Posted on 04/06/2009 11:57:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
...The uneasy coexistence of the two cultures only became a problem on one occasion when we left our 12 year-old in a hotel off the beaten track for the morning because she preferred reading her Harry Potter book to trailing around a museum. An hour later she rang in a panic. The waiter from breakfast had visited her room, not once, but several times. The first time he asked if she needed anything. She sent him away, but he kept returning with flowers and offers of marriage, pointing at the bed she was sprawled across. "He's a Syrian and he's been sacked," the manager said when we rushed to retrieve her, but we were as much at fault for having left her alone in a place where unchaperoned girls might be deemed to be courting attention.
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I’ve traveled to eighteen countries, and Turkey is the one I liked best. There over Christmas vacation ‘93-94, traveling with a Jewish friend, I discovered more Christmas decorations gracing the streets of Istanbul than of leftwing Seattle, and it was so refreshing. My friend was recognized as a Jew but only in friendly ways. The people were marvelous, the countryside lovely, ruins spectacular and at that time of year we owned Ephesus, though our guide said it was crowded to distraction in summertime.
The people were charming to me especially. I never felt more American in my life, and in fact, kept humming, “American Woman...” A blue-eyed blond, I had great giggles with more than one Turkish woman who was wearing rather traditional clothing. We laughed at how different we looked but how similar we were under the “stuff.” Hugs all round.
In the countryside, peasants wore peasanty outfits,but in little towns, women wore relatively western clothes with beautiful, colorful scarves wrapped around their heads Muslim style. In Istanbul and in upscale places in smaller cities, we never saw women in even those scarves, instead, their clothing was like mine. We saw women gambling in casinos, drinking at bars, eating at restaurants alone.
At the Topkapi museum, the tone changed as we watched muslim mothers reverently pointing out Muhammed’s swords to their little ones. “What kind of religion reveres swords?” my companion asked.
We hired a guide with a wonderful new car and a total command of English. He charged us less than a crowded bus tour and it was like traveling with a friend. We went to Aphrodisias, Ephesus, Kusadisi, Bursa with it’s wonderful silk bazaar, and places in between, ate at little turkish restaurants and stayed at small hotels. Later, we hired a boat just for the two of us to buzz up and down the Bosporus. The owner/pilot drove, but turned it over to me when we left the dock and it was a blast.
Turks are fun, smart, clever, and friendly. Do not get into a negotiating match with them, as they’re just awfully good at that game and will do you in. I bought tons of stuff and learned when I got home I paid fair prices, but not bargain prices for rugs, etc. Oh well.
I’ll go back some day. But it won’t be the bargain it was back then.
I was assigned to a NATO command in Izmir 79-80, I’v been to the places you mentioned, plus many more, walked up to Goats castle. We camped in numerous secluded coves near the sea.
Near Sardis, the right side of the road, down a bit is a temple. If you look beyond the temple, facing East there are high cliffs. I have had many dreams there is a vast treasure buried in those cliffs.
Returned with 14 carpets, lots of junk and wonderful memories.
Next time you visit try thinking about the dead victims of those “charming” Turks where you visited.
I went to grammar school at the top of a steep hill within sight of Rumeli Hisar in the 50s and lived in Nisantas by the hospital(Istanbul). American children were golden, then. I could go anywhere my legs would carry me and if I looked out of place or lost a taxi driver or soldier would find a phone and call the consulate to ask where the American kid belonged, then I would get a ride home. A piece of countryside intruded into the city at three blocks from home and I went down there a couple of times and was invited in for lunch by a shepherd family in a house that looked to me like a large pile of tarpaper and sticks.
Yeah...those Americnas are much loved for not lifting a finger to help save a few Christians that were slaughtered in the parastate of Turkey
Teddy Roosevelt said in 1922: “...the greatest regret that I have as I look back on my administration is the fact that when the awful Adana massacre occurred, this government did not take steps against the outrage on civilization!”
He was referring to the barbarous Turks of course.
http://www.ellopos.net/politics/turkey-blight/lausanne.asp
Diehard irredentists are boring. It was a different state. The Sultan was a whole different world.
It's not about whether it was a sultan or a kemal mustafa and the Young Turks—it is about the genocide they perpetrated.
And it is the continuing denial of that holocaust—the first in the 20th century. The one that Hitler used as a model for his own: death marches, mass slaughters, concentration camps, slave labor, etc
It just seems to me to be a bit foolish to travel to a majority moslem country unless you are hauling a bunch of munitions to be used there.
It is insane to take a child over there.
Especially when we are in the midst of a war on islam (terrorism).
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