Turkish Rock & Roll

This morning I visited an archeological site in the city of Bergama called Asklepieion. At the parking area of all of these sites is where the local vendors sell their goodies to the eager tourists. Most of these merchants are very eager (to say the least) to sell you some high-quality item such as a rug with a camel or an elephant on it (there might be some camels in the eastern part of the country - maybe - and I am sure that the only elephants are in the zoo), an "authentic" rug, or a "genuine antique" hookah. In fact, these folks even have stuff like Pinnocchio marionettes and Native American war bonnets and bows & arrows! We don't yet understand if the tourists actually buy this stuff, but the merchants seem to use this goofy stuff to make visitors from other countries feel "at home"!

I usually talk to these people and ask to take their photograph, or try to speak Turkish with them. It often cracks them up to hear us butcher their language, but they also seem pleased that we are trying to speak! Anyway, it puts everyone at ease and we end up having nice interactions.

Today, we arrived very early, just as things were opening up, and the merchants were all playing backgammon so I watched for a while until one guy sang a few bars of some Turkish song. I asked if he was a musician. He claimed he wasn't, but that the guy across the game board was. Turns out he plays oud and baglama and had one of each right there in his little stone shop. Here is a brief video of one of the songs he shared with me!