My guess is that you have never tried to flag a cab in Antakya at 6 am, and up until this moment, neither had I.
My early departure requires a 5:30 am wakeup call, and I sleep fitfully in chronic fear of missing the bus combined with traffic noise that makes me feel as if I am camping on the interstate.
Not surprisingly, language barriers abound the further I move away from tourist friendly Istanbul and Selcuk. At this point the word "hello" is no longer a greeting, it is a question. As I get into the cab, I am entirely dependent on one word. Otogar.
Otogar is the Turkish word for bus station, and it is the only bullet I have in my linguistic chamber. The dilemma is that most of the people in this part of Turkey speak Arabic. In fact, Antakya was once part of Syria, and briefly prior to WW2 it was a Monaco-esque city state.
And, as previously mentioned, there is a great deal more history here, all of which I have missed.
As I enter the cab, I ask "Hello?". A friendly nod but no verbal response. Ok, time for question number two. Otogar? He nods and I hop in, however, unknown to me, Antakya has more than one Otogar. We begin a game of charades as he tries to help me through my linguistic ignorance.
He indicates an upward slope and I nod ambivalently, recalling that the terminal was at an elevation. We hit the road, neither of us quite certain that we are going to the correct place.
As we drive, the cabbie tries to speak to me in Arabic. Clueless, I nod in agreement. At a red light he turns to me and says "Brrrrrr" Now as a Canadian, that is a language I understand. "Brrrrr", I reply.
At the next stop, he puts on his gloves and shows them to me, as if to emphasize the gravity of our climate emergency.
"Brrr", he says.
"Brrrrr", I reply. I wrap my arms around myself for emphasis, while thinking to myself that this guy should never visit Canada in the winter.
We arrive at the bus station.
"Otogar?" he asks.
"Otogar!", I reply, giving him the thumbs up. I pay my fare with a nice tip and step out into the slightly chilly Antakya bus station morning.
Next stop Syria, Insha'Allah
http://www.goyestoeverything.com
