For the Turkish Daily News:
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=88914
INTERMEDIATE
The Turks and the Spanish
A thousand years ago Turkey was Christian and Spainwas Muslim.They are two nations with fascinating histories andrich cultures. That's why I have spent most of thepast nine years living in them.
At one time part of Spain was in the Byzantine Empire. At another, the Catalans fought the Turks in Anatolia.The Catalan leader Roger de Flor was killed by theByzantine emperor Michael Palaiologos. There are many streets in Barcelona named after de Flor.
In 1571 Spain helped destroy the Ottoman navy at theBattle of Lepanto. The great Spanish writer Miguel deCervantes fought in the battle and described it as"the end of Turkish invincibility."Only 17 years later Spain lost its own "invincibility"when its powerful navy was destroyed by the English.
The Spanish today are very passive people. There is nocompulsory military service and the people do not likewar. In Turkey there is compulsory military serviceand the mentality is more agressive.
The Turks had to fight for survival during the lastfew hundred years of Ottoman rule, until Ataturkfounded the Republic of Turkey. People here are verynationalist.
In Spain the people are more regionalist. Cataloniaand the Basque Country have different cultures anddifferent languages. But they had no rights during the40-year dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
When Turkey plays football everyone in Turkey wantsthem to win. In Barcelona and the Basque Country, Ifound, many people did not care when the Spanish teamplayed. It was much more important for the Spanishwhen Barcelona played Real Madrid.
The Turks and Spanish like football and basketball.These have become much more popular than traditionalsports like Turkish wrestling and Spanishbull-fighting.
Turkey and Spain are both on the Mediterranean andthis has had a big influence on the cuisine with lotsof sea food.But the drinking habits are different. Turks likeblack coffee, tea and raki. Spanish prefer coffee witha lot of milk (cafe con leche), red wine and sangria.
Like Italians and other Mediterranean people, Turksand Spanish are very careful about their clothes. Thisis much more important to them than it is to NorthernEuropeans and Americans.
The family is also much more important to the Turksand Spanish.Turks work hard, generally much more than Westerners.
The Spanish like holidays, fiestas (parties) andsiestas (day-time sleeps).On summer afternoons the streets of Spain are almostempty. But at 3am they are full of people and parties.People have dinner at 11pm and go out at 2am!The Spanish, in my experience, are quite lazy students. Turks seem to be much better at speakingEnglish, especially in Istanbul and other cities popular with tourists.
Spain has developed its economy through tourism and isnow quite a rich country. Sixty million tourists gothere every year. Turkey, with its hot summers and Mediterranean beaches, has the potential to do thesame.
In history religion was very important to the Turksand Spanish. But both nations are more relaxed aboutreligion now. Ataturk made Turkey more secular, while the Spanish became more secular after Franco's death.
The languages are very different. Turkish is simpler but more difficult for me to learn. That is because Turkish is an Altaic language from Central Asia. Spanish is Indo-European and has a similar vocabularyto English.In 1066, only five years before the Seljuks destroyedthe Byzantine army, the French invaded Britain.
English was a Germanic language but its vocabularysoon became equally Latin.Many formal words in English are Latin, while most of the informal words are Germanic. For example, 'stomach' is Latin and 'belly' is Germanic. But they mean the same thing.
The Turks and the Spanish are happy, friendly people,and both nations have many beautiful women. There are,of course, many different physical types, with blonde hair and blue eyes quite common in the north and much darker people in the south.
The Turks and the Spanish are also equally crazy in traffic!
End
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Istanbul - Damascus overland
Adapted from my travel blog and published in the Turkish Daily News at Intermediate level: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=85214
Earlier this year I traveled to Damascus (Dimashq ash-Sham) over land. I took the train from Istanbul to Adana, alone in a two-bed cabin, as often happens on Turkish trains. So half the journey I slept, and the other half I watched Anatolia go by.
Adana was an attractive city with a modern center. It seemed as “European” as Istanbul or İzmir, despite being on the Middle East's doorstep. There were many nice cafes and I ate the famous Adana kebabs. I spent the evening watching Turkish dancing and singing in a bar.
