1. Turkish Driving
Now, I realize that I have whined and complained about this before. But I really do feel that it needs to be brought up again. I will try to be quick. First, I would never ever consider driving in the city here. I would kill/maim too many people/cats/numberous non-moving objects. Second, I believe in stopping at red lights. Doing so here is a great way to cause an accident. As is staying in 1 lane, not straddling the line. Third, I can't parallel park to save my life. Even in the US spots, which are generous enough for everyone's Hummer. Let alone the space only large enough to squeeze your car in and not leave enough room for people to walk beween bumper of either your car and the car in front of you, OR your car and the car behind you. I also am not a fan of double, let alone triple parking. Fourth, I would feel bad if I hit someone. Which I'm sure I would do. But I would also stop and feel incredibly guilty. Not keep driving without a second glance, figuring if they're in the road, they were asking for it. Even if it was a crosswalk. And they had the green light. And I had just run a red one (see reason number one above).
2. How many small family businesses there are
And how few large ones. Semis aren't really seen much around here, and I have been told that that is because there aren't that many large corporations that ship enough stuff to have need for semis. Things are changing gradually, and you are seeing more corporations coming in, like Kipa (owned by Tesco, a British company), Ikea (designer prices there, NOT the cheap place we're used to!), Marks & Spencer (another British company that is discount there, brand name here), etc. But for now, the clear majority of businesses are owned by a single family or a partnership.
3. How many of the SAME small businesses there are
Chris and I were walking along Betonyol the other day and were noticing, once again, how many of the same businesses there are. For example, our friend, Erol, owns a cell phone shop. In this shop he sells cell phones, refill cards for minutes on your phone, accessories, etc. When we (and I mean Chris) asked him the other day how business was going, he replied that he worked a lot, but still had no money. Çok iş, para yok. It's no wonder, considering there are 3 other cell phone shops exactly like his in a half mile stretch... The average street in Turkey is composed of apartments/flats on the upper floors, and businesses on the ground levels. These businesses will be eczane (drugstores), cell phone shops, bakal (convenience stores), bedding/furniture/appliance stores, and perhaps an electric or plumbing place, and some pide or döner restaurants. Thats about it. And they just repeat over and over again. All offering the same goods and services, but somehow they all manage to stay in business AND on good terms with each other. Quite remarkable.
4. How much Turks love children
In the US, if someone came up and starting touching your baby, most of you would instinctively jerk him/her away (or at least want to) and wonder what was going on with this person. When we board airplanes, we breathe a sigh of relief if that mother with the shrieking child walks past you toward the back of the plane (at least I do). Here, not at all. People get very happy when someone gets on a bus or ferry with a child, and they enjoy playing with the child, passing them around, etc. And the mothers like the fact that people are enjoying her baby. Along those same lines, if someone's child is misbehaving and the parents aren't looking, the neighborhood people feel free to yell at the naughty child, who actually pays attention and obeys!
Now, on the other hand, this also leads to children growing up pampered and being used to adults doing everything for them. Maturity tends to be delayed, and they don't have a concept about how to budget money, or even what things are worth. But enough on that, I'll save that rant for later.
5. How the country still functions despite complete unorganization and lack of preparation
Not for us. But Turks have perfected this art. This is one where I can't explain the concept, this is one that you must experience. But only if you have a lot of patience, or a lot of Xanax.
6. Fresh food and for cheap!
I know we've told you before about how cheap food is here. fresh baked bread: $.35, 4 lbs of fresh strawberries, $2.50, fresh farm tomatoes, 2 lbs, $.75. It gets ridiculous. And we're loving it! Although it sometimes saddens me to throw out chicken that is only 3 days old and has been refrigerated, I also know then that it didn't have a billion preservatives in it. And ground meat actually has a fresh flavor, probably because they grind it while you watch. You pick out which pieces of meat you want, and then they grind it for you. So none of that sneakiness of wrapping old, browned meat in freshly-ground red meat and selling it as fresh. Everything is so fresh, and because the growing season is so long, we've been eating fresh fruit and vegetables for a month now. Food is a beautiful thing.
7. Speaking of food, the lack of ethnic foods
For a country that is known as the country that connects the East and West, you'd think there'd be a lot of fusion restaurants, ethnic foods, etc, right? Wrong. Restaurant food here is very homogeneous, although very delicious as well. But all the same. You have your pide, kebap, lahmacun, çorba, mezes, börek, gözleme, köfte, and a few others, but to be honest, that's about it. Chris and I came up with our list of restaurants and foods we want when we come home. Frighteningly, we had the same ones. In the same order.
