Turkey is Weird

I thought I would just share some of the interesting, kinda weird, Turkey-ish-isms that I noticed while we were there.

If you are looking for a bathroom, then you need to find the water closet. And make sure you check before you commit, cause sometimes there are no toilets, only squatty potties. And most of the time there is no toilet paper, so make sure  you bring something (like small packets of tissues) to do the job.

 

 
Breakfast is very unlike the American concept of the most important meal of the day. It almost always consists of hard-boiled eggs, cut up vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives especially. And yes, I know tomatoes are a fruit), cheese, and some sort of bread. Very different, very healthy, and I actually loved it. Although, I'll be honest, I majorly craved me some syrup-covered French toast with a big side of greasy bacon when I got back.

There are cats EVERYWHERE! I started counting the second day there and stopped counting 7 days later. And in that time I counted over 175 cats, just roaming around the streets. There was even one in the Hagia Sofia, trying to get a fake bake.

The housing. There are very few houses. They are almost all complex buildings. And they are colorful.

I know, blurry picture, but you can see the many colors.

And they have all of their water heaters and satellite dishes on the roof.

And most smaller buildings have these patio things on the roof with grape vines growing over them for shade. Apparently it is quite popular to spend free time hours on the roof in the shade.

And they really struggle with English translation. But really, I was just grateful that most signs even had an English translation.

This symbol is called the Sultan's Signature. And it's everywhere. On jewelry, on buildings, in calligraphy, wherever they can find a place for it.

Apparently this is common in Europe, but seeing as it was my first experience abroad I thought it was weird that the lights turn red, then red and yellow, and then green.

And last, but certainly not least, Turks drive like crazy people. For real. Whenever possible, they drive in the middle of the lanes. There is very little respect for staying in the lines.

And they have a tendency to create extra lanes that didn't exist before. This picture, for instance, is in a roundabout, that is supposed to be only two lanes.

Yep, and there was another car on the other side of us. Five cars in two lanes. No wonder Americans are usually nervous to drive here.

Crazy Turks, you make me laugh. And you are definitely weird, at least to this sheltered American girl.