Gotcha! :-)
I traveled back to Istanbul by bus today - 10 hours with all the stops! I usually hate riding but the trip was interesting -- we went on a two-lane road most of the way and I saw some great scenery! I saw a HUGE stork's nest on top of a chimney, with two grown storks and babies. I couldn't believe how big the nest was! http://www.kookynet.net/media/17lhuw-cigogne-v.jpg This is how big a stork's nest is! We went through a beautiful pine forest way up in the mountains (I am wondering if it was Kaz National Park but can't find any info online or maps)and stopped in little towns, and I saw lots of very small farms, people working in their fields ...no tractors or herbicides, they were bent over working hard. Also farmers riding donkeys, horse and carts, etc. One of the towns we went through was Bursa - the place where towels were invented! The luxurious towels that cost a fortune in high end department stores in the US are manufactered here. Here is a bit of history: http://www.turkishtime.org/sector_5/165.asp
The bus system in Turkey is fantastic! The seats are very comfortable, the bus was air conditioned and there is an attendant just like on flights.
I got some thingy's for souvenirs for people, they are hand carved of wood and old and I bought them in an "antique store" (junk shop) in Ayvalik. I was told they were used to make bread...in some way, something to do with the dough. When I got back to my pension I showed it to people and they had assorted ideas of what they were used for. One said it was supposed to hang on the wall and hold wooden matches. Another said it was a fertility symbol. When I got back to Istanbul Nihal said very seriously that she thought maybe fisherman used to use them - they would put them on their hands like flippers when swimming :-) If you know what these are (pictured on sidebar titled "thingies"), or have any creative ideas, please post :-))
Below is a mini-journal of my week in Ayvalik and I am posting photos on sidebar and down below. Photos tell the story better than I do.
___________________________________________________________
Sunday night – Ayvelik, Turkey
Tonight, for the first night since I got to Turkey, I will sleep with air conditioning! I think it will be a good night’s sleep! I’m in a B&B (a “pension”) in Ayvelik on the Aegean Sea. Last night I barely got any sleep. I shared a room with Nihal’s aunt at her mother’s house...a big, beautiful house by the sea. The elderly lady kept going in and out of the room all night, and she talks to herself. Finally I got to sleep, my fan blowing on me because it must have been 90 degrees in that room. I woke up sweating and realized my fan was off? The aunt told Nihal (and Nihal translated) this morning that she didn’t want me getting sick with that air blowing on me, so she turned the fan off! This is my first experience with the “Turkish draft syndrome”…drafts or blowing air will make a person sick! (Maybe it isn’t my first experience with that, now that I think about it.)
Istanbul spans two continents, and yesterday I crossed the bridge from Europe to Asia. We drove through Yalova, where 8 years ago a terrible earthquake killed more than 17,000 people. http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1999Turkey.html I was horrified when it happened, and it was very strange to actually see the place. Nihal said her brother was riding back to Istanbul from the sea that night just when the earthquake struck. At first he didn’t realize what was happening… the bus ride started getting crazy-bumpy, then he saw the road was heaving and there were huge cracks appearing in the ground, and he realized it was an earthquake.
Before Yalova we took a ferry across the Marmara Sea. The entire ride here was beautiful – very mountainous, lakes here and there, sunflower fields and hay fields. But the countryside around Ayvelik (Ayva=The fruit quince Lik==> a suffix that is used to denote place where something belongs. So Ayvalik is "garden/or place where quince fruit is grown" MD thanks :-))
is almost all olive groves and pines. Ayvelik (was known in ancient times as “Kydonia”, and its history dates back to 330BC, first under the Romans, then Byzantine civilization, then Ottomans. Another interesting thing about Ayvalik is that it's air supposedly has the highest oxygen content of anywhere in the world! My pension is right behind Taksiyarhis Church (Greek Orthodox), which was constructed in 1873 and the area around here was the first in the city to be inhabited by both Christians and Muslims. Tomorrow I will tour the “Clock Mosque” and Taksiyarhis church, even though a brochure I got reads, “The churches of Ayvelik, which have greatly been collapsed, but are still erect, contribute to the historic identity of Ayvelik.” I’m not quite sure what to expect after reading that !
