Turkish Tea and Endless Hospitality
Last week, I took a bus ride from Varna to Istanbul, and on the way, I learned that the rumor about the Turks loving their tea was a bit of an understatement and that their reputation for hospitality towards tourists was not hyperbole. The bus ride took about ten hours because most of the stops at the stations along the way required a break for tea and cigarettes. Kamil Koç was the name of the company. Great group of guys. It was also the first bus that offered passengers a complimentary food and beverage cart, which of course included tea, and the crew of three had their very own tea maker up front so they could drink it in between stops for tea and people.
I booked a room in a newly renovated apartment about a mile away from Istanbul’s central bus station. When I got there, the host, who was actually from Pakistan, offered me tea and told me I resembled Mark Zuckerberg. A couple of days later, I walked about a mile and a half from one of the metro stations to Hagia Sophia, one of the most historically significant places in the world.
Along the way, I was offered tea by a man running a spice and candy shop after talking with him about where I am from and if I knew I looked like Mark Zuckerberg. I bought a small bottle of water so I could cool it down. I still don’t understand the need to drink it so hot that it burns your mouth. “It’s the hottest year on record, here’s some flavored boiling water to drink.” How do people who drink scalding hot beverages have any tastebuds left? My tongue is still partly numb from that day.
As I was wandering around the beautiful area by Hagia Sophia, a friendly Kurdish man suggested I come back in a few hours because the line was unusually long to view the inside of the mosque. He asked where I was from and of course if I knew that I looked like Mark Zuckerberg (I’m not kidding about that, and it happened a record third time that day). He invited me into his family’s nearby carpet shop and asked me to sit down at the small table in the back and offered me tea or cider. I opted for cider this time because I wanted my remaining taste buds to at least experience a different flavor before they died.
I rode a bus south to Isparta a couple of days later. I booked a hotel online through Airbnb from a guy name Mehmet who was kind enough to pick me up from the bus station. Of course, tea was offered as soon as we entered the hotel.
I have been in Antalya for a few days and the host from whom I’m renting the apartment offered me tea as soon as I walked in. People love their coffee and cigarettes in the Balkans; in Turkey, they like drinking piping hot tea and telling me that I look like a weirdo billionaire. I think it’s great.
