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| Learn the local customs of Turkey. Tips and photos posted by real travelers and Turkey locals. Map |
 | Turkey Local Customs | Tips 1 - 10 of 449 |  |
Raki is distilled liquor strongly aromatized with anise-seed and is made from different fruits in different regions. Grapes, figs and plums are the main ingredients. Raki comes from the Arabic word for juice, but it's often referred to as 'aslan sütü' (Lion's milk) because it turns white when mixed with water.
The locals will sometimes tell you that "one raki will make you strong as a lion, but three will make you dumb as a donkey". Just try it and you will see what they mean... ;)
Raki can be taken as cocktails, but the most common is to take it with 'meze' (turkish appetizers). Raki is normally served in cold, thin, cylindrical glasses accompanied by a glass of water. Leave a Comment
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Everyone visiting Turkey should try a hamam at least once. It's a great experience! Hamams can be found all over Turkey. Ask a local as he will direct you to a local hamam, instead of the receptionist in the hotel that will direct you to a overprized 'touristhamam'. The last ones can often be found in the big hotels.
The culture of turkish baths is more than 800 years old. In the hamam you can just lay back and enjoy the pleasure and the silence in the mild warm and the gentle light.
Because of the strict orders of cleanliness in Islam, the baths was highly popular even as early as with the Ottomans and are still today an important thing in the dailylife. Woman and men have separate rooms or separate hours. In some touristplaces they have mixed rooms.
First you sit in a sauna-like room made of marble. Then a masseur scrubs you with a kese. The kese is a rough cloth mitt used to scoure the dirt out of the pores and give a great massage. The pestemal is a large towel. There are three towels for drying, one to go around the hair like a turban, one around the shoulders, and one around the waist. After this it's in to the showers, before you get a oilmassage.
When you leave you feel like you a new person. Leave a Comment
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The young soldier and visionary Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938) liberated Turkey of foreign invaders after World War I. In 1923 he founded the Republic of Turkey, and was the countrys first president. He started the modernization process of the country which lasted for decades. He is often refered to as 'the father of modern Turkey', and was given the name Atatürk. All over Turkey you will find statues and pictures of him.
Many people all over the world concider him among the great leaders of history, because of all he achieved in a short time. He changed a whole nation, and ended the antiquated Ottoman dynasty that had lasted more than six centuries. Leave a Comment
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Our guide told us that Turkey is nicknamed the "Bread Basket of the World." It produces enough food to feed its citizens and still has some left over that is exported. The food is delicious and diverse.
Breakfast consists of fresh bread with a variety of spreads such as jam, butter, or honey. Salty black olives, cucumbers, cheeses, & sliced tomatoes are eaten with the bread.
Lunches are quite large. Popular Turkish meals include pide [PEE-deh], the Turkish equivalent of pizza. Also meze [meh-ZEH] is popular. It's a selection of grilled meats and vegetables accompanied by humus [HUH-muhs], which is a dip made of chickpeas and grilled haloumi [hah-loo-MEE], a tasty goat cheese. I noticed that Turks love eating meat, especially lamb. A traditional Turkish favorite is kavurma [KAH-vor-MAH], small cubes of meat cooked in their own fat and heavily salted. In addition, another method of preserving meat is called Pastirma [PAH-stir-MAH] where salt and spices are added to the meat before it is dried in the sun.
Turkish meals often end with an enomous array of sweets and desserts. When our guide was telling us about Turkish sweets, he sad that an old Turkish saying advises a person to "eat sweetly and speak sweetly". One such sweet is called halvah, a confection made with crushed sesame seeds and honey. But the most common Turkish dessert consistsof fresh seasonal fruits such as cherries, apricots, strawberries, peaches, melons, figs, pears, plums, grapes, and quince.
