Don't come to Turkey if you hate cats

We are sitting on the deck having our coffee on a wonderful day. I thought that I would give you a few insights to Turkey as we have found them so far.

For every dog we have seen there are at least 100 cats if not 1,000(ok so I exaggerate). Cats run loose all over Istanbul and a bit less so in the hinterlands. Turkish people love their cats. Everyone feeds them handouts, puts out water for them, etc. The family across the road has at least 30 they are keeping. The cats are well behaved and are generally very friendly. For the most part they are not allowed in the house. The Turks are very "hygienic" as they say. When you arrive at a home, you remove your shoes that you wore outside and put on some 'house' slippers provided. There are inside and outside shoes Animals are not allowed in for the most part. It is to separate the outside world from your home.

Yesterday we had as many as 11 cats on the deck. Anne and Angelika have been feeding them as needed. We have been petting and stroking the brave ones, who don't know about these strangers.


The Turkish people have been very friendly. They are nominally Muslim. When you walk down the street you see women covered (very few) and others in Western "style conscious" attire, and everything in between. The calls to prayer sound from the Minarets 5 time a day, but the streets seem to stay busy with work and the other goings on of life.

The nation fast food is doner kebab, which is a gyro (in Greece). They also have Starbucks, McDonalds and Burger King. Coke, Frito-Lay products and knock off clothing are readily available. But why you would want to eat any of that here when the local food is better, tastier and fresh, is beyond me. In the bazaars there were stacks of Ralph Lauren Polo attire. All said made in USA(hahahah yeah right), but of course we know they weren't. The polo player icon on one shirt was about 10 times larger than those on the "real " Polo attire. Nice Textiles though are very cheap here. They have beautiful scarves and cloth, too much to choose from!!

BTW we rode in the mini van to Milas. It was packed full. I asked Angelika if this was like this all the time. She said it is some times, but the most odd trip she had was when someone loaded on a full grown sheep! I'm still trying to picture that!!

Anyway thats it for now.