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By the way, in case you couldn't tell, I've been in Gaziantep for the last few days. I am going to keep bouncing back and forth here, because you're not the boss of me.
Like most places outside the U.S., Turkey scandalizes with what it's willing to call a two-way street, but that's only scratching the surface of the transportation situation here: what actually surprised me most were the motorbikes. Well, probably something like 60% scooters by volume, but you get the idea. Little 125 CC buggers, mostly with underinflated knobby tires and usually laden with some ridiculous amount of cargo. Need to move five nineteen-liter water tanks (full) across the neighborhood? Leave the car at home and scoot that shit. You can carry two in your lap, right?
Also, these short-haul freighters have some uncanny slowriding skills. Which comes in handy when they ride on the sidewalks or through one of the semi-covered bazaars. I am not exaggerating for comic effect. All comic effect in this post is supplied by unvarnished reality. I have never ever seen the flesh pylon slalom played the way they play it here.
Adding to the surreality of it all is that, here in Antep at least, they like to coast. Well, okay, it's a medieval fortress city built on a bunch of enormous hills, so use what you got, but it's still weird to have a two-stroke scooter in shitty repair cruise past you in utter silence.
Buses are worth a mention, too. I never figured out the system in Istanbul, and we mostly took foot or tram, but here in Antep, they have these little mini-buses that flow as thick as red blood cells. There is no real system, as far as I can tell: the buses have incomplete lists of where they're going posted in their windows, but mostly you just ask the drivers when you're getting on and you can board or jump out basically anywhere. It kind of blows my mind how convenient it is; no one seems to wait more than a minute and a half for a bus to show up. In short, total chaos that works better than it seems like it should. Turkey!
There aren't many bicycles.
Like most places outside the U.S., Turkey scandalizes with what it's willing to call a two-way street, but that's only scratching the surface of the transportation situation here: what actually surprised me most were the motorbikes. Well, probably something like 60% scooters by volume, but you get the idea. Little 125 CC buggers, mostly with underinflated knobby tires and usually laden with some ridiculous amount of cargo. Need to move five nineteen-liter water tanks (full) across the neighborhood? Leave the car at home and scoot that shit. You can carry two in your lap, right?
Also, these short-haul freighters have some uncanny slowriding skills. Which comes in handy when they ride on the sidewalks or through one of the semi-covered bazaars. I am not exaggerating for comic effect. All comic effect in this post is supplied by unvarnished reality. I have never ever seen the flesh pylon slalom played the way they play it here.
Adding to the surreality of it all is that, here in Antep at least, they like to coast. Well, okay, it's a medieval fortress city built on a bunch of enormous hills, so use what you got, but it's still weird to have a two-stroke scooter in shitty repair cruise past you in utter silence.
Buses are worth a mention, too. I never figured out the system in Istanbul, and we mostly took foot or tram, but here in Antep, they have these little mini-buses that flow as thick as red blood cells. There is no real system, as far as I can tell: the buses have incomplete lists of where they're going posted in their windows, but mostly you just ask the drivers when you're getting on and you can board or jump out basically anywhere. It kind of blows my mind how convenient it is; no one seems to wait more than a minute and a half for a bus to show up. In short, total chaos that works better than it seems like it should. Turkey!
There aren't many bicycles.