Turkish pastry shops sell delicious treas such as the sade lokum [sah-DAY loh-KIUM] or Turkish delight, a sugar dusted sweet made from fruit juice and gelatin. When my friend Mehmet visited from Turkey, he brought me some. Delicious. Leave a Comment
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During a trip to Turkey everyone (and certainly every smoker!) should try at least once to smoke a narguileh - an oriental water-pipe with a long hose. It's a social habit here. In small towns you can see quite often men sitting around a narguileh and discussing loudlly or just enjoing quietly the moment. Turks are saying that "cigarettes are for nervous people, and narguileh teaches you patience and tolerance, and gives you an appreciation of good company"!
You are not forced to smoke the tobacco. Every narguileh bar offers usually apple, strawberrys, honey and other "sweet" mixtures to smoke! Another thing - you have to smoke narguileh with somebody, never alone.
I'am not a smoker, but I had a lot of fun with it!
Nargileh is also sometimes called (depends on country) shisha or hookah. Leave a Comment
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Going to the barber is really cheap in Turkey, and the turkish goes there often. All men should try the experience of a turkish barber.
They will soap you up and shave you in the old way with a knife. Then they stick a Q-tip in a flammable liquid and light a fire to it. The burning torch is then placed in the ear and nose, burning away the hair...
After that they take two strings and roll them over the face to take away all the small facialhairs, before they splash some of the famous lemonscented oil on you. And to finish it off they give you a massage. There are barbershops all over the cities, and the prices are incredibly low. Leave a Comment
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The turkish coffee (türk kahvesi) is worldfamous. It's made in a very special way, and they use a pot called cezve. Inside is sugar and cold water. The pot is heated three times, each time taken away from the heat when the foam reaches the narrow neck of the cezve. Then the foam is poured into the small coffeecup and the remaining heated until it foams up again. The coffee is quite thick and a bit strong. Add as much sugar as you want, some like it a bit bitter and others prefer it more sweet.
For other coffees try amerikan kahvesi, franzis (french) kahvesi or sütlü kahve (with milk).
The coffecups, cezve and coffee can be bought most places, and it's not so expencive. Leave a Comment
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Before 1923, Turkish customs were way different than they are today. For instance, beofe 1923, a Turkish woman usually never left her home without putting a veil over her face, and a Turkish man usually covered his head with a fez [a still red cap shaped like a flowerpot turned upside town]. Today the fez is not worn at all. In fact, now it's against the law for a Turk to war a fez!
The reason for the change was to make the people more like Europens in their behavior and their ideas. The Turks strongly objected to the government rules. There were even riots against the new laws. But the people, for the most part, obeyed the law, and gradually the Turks have given up wearing other traditional Turkish clothes [such as the baggy trousers which had been worn by both men and women]. On festive occasions or in country places is where you would see them presently.
Even though women gave up wearing veils, they wear large headscarves instead, and they do cover their faces with the corners when they are near strange men.
Turkey today is a country in which the Muslim religion receives no special privileges and has no influence on the government even though 98 out of every 100 Turks are Muslim.
Turkey is not wholly westernized and probably never will be. Five times each day a voice [usually over a loudspeaker says, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet." That is the Muslim call to prayer, so Muslims stop to pray no matter what they are doing or where they are.
I personally am glad that Turkey is not completely westernized; that's what makes it so unique and so lovely. Leave a Comment
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Turkey is the home of the kebab, and all kinds of variations have spread across the world. You can use what meat you want, even seafood, but in Turkey the most normal is lamb. There are many different types of turkish kebabs, here are some examples:
Sis kebab: grilled cubes of skewered meat
Döner kebab: layers of ground meat and sliced leg of lamb stacked on a large upright skewer. This is slowly rotated in front of a grill. When the outer layer is roasted, thin slices are shaved to be served.
Lahmacun: meat pide
Adana: spicy scewered ground meat
Izgara: mixed grilled meat, can include 'köfte' (lamb chops), or sis (cubes of meat) Leave a Comment
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Don't be afraid if you see a gecko around. They are actually quite good to have, as they eat other insects, especially cockroaches.
In many countries it's considered good luck to have one in your home, because it means you have a clean home.
They are just as afraid of you, as you might be of them, so most of the time you will not even see them. Leave a Comment
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on September 20, 2004
on August 28, 2005
on June 28, 2004
