Monday, March 22, 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010 - No comments

Charming Little Hooligans

The sign said "Dead End." Still, the crooked alleyway held the promise of proudly decaying wooden houses and equally decrepit teyzes knitting on their front stoops, so we ignored the sign and ventured on to see what we could see.

A few photographs later, a group of ragamuffins who had previously been amusing themselves by wrestling in the dirt descended upon us with what I ought to have recognized as a mischevious gleam in their eyes.

"This way, abla! There is an exit just through this gate!"

They pointed to a large metal gate that led to a block of apartments. Figuring there must be some little pathway beyond the houses too small for a car to pass through, we ventured on... only to hear the slam of the door behind us, accompanied by shrieks of delight. Laughing eyes peered through the slats of the door as they congratulated themselves on trapping what I can only assume were the most recent in a long succession of gullible foreign prisoners.

Thinking we'd humour them, we walked on a bit, discovered that we were, indeed, stuck, and then returned to try to wrestle the gate open. They put up a good fight, but eventually gave up on holding us captive and let me win, dissolving on the ground in a heap of giggles. I decided it would be better to make friends with these urchins than to get mad at them (wouldn't want them to follow us back and throw eggs at our window or something!) so I started snapping pictures. They were more than happy to ham it up for the camera. (I just now realized that the little guy in the blue jacket is giving me the Turkish equivalent of the finger! Not so innocent, these ones.)

As we walked away, I called back to them, "Do you do this to all the tourists?"

With great pride came the answer, "We try!"