My new home was a room in a small hotel just by the main road, but from my room I had a wonderful view over the coast and the sea. At the time of our arrival to the hotel, there was no traffic. Of course, it was too late and in a weekday.
We were supposed to have a pre-arranged room in this hotel, and my colleague had the money to pay for it. However, as it turned out the receptionist had no idea of what we were talking about, and he also couldn’t speak any language but Turkish. Luckily my colleague spoke some Turkish, and they agreed on something, of which she wasn’t actually quite sure about (this may sound funny, but later it happened to me as well, and not only once). What she did understand was that the receptionist, working during daytime, speaks at least one language – meaning German or English – and that he should know the details; they agreed I will spend the night, and she will come back in the morning, to arrange everything with the other receptionist, and of course to pick me up.
This is only a very brief description; I got into my room about midnight – so you have a general view over time and how it was passing. This is an important aspect because the biggest difference that you need to overcome is the slow-motion of the Turkish people. I bet they don’t know what high blood pressure is, or for that matter, a heart attack. They don’t know stress-related diseases. They have this relaxed way of doing everything slowly.
The hotel was nice; the ground floor had half of the walls made of glass, so you could see the dining room from the road and the reception too. It was probably the smallest of all hotels that I saw in Turkey. It was cozy, with wooden stairs and carpets everywhere. I forgot to tell you about the incredible vegetation. There are palm trees, there are bushes and flowers everywhere. The road is usually divided by green patch of grass and palm trees, or maybe some flowering bushes.
The hotel didn’t have much of garden due to the road, but there were many bushes and palm trees planted around, on green grass – I was astound. In Slovenia, the summer temperatures sometimes get as high as about 40 ̊C, but the grass is all burnt and dry, far from fresh green. So, while my colleague and the receptionist were discussing who is who and what we want from him, I wondered around a bit.
There was a system of irrigation installed that started spraying just as I wanted to step outside. You couldn’t notice it, because it was cleverly hidden beneath the plants, but later on while working I noticed they have developed quite a set of different techniques that they use to keep the gardens, and almost whole coastal region always green despite the burning heat. Well, here is the only way to keep your greens in such heat.
Turkey has good water sources and so everything is always green, especially around the hotels and the city – as far as any city has green patches here and there. Turkey is an amazing country but the lessons you should learn from my story, that when you go to Turkey, you should take a learn Turkish language book to be able to communicate, double confirm your hotel reservation before arrival, enjoy the green grass but take care fo the irrigation systems.
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