So as we come to the end of Turkey, and we ask ourselves (well actually others ask us, and the blank looks we give are kind of conversation killing) what the highlight was – for Turkey it was definitely the people. So we give thanks:
- To the bar owner who went out to buy a turkish-english electronic translater in anticipation of meeting us for dinner the next night (we were very very late…)
- To the twenty sober (cake and coca cola only) university students who embraced us at their friends birthday party and taught us the Turkish jiggle before having to leave us at 10pm to head back to their dorms before curfew
- To the hotel owner who concerningly called all the city’s hospitals looking for us when we didnt come back to the hotel one night (out partying with some friends)
- To the 22 yoga teachers who all sat around cheering as I played guitar and ad-libbed words to Bob’s “No Turkish Woman No Cry”
- To the Kurdish man in Istanbul’s dorky jeans market who bought us sandwiches, chai, and even paid for us to use the toilet – we were guests
- To the slimeball in Istanbul who informed us how much “Natascha” was going to cost us per hour in Moscow
- To our crazy turkish mates – Ali+Gulshah, Alper, and Cidgem+Kozan who opened their hearts and homes to us in istanbul
- To the 4 dutch trekkers who gave me their tape to fix the soles of my hiking boots that both fell off simultaneously on the same day while stuck in the middle of the mountains on the Lycian way trek