1. Indian food. Chicken Korma, then Butter Chicken, both with large amounts of naan and mango lassis.
2. Vitale's Pizza. With pork products.
3. Thai food. Pad Thai
4. Bonefish Grill, Bang Bang Shrimp
And after that, we don't care. Maybe we'll start back with number one again...
8. How expensive alcohol is
A bottle of Baileys is over 50TL, which is about $35. For one, regular-size bottle. Malibu Rum, which you can get for what, $10? Here, double that. I'm not exaggerating. A normal Chilean Sauvignon Blanc is 30Tl, or $20. (In the US, it'd be closer to $12-$15). Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "Well Barb, that's not THAT much more expensive..." but don't forget, the income here is much much less than in the US, so when you make something more expensive in the US, and then consider that a good income is around $1200 a month for a person, NOW you see why my eyebrows raise whenever I see the prices.
Which is why I've begun drinking beer. It's still gross, people, and I can't imagine actually WANTING to drink it, but so much more reasonably priced!
9. How expensive owning a car is
First, getting a car is expensive. Not so much the prices, but the taxes you have to pay on them. For Turks to get a car, the taxes in the price make a simple car about 2x-3x more expensive than in the US. If they want to pay US prices and import it, depending on engine size, they have to pay an import tax of up to 100% (maybe more, I can't remember, do you, Chris?) the value of the car. That isn't even including the shipping costs!
Then, taxes on the car. Holy crap.
Next, inspection is required every 2 years, I believe. On some larger cars, it's required every year. This is also not cheap.
Then we come to fuel. The average price here is around 3TL ($2). Not bad, right? Except that that is for a liter. Multiply that by 4, and you have the price per gallon. Ouch.
And did I mention there's no parking? Parking structures, or even lots, are very new developments here, and haven't made it to most areas. Meaning people park wherever they can, including sidewalks (where they exist). The city has started making curbs very high, planting trees, putting concrete posts or other decorative things on sidewalks to prevent people from parking on them.
And yet, because owning a car is a great status, a majority of people have one. And those who don't are saving for one.
10. Exactly how many people you can fit on a bus
A lot. Sardines have more room than we do sometimes on those buses. Often during rush hour, there is no need to hold on to anything, because we're packing in so tightly that you can't move, even to fall down. I've given away a lot of my personal space, and basically have no problem until I can't breathe because of all the people around me pressing in. Now think of this in summer, 100 degrees out, no AC on the bus, and very few baths taken that morning. I'm so glad we're coming home!!!!
If I've forgotten any, I'll try to add them later. For now, looking forward to seeing you all soon!
And how few large ones. Semis aren't really seen much around here, and I have been told that that is because there aren't that many large corporations that ship enough stuff to have need for semis. Things are changing gradually, and you are seeing more corporations coming in, like Kipa (owned by Tesco, a British company), Ikea (designer prices there, NOT the cheap place we're used to!), Marks & Spencer (another British company that is discount there, brand name here), etc. But for now, the clear majority of businesses are owned by a single family or a partnership.
3. How many of the SAME small businesses there are
Chris and I were walking along Betonyol the other day and were noticing, once again, how many of the same businesses there are. For example, our friend, Erol, owns a cell phone shop. In this shop he sells cell phones, refill cards for minutes on your phone, accessories, etc. When we (and I mean Chris) asked him the other day how business was going, he replied that he worked a lot, but still had no money. Çok iş, para yok. It's no wonder, considering there are 3 other cell phone shops exactly like his in a half mile stretch... The average street in Turkey is composed of apartments/flats on the upper floors, and businesses on the ground levels. These businesses will be eczane (drugstores), cell phone shops, bakal (convenience stores), bedding/furniture/appliance stores, and perhaps an electric or plumbing place, and some pide or döner restaurants. Thats about it. And they just repeat over and over again. All offering the same goods and services, but somehow they all manage to stay in business AND on good terms with each other. Quite remarkable.
4. How much Turks love children
In the US, if someone came up and starting touching your baby, most of you would instinctively jerk him/her away (or at least want to) and wonder what was going on with this person. When we board airplanes, we breathe a sigh of relief if that mother with the shrieking child walks past you toward the back of the plane (at least I do). Here, not at all. People get very happy when someone gets on a bus or ferry with a child, and they enjoy playing with the child, passing them around, etc. And the mothers like the fact that people are enjoying her baby. Along those same lines, if someone's child is misbehaving and the parents aren't looking, the neighborhood people feel free to yell at the naughty child, who actually pays attention and obeys!
