One of many things that fascinate me here in Turkey, is the role bread has on the Turkish table. It cannot be missing no matter if you are having breakfast or dinner, and no matter what you are eating. When preparing a meal, the crucial question always is: Do we have bread?
The philosophy is that you can always get full by eating bread with your meal. So don't be surprised if you see the Turkish chewing bread together with side dishes, with meals missing any sauce, with fried cheese, risotto or pasta. I am not sure if it has anything to do with the respect Turks have for foods in general, or if it's just another Turkish mania, as I like to call such particularities.
čtvrtek 8. prosince 2011
čtvrtek 1. prosince 2011
About the toilets in Turkey
Everybody travelling to Turkey is always curious what the toilets are going to be like. So here it comes.
In majority of places, public or not, you have the "normal", European, toilets. Some public places, such as university or gas station, have both types. As for flats, they usually have a bathroom with a European toilet inside and apart, in a different room, a Turkish one. (But the very new modern flats have no more Turkish toilets.) If you visit a village or some place out of the city, they tend to have just the Turkish toilet.
What the Turkish toilet is like for us girls? It´s ok, I have already said it before but I sometimes make fun of it seeing it as a game of pretending to be a guy (because, ehum, there is a hole that you might see as your target). I also consider it very convenient in public places. Why? Because it´s much more hygienic. You are not touching anything! You don´t have to think if you put paper on the toilet seat or if you just stand above it, being uncomfortable after a while since it is kinda high. The only disadvantage might be for people who have some problems with their legs, of course. Oh, and I don´t recommend reading in such a toilet!
One more thing people imagine about Turkish toilets. They think it is just a hole in the ground. Not really, the design and material is quite the same like the European toilet. So don´t imagine any mud and dirt there.
What can be surprising about the toilets in Turkey is the fact that you don´t throw the paper into the toilet. You throw it into a bin next to the toilet (I always get extremely embarassed when I can´t find any). It might seem strange at first, or even disgusting, but trust me, it´s perfectly ok. The toilets don´t smell more because of it and you get used to it quite easily (on the other hand, I get confused after coming to my homeland). They say the paper can´t be thrown into the toilet because the pipes wouldn´t take it, they are said to be too thin.
There is one thing about the European toilets in Turkey I wish all toilets in the world had it. It´s a tiny pipe in the back of the toilet, right below the seat, which you can turn on to use some water for cleaning yourself. It is much more useful than a bidet!
That´s it for the toilets, I hope next time I won´t take so long to write something again.
In majority of places, public or not, you have the "normal", European, toilets. Some public places, such as university or gas station, have both types. As for flats, they usually have a bathroom with a European toilet inside and apart, in a different room, a Turkish one. (But the very new modern flats have no more Turkish toilets.) If you visit a village or some place out of the city, they tend to have just the Turkish toilet.
What the Turkish toilet is like for us girls? It´s ok, I have already said it before but I sometimes make fun of it seeing it as a game of pretending to be a guy (because, ehum, there is a hole that you might see as your target). I also consider it very convenient in public places. Why? Because it´s much more hygienic. You are not touching anything! You don´t have to think if you put paper on the toilet seat or if you just stand above it, being uncomfortable after a while since it is kinda high. The only disadvantage might be for people who have some problems with their legs, of course. Oh, and I don´t recommend reading in such a toilet!
One more thing people imagine about Turkish toilets. They think it is just a hole in the ground. Not really, the design and material is quite the same like the European toilet. So don´t imagine any mud and dirt there.
What can be surprising about the toilets in Turkey is the fact that you don´t throw the paper into the toilet. You throw it into a bin next to the toilet (I always get extremely embarassed when I can´t find any). It might seem strange at first, or even disgusting, but trust me, it´s perfectly ok. The toilets don´t smell more because of it and you get used to it quite easily (on the other hand, I get confused after coming to my homeland). They say the paper can´t be thrown into the toilet because the pipes wouldn´t take it, they are said to be too thin.
There is one thing about the European toilets in Turkey I wish all toilets in the world had it. It´s a tiny pipe in the back of the toilet, right below the seat, which you can turn on to use some water for cleaning yourself. It is much more useful than a bidet!
