Tea near Sinop – Turkey

In 2013 we spent 5 weeks traveling and experiencing Turkey with our good friends Clyde and Anna. During this time we were surprized at how friendly and hospitable the Turkish people were. After spending a hectic few days visiting Istanbul, driving out of the city and then having a couple of days driving along the north coast it was time to relax for a few days. Clyde had done a great deal of planning for the trip and he directed us to a campsite which was a few kilometres from the town of Sinop. The campsite was peaceful as most of the time we were there by ourselves, even the staff weren’t there for most of the time. The campsite manager said that there was a small mini market down the road about a kilometre and a half. Even though we had plenty of supplies we decided to go for a walk, stretch our legs and see what the mini market was like. Walking from the campsite to the small village we started seeing some houses and at the front of one of the houses a man was standing there almost as if he was waiting for us. As we approached he asked us, in very good English if we would like to join him and his family for a cup of tea. We all looked at each other and said why not. His wife was busy baking bread on an open fire with a round steel plate over it. The daughter about 12 years old was sent off to get the tea ready. We chatted, his English was learnt traveling on boats but the rest of the family spoke English as well as I speak Turkish [zero]. As we drank our tea with some fresh bread a sister came past to visit the family and then a neighbour. Our group had grown in number and they asked us all sorts of questions, the one I though the strangest was “how old are you?” asking each one of us in turn and then they told us how old they were. After a pleasant time it was time to leave and we wanted to take a picture of the group, the daughter was very shy but I persuaded her to join in and below is the result. Saying our goodbyes and thankyou’s we headed off eventually finding the mini market, mini was the operative word when the four of us were inside we could hardly move. We bought a few bottles of Effes beer, the local drop and proceeded to go back to the campsite for more relaxation and of course a beer or two.