Bearded Rug Weaver
Fes, Morocco
Why can't this be what it's always like to shop for rugs?
In DALLAS, we have huge rug warehouses that are so uninviting, they have to put up big banner signs reading "Open to The Public!" just to let people know they are safe to enter. I don't believe their signs though, because many of them have also been flying a "Going Out of Business Sale!" banner for the last 30 years.
I'll tell you another deceptive thing about rugs, they take up a lot more room in a suitcase than one might imagine, and they are unexpectedly heavy. They don't fold up like a thin piece of paper (the way I imagined they would when purchasing so many of them), which means that there were many tough choices to be made later, back at the hotel, about which of my clothing items got to stay behind in Morocco so that I could bring home all these heavy, beautiful, cumbersome, rugs.
My rug buying spree could be viewed as even more unhinged, when you consider I DO NOT HAVE A HOUSE, and currently live in a 400-square-foot garage.