Turkish Hospitality

The hospitality of the Istanbulian people is overwhelming at times. When walking down a street full of shops and restaurants a man is paid to greet you and try to usher you into the place of business. He will normally say "my friend..." and point to empty chairs, followed by "we have beer, wine, food, everything is possible here. We have roof top if you wish". This goes for almost everything in the city. The 'greeter men' will ask you questions and try to befriend you just to get you inside. Let's say your lost or need directions somewhere. They are more than happy to tell you where to go and if its not to far the will walk you to the front door. This morning (around noon, we stayed out until 6 am) we wanted a traditional Turkish breakfast, the greeter man at one place said that it was not available anymore because of the time, but walked us three blocks to another place that he knew had it. He asked us to come by for dinner and we said we would. Tonight we passed by the same man and he remembered us, asking why we didn't eat with him. I couldn't believe he remembered us. There is over a million people living in this small area we are in, and with the tourist, about four million. After 12 am there are 15,000 drunk people in this ten block radius we are staying. These numbers all come from the owner of the hostel we are staying at. We have told so many greeter men our stories, dreams and plans, along with our names (which they remember) that walking down the block takes us five minutes. We have come up with a restaurant free path to get home. Its has become critical.

We found our good buddy Brett again. That's three countries we have traveled with him. Croatia, Bosnia and now Turkey. Completely on accident. Brett lives in Phoenix and we have convinced him to move to Denver. We'll see what happens.

Thanks to Bretts computer you may now have pictures....