One Day Layover

Heading home to Qatar from Paris, we had a one day layover in Istanbul.  We were in the neighbourhood of Yeşilköy, located on the European side of Istanbul.

It was a Sunday.

A nice day to go for a stroll.

The weather was warm, reminding me of a spring day in my home province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Flowers were blooming.  Weddings were everywhere!

The Coffee & The Men

One of the first things we noticed were the lack of cafes that we had become accustomed to finding at every corner in Paris.  

Finding a coffee other than a Turkish coffee was nearly impossible. Eventually we found a cafe that served instant Nescafe coffee. Nescafe served so strong, it was difficult to enjoy.

Another feature we noticed were the people.  

Specifically, the men and how tough most of them appeared. Turkish men both young and old had this brooding look with a tough, don’t mess with me veneer. But, when they smiled their faces lit up with laughter!

Same But Different

Yeşilköy had the start of that familiar Middle Eastern feeling, as we headed home to Qatar, but with many differences, too.

As we walked around we noticed that mosques were abundant, but men did not wear thobes and ghutras.  Most women wore hijabs and abayas.

Instead of flat, barren desert land and compounds with families hidden away for privacy, here were steep hills populated with narrow streets lined with apartments. Children laughed, played and had fun while running up and down the narrow streets.

There was a feeling of family and community, but not a welcoming to strangers embrace as we walked and smiled at everyone, receiving mostly suspicious stares back. 

Even the children stopped their laughter and smiles and looked at us suspiciously.

A Nice Story

To wrap up our afternoon wandering around Yeşilköy, I’ll end with a nice story that happened in the cafe with the horrible instant Nescafe coffee.

 We did not have enough Turkish currency to pay for our coffees and their debit machines did not accept our Qatar bank cards. Because of this, we had to find a bank machine to withdraw money to return and pay for our coffees.  

So off we went.  

When we returned to pay for our coffees, the shop keeper was so surprised/happy that we actually returned to pay for our coffees, he gave us each a mini chocolate eclair.  

Michael commented that we must have restored his faith in humanity that day.

S, 🇹🇷

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