Stranger Things

May 4 

Travel to another country means strange foods, strange customs and just a few items from some bizarre alternate universe.  Sometimes these seeming oddities are easily observed and other times they sneak up on you when you find yourself committing some social faux-pas and recognizing it only after everyone has given you an odd look, called you out for it or yelled at you.  Let's run through some of these and see what you think.....

Canary Islands, Spain

We're taking the public bus around Tenerife and Gary and I are waiting at the bus stop just as the next bus arrives.  The bus is a shuttle bus because they are doing some kind of track work on the trolley line so we have to take a shuttle bus.  It's free so we don't have to pay.  The bus pulls up to the bus stop and the front and rear doors open to let people off and, I assume, to let people on.  As a matter of efficiently moving people, in Boston, if all doors open for a free shuttle bus, you just get on from any door.

NOT in Tenerife (or, in fact pretty much all of the European Union and South America)

So, I think you know where this story is going.  The rear door on the bus opens, people get off and, after, I jump in from the back.  First came the scowls from the people on the bus and then a repeated, "Senora, SENORA!". I turn back to look out the door and I am being motioned to get off the bus, stand in the line which more than one person has motioned with their pointing hands and fingers and await my turn.

This certainly is not Boston or the free-for-all, 'every person for themselves' mentality of New York City. Fortunately we will return to the standard boarding chaos of pushing and shoving once I get to Turkey.  For now, I drop my head like a dog that has just done something naughty on the kitchen rug, and skulk off the bus to get into the proper queue.  All I can hear in my mind's ear is "Stupid Americans".

Santa Cruz, Tenerife Island, Canary Islands, Spain

Since the island is volcanic, guess what material they used to build the tower

Hike up over San Cristobal de la Laguna, 10 Km north of Santa Cruz

Channeling the phrase from the movie, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou", 'You will see many things. You will see a COW on top of a roof'

*** 

Cannes, France

You said you wanted to mail a postcard?

That just seems to simple a task.  Just drop it in a mailbox.

What's a mailbox?

Oh, I get it.  I have to go to the post office.  Inconvenient, but still not a problem.

What time is it?

11:45 am

No problem.  Google maps says it's a 15 minute walk from here... but....

One thing.  It says they close at noon for two hours.

Apparently siesta is a thing in southern France as well.

We ran the run to the post office and arrived just 3 minutes before noon.  The postmistress attended to Gary while I exclaimed a 'Mon Dieu' (My god) under my breath.  That caught the attention of a random woman mailing a package at the office and led into an extended chat, an exchange of WhatsApp information and a place to stay if we make it back to Cannes.  We continued the bulk of our chat outside of the post office as the corrugated steel garage doors were remotely operated to lower, narrowly missing Gary's right shoulder on the way down.  Gives new meaning to "Don't let the door hit you on the way out"

Our ship, a floating city, anchored off of Cannes, France

****

Turkey

I will likely have to add to this list so you may want to check back on this post at some intervals.  Here's the weird stuff thus far.....

 Shoes.  Do not wear your shoes into the house.  Don't even step foot INTO the house to then take off your shoes.  Take your shoes off outside and leave them outside on the porch, the stoop, anywhere.  Just don't leave them in the house.  Hope that some random dog doesn't come along during the night and decide that it just found its next best plaything.  After your shoes come off, try to make your next step into the house without your feet touching the dirty, dirty, filthy, disgusting, ooocky ground.  Using your skills you gained in your high school triathalon (which you do not remember because you never were in the high school triathalon, you were in the principals office being reprimanded for chewing gum in class), make a concerted effort to leap from the shoe that has come off and into the house where you will install a slipper on your foot.  Apparently just wearing socks is generally not good enough.  You have to wear house slippers.  This seem like too much?  Well, lets just say that my neural plasticity is such that I (and we) screwed this one up multiple times.  No problem though.  Again, we can just claim we are stupid Americans.

