car adventures in Turkey...

While on our journey, we drove (okay, i drove, but in my defense, i was acting on Steffen's insistence) a little bit too far onto a beach we wanted to check out, and realized too late that we would probably not be able to get out. after several failed attempts (including recruiting an elderly man who was walking on the beach, to help us push the car- he was old, and i was afraid we would actually induce a heart attack in him), we gave up. so while S tried to search for some planks to see if he could get some leverage on the sand, i went searching for help in this tiny farming village where no one apparently spoke English. i had my Turkish phrasebook (which was not much help in our particular situation, but somehow managed to gather and provide entertainment for some village children, who repeated after the Turkish i was attempting to utter), and tried to get help, stopping anyone and everyone. finally we were able to convince a woman who had a tractor to get someone to pull us out...thanks to a van-load of women and a couple of guys who were riding through the town campaigning for a politician, one of the guys spoke English, and translated for us to get us the help. this is were the Turkish hospitality was so evident--we try to give them some money to show our appreciation, but they all emphatically denied it, leaving us grateful and thankful, promising them that we wouldn't do such a stupid thing again.