Let's just be honest, I'm never gonna get around to posting about Turkey. Instead, here are a string of nonsense words that I'll call highlights: walking around Istanbul and not getting harassed/called "White Person!", all-you-can-eat cheese and olives (and bread and fruit and healthy stuff but whatever) buffet FOR FREE at every hostel/hotel, sunset hikes, staying in a cave hotel, swimming in the Mediterranean, going to Greece for the day, hiking in old beautiful valleys barefoot, wearing cute clothes, buying orange juice in the street for 50 cents, taking a sunrise hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia, going to Asia for the day (Did you know Istanbul straddles the European and Asian continents??), going to the Blue Mosque, getting lost and finding the Grand Bazaar, making friends with every Ali in Turkey, learning to play a tradition handmade guitar in a strangers living room, overnight buses with personal tvs and air conditioning, eating ice cream every day, eating kebabs and salad and lentil soup and hummus and more cheese and olives and sandwiches, draft beer (!!!!), walking on bridges, riding on ferries, Scuba diving, making sea turtle friends, eating mussels, taking artsy pictures of grapes/boats/cats/funny looking kids, eating on roofs, eating on terraces, eating on pillows, people watching, flirting, fast internet (youtube videos!!!!), napping, buying spices, eating turkish delight, getting lost and getting found.
Photos here.
Because Nell and I are ridiculous people, we attract ridiculous people. I think that's how that works... Anyhoo, while we were eating a sidewalk cafe in Cappadocia (google it, it's amazing) we made friends with a nice silly man named Ali. What started as a conversation about should I get the chicken or the lamb morphed into maybe the most beautiful explanation about Peace Corps of all time.
Camille: But the lamb is more expensive!
Ali: But you're on vacation! You should get it anyway!
Nell: We are volunteers, we don't have a lot of money.
Ali: Where are you from?
Nell: America, but we don't live in America. We live in Benin. It's in Africa.
Ali (completely flabbergasted): Reeeally? Why do you live in Africa??
Camille: We work there! We both live in little villages and help them out.
Ali: That's no good. I would never live in Africa.
Nell: Yeah, that's why we don't have a lot of money.
Ali: How much do you get paid?
Camille: We get $8 a day.
Ali (slaps forehead): WHAT??? Reeeeally? How many lira is that?
Camille: That's 16 lira.
Ali (slaps forehead again): WHAT??? Reeeeally?
Nell: We are rich in our villages!
Ali: No, that is no good. What are you doing there?
We explain that we are both doing agriculture work. Later he finds out that we are staying a little bit outside of town, and tells us that is not okay. He lent us his iPhone to find a closer one, and of course neither of us know how to work a new iPhone.
Nell: We don't know how to work this. But we have a computer, we can look it up later.
Ali: You have computers in Africa?
Camille: Well, no, I borrowed this from a friend because mine is broken...
Ali (slaps forehead for like the 80th time)
Nell: See? This is the kind of phone we have. (Shows our terrible nokia bricks, straight out of 2001)
Ali: That is not a phone. The only thing you can do with that is throw it at your friend when you get mad at her.
And to be perfectly honest, I think Ali is right. We live in a place that is 50 (100? 200?) years behind most of the rest of the world. But at least I'm not scared to throw my phone at people who get on my nerves anymore.
Photos here.
Because Nell and I are ridiculous people, we attract ridiculous people. I think that's how that works... Anyhoo, while we were eating a sidewalk cafe in Cappadocia (google it, it's amazing) we made friends with a nice silly man named Ali. What started as a conversation about should I get the chicken or the lamb morphed into maybe the most beautiful explanation about Peace Corps of all time.
Camille: But the lamb is more expensive!
Ali: But you're on vacation! You should get it anyway!
Nell: We are volunteers, we don't have a lot of money.
Ali: Where are you from?
Nell: America, but we don't live in America. We live in Benin. It's in Africa.
Ali (completely flabbergasted): Reeeally? Why do you live in Africa??
Camille: We work there! We both live in little villages and help them out.
Ali: That's no good. I would never live in Africa.
Nell: Yeah, that's why we don't have a lot of money.
Ali: How much do you get paid?
Camille: We get $8 a day.
Ali (slaps forehead): WHAT??? Reeeeally? How many lira is that?
Camille: That's 16 lira.
Ali (slaps forehead again): WHAT??? Reeeeally?
Nell: We are rich in our villages!
Ali: No, that is no good. What are you doing there?
We explain that we are both doing agriculture work. Later he finds out that we are staying a little bit outside of town, and tells us that is not okay. He lent us his iPhone to find a closer one, and of course neither of us know how to work a new iPhone.
Nell: We don't know how to work this. But we have a computer, we can look it up later.
Ali: You have computers in Africa?
Camille: Well, no, I borrowed this from a friend because mine is broken...
Ali (slaps forehead for like the 80th time)
Nell: See? This is the kind of phone we have. (Shows our terrible nokia bricks, straight out of 2001)
Ali: That is not a phone. The only thing you can do with that is throw it at your friend when you get mad at her.
And to be perfectly honest, I think Ali is right. We live in a place that is 50 (100? 200?) years behind most of the rest of the world. But at least I'm not scared to throw my phone at people who get on my nerves anymore.
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