Curious TR

Turkish vocabulary:

Merhaba / Hello

Gunaydun / Good Morning

Iyi geceler / Good night

Gule, güle / Bye, bye

Lutfen / Please

Ozür dilerim / Sorry

Teşekkür / Thanks

Bir, iki, üç / One, two, three

Sol, sag / Left, right

Afiyet olsun / Bon appetit

şerefe / Cheers

Su, bira, şarap, çay / Water, beer, wine, tea

Ne kadar? / How much?

Hesabi / The bill

Ekmek, Pastane, Firini / Bread, Patisserie, Bakery

Portakal, elma, muz / Orange, apple, banana

golu, dag, koyu, dolmus / Lake, mountain, village, bus

Pansiyon, sehir merkezi, sokak / Pension, city center, street

Kilise, kale / Church, castle

Ekim, Çarşamba, Perşembe / October, wednesday, thursday

Kurdish vocabulary:

Roj bash / Good day

Spas dikim / Thank you

Shev sheva / Goodbye

Rica dikim / Please

Shev bas / Good night

Noshi jambe / Bon appetit

Everyday surprises in Turkiye:

-Cost of gas: 1L, 4.4 Lira or 2€ ($10/gallon!)

-No self-service at gas stations and the operator always records the car plate

-People, young and old, eat sunflower seeds

-Only men seen at public tea-rooms having çay

and walking out to smoke

-Many nomads seen tending cattle and living in tents

-At provincial hotels all travelers are men

-Widespread usage of roof solar panels to heat water and wood burning stoves for heating in private homes

-Satellite dishes in the remotest villages

-Kurdish life as subject on TV soap operas

-English is not spoken at all but in the Black Sea region german is quite common

-Tourist signs in Cappadocia were in Turkish, English and Chinese!

-Evil eye amulets in trucks, restaurants, hotels, facades, shops...

-Not a single italian or chinese restaurant (east of Istanbul)

-Driving like a rally in cities and motorbike drivers without helmet but no honking at all

-No shanty towns visible; instead huge, identical & cheap apartment blocks

Agva

Evil eye everywhere

Buildings with tile facades

Please take a picture of us

-The majority of facades look very recently (re)painted

-Plenty of men walking with tasbih (rosary) in hand

-Very common to be asked "what is your religious situation?" meaning marital status

-How soothing is to hear, while in bed, the muezzin's call to pray from the minaret an hour before dawn

-After attending evening prayers, the sunni imam twice regaled us, infidels, with dates from Arabistan (Saudi Arabia) taken during his latest hajj

-Peculiar liturgical verbal exchanges between the "assistant" (not the Imam) and lineup worshipers

-Only once were reminded by an old worshiper that women are supposed to seat in a separate room, even though the Imam had accepted both of us there and came afterwards to apologize for the intransigence of his co-religionist

-We were greeted many times by kids with a "Hello Kitty"

Chinese, way to go

having çay with tasbih (rosary) in hand

-The most common brand of WCs is Roca

-TV movies censor (blur) any view of cigarettes

-Some facades not painted but cover with tiles

-Passers-by politely request we take pictures of them

-Hard to find the "i" key on a turkish keyboard

-People very amiable: while asking for directions a guy, tired of monkey gesticulation, jumped in the car to guide us

-Plenty of armenian, georgian and turkisk wine available in supermarkets but beer is most commonly drunk

-Horsemen riding without saddle

-Ataturk memorabilia everywhere

-Tea houses more common than bars in Ispanya

-How easy is to strike a conversation talking about football: "Barcelona, Barça?"

sunflower seeds