erzurum
what a confusing place.
shy of giving you directions, someone will just escort you to your destination and leave you at the door with a nod and a smile. the men hold arms and hands, as do the women, and people spend a really long time kissing each others' cheeks hello. the owner of an internet cafe came over to look at something the guy next to me was working on. standing behind him he leaned over and took the mouse and keyboard so that the guy in the chair had to sort of duck his head down and point at what he wanted the owner to see. they were laffing at some programming joke, but poised in a way i've only ever seen new lovers behave. it's so nice to watch.
tea is more common than water. at a mcdonalds i asked for a cup of water and the clerk, the manager, and the security guard all stood looking at each other, stuck. eventually they figured out they could dump a bunch of ice from the machine into a cup and pour the hot-beverage water over it until enuff cubes melted that it could be stirred to create drinking water. but stopping into a store to look at their menu or just get out of the cold for a second is liable to land you a cup of chai in your hand, unbidden. and there are waiters who wander around street corners just handing out tea to anyone who looks cold or signals them over. it's like an outdoor tea party in the snow.
as for precious commodities, money and gold come second to body heat. to steal eggers' description, "the cold is alive, predatory." as soon as you step outside it attacks any exposed skin and reaches under however many layers you've managed to pile on and begins stealing your warmth from the inside out. this is as cold as i imagined antarctica to be, so i won't even begin wondering what it's really like. the marquee last nite, as i wandered looking for a bus, read an impressive -17c. ouch.
the people in general are so absurdly hospitible it comes as quite a blow when the taksi drivers screw you over without blinking. apart from them, the only negative element here is the air quality.
holy god, i do not understand how anyone is still alive here.
the cold is a pleasant and welcome discomfort, a tickle even, the least of your troubles, compared to the smog. it is un-friggin-real. it's tangible, palpable. you can feel poison reaching down your throat and burning your insides. i was glad i hadn't eaten yet when i walked down one particularly stuffy alley this morning. i gagged and reeled twice, my stomache flinching, trying to give up the goods, but these ended in dry heaves. the game there is ducking into a cafe or shop where not too many people are smoking inside, which is rather hard to come by. still, a room full of cigarette smoke is an odd comfort next to the outside air.
i haven't smoked or had any desire to since i got here. but after gagging again and almost fainting before getting into a bus where everyone was smoking i vowed i'd give up breathing and take up a strict smoking habit if i could get out of here with one lung intact. we'll see.
shy of giving you directions, someone will just escort you to your destination and leave you at the door with a nod and a smile. the men hold arms and hands, as do the women, and people spend a really long time kissing each others' cheeks hello. the owner of an internet cafe came over to look at something the guy next to me was working on. standing behind him he leaned over and took the mouse and keyboard so that the guy in the chair had to sort of duck his head down and point at what he wanted the owner to see. they were laffing at some programming joke, but poised in a way i've only ever seen new lovers behave. it's so nice to watch.
tea is more common than water. at a mcdonalds i asked for a cup of water and the clerk, the manager, and the security guard all stood looking at each other, stuck. eventually they figured out they could dump a bunch of ice from the machine into a cup and pour the hot-beverage water over it until enuff cubes melted that it could be stirred to create drinking water. but stopping into a store to look at their menu or just get out of the cold for a second is liable to land you a cup of chai in your hand, unbidden. and there are waiters who wander around street corners just handing out tea to anyone who looks cold or signals them over. it's like an outdoor tea party in the snow.
as for precious commodities, money and gold come second to body heat. to steal eggers' description, "the cold is alive, predatory." as soon as you step outside it attacks any exposed skin and reaches under however many layers you've managed to pile on and begins stealing your warmth from the inside out. this is as cold as i imagined antarctica to be, so i won't even begin wondering what it's really like. the marquee last nite, as i wandered looking for a bus, read an impressive -17c. ouch.
the people in general are so absurdly hospitible it comes as quite a blow when the taksi drivers screw you over without blinking. apart from them, the only negative element here is the air quality.
holy god, i do not understand how anyone is still alive here.
the cold is a pleasant and welcome discomfort, a tickle even, the least of your troubles, compared to the smog. it is un-friggin-real. it's tangible, palpable. you can feel poison reaching down your throat and burning your insides. i was glad i hadn't eaten yet when i walked down one particularly stuffy alley this morning. i gagged and reeled twice, my stomache flinching, trying to give up the goods, but these ended in dry heaves. the game there is ducking into a cafe or shop where not too many people are smoking inside, which is rather hard to come by. still, a room full of cigarette smoke is an odd comfort next to the outside air.
i haven't smoked or had any desire to since i got here. but after gagging again and almost fainting before getting into a bus where everyone was smoking i vowed i'd give up breathing and take up a strict smoking habit if i could get out of here with one lung intact. we'll see.