Anyone who knows me knows that I get lost very easily. Absolutely NO sense of direction. I got lost twice today! I couldn’t find my pension. These are ancient winding, hilly, narrow stone streets and it’s like a maze! This afternoon when I couldn’t find the place, I showed the address to an old woman and what was probably her great grand-daughter. They walked me the entire way here and straight to the door! When they left they kissed me on both cheeks and the girl, who was probably around 14, gave me a hug. It was so sweet! Then tonight I asked a woman for directions, after wandering around for about ½ an hour, and her and her entire family, and also the neighbors (more and more people joined along the way – it was like a funny scene from a movie!), walked me here. By the time we got here I was being escorted by a fairly large crowd! Even though I don’t speak the language, I feel that I am amongst friends here.
Monday
This pension is absolutely beautiful and decorated with the coolest things! It’s a very old Greek house. The first floor stays amazingly cool. (It’s very hot here), 2nd and 3rd floors don’t fare so well. I will upload pictures of the inside of the house below. I don’t understand why the bathrooms are built like they are. There is no stall around the shower. The toilet and sink are exposed to the water, the tile floor slopes down to a corner where there is a drain in the floor. There’s also a Turkish toilet here, but I use the “regular” one!
I’m writing this on Word on my laptop because there is no internet connection here and I don’t feel like lugging my laptop to the internet café. I’ll cut and paste it in Istanbul and upload some photos.
I got lost again today. I think I ended up in the slums of Ayvelik, and it was a bit scary. The women seemed more conservative and the men were in my face. I finally found my way out of there and discovered old carts and horses that give tours. For five Turkish Lira I got a carriage ride all over town and a bit out into the country, and it lasted for 2 hours! The driver didn’t speak a word of English. As the sun was beginning to set we sat on a hilltop over the city and watched the sunset over the sea. I saw a man in a house below tending to his pigeons on his rooftop. Behind me was a flock of sheep with a sheep herder and sheepdog. I’ve never seen that before! The cicadas were humming and there was a cool breeze blowing. Oh – and I got to drive the cart for a while! Anyhow, I saw a lot of the town and surrounding countryside, and I wouldn’t have seen so much otherwise. I absolutely love the country around here, it’s beautiful! Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera went dead almost immediately. I did take some photos of some grand old building with ornate columns that is falling apart, I have no idea what it used to be, but I’ll post pics below. Maybe it was one of those churches “which have greatly been collapsed, but are still erect”!!
Tuesday
I wonder…is N. America the only place where people use top sheets? How did this happen? Who invented top sheets and why?
My cellphone, although programmed for English, still has a Turkish dictionary for text messaging. So for the letter “A” I get words like abi, abla, acele, etc. Not much help for me!
Turkish women here ask me the following questions:
1. Where are you from?
2. Are you wearing contact lenses? (colored ones, and no I’m not wearing any lenses)
3. Why did you come alone? (They don’t like the “alone” idea.)
Turkish men stare. It’s not a “look” then look away. There is no smile. It is a plain stare that can last for hours. Why do they do that and what are they thinking?
Yesterday I went to the Island of Alibey Adasi, a 20 minute ferry ride away. I only went for the evening since it was so hot. I had dinner there and a couple from Scotland asked me to join them. But their accent was so thick and they used so much slang (“shut your gob”, etc.) they needed subtitles, like the movie “Trainspotting”. The guy was actually a Turk who mostly grew up in Scotland. When he ordered coffee he said to the waiter in Turkish “and don’t spit in it”. (The girlfriend asked him what he had said.) He explained that a good Turkish coffee should have some little bubbles on top and if there aren’t bubbles, people in restaurants have been known to spit on top of it to create some!
