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Turkey
Hospitality - by Joan
Well, this travel tale is from Istanbul in Turkey.
First of all I want to make you see where I was. Imagine yourself
in a bazaar, it happened on the Big Bazaar, so imagine yourself
walking with two friends. So we were walking through this
great site, getting fascinated with all kind of shops when
suddenly we saw a shop with plenty of pillows.
Those pillows were great!!! So I decided to buy one, the man
was really friendly and he showed me all the shop but unfortunately
the pillow I wanted was not in the shop so I said, sorry I
don't want anything because the one I want is not here, and
he said...."come with me".
When I heard those words I thought, maybe if I go with him
I will see other things that tourists can't see, so I decided
to follow him. He started to walk fast through the bazaar,
for me it was like a Labyrinth, but as you can imagine he
knows the way very well.
At the end of the walk we arrived to the street and we started
to walk on very small and dark streets when we suddenly stopped
in front of an old door. To be sincere I was a little afraid
because everything was very strange, but I trust people so
I decided to enter. When I entered a woman started to talk
to me and said to me, "Do you want to drink some apple
tea?". I said that it was a great idea and the man said
me to follow him. We went upstairs until we arrived at the
top floor of the house. I was very surprised at what was there!!
All the family was there, the room had plenty of clothes and
everybody there was working, it really surprised me.
Then a small kid came and said to me, "which cloth would
you like for your pillow?", and I said excitedly, "this
one!!". When I said this the woman give me the apple
tea and the family started working on my pillows. To my surprise
they finished the pillow in one mintue!! I paid for it and
I stayed there for some minutes and they explained to me many
things about their life. It was a great experience.
Finally, I said that I had to go because my other friends
were walking through the bazzaar instead of coming with me.
So the man started to walk again to the middle of the bazaar
and finally we arrived to where they were. It was a great
experience and a very interesting thing because I can learn
a bit about their culture.
I have to tell you that if the man said to me, that from the
house I have to return alone, I'm sure that I would still
be in Turkey!!! Of course I've got other stories on the bazaar
but I will explain it another day. Some other stories are
very interesting like the one where a man wanted to change
one girl (that was my friend), for some of his camels, but
he was kidding! So for now I will finish and say......Continuara
(Spanish for "To be continued").
Submitted: 16 September 2003
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