the many of contrast of Turkey and my parents

Tolga took a week off to tour with us.  I was looking forward to my parents seeing Tolga in his natural habitat, but it just isn't the same with my dad around.  He kind of throws a wrench into everything.

First, he couldn't get over how long it takes a person to answer a question that he thinks should be simple and direct.  Tolga would ask where a particular road or hotel was and he'd have a three minute answer.  While Tolga would be speaking, my father would be trying to mimic the sounds.  "babgowro bah? skado bado ba..."  Eventually, in response to Turks, my father would resort to the Swedish phrase "ska vi leysah" or the city name "Kusadasi" ...to everything.

When we'd be bombarded by hawkers selling items - Tolga would always say "Thank you."  I thought they left us alone because he was Turkish, but I've since realized that saying thank you puts a very direct and polite end to the conversation as well.  (In Turkish, when you say thank you in response to a question, it means no).

My father started speaking in tongues.  As a teenager, I was never embarrassed about my parents, but I'm finding myself more and more embarrassed by them... .  I am all about blending into my surroundings - but my mother and father quite stubbornly hold onto their cultural ways.  Most annoyingly is their clutch on the hard a sound like in "and" versus the softer a sound as in "awning".  One month later and my mother is still saying "Is-stANbul" and "Anne" instead of "Is-stawn-bul" and "Awnnah" and her "a's" grate on me ears.

He got up to leave at four in the morning, and did well by getting out of the door by five.  We weren't in a hurry, we just wanted to make leisurely drive down to southern Turkey, possibly making some stops on the way.

It was supposed to be an eight hour drive, but we had some mixups about which route we were taking, and ended up backtracking some and making different stops.  There are so many things to see, yet we could only choose so many in one day before the day is already over.

We stopped in Egirdir for lunch - fish from the lake where the men throw their nets in the evening and collect them in the mornings.



We stopped along the road to take pictures of shepards - Turkey is full of shepards, it is the poorest work of all - yet I find the most beautiful.



We went over the Taurus mountains, and just before Antalya, we stopped at a park with waterfalls.




We spent the night in Antalya to meet up with a connection of my parents through the church.  A couple living in Turkey and we attended their church for Easter Sunday.