A Couple of Things You Probably Didn´t Know about Turkey

(I say probably because if you live in Turkey and pay a little bit of attention to what is happening around you, you must have noticed.)

When I came to Turkey for the first time (more than two years ago), I wasn´t able to open youtube. Why? Censorship. (Though, every Turkish knew of course how to get on youtube and nowadays, it works normally again.)

Today, if you watch TV, you are not going to be able to see any cigarettes there. They hide them. In my opinion, they just manage to call more attention like that, but what do I know, right?

I also remember how nervous I was about any kind of intimacy in public in that summer 2012. I was so worried not to offend anyone in this new exotic country that I was refusing just to hug my boyfriend. Well, of course I was exaggerating. Still, unlike in many other countries, you can hardly ever see any French kissing in public.

About Turkish dining, a couple of things are going to surprise you too. Like that even in many restaurants, it is not common to use a knife. Or when visiting someone at their place, you may eat on the floor (I actually like it, I believe that it somehow brings the people closer). And you are all probably going to eat from common plates, bowls and pans. (My mother was stunned when I decided to do that with a saucepan in her house this summer. Unfortunately, the board I chose to put under the pan wasn´t exactly wooden...)

There are some funny details we, Czechs, have in common with the Turks. A couple of words (kral-král, cezve-džezva, hele, na, vişne-višně, fasulye-fazole etc.) and a few habits. We for example both knock on the wood when we say something good and we don´t want it to get bad. ("I have never had any problems with my teeth." - knock, knock, knock!)

What else? The people are extremely generous, they love talking about money, they are too curious, they have a very large amount of social rules, they love foreign brides (I don´t know why but they do), they are crazy about visitors and they are mad, mad drivers. They are more than that (long live generalizing!), but about that next time.