What's the difference between a "tourist" and a "traveler"? I'm told a "tourist" is not really a good thing and a "traveler" is what one strives to be... Unfortunately, I'd consider myself a tourist, I think it is impossible to be a true "traveler", blend in, not leave a mark, not fall prey to the touts, and not return home with tat (i.e. useless tourist junk). I try to pretend I'm not a tourist but I have several things working against me: 1) I'm an American, as much as I'd like to pretend this doesn't matter, as much as I'd like to hide this fact, it is impossible. 2) The naive 90% of tourists ruin it for the rest by flashing their money, falling for the scams, and buying the tat. 3) I have a camera, I think a true "traveler" would not bother with a camera. 4) I can't think of a fourth, but I'm sure there are a dozen other reasons.
Why am I hung up about this subject? We just got scammed at dinner... Thankfully the group was pretty effective at fighting it, but still we got scammed. The bill which should have been around 40,000,000 TL came out to 60,000,000 TL ($39). Exactly. I totaled it up and sure enough it was 60,000,000. The waiter had conveniently added around 20,000,000 TL for salad and fries... Prick! After maybe 10-15 minutes of arguing I got him down to 55 million... After collecting from the team I paid him 41,500,000 TL, including 10,000,000 TL of my own frigging money (lending to a few topics for my next journal entries: "People Who Don't Pay Their Fare Share" or "Basic Math" or "How to Tip"). Anyway, after getting chased out of the restaurant by the local thugs, we jogged back to our hotel... I am a tourist. Yes I am!
Speaking of the hotel, it deserves mention. We are in the town of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast. Beautiful town (so far) and a very cool hotel in an old Ottoman style house. The house has several interesting rooms with old rafters and windows overlooking the courtyard. The courtyard is fabulous with an old original well (the old iron crank-up bucket type), a nice bar, and a quaint (yes quaint) cafe. Great choice, comfortable room...
Let's see, I'm three pages in and I haven't said anything about the trip... This must be a good day. Well, this is partly true only because I'm finally recovering from a cold and a terrible day of... Let's call it Ataturk's Revenge or maybe the Turkey Trot... I was pretty dang sick yesterday and after and eight hour bus ride I'm feeling pretty good in comparison... Put it this way, I slept about 16 hours yesterday and made sure I had a handy plastic bag on the bus... More in a few days.
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