Warrior I hope one day to return to Turkey. I hear much has changed there. Its a fascinating place, history-wise. And I miss washing down a good kebab with Efes Pilson. I couldnt even tell anyone what NATO/SDIs are still operating in Turkey.
Back in the 70s the Mediterranean coast of Turkey was, along with Yugoslavia, the vacation secrets of Europe. I was lucky enough to have been to both. We used to ride the bus's, or hitchhike, up and down the coastline.
I will tell you all a story about Turkey and Islam from 30 years ago. We were down the coast in a small Turkish village, "I forget the name", and had stopped in a small cafe for lunch. We sat next to a poor Turkish family, you could tell they were poor by the clothes, they were also strict Muslims by their dress. Anyway after about 20 mins it became obvious that the owner of the place didnt like Americans, was ignoring us, and refusing to serve us. As we got up to leave the poor Turkish family next to us waved us back to sit. Their food had just came and instead of eating it they put it all on our table for us to eat.
They refused payment and instead paid the owner, while throwing a few choice words his way. This poor Turkish family was embarrassed "guests" had been treated as we were and instead of eating their own food had given it to us and gone hungry themselves.
I'll never forget that act of kindness.