Speaking of coffee, I am having Starbucks withdrawal…their hot chocolate! And I’d love a baked potato…
Wed.
With elections coming up, candidates have vans equipped with loudspeakers (one is pictured on the sidebar) that go around blaring what seem to be patriotic songs and their own spiel. One is going by now and the speech sounds like the Furer in Turkish! I bought a big Turkish flag with a picture of Ataturk on it. I’ll hang it in my hallway at home.
There must not be many lawsuits in Turkey. The sidewalks will drop off a foot for no reason, a person has to look at the sidewalk all the time. I have seen people in wheelchairs cruising down the streets along with the cars! Curbs are usually between 1-1 ½ feet high. No lifeguards at beaches or pools, at least I haven’t seen one. Traffic lights are just a suggestion and crossing the street in Istanbul is just crazy. Turks seem to have a protective invisible bubble around them so that they don’t get run over, so I just wait until they cross and stay close to them!
Tonight the girl who takes care of the pension and her guy friend took me to a place that has Turkish folk music and dancing. I loved it! I took a video, now if I can just figure out how to upload it to youtube… But, I did take a few photos and will post them below. We also went to a nice outdoor club that has house music, but it could have been anywhere in the states. It was called “Fly”.
Thursday
Thursday is the big day in Ayvelik- a huge flea market in the streets. I was hoping to find some cool and unique stuff but no luck, all I bought were three bars of the local olive oil soap and lost about a gallon of sweat. It’s soooo hot here! Then a crazy lady latched onto me and wouldn’t go away. She talked non-stop in Turkish and followed me the entire way back to my pension. She followed me in the door. She told the people who work here that I have the ability to become invisible and all kinds of crazy nonsense. They politely pushed her out the door. :-)
Yesterday was the first day I met another lone traveler – a woman…she’s from Colorado. She is spending the night here and taking a bus to Izmir in the morning. Today I met a Canadian guy who is traveling here in Turkey and then through Syria and Jordan and other parts of the Middle East.
Last night I went with a local to a very nice seafood restaurant on Cunda. I had grilled sardines wrapped in grape leaves and there was olive oil with a bit of pomegranate sauce to dip them in – very good! We then went to another small town past Ayvelik, it was packed with Turkish vacationers. I had homemade ice cream and we went to the beach. There are little huts on the beach that in the daytime serve drinks and some food, but at night people just hang out there – the one we went to reminded me of the Big Kahona’s beach hut in the old Frankie Avalon/Annette Funachelo movies. They had a movie screen hanging on one wall and a movie on a laptop connected to a projector and they were playing some Jude Law movie. At night all the little straw umbrellas on the beach reminded me of a surreal mushroom scene(no I wasn't drunk!), so I took a picture of it! I’ll post it below. I was going to go to Lesbos, Greece, but it is just too hot in July so I will return to Istanbul on Saturday by bus. This is a great place in summer to hang out at the beach all day but for anything else, too sweltering except in the evenings when it greatly cools down. People sit outside on their steps or stools on the narrow stone streets until late, talking with family and neighbors and enjoying the night breeze, eating fruit and drinking tea (cay).
Friday
I bought my ticket today for tomorrow’s trip back to Istanbul and went swimming at the beach as usual. Tonight was a fun night at the pension. The upstair's terrace has a great view of the mosque and the sea beyond, a grape arbor for a ceiling and cozy places to sit. About 8 of us spent the evening there eating good desserts and fruit, drinking wine and talking. There were people from Turkey, Belgium, Canada and Germany. Stayed up too late - 2:00 and have to get up at 7:00!
