Turkey is a fantastic country all year round, very popular amongst tourists around the world for its historic mosques, various street vendors and its amazing dishes. Though you have to know that overstaying in Turkey is not safe. It is not safe at all… Because the moment Turkey charms you, you never want to leave!
Overstaying in Turkey has a few playfully severe (but mostly welcome) consequences, here’s a few:
1 – Be honest with yourself, you noticed those few extra pounds that you put on since you’ve been in this holy land of food. And who can blame you when you’re surrounded by Döner, Kebab, Baklava and Sarma… Even thinking about the variety of food is enough to get you in the mood to devour food. Don’t worry though there are plenty of activities to do to burn off those kumpirs you had last Saturday night.
2 – The other day I visited an American friend of mine and before stepping in his home I removed my shoes, he said “Why are you taking off the shoes man?” It took me about a minute to realize that I automatically adjusted to the strict Turkish rule of “No shoes inside”. I even found myself reprimanding a guest for leaving their shoes on when they entered my house. I guess it’s too late now… I’m in for the whole “#NoShoes” movement.
3 – A friend of mine recently came back from a trip and he said “I didn’t realize how spoiled we are in Istanbul.” Here’s something you fall into when living in Istanbul is the amount of cultural events going around in the city is unrealistically massive. There’s literally hundreds of events and things to do every night and all year round! One of the consequences of overstaying here is forgetting that the world doesn’t move as fast elsewhere.
4 – One habit that is quite common in Turkey is showing up “fashionably late” and by that we mean being late to almost literally everything. It’s not out of rudeness or disrespect it’s just how things run here. When you want people to show up to a party at 9 PM you say “It starts at 8 PM” and they’ll show up at 9:30. Once you fall into that it’s really hard to get out of it because it’s massively convenient.
5 – Another food related consequence of staying here is Yemeksepeti. It’s 2 AM, you and your friends are having a good time at home and someone says “let’s order something super unhealthy for us that we’ll regret tomorrow morning”. What to do? What to do? Well, yemeksepeti is for the rescue, this super handy website lets you order food from over 100 restaurants and it works everywhere and 24/7 providing that the restaurant is open. So tread lightly, when you order that bucket of chicken at 4 AM.
6- Last and definitely not least, the Ezan or call to prayer. Just a few months ago a visitor from Europe woke me up when she heard the morning Ezan for the first time, since the mosque is so close to my house, the Ezan is quite loud, when she heard it she freaked out and thought that something bad had happened and this was some kind of emergency system. I don’t even hear it anymore.
So there you go, if you’re gonna live in this wonderful city there are very lovely consequences that you need to take into consideration that’ll brighten up your life and give you a unique taste of the brilliant Turkish culture.
