In short. Simit. Fresh pomegranate juice. Baklava. Lentil soup. Soup of the day? Lentil soup. Mosques. Call to prayer. Being woken by the call to prayer in the early hours. Apple tea. Çay. Turkish kahve. Turkish kahve grinds. Sugar cubes. A large population of stray cats and dogs. Plates and/or piles of cat and/or dog food on the streets. Hence the friendliest and healthiest-looking stray cats and dogs! Almost 200 types of cheese. Complimentary bread (white, varying types) basket with every meal. Lokum (Turkish delight). Nose job tourists (the bandages tell all). Hair transplant tourists. Istanbul trams travelling at quite literally almost 100 km/h a mere 100mm from the footpath. Halva. Pistachio. Full-width windscreen cracks. Sahlep. Olives. "Hello lady, you want/come try/please/can I ask you a question/where are you from?" Mezze. Eggplant. The eye, in the footpath, road, walls (above doorways), on 45% of all souvenirs. Grilled corn and grilled chestnut stalls. Spice and tea shops. Spice and tea and sweet shops. Uber drivers attempting to barter a higher fee over Uber chat before pick up. Bus attendants pouring very runny hand sanitiser into everyone's open palms down the aisle as the bus departs. The tea/coffee delivery service between shopkeepers: on foot, on little metal trays with raised rigid handles. Utensils brought out in individual restaurant-branded (single-use) plastic pouches. Tiny hourglass-shaped glass tumblers for tea on tiny saucers. Fiats. Smoking bus drivers.
In full. Halfway to Poland! As I tap away I'm sitting on a bus, headed from Selcuk to Bodrum. The coast, at long last. Safranbolu was quiet, quaint; Cappadocia was touristy and dusty. To reduce many days and neat experiences into a few meagre words. Stepping back a little further, initiation to Türkiye began with five days in Istanbul.
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