In the hostel in Mostar I met the most wonderful group of Turkish travelers. The night we arrived, there was a futbol (soccar to you Americans...) between Bosnia and Turkey, and everyone in town was watching it everywhere, in pubs, cafes, homes, and on the street. People were painted in btheir team's colors and drinking and yelling and carrying on (in the best way!). It was so cool to see basically everyone in a whole town (and in Sarajevo too because the game started before I left there and was still going on when I got to Mostar) engaged in the same common activity. Anyway, so it was great to watch the game in Bosnia with Bosnians and Turks each rooting for their own team (Bosnia won and the Turks didn't take it too hard...).
The nest night, I had taken a small siesta in the late afternoon after walking all over town and tiring myself properly. When I woke up, it was raining and I was in a very bad mood. My laundry was drying on the line (and didn't dry very well in the pouring rain!!).
One of the fantastic Turkish people had a set of speakers and invited me to listen to music with him, so I did that. He played a few songs and I asked if he knew the They Might Be Giants song "Istanbul, not Constantinople." I played that for him and we laughed. Then he discovered the playlist of songs (courtesy of my friend Marilyn) devoted to California and San Francisco, so we sang along to the Beach Boys (California Girls) and promised to be sure to wear flowers in our hair when we go to San Francisco...
Then he played some music that made my heart soar. It was the bellydance music I started dancing to over 12 years ago! So we started dancing, and the rest of his friends came back and we had a great couple of hours, playing different Turkish, Egyptian and Greek music and bellydancing our little hearts out!
Then we all went out for a fantastic meal where I sampled a domestic wine that you can't buy anywhere else in the world. It was a white wine, but sweet and very smooth. Tasty and wonderful.
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