That´s it for the toilets, I hope next time I won´t take so long to write something again.
pátek 7. října 2011
A new season
Here I am starting a new season of my telenovela. I did it. I moved to Turkey.
I finally made my Turkish number work today (it wasn´t so easy since there is some stupid rule that if you want to use a Turkish SIM card, you must have a mobile phone purchased in Turkey - obviously this stuff must be cheaper abroad).
I was at a Turkish wedding in Ankara last weekend. I unfortunately missed the main celebration (the henna one) that happened two days before the ceremony. The ceremony happened in Hilton and if I don´t count some details such as the bride stepping quickly after her "Yes" on the groom´s foot to show who will reign at home, it was very "European". (Still I had great time with my crazy Turkish family.)
My main concern these days is where I can quickly improve my poor Turkish. And I am being surprised by little things like that Turkish don´t need any frozen food (our cooking is based on frozen meat, fish, vegetables, ...). I was advised by various Turkish people that when a Turkish man starts annoying me (wanting my mail address like last time for example), I can simply slap him. Well, I am not so sure. I guess there is something in us Czech girls that makes us be nice. I know that southern women (Portuguese, Italian or Turkish) tend to do such stuff very easily but I slap an unknown guy just when he physically or orally attacks me and not when he asks my mail address. Maybe it is because our society is not so showingly macho and therefore we don´t need to protect ourselves so much? I don´t know but I can learn slapping unknown guys more, since everyone says I have the right, it might be fun.
Enough for my mixed impressions of the first days here. Next time I must finally write about the Turkish toilets because that topic fascinates me!
Enjoy the new season of my telenovela. I will!
I finally made my Turkish number work today (it wasn´t so easy since there is some stupid rule that if you want to use a Turkish SIM card, you must have a mobile phone purchased in Turkey - obviously this stuff must be cheaper abroad).
I was at a Turkish wedding in Ankara last weekend. I unfortunately missed the main celebration (the henna one) that happened two days before the ceremony. The ceremony happened in Hilton and if I don´t count some details such as the bride stepping quickly after her "Yes" on the groom´s foot to show who will reign at home, it was very "European". (Still I had great time with my crazy Turkish family.)
My main concern these days is where I can quickly improve my poor Turkish. And I am being surprised by little things like that Turkish don´t need any frozen food (our cooking is based on frozen meat, fish, vegetables, ...). I was advised by various Turkish people that when a Turkish man starts annoying me (wanting my mail address like last time for example), I can simply slap him. Well, I am not so sure. I guess there is something in us Czech girls that makes us be nice. I know that southern women (Portuguese, Italian or Turkish) tend to do such stuff very easily but I slap an unknown guy just when he physically or orally attacks me and not when he asks my mail address. Maybe it is because our society is not so showingly macho and therefore we don´t need to protect ourselves so much? I don´t know but I can learn slapping unknown guys more, since everyone says I have the right, it might be fun.
Enough for my mixed impressions of the first days here. Next time I must finally write about the Turkish toilets because that topic fascinates me!
Enjoy the new season of my telenovela. I will!
sobota 6. srpna 2011
Sacrificing an animal
Last year in November I happened to be in Turkey in the time of Kurban Bayrami (Sacrifice holiday). I was told that the importance of this holiday might be compared to our Christmas (in a non-religious family like mine) or Easter (in religious families).
I realized that even I myself didn´t know much what this holiday was about. One or more families sacrifice an animal to God (or if you prefer, Allah) for several reasons. You give some of the meat to poor people, you cut the animal in a ritual way (the animal must not suffer) and therefore it will help you in your life after life to arrive at heaven etc. etc. The animal can be a sheep, a goat or a cow. It has several rules where, how and by whom it should be cut.
