The Future of Turkey Is In Your Hands

The rockin' Amy Dickie takes off for Istanbul in 45 minutes, but we're not letting her go without a guest blog contribution. Yes! Amy came to Turkey straight from Switzerland and Greece, and as you know, we came here from India, Nepal, and Tibet, so we discovered early on that we have different perspectives on Turkey's place in the world. Amy found herself saying "whoa, you wouldn't see that in Europe" and we kept saying "whoa, you wouldn't see that in Asia." And, given that Turkey's now trying desperately to enter the European Union, and facing equally desperate opposition by countries like France because it's "not European enough," we thought we'd give you our take on this debate. You be the judge. Turkey: Europe or Asia?

"You wouldn't see that in Europe":

• squat toilets that make you happy that there's nowhere to put your bum
• leeches for sale
• raw meat for sale in an open-air market
• carpet vendors inviting you in for tea saying "hello lady, I have nice carpets, only looking, no buy, let me help you spend your money"
• men selling spiral doodles on the street
• men carrying multiple carpets on their backs walking down the street
• a ten-seater bus carrying twenty people
• tap water you have to iodinize in order to avoid diarrhea
• currency where you pay for something worth 1 lira with a 5 lira bill and get 4,000,000 lira in change
• prayer calls being broadcast over a loudspeaker and reverberating through the city
• bad english store signs (e.g. Sorry, We're Open)
• a $10 room, including breakfast and dinner

"You wouldn't see that in Asia":

• bathrooms with toilet paper and soap
• bathrooms that make you pay to pee that locals actually use instead of walking around the back and peeing on the wall (like rahul and meg did)
• cobblestone streets with actual sidewalks
• streets with stoplights, traffic lanes, and a general lack of farm animals
• a new gleaming-white Mercedes Benz bus with neither chickens inside nor passengers on the roof and a conductor (wearing a bow tie) who chastises you for putting your feet on the seat
• a subway that's cleaner than the one in New York City
• salads that don't make you pee out of your butt a day later
• men wearing speedos and women in thongs on the beach
• a $10 room, including breakfast and dinner

We're not sophisticated enough to put an actual "vote" button on our website, but hey, we want to know your opinion. Use the Comment button below to cast your ballot.

--amy and meg and rahul