**

The marketplace.  Call it a Souk, call it what you want.  It's those narrow alleyways with vendors on either side.  It's noisy, it is full of smells, lighting, colors, flavors.  Whatever you want, you can go to the marketplace.  It's like a shopping mall that Jesus would have shopped at (did Jesus ever go shopping?).  Gary and I enjoy such diverse and cacophonous places and, as a general rule, we do as much of our gathering of foods and goods in marketplaces like these.  Now, interestingly, the vendors don't seem to give the local Turkish people much notice as they go about jostling through the various vendors stalls and small shops fronting the bustling alley.  This is NOT so when Gary and I are passing through.  NO. It must be like we are wearing a sign that says "AMERICAN TOURIST" or perhaps someone has attached a flashing blue K-MART light (remember those?  If you do, you are as old as Jesus) to our heads.  We probably have some LED display hovering over us that says "Tourist in Training" because practically every other vendor will throw themselves at us when we are walking through.  

They all say things like, 

"You need a leather coat?  I have leather coats.  The leather coat is good price and I give to you good deal. Where are you from?  Really?  I visited that place?"

"I'm from Belchertown, Massachusetts", or "I'm from Walla Walla, Washington", I might say

The response is always one of the following:

"My brother visited there", "My cousin went to school there", "My best friend's cousin's former roommate went there"

My reply is, of course, "Wow, we have something in common, I should buy a leather coat from you!"

NOT

Wait a minute, my grandparents were born in eastern Turkey.  I don't think I look all that different from the Turkish people here.  I KNOW!  I'll bet Gary is tripping me off.

I tell Gary to walk well behind me as we continue on through the market and guess what, no more problems for me.  I pass through with a layer of invisibility that only a person born here would otherwise have.  Meanwhile, from behind me, people are trying to sell Gary leather coats, hookahs, used auto parts and someone's cousins former roommate. 

The Marketplace in Izmir, tall minaret can be seen atop the local mosque in background 

Turkish Delight and long strands of Rojic, walnuts coated with a "fruit rollup" layer. All delicious. Your dentist would not agree.

 ***

You can drink the water.  Or maybe you shouldn't.  The water in Turkey, especially the larger cities, is technically drinkable but most people don't.  The reason is not that you will get sick, but more so, the long term results of drinking the tap water may not be good for your body in the long term.  Turkey is a very old country and has very old piping systems as a result.  A variety of materials including heavy metals and minerals are leached from the old pipe as well as introduced in the water sources themselves.

What to do?

The locals all drink bottled water.  It's relatively cheap and the water industry seems to have an 'in' with the local government to keep their businesses thriving.  The result is that there is no good incentive to create better tap water for consumer households.  The bottled water companies wouldn't like it either.

 ***

 Gas is expensive.  Buses are cheap.

Driving in Turkey requires you to open your wallet, turn it upside down, and dump what cash you may have into your gas tank.  That probably won't be enough though since you should have saved some money for the toll plazas.  There are plenty of those as well.

We have been taking the buses.  They are comfortable and inexpensive.  For local city travel, they are usually minibuses but for the long haul, they are comfy coaches.  They make several stops for rest breaks on long haul trips, about one every two hours.  It's a chance as well for the driver of your bus to rest and compose him (or her? who knows) self from the winding mountain roads with no guardrails.  The roads are good and the ride is scenic.  We paid ten dollars US equivalent each to travel a distance equivalent of Boston to New York, about 225 miles.

My recommendation: Take the bus.  You don't want to challenge Turkish Drivers.  If you do, make sure that YOUR horn is louder than theirs.

Long distance bus: Izmir to Eskihicir 

Modern bus

Heading up into the mountains 

Gary getting comfy

Lots of vineyards, fruit orchards

Is that snow in the mountains?

Yes, we have arrived up into the level of snow.  

 ***

 Homogenity

That's how Turkey would like to be.

You will be hard pressed to find anyone who looks Asian or Black here.  True, such groups of people exist and we even ran into a neighborhood with a greater number of African individuals than the zero number of African individuals we saw anywhere else.  

