struck with the shopping genie too.  We ended up collectively getting 5 pair, bargaining the price down to a level deemed acceptable by all.  We dashed pell mell back to the waiting bus, the first time I wasn't the first on it, with the shop keeper running after us saying "I have the 38 in blue, try on please!!"  I didn't really need two pair of shoes, let alone one, but it was nice to have a girlie moment with the students.  Every time one or the other of us wore our new shoes, the others would comment on them and we smiled at the shared memory.

In Arab culture, showing the sole of your shoe is an insult.  Shoes are considered dirty because they are on the ground and associated with the foot, the lowest part of the body. Hitting someone with a shoe shows that the victim is regarded as even lower. As they are considered unclean in the Muslim faith,  believers must remove shoes before prayers, and wearing shoes in mosques is forbidden. Washing ones feet before entering is part of the entireprocess, and all mosques include a specific structure for this. 

Those students in our group that brought trainers or others soon realized how hampered they are with laces, so slip ons and flip flops bacame the favoured style.  Which only serves to keep our new shoes pristine!



and I have another pair just like this one at home