We travelled to Izmir to visit my boyfriend´s family (or better said a very small part of them) to stay with them for this holiday. I was very curious about the sacrificing part but although I am quite open to new experiences, I was kinda scared. The reason is simple: I used to be a vegetarian for six years and I actually decided to become one after seeing a terrifying video about treating farm animals in my country. When teenager, I was a member of possibly all animal societies in my country (I was the crazy girl with petitions). When kid, I used to read fairy tales to carps in our bathtub (we Czechs tend to buy living carps for Christmas dinner and we keep them in the bathtub). Briefly, I have always been very sensitive about animals.
One day we took the car and went to a special fair with sacrifice animals. We didn´t like the first fair so we decided to try another one. I guess I don´t need to comment that I was absolutely the only foreigner around. My boyfriend´s family decided to buy a small bull. And then the "show" started. Of course I started crying already when they were bringing it. Of course I was the only person around who was crying. The hardest part to watch was when the bull understood what was happening and they were trying to bring it on its knees. My boyfriend was trying to take me away standing in front of me telling me not to watch it but I was like hypnotized. I was nodding but watching it eyes wide open over his shoulder. Then it was all very fast and the blood coming from its neck looked completely surrealistic to me.
The following days, there was a lot of meat to eat. The kinds that I never eat back home. But say no when you are a foreign visitor and they are watching and commenting all the time if you eat enough. So three times a day I was making myself eat meat I never eat, killing myself, trying to smile at my boyfriend´s family at the same time assuring them how delicious it was, begging my boyfriend with my eyes to eat it instead of me when they weren´t watching and swearing at his malicious smile that he would pay for it.
I realized that even I myself didn´t know much what this holiday was about. One or more families sacrifice an animal to God (or if you prefer, Allah) for several reasons. You give some of the meat to poor people, you cut the animal in a ritual way (the animal must not suffer) and therefore it will help you in your life after life to arrive at heaven etc. etc. The animal can be a sheep, a goat or a cow. It has several rules where, how and by whom it should be cut.
We travelled to Izmir to visit my boyfriend´s family (or better said a very small part of them) to stay with them for this holiday. I was very curious about the sacrificing part but although I am quite open to new experiences, I was kinda scared. The reason is simple: I used to be a vegetarian for six years and I actually decided to become one after seeing a terrifying video about treating farm animals in my country. When teenager, I was a member of possibly all animal societies in my country (I was the crazy girl with petitions). When kid, I used to read fairy tales to carps in our bathtub (we Czechs tend to buy living carps for Christmas dinner and we keep them in the bathtub). Briefly, I have always been very sensitive about animals.
One day we took the car and went to a special fair with sacrifice animals. We didn´t like the first fair so we decided to try another one. I guess I don´t need to comment that I was absolutely the only foreigner around. My boyfriend´s family decided to buy a small bull. And then the "show" started. Of course I started crying already when they were bringing it. Of course I was the only person around who was crying. The hardest part to watch was when the bull understood what was happening and they were trying to bring it on its knees. My boyfriend was trying to take me away standing in front of me telling me not to watch it but I was like hypnotized. I was nodding but watching it eyes wide open over his shoulder. Then it was all very fast and the blood coming from its neck looked completely surrealistic to me.
The following days, there was a lot of meat to eat. The kinds that I never eat back home. But say no when you are a foreign visitor and they are watching and commenting all the time if you eat enough. So three times a day I was making myself eat meat I never eat, killing myself, trying to smile at my boyfriend´s family at the same time assuring them how delicious it was, begging my boyfriend with my eyes to eat it instead of me when they weren´t watching and swearing at his malicious smile that he would pay for it.
sobota 23. dubna 2011
Cleaning your nose in Turkey
My favourite issue. Why? Because my doctor once told me I am allergic to cold. What does it mean? I basically can´t take one step without a tissue, no matter if it´s winter or hot summer. What more? I am sensitive to spicy food which reflects on my nose again. A problem? Kind of, in Turkey, everything is spicy.
First I definitely should explain that it is considered digusting and a sign of bad education to clean your nose in public in Turkey. I even have the impression that the problem is the tissue because I saw the act without the tissue many times (to be fair to Turkish, I saw it in other countries, too, especially Portuguese can be highly disgusting).
