Hello everyone,
Just recently I was able to fulfill a long time dream of visiting this amazing country, Turkey. The cradle of civilization, the meeting place of east and west, a place of diverse cultures and religions…
As many of you who have known me for a while, you know I love the time before traveling and the time to prepare for the new place I will visit. So for the 3 months prior to traveling I did my “homework”, I learned some Turkish using Duolingo and a textbook I found on Amazon, I read many blogs and posts about traveling to Turkey. I looked at several lists of what to wear and what to do while visiting Turkey. However, nothing prepared me for some of the curiosities I found in this beautiful country.
In Turkey, dogs and cats are considered communal pets so the whole population helps take care of them. They are everywhere in the cities. The animals are taken to the veterinarian to get the proper shots and to get spayed or neutered. The dogs are really big but very sleepy for the most part. The cats sleep everywhere, the most common places to find them are the store windows where they take sweet naps on the well known Turkish rugs and other souvenir items. We even saw a cat inside the shopping mall.
The other curiosity is that they have two different kinds of bathrooms in many public places, including the airport. They have the eastern type of bathroom and the western kind.
The first time I saw it was at the Archaeological Museum, needless to say it was a cultural shock since this was already the second day in Turkey. Also, there are public bathrooms on the streets that require one to use the metro card to get in, I was able to use one because a policeman felt bad for me and helped me out. They are very nice and clean, and curiously some of them also have a prayer area next to them and they have separate spaces for men and women.
It was wonderful to see all these different things and cultural differences. I am so happy I had this opportunity.
Thank you for reading,