I traveled back to Istanbul by bus today - 10 hours with all the stops! I usually hate riding but the trip was interesting -- we went on a two-lane road most of the way and I saw some great scenery! I saw a HUGE stork's nest on top of a chimney, with two grown storks and babies. I couldn't believe how big the nest was! http://www.kookynet.net/media/17lhuw-cigogne-v.jpg This is how big a stork's nest is! We went through a beautiful pine forest way up in the mountains (I am wondering if it was Kaz National Park but can't find any info online or maps)and stopped in little towns, and I saw lots of very small farms, people working in their fields ...no tractors or herbicides, they were bent over working hard. Also farmers riding donkeys, horse and carts, etc. One of the towns we went through was Bursa - the place where towels were invented! The luxurious towels that cost a fortune in high end department stores in the US are manufactered here. Here is a bit of history: http://www.turkishtime.org/sector_5/165.asp
The bus system in Turkey is fantastic! The seats are very comfortable, the bus was air conditioned and there is an attendant just like on flights.
I got some thingy's for souvenirs for people, they are hand carved of wood and old and I bought them in an "antique store" (junk shop) in Ayvalik. I was told they were used to make bread...in some way, something to do with the dough. When I got back to my pension I showed it to people and they had assorted ideas of what they were used for. One said it was supposed to hang on the wall and hold wooden matches. Another said it was a fertility symbol. When I got back to Istanbul Nihal said very seriously that she thought maybe fisherman used to use them - they would put them on their hands like flippers when swimming :-) If you know what these are (pictured on sidebar titled "thingies"), or have any creative ideas, please post :-))
Below is a mini-journal of my week in Ayvalik and I am posting photos on sidebar and down below. Photos tell the story better than I do.
___________________________________________________________
Sunday night – Ayvelik, Turkey
Tonight, for the first night since I got to Turkey, I will sleep with air conditioning! I think it will be a good night’s sleep! I’m in a B&B (a “pension”) in Ayvelik on the Aegean Sea. Last night I barely got any sleep. I shared a room with Nihal’s aunt at her mother’s house...a big, beautiful house by the sea. The elderly lady kept going in and out of the room all night, and she talks to herself. Finally I got to sleep, my fan blowing on me because it must have been 90 degrees in that room. I woke up sweating and realized my fan was off? The aunt told Nihal (and Nihal translated) this morning that she didn’t want me getting sick with that air blowing on me, so she turned the fan off! This is my first experience with the “Turkish draft syndrome”…drafts or blowing air will make a person sick! (Maybe it isn’t my first experience with that, now that I think about it.)
Istanbul spans two continents, and yesterday I crossed the bridge from Europe to Asia. We drove through Yalova, where 8 years ago a terrible earthquake killed more than 17,000 people. http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1999Turkey.html I was horrified when it happened, and it was very strange to actually see the place. Nihal said her brother was riding back to Istanbul from the sea that night just when the earthquake struck. At first he didn’t realize what was happening… the bus ride started getting crazy-bumpy, then he saw the road was heaving and there were huge cracks appearing in the ground, and he realized it was an earthquake.
Before Yalova we took a ferry across the Marmara Sea. The entire ride here was beautiful – very mountainous, lakes here and there, sunflower fields and hay fields. But the countryside around Ayvelik (Ayva=The fruit quince Lik==> a suffix that is used to denote place where something belongs. So Ayvalik is "garden/or place where quince fruit is grown" MD thanks :-))
is almost all olive groves and pines. Ayvelik (was known in ancient times as “Kydonia”, and its history dates back to 330BC, first under the Romans, then Byzantine civilization, then Ottomans. Another interesting thing about Ayvalik is that it's air supposedly has the highest oxygen content of anywhere in the world! My pension is right behind Taksiyarhis Church (Greek Orthodox), which was constructed in 1873 and the area around here was the first in the city to be inhabited by both Christians and Muslims. Tomorrow I will tour the “Clock Mosque” and Taksiyarhis church, even though a brochure I got reads, “The churches of Ayvelik, which have greatly been collapsed, but are still erect, contribute to the historic identity of Ayvelik.” I’m not quite sure what to expect after reading that !