To me this issue actually became a sort of science. How to deal with it since it is badly seen by the society. Where it´s ok to deal with it and where not. Am I more tolerated as a foreigner?
Before going to Turkey for the first time, I already knew it is a faux pas in there, still I won´t forget my first sightseeing day in Istanbul when I saw my boyfriend´s cousin´s reaction to that. The girl saw some tourist, a man older than us, cleaning his nose the way we do it. With a tissue, as the most natural thing in the world. I was astonished at her reaction. She acted as if the man had just vomited or something like that. I guess that was the moment when I decided that no matter what, I am not going to repeat the man´s mistake in Turkey. Let´s do it the Turkish style.
But well, what is the Turkish style? I am not a 60 years old man to be spitting on the pavements, am I? But come on, I can make it somehow, can´t I?
Since that, I spent a lot of time snuffling. In the street, in the bus, at the table. I was all the time doing something that is considered highly disgusting in my country. I was doing something that I hate when somebody does it. Every time I see someone doing it in my country, I am fighting myself not to pass him my tissues.
Still, I could make it, couldn´t I?
Dinner with all his family. In a nice restaurant. One million kinds of food on the table as usual. A nice view from our saloon. What do I do? Run to the toilet. For how long will it help me? Not much.
Help in the street? Any corner where I can hide at least a little bit.
In the bus? No help. Although my boyfriend is almost two metres, still he can´t hide my blowing nose.
Sometimes the people try to be nice so they tell you to do it, that it´s ok. But I just got into some paranoic phase with it. I am always wondering if they are testing me. When a man in the restaurant offers me napkins because of my snuffling, he makes me confused. What for if I can´t clean my nose? How come that the woman sitting next to me in the bus going to Istanbul has just cleaned her nose? Is she trying to show me that in the case of need I can feel free to do so, too?
With time, I discovered that the problem is not that the people can see you, the problem is the sound. Good, I can blow my nose silently. My father, on the other hand, he would possibly have to leave Turkey immediately if they heard him.
The funny thing about this is that I feel nervous to clean my nose even here whenever I have my Turkish friends around. I guess that without realizing it, I am actually entertaining myself with a cultural difference that for me in fact is quite complicated. Anyway, it is interesting to see that if necessary, one doesn´t need what they usually can´t live without.
First I definitely should explain that it is considered digusting and a sign of bad education to clean your nose in public in Turkey. I even have the impression that the problem is the tissue because I saw the act without the tissue many times (to be fair to Turkish, I saw it in other countries, too, especially Portuguese can be highly disgusting).
To me this issue actually became a sort of science. How to deal with it since it is badly seen by the society. Where it´s ok to deal with it and where not. Am I more tolerated as a foreigner?
Before going to Turkey for the first time, I already knew it is a faux pas in there, still I won´t forget my first sightseeing day in Istanbul when I saw my boyfriend´s cousin´s reaction to that. The girl saw some tourist, a man older than us, cleaning his nose the way we do it. With a tissue, as the most natural thing in the world. I was astonished at her reaction. She acted as if the man had just vomited or something like that. I guess that was the moment when I decided that no matter what, I am not going to repeat the man´s mistake in Turkey. Let´s do it the Turkish style.
But well, what is the Turkish style? I am not a 60 years old man to be spitting on the pavements, am I? But come on, I can make it somehow, can´t I?
Since that, I spent a lot of time snuffling. In the street, in the bus, at the table. I was all the time doing something that is considered highly disgusting in my country. I was doing something that I hate when somebody does it. Every time I see someone doing it in my country, I am fighting myself not to pass him my tissues.
Still, I could make it, couldn´t I?
Dinner with all his family. In a nice restaurant. One million kinds of food on the table as usual. A nice view from our saloon. What do I do? Run to the toilet. For how long will it help me? Not much.
Help in the street? Any corner where I can hide at least a little bit.
In the bus? No help. Although my boyfriend is almost two metres, still he can´t hide my blowing nose.
