Attitude of Gratitude

This post was actually written about a month ago when I returned from Turkey prior to my move to Boston. The site has been down from the back end so I wasn't able to post anything for a while. Maybe that is a blessing in disguise! The move to Boston has gone fine, I'll send an update soon.

The bay at Bodrum

I was in Bodrum, Turkey this weekend for what I believe will be my last trip, for work or personal, before I move back to the USA. If you read my last post on Turkey, you realize that I love it. I find the people unbelievably friendly. So, I flew in for a short trip on Friday evening and back home today, Monday. The weather was gorgeous, the water clear and turquoise, the food exquisite. It was pure heaven. Nuff said. Oh yeah, and I saw flamingos in the wild for the first time ever. Pretty freakin’ cool.

On my way back, I flew through Istanbul where I had a layover of over three hours. I knew if I opened my computer I’d immediately start working, so I decided to indulge myself instead.

I first went to the shoe shine. Who would think that a shoe shine could be so relaxing? I love going to get my shoes shined. Perhaps that is because you cannot get your shoes shined (by an actual person) in Amsterdam. Why? Because they are too cheap. And I’m not kidding. When I asked around, everyone, and I mean the Dutch, told me that I should shine my shoes myself. Humph.

My shoe shine in Istanbul was divine.

I then decided to see if I could get a manicure. There was a hairdresser and since I wasn’t sure if people could understand what I was asking for I thought I’d go and see if they knew where I could get one. Apparently at the airport in Istanbul you can get a manicure at the hairdresser.

As I sat getting my manicure from a woman who didn’t speak a word on English, I watched Turkish women from all the different airlines come in to get their hair washed and styled. Or just styled. I found this very strange. I mean, usually when people go to the hairdresser they go to get a haircut. Not in the Istanbul airport.

As I sat getting my manicure I watched loads of women come in to have their hair styled. Being that I didn’t wash my hair this morning, I thought, what the hell, I’ll get my hair washed and styled by a male Turkish hairdresser. Why not?

I proceeded to get my hair washed and styled by the guy. And he spent at least 45 minutes drying my hair. Let me just clarify in case this wasn't clear already. I am a redhead. Redheads have the lowest number of hair strands of all the hair colors. For comparison sake you should know it takes a little more than five but definitely less than 10 minutes for me to dry and style my hair. But the stylist was very attentive. At one point I had three guys working on my hair. And the only tool the guy used was a hairdryer!

Final result didn’t look that different from how I do it, but it was nice to have someone pamper me for over an hour with frilly nails and hairstyling. And it only cost about 30 euros. I don’t think I could have gotten a manicure for that much in A’dam, much less the hair and the shoeshine! Heck, I couldn’t get the shoeshine at all in A’dam!