Anyone who knows me knows that I get lost very easily. Absolutely NO sense of direction. I got lost twice today! I couldn’t find my pension. These are ancient winding, hilly, narrow stone streets and it’s like a maze! This afternoon when I couldn’t find the place, I showed the address to an old woman and what was probably her great grand-daughter. They walked me the entire way here and straight to the door! When they left they kissed me on both cheeks and the girl, who was probably around 14, gave me a hug. It was so sweet! Then tonight I asked a woman for directions, after wandering around for about ½ an hour, and her and her entire family, and also the neighbors (more and more people joined along the way – it was like a funny scene from a movie!), walked me here. By the time we got here I was being escorted by a fairly large crowd! Even though I don’t speak the language, I feel that I am amongst friends here.
Monday
This pension is absolutely beautiful and decorated with the coolest things! It’s a very old Greek house. The first floor stays amazingly cool. (It’s very hot here), 2nd and 3rd floors don’t fare so well. I will upload pictures of the inside of the house below. I don’t understand why the bathrooms are built like they are. There is no stall around the shower. The toilet and sink are exposed to the water, the tile floor slopes down to a corner where there is a drain in the floor. There’s also a Turkish toilet here, but I use the “regular” one!
I’m writing this on Word on my laptop because there is no internet connection here and I don’t feel like lugging my laptop to the internet café. I’ll cut and paste it in Istanbul and upload some photos.
I got lost again today. I think I ended up in the slums of Ayvelik, and it was a bit scary. The women seemed more conservative and the men were in my face. I finally found my way out of there and discovered old carts and horses that give tours. For five Turkish Lira I got a carriage ride all over town and a bit out into the country, and it lasted for 2 hours! The driver didn’t speak a word of English. As the sun was beginning to set we sat on a hilltop over the city and watched the sunset over the sea. I saw a man in a house below tending to his pigeons on his rooftop. Behind me was a flock of sheep with a sheep herder and sheepdog. I’ve never seen that before! The cicadas were humming and there was a cool breeze blowing. Oh – and I got to drive the cart for a while! Anyhow, I saw a lot of the town and surrounding countryside, and I wouldn’t have seen so much otherwise. I absolutely love the country around here, it’s beautiful! Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera went dead almost immediately. I did take some photos of some grand old building with ornate columns that is falling apart, I have no idea what it used to be, but I’ll post pics below. Maybe it was one of those churches “which have greatly been collapsed, but are still erect”!!
Tuesday
I wonder…is N. America the only place where people use top sheets? How did this happen? Who invented top sheets and why?
My cellphone, although programmed for English, still has a Turkish dictionary for text messaging. So for the letter “A” I get words like abi, abla, acele, etc. Not much help for me!
Turkish women here ask me the following questions:
1. Where are you from?
2. Are you wearing contact lenses? (colored ones, and no I’m not wearing any lenses)
3. Why did you come alone? (They don’t like the “alone” idea.)
Turkish men stare. It’s not a “look” then look away. There is no smile. It is a plain stare that can last for hours. Why do they do that and what are they thinking?
Yesterday I went to the Island of Alibey Adasi, a 20 minute ferry ride away. I only went for the evening since it was so hot. I had dinner there and a couple from Scotland asked me to join them. But their accent was so thick and they used so much slang (“shut your gob”, etc.) they needed subtitles, like the movie “Trainspotting”. The guy was actually a Turk who mostly grew up in Scotland. When he ordered coffee he said to the waiter in Turkish “and don’t spit in it”. (The girlfriend asked him what he had said.) He explained that a good Turkish coffee should have some little bubbles on top and if there aren’t bubbles, people in restaurants have been known to spit on top of it to create some!
Speaking of coffee, I am having Starbucks withdrawal…their hot chocolate! And I’d love a baked potato…
Wed.
With elections coming up, candidates have vans equipped with loudspeakers (one is pictured on the sidebar) that go around blaring what seem to be patriotic songs and their own spiel. One is going by now and the speech sounds like the Furer in Turkish! I bought a big Turkish flag with a picture of Ataturk on it. I’ll hang it in my hallway at home.