Sometimes the people try to be nice so they tell you to do it, that it´s ok. But I just got into some paranoic phase with it. I am always wondering if they are testing me. When a man in the restaurant offers me napkins because of my snuffling, he makes me confused. What for if I can´t clean my nose? How come that the woman sitting next to me in the bus going to Istanbul has just cleaned her nose? Is she trying to show me that in the case of need I can feel free to do so, too?
With time, I discovered that the problem is not that the people can see you, the problem is the sound. Good, I can blow my nose silently. My father, on the other hand, he would possibly have to leave Turkey immediately if they heard him.
The funny thing about this is that I feel nervous to clean my nose even here whenever I have my Turkish friends around. I guess that without realizing it, I am actually entertaining myself with a cultural difference that for me in fact is quite complicated. Anyway, it is interesting to see that if necessary, one doesn´t need what they usually can´t live without.
neděle 17. dubna 2011
How does a foreign girl feel in Turkey
Let´s make one thing clear before writing this: What kind of foreigner am I in Turkey?
I spend most of my time in Turkey in Eskişehir (as you must have noticed if you read my blog) which is a place with basically no tourists and an extremely small number of foreigners, which I love. I never felt the need to look for my people abroad, sometimes I even feel annoyed when meeting them there. My impression is that if there are some foreigners in Eskişehir, it always has to do with Anadolu university. Either there are Erasmus students, or foreign professors, invited for some special lectures or something like that. Now, the only thing I have to do with this university (so far), is that my boyfriend studies there. But do I feel like a tourist in Eskişehir? Not really.
One thing I realized this time when I was in Eskişehir is that I feel safe there. A little safer than in Porto (where I lived for one year), for example.
Another thing is that a lot of (non-Turkish) people imagine that a foreign girl in Turkey is necessarily constantly bothered by Turkish guys. That´s nonsense. That might happen just in touristic places and if you wear some mini provocative stuff. In Eskişehir, I can wear exactly the same clothes like in Brno and not to feel provocative. Yes, ok, sometimes people stare at me a little in the streets but I think the Porto´s people stare more. But noone shouts or whistles at me, noone blows the horn or stops me in the street. And if some shop assistant gets a little cheeky asking your name and where you are staying, it is always enough to mention your boyfriend.
Still, I kind of get nervous with Turkish guys. I try to avoid looking at them so that they don´t think I am provoking them and I can get confused when some guy tries to help me although his help might not be so needed. Why? Because I think Turkish people in general have some funny stereotypical ideas about European girls, let´s say. I always wonder what the people imagine when they smile or frown at me, when I notice a Turkish girl hugging her boyfriend stronger when seeing me or when a guy asks me where I stay. Would the guy ask that question also to a Turkish girl? Do some people think I deserve less respect just because I am a foreign girl? Am I for them someone who automatically lives in a sin? Do the guys imagine that after a five-minute conversation I will take them home?
I don´t know answers to these but then there are some situations like when I fall asleep in a small bus station in Asian part of Istanbul (Ataşehir) and half of the station comes to wake me up and takes me to the bus to the airport that just came (even trying to help me in English that it´s number "sixteen" although they mean eighteen). Or when in a train, I help some family whose members are all a head shorter than me to get their luggage and for that, they insist on me taking some fruit from them.
Well, I guess that what I´m trying to say here is that I feel good in Turkey. I start smiling already at the airport when Turkish people appear around. I get crazy about the smells and food there. I become a shopping maniac and my desire of speaking and reading in Turkish reaches its peak. Every time, I get fascinated what a neverending neverstopping organism the country is (this hits me especially in Istanbul). And the sounds that I miss most from there are the ezan (the sound coming from the mosque which the imam calls the people to pray with) and the street bread seller.
I spend most of my time in Turkey in Eskişehir (as you must have noticed if you read my blog) which is a place with basically no tourists and an extremely small number of foreigners, which I love. I never felt the need to look for my people abroad, sometimes I even feel annoyed when meeting them there. My impression is that if there are some foreigners in Eskişehir, it always has to do with Anadolu university. Either there are Erasmus students, or foreign professors, invited for some special lectures or something like that. Now, the only thing I have to do with this university (so far), is that my boyfriend studies there. But do I feel like a tourist in Eskişehir? Not really.