Now, on the other hand, this also leads to children growing up pampered and being used to adults doing everything for them. Maturity tends to be delayed, and they don't have a concept about how to budget money, or even what things are worth. But enough on that, I'll save that rant for later.
5. How the country still functions despite complete unorganization and lack of preparation
Not for us. But Turks have perfected this art. This is one where I can't explain the concept, this is one that you must experience. But only if you have a lot of patience, or a lot of Xanax.
6. Fresh food and for cheap!
I know we've told you before about how cheap food is here. fresh baked bread: $.35, 4 lbs of fresh strawberries, $2.50, fresh farm tomatoes, 2 lbs, $.75. It gets ridiculous. And we're loving it! Although it sometimes saddens me to throw out chicken that is only 3 days old and has been refrigerated, I also know then that it didn't have a billion preservatives in it. And ground meat actually has a fresh flavor, probably because they grind it while you watch. You pick out which pieces of meat you want, and then they grind it for you. So none of that sneakiness of wrapping old, browned meat in freshly-ground red meat and selling it as fresh. Everything is so fresh, and because the growing season is so long, we've been eating fresh fruit and vegetables for a month now. Food is a beautiful thing.
7. Speaking of food, the lack of ethnic foods
For a country that is known as the country that connects the East and West, you'd think there'd be a lot of fusion restaurants, ethnic foods, etc, right? Wrong. Restaurant food here is very homogeneous, although very delicious as well. But all the same. You have your pide, kebap, lahmacun, çorba, mezes, börek, gözleme, köfte, and a few others, but to be honest, that's about it. Chris and I came up with our list of restaurants and foods we want when we come home. Frighteningly, we had the same ones. In the same order.
1. Indian food. Chicken Korma, then Butter Chicken, both with large amounts of naan and mango lassis.
2. Vitale's Pizza. With pork products.
3. Thai food. Pad Thai
4. Bonefish Grill, Bang Bang Shrimp
And after that, we don't care. Maybe we'll start back with number one again...
8. How expensive alcohol is
A bottle of Baileys is over 50TL, which is about $35. For one, regular-size bottle. Malibu Rum, which you can get for what, $10? Here, double that. I'm not exaggerating. A normal Chilean Sauvignon Blanc is 30Tl, or $20. (In the US, it'd be closer to $12-$15). Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "Well Barb, that's not THAT much more expensive..." but don't forget, the income here is much much less than in the US, so when you make something more expensive in the US, and then consider that a good income is around $1200 a month for a person, NOW you see why my eyebrows raise whenever I see the prices.
Which is why I've begun drinking beer. It's still gross, people, and I can't imagine actually WANTING to drink it, but so much more reasonably priced!
9. How expensive owning a car is
First, getting a car is expensive. Not so much the prices, but the taxes you have to pay on them. For Turks to get a car, the taxes in the price make a simple car about 2x-3x more expensive than in the US. If they want to pay US prices and import it, depending on engine size, they have to pay an import tax of up to 100% (maybe more, I can't remember, do you, Chris?) the value of the car. That isn't even including the shipping costs!
Then, taxes on the car. Holy crap.
Next, inspection is required every 2 years, I believe. On some larger cars, it's required every year. This is also not cheap.
Then we come to fuel. The average price here is around 3TL ($2). Not bad, right? Except that that is for a liter. Multiply that by 4, and you have the price per gallon. Ouch.
And did I mention there's no parking? Parking structures, or even lots, are very new developments here, and haven't made it to most areas. Meaning people park wherever they can, including sidewalks (where they exist). The city has started making curbs very high, planting trees, putting concrete posts or other decorative things on sidewalks to prevent people from parking on them.
And yet, because owning a car is a great status, a majority of people have one. And those who don't are saving for one.
10. Exactly how many people you can fit on a bus
A lot. Sardines have more room than we do sometimes on those buses. Often during rush hour, there is no need to hold on to anything, because we're packing in so tightly that you can't move, even to fall down. I've given away a lot of my personal space, and basically have no problem until I can't breathe because of all the people around me pressing in. Now think of this in summer, 100 degrees out, no AC on the bus, and very few baths taken that morning. I'm so glad we're coming home!!!!
If I've forgotten any, I'll try to add them later. For now, looking forward to seeing you all soon!
