Cultural Thoughts

Turkey:

Istanbul was a culturally varied, welcoming place. At restaurants, the hustle performed by the servers waiting at the street was intense. Everyone wanted your business! At our first restaurant, the server proclaimed that he loved Canada and that his girlfriend was from there, but he couldn’t name the city she was from. 😂 Other vendors played a similar game, trying to engage you in conversation. The easiest approach was to ignore them, unfortunately. 

Most places tell you not to flush toilet paper, but to instead put it in a small waste bin. Smoking is MUCH more common than at home, and we are very unused to smoke at restaurants. 

Lots of seagulls and hooded crows were to be seen around town. 

Greece:

The restaurant service flow was a little different from in North America. When we were done our main courses, we had to signal the server that we wanted the bill. They simply wouldn’t bring it until asked! Once we asked, though, we would often get a small dessert, fruit course, and/or shots of the local liquor, all on the house. Meanwhile, at bars in Athens, each round of drinks was delivered with the bill at the same time. 

In Athens, we didn’t notice any seagulls, but a few hooded crows and lots of pigeons. 

Same toilet paper issue. Smoking still popular. 

At the beach, it was common for very young girls to wear only swim bottoms. That rarely happens at home. 

At the hotel in Chania, we noticed guests from Italy, France, Spain, Britain, Nordic countries, Eastern Europe, and maybe only one other North American family apart from us. As a result, the mini market next door is stocked with favourites from around Europe. I am currently sipping a cooler by a Finnish company, brewed in Estonia. 

We saw very few birds in Crete. 

Just about every restaurant we went to was delicious with good service! Lots of veggies in each meal. 

Amsterdam:

Everything here is expensive! Burgers for lunch (nice ones, but still) were 15€ each. It was difficult to find a hotel in the area I liked for less than 300€ per night. 

There are so many modes of traffic. Bicycles usually have a separate lane adjacent to the sidewalk so as a pedestrian you need to be careful. Some streets are for pedestrians, bikes and trams - no cars. Some streets have cars, buses, bike lanes, teams and pedestrians! It’s important to keep your head on a swivel. 

Praise be, you can flush toilet paper. 

Maybe it’s the neighborhood we are in, but why is it hard to find just a *regular* coffee shop? Less smoking in public but more *smoking*. 

The seagulls are back! I also saw a swan in the canal beside our hotel, plus pigeons nearby.

It was harder to find good food than in Greece. In Amsterdam we definitely needed to research good places to eat, rather than just strolling around. I suppose this was since we were staying in a pretty touristy area.