One thing I realized this time when I was in Eskişehir is that I feel safe there. A little safer than in Porto (where I lived for one year), for example.
Another thing is that a lot of (non-Turkish) people imagine that a foreign girl in Turkey is necessarily constantly bothered by Turkish guys. That´s nonsense. That might happen just in touristic places and if you wear some mini provocative stuff. In Eskişehir, I can wear exactly the same clothes like in Brno and not to feel provocative. Yes, ok, sometimes people stare at me a little in the streets but I think the Porto´s people stare more. But noone shouts or whistles at me, noone blows the horn or stops me in the street. And if some shop assistant gets a little cheeky asking your name and where you are staying, it is always enough to mention your boyfriend.
Still, I kind of get nervous with Turkish guys. I try to avoid looking at them so that they don´t think I am provoking them and I can get confused when some guy tries to help me although his help might not be so needed. Why? Because I think Turkish people in general have some funny stereotypical ideas about European girls, let´s say. I always wonder what the people imagine when they smile or frown at me, when I notice a Turkish girl hugging her boyfriend stronger when seeing me or when a guy asks me where I stay. Would the guy ask that question also to a Turkish girl? Do some people think I deserve less respect just because I am a foreign girl? Am I for them someone who automatically lives in a sin? Do the guys imagine that after a five-minute conversation I will take them home?
I don´t know answers to these but then there are some situations like when I fall asleep in a small bus station in Asian part of Istanbul (Ataşehir) and half of the station comes to wake me up and takes me to the bus to the airport that just came (even trying to help me in English that it´s number "sixteen" although they mean eighteen). Or when in a train, I help some family whose members are all a head shorter than me to get their luggage and for that, they insist on me taking some fruit from them.
Well, I guess that what I´m trying to say here is that I feel good in Turkey. I start smiling already at the airport when Turkish people appear around. I get crazy about the smells and food there. I become a shopping maniac and my desire of speaking and reading in Turkish reaches its peak. Every time, I get fascinated what a neverending neverstopping organism the country is (this hits me especially in Istanbul). And the sounds that I miss most from there are the ezan (the sound coming from the mosque which the imam calls the people to pray with) and the street bread seller.
neděle 13. března 2011
Turkey and EU
The idea of Turkey joining the European Union doesn´t seem very realistic to me. I don´t consider myself any expert on politics but it just wouldn´t suit Turkey. It would bring more complications than advantages and the main good thing would be the end of visas to travel to EU. But that for sure would take a very long time to happen, considering the Turkish borders and their own migration.
I think Europe is scared just of the idea of Turkey in EU and in order not to be scared, they would try to control Turkey a little in some ways and I can´t imagine that. The Turkish definitely wouldn´t like it and I doubt they would allow it. I can imagine EU having problems with some Turkish food, maybe some traditions, the Kurds question, the power of armed forces in Turkey (highly respected by its people), the chapter of Armenians would be reopened. And there are two more issues: People would be asking "Is Turkey Europe?" and second, of course, a muslim country in EU.
My impression is that Europeans don´t really want it and Turkish don´t really care about it. I actually think they would be better without EU, which is becoming more and more an organization making new and stronger borders than opening itself (as it was proved to me last month when Ahmet wanted to come here, and as I could also see when passing the Bulgarian-Turkish border).
I think Europe is scared just of the idea of Turkey in EU and in order not to be scared, they would try to control Turkey a little in some ways and I can´t imagine that. The Turkish definitely wouldn´t like it and I doubt they would allow it. I can imagine EU having problems with some Turkish food, maybe some traditions, the Kurds question, the power of armed forces in Turkey (highly respected by its people), the chapter of Armenians would be reopened. And there are two more issues: People would be asking "Is Turkey Europe?" and second, of course, a muslim country in EU.
My impression is that Europeans don´t really want it and Turkish don´t really care about it. I actually think they would be better without EU, which is becoming more and more an organization making new and stronger borders than opening itself (as it was proved to me last month when Ahmet wanted to come here, and as I could also see when passing the Bulgarian-Turkish border).
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