things to remember about Turkey

• Ataturk is a big deal!   His picture is everwhere!  On buses, in the streets, in restaurants.
• Butt washers are on toilets!  You turn a knob next to the toilet and a small pressurized stream of water comes out directly for that certain region that needs washing.  I think this is genius and should be used universally!  Genius!  Don't knock it til you've tried it!
• Feta cheese comes in all shapes and sizes, but is generally a white color.  Stringy, grainy, rich, plain, creamy, crumbly, aged, fresh, all delicious!
• Turkish coffee is finely ground beans with hot water poured over them in a little cup....I'm not such a fan as I always end up with a mouthful of grounds in the last swig when I should just leave the last drag of liquid alone!
• Turks love desserts!  Puddings, cookies, cake, bars, sweet nuts, etc, etc, all with nuts (pistachios and walnuts particularly), cream, caramels, fruits such as quince and pomegranite, currants, cinnamon, rice, saffron and oh so many other distinct aromatic spices that aren't extreme in flavor but delicate...like little shadows of ballerinas dancing on your tongue, all sweets are strong but small, carrying a big punch and perfect with a tea!
• "Salad" is tomato and cucumbers with olive oil and salt, but there is usually some variety of pickled vegetables included with your meal that you can nibble on.  There's also lettuce salads, but we tended to eat the latter more often.  We were delighted with arugula included with meals on the western coast as well!!!
• When you eat at a restaurant, you order everything first, and they bring the food out in courses, beginning with your olive oil marinated vegetables (cooked earlier in the day, or pickled, but always served cold!), than the meat course (all accompanied with unending amounts of fresh baked bread) and ending with a tea and a sweet thing. 
• Old statues, buildings domes and pillars are strewn about every which way, around every corner in every city.  Old and new are intermingled everywhere and old places are continually being reinvented into new...no matter where you stand, there is history all around you, especially beneath!
• Sour cherry juice, jam, soda....it's a thing!
• Fresh pomegranite juice...you pick the fruit, he squeezes it and puts it in a little cup for about $1.  Sour....fresh...sweet....pungent....delicious!
• 1 lyra = .60 cents
• tea = cai - "chai"..and is served black in a little cup with a spoon and 2 sugar cubes.  It's strong, warm, and drunk all day long!  Particularly after meals.  When helping yourself it's important to dilute the tea in your cup with hot water...always available together...with the tea pot sitting on top of the boiling water pot!  about 1/3 cai to 2/3 hot water!
• Beer  = Efes (tastes like Miller Lite) and costs 7-8 Lyra in a restaurant - $4-5, around 3-4 Lyra in a grocery store.  Wine is $8-10/glass, but local and delicious in many regions!
• Tomatoes are bright red, fresh and delicious.  We never met a single tomato we didn't like
• Freshly made creamy white butter!  WOW!  
• Leather jackets are very popular.  Along with some white dyed trendy jeans and an ironed collared shirt and nice leather shoes.  People dress, look and smell nice!
• There is a men's barber shop on every street and every time we pass one, it's occupied with a metal clothes hanger outside the door full of multi colored towels drying.  Men keep there hair short.  What we didn't see were beauty salons!  Where do the women go?
• Wet wipes!  After every meal, even sometimes at tourist attractions, you receive an individual wet wipe in a small packet with advertisements of the restaurant on it with your bill.  It's kind of nice and refreshing, but not exactly environmentally friendly.
• condiments on the table = smokey dried red pepper flakes, oregano, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper, and sometimes a pomegranite syrup...not so sure how we were supposed to use it though.
• Tea shops are a man only hang out spot where alcohol is not permitted, but t.v.'s showing popular soccer games and are and old men gather on rickety pop up tables playing Rummikub, dominoes and backgammon.  Women do not hang out here, because if they do, men are not permitted to swear around them....now that would just ruin a soccer match, now wouldn't it!
• I found it extremely frustrating that a waiter would take R man's order, leave and return with two of whatever he ordered.  I didn't realize throughout most of the trip that it's extremely rude in their culture to speak to me in my husbands presence and they were just trying their best to make the most of the difficult situation without offending us.  Oops! R man was apparently supposed to order on my behalf!  Jerk!  =)  Our friend explained that these rules change if the size of your party is a group of 3 or more with more women attending.
• We found it interesting when buying bus tickets online that you have to enter your gender.  Women traveling alone must be sat next to other women only.  (For a Turkish Airlines flight, I was sat between two very large built Turkish men.  They were well dressed gentlemen on business, but seemed a bit uncomfortable with the seat placements being very careful not to speak, accidentally touch or make eye contact for the entire flight with me...than again, that's common protocol in the States as well!  So who knows!)
• I don't know if this is because I'm young, white, female, a tourist or odd looking, but if I dared to turn around at any moment in any public place, and looked into a mans face, that man was looking right back at me with a wink and a smile to boot.  Of course, R man never noticed these things, cuz they're quick to turn away to his glimpse, but I did!  I'm not sure how this would be or feel to women traveling alone, and how fast a wink would actually lead to  unwanted attention or conversation, but it was enough to catch me slightly off guard at random moments, always with a sense I was 'being watched'.  Don't get me wrong!  Everyone we met in hotels, on the street, in restaurants or waiting for the bus was EXTREMELY KIND AND FRIENDLY!  We received so many kindnessness!  I'm just sayin'....interesting culture! 
• I can't wait to go back!  The mix of people, the history, the mix of religiouns, the brightly colored houses, the incredible flavor and richness of the food!  The warmth all around you, even when it's cold.   AMAZING!