The Turkish folk love to sit, chat, and mingle with friends. Hence, there are an abundance of cafes in this city- more coffee than a coffee love like me could ever dream of. In addition to bars, where the Turks can drink you under the table, there's one other place where they gather in masses - Narghile cafes.
Narghile [nahr- geel- ah] is the Middle-Eastern word for 'hookah', a water pipe used to smoke a tobacco infused fruit. There are many flavors, and it's like inhaling sweet air. Idid my research, wondering why it's called hookah in English if the majority of the water-pipe using population calls it Narghile. Apparently, in India, where the British expatriate population first sampled the waterpipe, it's called huqqa, and thus history was made.
In a pictuesque cafe, Robin, Kyle, and I whiled away the afternoon.
Tea is a given compliment to the Nargile experience. Many different kinds of tea are available, the best being Ataçay (Ata-chai), an appley version.
Friendly cats feel entitled to a comfy seat too. Though I was calling to the animal, it jumped onto Kyle's lap, and promptly ignored me.
... that cat LOVED him.
In the summer, these 'Narghile Gardens' sprout all over the humid outdoors. A wonderful experience - one that made me feel that I was truely in Turkey!
1 comment:
Mmmm...dreamy! Sounds very relaxing and comforting. I say we open one of these here in the Midwest. We can offer discounts to over worked educators...
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