There must not be many lawsuits in Turkey. The sidewalks will drop off a foot for no reason, a person has to look at the sidewalk all the time. I have seen people in wheelchairs cruising down the streets along with the cars! Curbs are usually between 1-1 ½ feet high. No lifeguards at beaches or pools, at least I haven’t seen one. Traffic lights are just a suggestion and crossing the street in Istanbul is just crazy. Turks seem to have a protective invisible bubble around them so that they don’t get run over, so I just wait until they cross and stay close to them!
Tonight the girl who takes care of the pension and her guy friend took me to a place that has Turkish folk music and dancing. I loved it! I took a video, now if I can just figure out how to upload it to youtube… But, I did take a few photos and will post them below. We also went to a nice outdoor club that has house music, but it could have been anywhere in the states. It was called “Fly”.
Thursday
Thursday is the big day in Ayvelik- a huge flea market in the streets. I was hoping to find some cool and unique stuff but no luck, all I bought were three bars of the local olive oil soap and lost about a gallon of sweat. It’s soooo hot here! Then a crazy lady latched onto me and wouldn’t go away. She talked non-stop in Turkish and followed me the entire way back to my pension. She followed me in the door. She told the people who work here that I have the ability to become invisible and all kinds of crazy nonsense. They politely pushed her out the door. :-)
Yesterday was the first day I met another lone traveler – a woman…she’s from Colorado. She is spending the night here and taking a bus to Izmir in the morning. Today I met a Canadian guy who is traveling here in Turkey and then through Syria and Jordan and other parts of the Middle East.
Last night I went with a local to a very nice seafood restaurant on Cunda. I had grilled sardines wrapped in grape leaves and there was olive oil with a bit of pomegranate sauce to dip them in – very good! We then went to another small town past Ayvelik, it was packed with Turkish vacationers. I had homemade ice cream and we went to the beach. There are little huts on the beach that in the daytime serve drinks and some food, but at night people just hang out there – the one we went to reminded me of the Big Kahona’s beach hut in the old Frankie Avalon/Annette Funachelo movies. They had a movie screen hanging on one wall and a movie on a laptop connected to a projector and they were playing some Jude Law movie. At night all the little straw umbrellas on the beach reminded me of a surreal mushroom scene(no I wasn't drunk!), so I took a picture of it! I’ll post it below. I was going to go to Lesbos, Greece, but it is just too hot in July so I will return to Istanbul on Saturday by bus. This is a great place in summer to hang out at the beach all day but for anything else, too sweltering except in the evenings when it greatly cools down. People sit outside on their steps or stools on the narrow stone streets until late, talking with family and neighbors and enjoying the night breeze, eating fruit and drinking tea (cay).
Friday
I bought my ticket today for tomorrow’s trip back to Istanbul and went swimming at the beach as usual. Tonight was a fun night at the pension. The upstair's terrace has a great view of the mosque and the sea beyond, a grape arbor for a ceiling and cozy places to sit. About 8 of us spent the evening there eating good desserts and fruit, drinking wine and talking. There were people from Turkey, Belgium, Canada and Germany. Stayed up too late - 2:00 and have to get up at 7:00!
6 comments:
Your vacation blog was a wonderful read. I was glued to my computer screen. And, I just marvel at your photos - you have an excellent camera eye. Love looking at the interesting details.
A 10 hour bus ride sounds brutal, but reading that the seats are comfortable and the bus air-conditioned with an attendant....not so brutal, plus all the scenery and interesting things you got to see! What did the attendant do?
About the carved thingie, it certainly does look like something that had to do with dough. I doubt that they were used as flippers - but that's creative thinking. :-)
The way you were escorted to your pension by a growing group of people is definitely somethng out of a foreign movie. Great, just great! LOL
And, what a spetacular tour you had with the horse and carriage ride. Simply amazing. And your driver wasn't able to converse with you, but it sounds like you had good communication - he even let you drive the cart!! :-)
Loved that the Scottish couple invited you over to dine with them....too funny about needing subtitles when they talked. LOL Yikes, I wouldn't want spit in my Turkish coffee! By the way, how do you like the coffee there? I love coffee. A famous ice cream maker in California makes a Turkish Coffee flavor that I adore.
