The greatest cultural shock

If we travel together, you will often think I am insane.

A great pillar of travelling for me is interacting with locals. When I had the chance, I did it, and I don't regret. We were walking by the shore in the Asian side of the city, looking at the Marmara Sea, when we stopped by to stare at the views. Then this 60 year old man appeared with his sunglasses, sandals, black coffee and a below-zero cortisol level. Then, suddenly we were talking. He told me how travelling changed his life, and how good we were doing seeing the world. He travelled all the way through Spain, he could name every city he visited. He basically saw almost the entire world, and even visited Siria days before the war started in the 2010s.

Something that shocked me was the marketing and sales skills these guys have. They are so used to tourism (in the bad way) that they have the most unconventional ways of selling you something. If you are casually walking down the street and eventually a man drops a comb, he did it purposefully for you to warn him. After you give it back to him, he will try to clean your shoes and charge you for that. Genius move.

There is a huge market where they sell forged stuff. This is the most funny and overwhelming thing you will see. Vendors somehow know which language you speak and they try to sell you in every squared meter. They somehow knew some Spanish core jokes to trigger your interest. These guys were marketers at their own way, I loved it.

In this city, you can see four guys onto a motorbike without helmet like nothing is wrong. Or how useless crosswalks are in this city, you first decide to cross the street and then look if any car is approaching.

Another curious anecdote is what happens inside every mosque. Turkey is mostly muslim so you can find them very often. Inside one of them, a guy approached us and explained us some curiosities about mosques, which we found very interesting. But soon, we found ourselves onto a conversation (monologue) about why islam was compatible with scientific theories. He even tried to turn my non-believer friend into islam. Most people would find this intimidating, but I found it part of the cultural aspects of this city. Again, it's another conversation with a stranger, which lets you know how they think.

For me, this is travelling. Having stories to tell, talking with locals, eating local food, wandering without your phone or direction. Yes a 5-star-hotel and a michelin restaurant might be good, but you can find that everywhere. All of the things I can write about are the things I will remember.

If you're European and haven't visited Istanbul, go. You can't appreciate it until you get there. One of the things people regret the most when they get old is not having travelled enough. You're young, go out and explore.