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Turkish Delights True personal experiences of travellers in Turkey Acts of pure friendship... Person to Person In 1958, I took a summer between my Junior and Senior years at the University of Southern Mississippi and went to Europe. And I spent a month in Turkey without learning much Turkish... One day out walking in Istanbul, I asked a young Turk, in an army uniform, directions to some place. He smiled, hestitated a moment, and then took me, literally by the hand, and walked with me to that place. I have to tell you that I felt pretty uncomfortable as we started off on this walk (in 1958, at least, American men didn't hold hands or show much affection in public -- especially to strangers). So, I kept looking for an excuse not to hold hands, such as to blow my nose, or to scratch a non-essential itch... But the soldier kept taking hold of my hand. Finally, I said what the hell and just started to enjoy it -- and there we went, walking down the street, holding hands, swinging arms to and fro, like everybody else. Years later, when I started to learn Turkish for real, I did it cold Turkey so to speak. I went to a tea house in Sinop and sat and watched how people did things. And when I heard the expression, "Bir çay yap", I noticed that this caused the waiter to bring a small glass of tea on a saucer. The next time the waiter passed by, I uttered the magic words and got my own glass of steaming hot tea. I enjoyed that tea -- and it may have been apparant to those around me... Turkish tea is still the only tea I really care for -- my favorite was and still is the Ada çay or Island tea (a peppermint flavored kind of Sage tea). When I finished my glass of tea and prepared to leave, I offered the shopkeeper some Turkish money. With a friendly wave, he said, "Sizin para burada geçmez," and, smiling, he ushered me out the door. I could tell he meant well, so I went along. But it wasn't until I got back home that I learned for certain, with the help of a Turkish phrase book, that the shopkeeper had meant, "your money is no good here". I stayed good friends with that tea house owner and when I left Sinop, after a year, he presented me with a two hundred year old nargile (water pipe) made of Bohemian crystal. I have it still and it is a sign of pure friendship that remains unduplicated in my life... TK (December '98)