At a national level, Turkey is for Turks.  It's not very different from the nationalism we are seeing take hold in the United States.  The Turkish government doesn't broadcast cultural activities in say, "Kurdish".  Local traditions like food, or music or dress are often celebrated as part of a wider national culture.  Tumultuous times in the nation's history always clearly delineates the opposing party as the perpetrator.  Whitewashing of history is a thing here and narratives are well ingrained into the local peoples through what they are taught.  I mean, even in the USA, we relocated the Native Americans because they became angry and did naughty things to American Citizens simply because they were angry that we borrowed their land they once lived on.  

Bottom line, this happens everywhere and in many countries.  Some countries, like Canada, have recognized publicly what they did to the Inuit peoples. They even have publicly apologized.  Canada, and a few select others, are exceptions.  Here, Nationalism and a common sense of identity that all people should try to blend in with is the norm.  Does such a system work?  You tell me.  Germany tried it once.  How did that turn out?  I wasn't paying attention.

I should also let you know that protests against the government or the leaders is pretty much not allowed.  Observe, but don't criticize.  I'm just a visitor.  I'm happy to observe and stay back in the visitor's booth.

Lower income neighborhood high up above the city

Kids playing in the street in one of the poorer neighborhoods

Just outside one of the poorer neighborhoods, we found where the trash goes

Some of the folks in the lower income bracket keep their goats in the vacant Lots

Izmir as seen from the upper, poorer section of the city

** 

Violet Coffee

What?  Yep.  This is ground coffee made with violet essence.... as in the flowers....

Roses are red, Violets are blue.  They put it in Coffee And serve it to you.

Actually it's really good.  Honest.

Coffee infused with violets

****

Some of the kitchens we have seen run their gas in through an exposed main with a shut-off near the counter.  They then run a flexible gas hose to a small camping-like stove.  This would in no way be legal and up to code in the USA

This just seems like camping, but with.a flexible gas line?  Seems sketchy

****

The goto drink here is not soda, it's not water.  Its AYRAN.

Everyone drinks this.  With breakfast,  lunch and dinner.  

This is a watery plain yogurt drink with a hint of salt.  Darn good and wicked refreshing.  It also seems good at putting the right bacteria in my stomach to prevent that traveler's bug one often gets when traveling.  If you're worried about having problems with the food, just drink some of this.

Ayram. It does a body good

And of course, after your meal, you will be served tea. This is Turkish tea.  You better like tea in the morning.  You won't generally find coffee on the menu until after noon.

Turkish tea. Served in a glass cup with no handles. I'm not entirely sure how you were supposed to hold this when it is hot. Perhaps, you're not supposed to.

******

The Armenian Genocide never happened.  Every other country has concluded it was a genocide.  Turkey has effectively denied it and has convinced all its citizens that it never happened the way it did.  Even Hitler was fascinated by the effective strategy and quoted the event in his attempt to cause the same fate for the Jews.

Being culturally Armenian, I was a little nervous about entering the country, especially with an Armenian last name recognizable as one that emanated from eastern Turkey.  To my surprise,  no onevrecognized it as Armenian until I mentioned it, and, even then it did not raise an eyebrow.  The erasure of the Armenian people who occupied that land, in just 100 years, was complete.

I guess the millions of native Americans that died during our colonial period in the US is mainly forgotten now as well.  But we do remember they have casinos however, and the important stuff like the cheap eats at the 'all-you-can-eat buffet' at the casino restaurant on Fridays.  I guess that means something, right?  Bueller? Bueller?

******

The streets change character after hours and when the Sun goes down, women are not generally found on the streets. This seems to be more relevant in some of the eastern cities where conservative values rule.  And even in those conservative cities, there exist adult male entertainment venues. I noticed something was up when Gary and I went out to dinner and saw men sitting with other men but not very many men sitting with women or women sitting together. And occasional couple, perhaps, but not the rule.

No women on the city streets at night reminds me of the scene from the 1974 comedy movie, "Blazing Saddles", where a black sherrif finds himself unwelcome in an old western town

More will be added.  You need to check back on this post occasionally.