Great photos, Briget! The cities and countryside are so beautiful.
And the people sound interesting (or scary LOL!). I especially enjoyed seeing Ayvalik-- our favorite pink olives came from a farm there.
And you look as fab as ever. No wonder the men stare- I'll bet they all think you are a goddess in their midst and just can't believe their good fortune to witness it. ;)
OK, my guess is that wooden hook thing is an old tool used for fishing with nets, or maybe for making the nets. ??
I really enjoy your blog but I must say I'm more than a bit jealous of all the wonderful experiences you're collecting.
"Hi" to the girls from WA, U.S.A.! :)
Briget, your account of your travels and your wonderful photos are something to cherish. I had no idea Turkey was so beautiful, and so green. And the people sound "colorful" too. It is, sigh, almost like being there.
I have been wanting to go to the middle east for quite awhile but worry that everyone hates Americans. Your accounts help put that to rest.
And you look sooo beautiful in your pics. I think it won't be long before you are blogging about some romances!
Hey Monty! The attendant on the bus checked our tickets, told us when we had reached our stop, made sure we were present when the bus left after a break, passed out water, drinks and snacks. He didn't give the spiel about exits and the oxygen mask dropping down though :-) I'm not a coffee drinker (very sensitive to caffiene) so I can't drink that or the tea!
Joliz: Yes, this is a very beautiful country! It's not what most people, at least in the US, expect it to be or how the media portrays it. Yes, some of the people are colorful, but generally speaking these are the friendliest, most generous, hospitable people I have ever met. I plan on writing an entire post on it some day. It's cool that your favorite olives come from Ayvalik!!! As for how some of the guys stare, it's not that I look great, it's just that I am female!
Dianne: I don't know about the Middle East...Turkey is a secular country although 98% Muslim. I have had no trouble at all here, though, being an American. They don't like Bush but I don't think most folks have any problem with American people. There are surely exceptions but personally I haven't had any problems at all! Go for it!! :-)
I would start to worry if the bus attendant gave the exits and oxygen mask spiel. LOL
Hmmmm. So you get stares because you are just a female? After seeing your photos, somehow I highly doubt that. LOL My favorite is the one on the patio with the floaty bathing suit cover-up in orange and gold. WOWZA.
How is Nihal's English? And her husband - are you able to communicate easily with him?
Ohh, sorry you can't enjoy the Turkish coffee. :-( I'd have a hard time giving coffee up if I had to.
Monty,
The guys (not all) stare at all women I think, but I believe I get a lot of stares because I look foreign, and thanks to American movies and music, etc...they think I'll just hop into bed with them!? I have had several guys follow me - one in Ayvalik and one the other night in Taksim. I don't know if they wanted me or my handbag :-) But they followed for a long time. I'd stop to look at something, they'd stop and pretend to look at something. I'd turn down a street, they turn down the same street. Etc. Neither time did I see a policeman. I just held on tight to my bag and stayed where lots of people were. And some guys are very persistant. Guys who know English will approach and ask if I need help. I will say, "No, thank you." and keep walking. But they will walk with me and not give up despite the fact that I am completely ignoring them. Usually I have to get quite blunt, "I don't need help, I am not interested, so leave me alone." Shame tactic seems to work well, too. I learned that with the one cab driver when I said "Shame on you!" So a few times I have stopped, looked at the guy and said, "Does your mother know you act this way??" with a disgusted look on my face.
Nihal's English is fair, bad grammer and pronunciation but we can communicate pretty well. At first her husband really didn't speak to me. I thought maybe he was a grouch. But now I think maybe he was shy. He's saying more now and has lightened up.
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