Before coming to Turkey I had very diverse experience with the people of this country. I had a chance to meet a lot of them, in different circumstances and with different conclusions. I didn’t really know what to expect from our first trip abroad during this EVS, although my intuition was telling me to be rather optimistic about it. And I was totally right!
Already in the bus we got to know what does it mean to be well cared of. Ok, maybe our memories from the bus aren’t the best ever, however we cannot complain about how all the people were preocupied by our well-being. The drivers didn’t speak English at all, but they did their best to communicate with us as muchas they could, checked if we are able to get our tickets, pass the border control, and find our way to make first steps in Istanbul.
Then it was only better. Our first day we wouldn’t survive without helpfulness of the people we met around. Although, before meeting anyone, we met the other habitants of this crazily big city – animals. They are a valid part of your experiance there, and their behaviour says a lot about the people’s attitude. So it started around 6 am with the dogs from a park nearby Hagia Sophia. They were a lot, and they followed us everywhere for around 2 hours. One of them tried to eat my scarf, but who cares – I can forgive that, given that they were so happy and well fed 😉 The dogs are everywhere and they are incredibly friendly – they mainly sleep in the parks and on the squares, without bothering anybody. But for me the biggest surprise were the CATS. Everybody who knows me knows also my affection for those little fluffy creatures. I suffer so much everytime street cats of Bucharest are running away from me, because they are simply afraid of people. Well, let’s say Istanbul is a different story. I was just running from one cat to another, stroking their fur with the ethernal happiness on my face :D. Cats were sitting among the tourists on the main square in the Old Town, running freely through the streets in the further parts of the city and hunting sneakily after each other by nights. I miss it already.
Make a guess…
Ok, but the cats behave this way because of the people and their general friendliness. I should definitely start of our precious host and his friends. Let’s say I could predict more or less how it will be, as we knew each other with Kaan earlier, although we couldn’t expect more hospitality than we got. We spent 3 joyfull evenings full of talking, fun and beer. The one that was particulary cool included traditional raki drinking and meze eating in the district of Kadikoy. OMG, that was something. Of course it was followed by the “afterparty” in a nice place nearby, my memories are only more or less clear, but well – I must say this part of Turkish culture convinced me the most it’s a nice place for me to live in for some time 😀 Except for that, I must admit, that probably without Kaan and the rest we would never find our way in this labirynth, we wouldn’t enjoy the seaside view in the freezy sunday afternoon, we wouldn’t get to the best pub in the town and – most importantly – I wouldn’t find anything to eat that would be suitable for me. We wouldn’t know those few words in Turkish we know now (ok, it’s not a lot, but we did our best). We couldn’t neither just lay down until 1 pm when it was needed and enjoy everything slowly. I could continue for hours, but I suppose you got the point 😉
Street seller – rambo style. making the best juice ever (at least for that moment).
However I would also point out the other people we met on our way. From the first day I remembered the most the guys from a teahouse we stepped in in the middle of the day, trying to teach us how to say thank you in turkish proper way. His version was more or less “tea, sugar and ash”. Later we’ve heard also the other options, although none of them was really helpful. Anyway, they tried, so it’s nice 😉 .The second they we met whole variety of people working on the bazaars. Most of them were only annoying and from my point of view – rather discouraging to make any shopping. Anyway, there were 2 people who made my day. Forst of them was selling a pommegranade juice. I don’t reaow what was more convincing – his energy or my eternal love for pommegranades ;). Whatever it was, buing the juice was a nice idea, as it was super tasty. The second one was Omar, the love tea seller. Ok, it’s not THAT easy to catch my attention for more than 5 minutes, but this one managed to do this. If you would asow the perfect clerk should look like I would show you Omar. The result of more or less 20 minutes talking was few liras less in my wallet and one number more in my cell phone. I still kinda regret I didn’t make use of it at the time. Finally, the third day the most funny moment was going back to the bar we drunk too much the night before. It was a walk of shame, as Henri left there his camera, and I took one beer glass with me as a souvenir (yes, I’m confessing my sins in public – but I always dreamt about original Efes beer glass and I make a good use of it now). Anyway the bartener seemed to be really happy seeing us alive and with no bruises. We also have some small talks with the other guests, most of them having pretty impressive stories to tell about (well, if you spontaneously decide to stay in Turkey for living you have to be at least a bit crazy).
So basically for me the most important part of the trip was about people (or animals) behaviour and attitude. Although the city itself was really impressive and made me curious enough to discover Turkish culture more, it was the people who made it complete. I seriously admire Turkish hospitality, talkativeness and energy. It’s one of the best places I’ve been so far for being a guest – of people and cats 😉
Knowledge Builders 3 