Next morning I was up early to get the bus to Antakya, via the ancient city of İskenderun on the Mediterranean Sea.
The "fun" started there. I was pushed into a service bus and taken to a big bus organized to get tourists across the border. But when we got to the border the Turkish authorities told us to go back because the bus was not full. The driver took us halfway back to Antakya, then turned around and went back to the border. Again we were told to go back, so we all got off and were put into two dolmuşes. Our dolmuş, however, did not have enough passengers either, so we were told to go back for a third time.
Finally we found two “hitch-hikers” and, three hours after reaching the border, managed to get across. During this time I made friends with a few of the other passengers. They included an English photographer who lived in Damascus with his Syrian wife.
From Aleppo we got the bus to Damascus. It is said to be the oldest city in the world where people have always lived, going back more than 10,000 years. Following 400 years of Ottoman rule, Syria was taken by the French after World War I, becoming independent again in 1946. The center of the city has a French influence with its architecture and restaurants. I visited the Umayyad Mosque and the old city.
On my second day, John Wreford, the photographer I had met at the border came to my hotel and invited me to Sayyida Zainab, the Shiite area of the city. There were many people from Iraq there, and we met one young man who had lost a hand in the war. They were friendly to us even though we were Westerners. Tourists are not judged by the actions of their politicians, thankfully!
Apart from the magnificent Sayyida Zeinab Mosque, the area looked very poor. There were dead animals hanging in front of the shops and one man was killing fish in front of the customers. We ate “kibbe” and drank spicy Arab coffee in one of these shops. We also saw an informal game of cricket. Probably the players were from Pakistan.
The next day I took the midnight (12:00 a.m.) train from Damascus to Aleppo, then went back across the border by taxi. It cost only YTL 50 from Aleppo to Antakya – where I had a giant breakfast with coffees for a total of YTL 4.
Earlier this year I traveled to Damascus (Dimashq ash-Sham) over land. I took the train from Istanbul to Adana, alone in a two-bed cabin, as often happens on Turkish trains. So half the journey I slept, and the other half I watched Anatolia go by.
Adana was an attractive city with a modern center. It seemed as “European” as Istanbul or İzmir, despite being on the Middle East's doorstep. There were many nice cafes and I ate the famous Adana kebabs. I spent the evening watching Turkish dancing and singing in a bar.
Next morning I was up early to get the bus to Antakya, via the ancient city of İskenderun on the Mediterranean Sea.
The "fun" started there. I was pushed into a service bus and taken to a big bus organized to get tourists across the border. But when we got to the border the Turkish authorities told us to go back because the bus was not full. The driver took us halfway back to Antakya, then turned around and went back to the border. Again we were told to go back, so we all got off and were put into two dolmuşes. Our dolmuş, however, did not have enough passengers either, so we were told to go back for a third time.
Finally we found two “hitch-hikers” and, three hours after reaching the border, managed to get across. During this time I made friends with a few of the other passengers. They included an English photographer who lived in Damascus with his Syrian wife.
From Aleppo we got the bus to Damascus. It is said to be the oldest city in the world where people have always lived, going back more than 10,000 years. Following 400 years of Ottoman rule, Syria was taken by the French after World War I, becoming independent again in 1946. The center of the city has a French influence with its architecture and restaurants. I visited the Umayyad Mosque and the old city.
On my second day, John Wreford, the photographer I had met at the border came to my hotel and invited me to Sayyida Zainab, the Shiite area of the city. There were many people from Iraq there, and we met one young man who had lost a hand in the war. They were friendly to us even though we were Westerners. Tourists are not judged by the actions of their politicians, thankfully!
Apart from the magnificent Sayyida Zeinab Mosque, the area looked very poor. There were dead animals hanging in front of the shops and one man was killing fish in front of the customers. We ate “kibbe” and drank spicy Arab coffee in one of these shops. We also saw an informal game of cricket. Probably the players were from Pakistan.
The next day I took the midnight (12:00 a.m.) train from Damascus to Aleppo, then went back across the border by taxi. It cost only YTL 50 from Aleppo to Antakya – where I had a giant breakfast with coffees for a total of YTL 4.
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