Well I was gone for two weeks in Turkey. People in the lab have been asking me about it since apparently M spent his time during my absence telling everyone that I was gone in Turkey and all of the details that he knew about my trip. My office mate said that he kept coming into our office to fret about how my lack of email contact surely translated into the fact that I had been kidnapped and beheaded by Islamo-terrorists.

Turkey was splendid. I recommend it to all of you. What I particularly liked about Turkey was that it had an extremely strong culture which was at once very different from Western culture and at the same time incredibly cultivated. On the radio there were traditional and contemporary songs, all in Turkish and with a distinctive Turkish style; on the television there were Turkish films, documentaries, sitcoms, and soap operas, reflecting the problems of ancient Turkish sultans and warriors all the way up to issues between modern Turkish couples. The museums were replete with intricate tile-work and expertly constructed textiles and metalworkings. The room holding the “crown jewels” went on and on, stretching into several rooms and then a whole wing, every artifact glittering with rubies and emeralds. I started to wonder if rubies and emeralds and diamonds were only rare because all of them were being kept here. Civilization abounded in Turkey, but the way that it manifested itself was different: heavy rugs in myriad patterns made the floor a luxurious place to dine; passengers on the all-night bus were treated to in-seat entertainment systems (with Turkish movies and music) and served tea and pastries from a small trolley every couple of hours. Luxury took the form of a Turkish bath, where, laid on a giant slab of white marble, we were given gentle scrubbings and soap massages, followed by a careful drying in fine Turkish bath towels. The most civilized part was the intense focus on human warmth and hospitality: no ‘self-check out’, no tipping expected, just a smiling and helpful person ready to attend to your every need, even if your hotel only cost 14 euros per night. The woman giving me my Turkish bath paid very careful attention to whether I had water about to drip into my eyes, or if a strand of my hair had gone astray. I felt like it did not matter what I had paid or how many services I had asked for- when I entered the Turkish bath someone loved and cared about me, with real, selfless affection, the way a mother cares for a small child. The difference between this sense of hospitality and that found in Parisian culture was shocking—I felt the way you feel when someone flicks on a light at dusk—that until the light had been turned on you hadn’t realized that you were sitting in darkness. I felt impressed the way I had been impressed by parts of China and Japan: here was a truly great cultural force, exquisitely civilized and modern, but not in a way which equated Western culture with either civilization or modernity.

In Naples I had felt a heavy and elevating sense of awe at the incredible society that had flourished in Naples several millennia ago, especially after I witnessed the orderly sewer system that had served the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. But I came away feeling as if the present-day Neapolitan people were essentially living in the ruins of this great civilization, priding themselves mostly on the accomplishments of their centuries’ old ancestors as the city fell to pieces and rubble around them.
In Turkey, by contrast, I could feel the quickening cadence of the Turkish heartbeat: I could see on every corner an enterprising merchant, an inventive shopkeeper, a person who not only recognized the greatness of the Turkish past, but who was very much invested in the greatness of the Turkish future. Even the poor street women, who in Paris would be begging, were usually selling packages of tissues: everyone in Turkey is a merchant, everyone in Turkey is trying to identify a marketplace niche and to fill it.
The society was surprisingly and pleasantly pluralistic-there were plenty of women who were veiled to various degrees, but it was perfectly suitable for any woman to wear whatever she pleased—we even saw a bevy of Russians walking around a world heritage site in bikinis, with no judgmental glances cast their way. Our host in Istanbul, Seval, was a fashionable and well-situated lawyer. She was the same age as me, unmarried but with a serious boyfriend from another country. The culture and civilization of Turkey may be exceptional, but the worries and stresses of a 29-year-old unmarried woman are universal. I had never done Couchsurfing before, but through Seval I was able to see what a gift it was to have a way to meet and experience the lifestyle of a girl like myself living in another land. Even the way she thought of geography was enlightening—Eastern Europe is mundane; St. Petersburg is just far away enough to be exotic; Kurds are not a political problem as much as they are family members, potential boyfriends, and friends.
The highlight of the trip was certainly our hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia. We got a special deal and were two of eight passengers in the balloon. From the balloon we could see the three giant volcanoes which had contributed ash to the fanciful rock formations that make up most of the landscape of Central Anatolia. We flew at dawn with dozens of other balloons and came down an hour later in a pumpkin patch (we squashed a pumpkin).

Verdict: Let Turkey into the EU.

oooo recommendation taken note of!
» middaymoon on 2013-10-17 11:35:09

I ONLY READ THE FIRST PARAGRAPH AND A FEW SENT AFTER BCAUSE DIMSTUDYING RIGHT NOW BUT I WILL RAEDIT AFTER MY MTG IN A FEW HOURS AND WILL CO MMENT MORE KLOVE YOUBYE
» undisputed on 2013-10-17 02:50:07

re: the 29 year old unmarried lawyer you lived with
pics
» undisputed on 2013-10-17 04:46:13

i kid i kid kinda

but yo a few things thsi makes me waent to write more often because you write beatufiully :)
» undisputed on 2013-10-17 04:46:28

turkey sounds awesome btw. but wait you let some stranger bathe you? tha shit is weird..
» undisputed on 2013-10-17 04:46:40

i mean i love you with all my heart and i wouldn't bathe you >_>
» undisputed on 2013-10-17 04:46:52

and tha tline about the light flickering? beeeeautiful
» undisputed on 2013-10-17 04:47:08

WHY WOULD YOU GO UP ONA HOT AIR BALLOON THAT SHIT IS TERRIFYING WHAT IF YOU FELL DOWN AND DIED ;_; DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN
» undisputed on 2013-10-17 04:47:22

The Turkish government should hire you to advertise the country to tourists.
» randomjunk on 2013-10-17 07:18:49

I recently worked with a student (at Disney) from Turkey that had joined the International College Program. I asked her all kinds of questions about her culture and I did notice tradition and religion were a big part of the Turkish life. It's fascinating to me because I've never been outside of the USA and it drives me CRAZY because I would love to travel and truly experience other cultures.
» Midnight on 2013-10-19 09:10:35

turkey is one of the places that i wanna go, but for some reason i wanna go tunisia first.
» renaye on 2013-10-21 04:40:13

Awesome! This Seval sounds like a really cool chick. I'm glad you had fun in Turkey.
» jinyu on 2013-10-21 09:43:16

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