FIRST IMPRESSIONS ABOUT TURKEY

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PC Pookie was so happy that I were back, that she hopped and ran around like a mad cat ! I brought her this special "necklace" which should bring luck, as it represents eyes (like the picture below). In Turkey you can find this everywhere, because it should keep "evil eyes" from you. Now she listens to my soft typing and purrs ...

My holidays, if I can name them so, are over and I am back with my head full of new impressions and all the wonderful things that I have seen ! I feel like an overloaded stomac (how romantic) that has to digest first.

And I also feel quite lost not to pack my suitcase every morning and get in and out the car or in and out a hotel every evening !

A one week round trip gives you an idea about the country itself, the landscapes, livestyles and architecture. I made the trip with 6 other people I have never met in my life, but it was a very nice experience for all of us, as we immediately had a very good relationship, the same ideas and the same interests. This was perfect. We also were very lucky as we were only seven people and therefore had a nice van with 12 seats and not a big bus. It seemed a real family excursion. We made a total of 2.400 km (1.492 miles) in 6 days. Maybe that sounds a lot, but as there were so many beautiful things to see and we had such fun while we were in the car, time only flew by so quickly and we were all astonished to have made so many kms.

Turkey seemed to us a very beautiful country. The people all very friendly, the motorways, roads, and little streets absolutely perfect, new or very well kept. The houses seemed to us like in Italy, they had the same colors and also the same architectural style. We only saw two big cities, which we crossed, otherwise we always had been in the countryside. And this was great ! Here the world was still in order, as it used to be in the 50/60th, with chicken running around on the street, sheeps, goats and cows were browsing along the roads or even stand there and we had to wait or turn around them. Cats and dogs played happily in the gardens or on the roads. Nobody cared about mad cows or if their chickens had flew and needed handkerchiefs and nobody told the farmers how many apple trees or fields they are allowed to exploit.

I have never seen so many apple tree fields in my life and so many apples either. The favourite drink therefore is .... apple tea ! Tastes real good and you can get it in red, pink or white it depends on the apple.

Life seemed to be very cheap to us, except the gas price which was horrendous, even more than in Europe, 1.40 € /liter (about the same in $) ! Now I understood why so few private cars were on the roads, when you consider that the average monthly income is about 250 € /months !

The villages looked like in European southern countries, the only difference was that in the middle of the village there was no church but a mosque. They were quite cute, it depended if the village were rich or not. The mosques had only one tower and two when they had more money. Sometimes it was only a house with the tower and the half moon on the top, sometimes it was a more painted and decorated building with nice stuck. They were white with blue turquoise and green colors. People were mostly dressed like our farmers in the 50/60, and the women wore scarfs knotted under the chin against the sunshine. In their houses they took it of. There were no sign of overdoing religious believings although it was ramadan, where you are not allowed to eat or drink from sunset to sunrise. But it's your choice, you do it or not that's like our christian religion where you do fasting or not. For us it was something special to hear the muzim (?) (that was the responsible to call for praying ) 4 times a day.

In small towns where we spent the night in very nice hotels, we were woken up at 3 am by drummers who announced that now we could eat until sunrise (we still were full from supper ). The first night we thought something terrible happened hearing this drumming and of course the dogs who joined in to the concert and barked like hell. Our guide explained what it was, so nobody was afraid anymore but nobody got used to it !

We also noticed that there were a lot of schools and Universities and that the children wore uniformes and the schools were mixed ! Boys and girls together, some girls with nice scarfs knotted behind the neck as Grace Kelly used to do when this was in fashion end the 50th, the others not. Here too, everybody could do what he wanted. We also had to put on a scarf while we visited a mosque and we also knotted our scarfs behind the neck. We complimented each other and one said : Gee, if I would do that at home, they all would think that I am a terrorist !

Which probably is true.

I will write more about my trip when I get my spirits back !

Pookie gave me a doubtful look.

Not our case ! even after shopping !

If you like to see some beautiful things I brought back from Turkey, the pictures are here