Hello! Yes Please!

I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday morning very tired and covered in spider bites. I have seen the sun rise too many times during this past month! I left at 3:00 in the morning from Istanbul (where lets note the weather was a balmy 30 degrees) and landed at 8:00 in the morning in Amsterdam where it was 15 degrees and raining. My body does not know how to handle cold! It doesnt help that I have no long pants anymore either...But before I launch into Amsterdam I need to do Turkey a bit more justice (1 short blog for 10 days doesnt even begin to describe it...).

Turkey went far too fast...I could have easily spent another month there, lounging with my feet up and drinking tea. The Turkish people were wonderful...actually all European people are wonderful but Turkish people really struck me as kind and well intentioned. Compared to Greeks too as a whole they are much more gentle, quiet, polite and believe it or not more organized. Side note...I have this theory that you can judge a country a lot based on two things; 1. Their public transportation and 2. their toilets. Compared to Greece, Turkey's transportation was a dream...their buses were airconditioned, they had waiters who served you tea and cookies in little bow ties and white shirts, they checked that you were back on the bus after every stop and left on time. Wow. In Greece I STOOD for 5 hours on my trip to Kalambaka. Not only did I stand but I stood with my 20 pound backpack on in a crowded little hallway with about 10 other people. At every stop people would scream at me in Greek to move away from the door (so they could leave) but where do you go when theres no where to go!?!? I was so happy I didnt understand the language that day. Regardless I find it hard to imagine nice, soft spoken, bow tie wearing men comping around with cookies there. I watched this one little Turkish girl, about 3 years old, quietly eat her icecream cone, lick her fingers clean and sit patiently waiting while her parents red their newspapers for about half an hour. I cannot picture any child from North America doing this...Three year olds do not sit quietly unless they have a Nintendo Ds or the likes of in their hands...On the other hand in Greece kids yelled at old ladies, cut people off on their bikes, and push down their younger siblings. I actually had one kind come up and hit me on the head with his plastic gun and then give me this cute "Sorry lady but I dont speak that language" look when I told him off. The parents just ignore it. It would be ignorant for me to call it bad parenting but the prior daycamp leader in me reaaaally wanted to restore order.

And while the Turkish people were really very kind they would pull the wool over a blind mans eyes just to stick their hands in his back pocket. We learned very quickly that everyone is always trying to rip you off. Thjey are always nice about it though...when you call them on it they simply apologize, smile and correct the mistake. For example, for lunch we owed 7Lira...the man gave us a cheque for 9lira...we gave him the 7lira and he smiled, couted it and said thank you. It was never made into a big deal but if they could they would screw you over big time. For example...at the Treehouses in Olympos one guy tried to charge an extra 100Lira for an upgraded room. The reason? It had a TV (which it actually didnt when we saw the room). Later a different lady charged us 40 lira for the exact same room. The only other barrier that I didnt expect was that no one spoke English. Now that may sound ignorant...I know you cant expect someone to speak your language but I became accostomed to it. I tried to learn German in Germany, Italian in Italy and EVERYONE spoke to me in English all the time! Even when I did my best to put together a sentence in Greek. Learning Turkish in ten days is a little like trying to lick your elbow...impossible. And even Ben who can speak 5 languages didnt get very far. Although granted his pronounciation was much better then mine. Whenever our Turkish family taught us a word they would go "Bravo Ben!" and then say it slower with syllabels to me. Ouch. I have learned that two things dont come naturally to me...languages and direction.

I also need to describe the Turkish bath (the one I mentioned previous blog). It was a process I wont forget. First of all it was done in German...which (believe it or not) I understood! It was like coming home to listen to German spoken again. Anyway, the whole process took almost the whole day and by the end I felt like I would fall over I was so jello-legged. The process starts with a 10 minute sweat in the hammon. At first I felt fine...nice and relaxed...but after about 8 minutes I started staring down the door willing our German bather to come back! She did eventually and thats when I learned that the rest of our bath process (2 hours) will take place in the sweat room. Holy mother of god I didnt think I would make it. First part is your scrub down...you lay on your back, with cold water poured occasionally over you and are literally scrubed from head to food by what feels like sandpaper. Not going to lie...the amount of dead skin that comes off is disgusting and impressive all at once. If anyone asks me where my tan went I can honestly say...I left it in the Olympos hammon. I actually walked out of there two skin shades lighter. Sad to say goodbye to my tan but very happy with my soft skin. After the scrub down you have the washing section, where you are covered from head to toe in soft bubbles (about 1 foot high) that smell like honey and jasmine. Then you are washed (gently) and massaged (mmm...). The last stage is having your hair shampooed and then being escorted to a roof-top jacuzzi with pillows, bar and view of the ocean. Our German bather told us "If you can survive a Hammon you can survive life". I think I believe her.

On to Istanbul! Ben and I were asked two quetions here...1. Are you married? and 2. When are you getting married? I felt like I was getting drilled by his Nonna again! The blue mosque, topika palace and Agia Sofia were all beautiful but my favorite by far was the spice market and grand bazaare. The guy who we bought spices from took Ben aside and gave him his buisness card...he told him "When you two get married call me and I will come to Canada". Ha! I lauged but then again thought it was cute he was so serious. The grand bazaar and spice market were crazy. So busy and colourful and crowded. Everywhere you walk you get " HELLO YES PLEASE!" basically meaning come here and buy my things please please!!! We usually got this in French or Spanish tho...apperently we look French or Spanish. Ben would speak to them in French or Spanish too which egged them on of course. The barganing was crazy. Things that started at 180Lira we bought for 15. They would moan and complain "I am going hungry" or (personal favourite) "You are breaking my balls!!!" but really in the end we were still getting ripped off. Lets just say my backpack is now stuffed beyong belief with pillow cases, backgammon boards, spices, pashminas etc...Everything was beautiful and I could have spent the budget from my entire trip within a two block radius. I was not a very good barginer tho...actually I sucked because I either got upset (oh the woes of taking something too personally) or too prideful. Sometimes if someone eventually went down to my price I would walk away thinking "No way! They gave me such a hard time theres no way they deserve my buisness...they can stare at my back and see all the money they are losing!!!" Foolish foolish me. Its all a game and you can never take a game personally!

Needless to say I loved every minute of it...even the ones I hated at the time.