Four sausages for a thousand rubles: what surprises Russians in Turkey

The balcony is also a room

Making a choice can be quite difficult. There is the economic center of the country – Istanbul, there is the resort Antalya with its surroundings, there is Mersin. Apartments there are cheaper, since there is no airport yet, but they will immediately rise in price from February, when it is put into operation.

Many apartments in Turkey are sold without gas supply. In winter, residents are saved with the help of air conditioners, turning them on for heating. It is now the first days of December, and I have never turned on the heating – during the day it is 20 degrees outside, at night the temperature drops to 15. Turkish apartments have one more feature – just huge balconies. The locals spend a lot of time on them, and in fact it is a private room. What should also be taken into account when assessing the area.

Real estate acquisition transactions in Turkey are very fast. For example, on Monday – a fee, and the very next day you can get a paper on the right of ownership – tapu. This procedure is fundamentally different from the one in Russia. Moreover, people who were registered in the apartment do not need to be written out, they are deleted automatically.

But you will have to carefully monitor whether the purchased apartment is rented out. Before the expiration of the contract with the previous owner, it will be difficult to expel the tenants. The law is on their side.

If we talk about Antalya, then there are areas near the sea: near the beaches of Konyalti and Lara. Real estate here will cost much more. In general, prices from realtors start at 700 thousand lira (about 2.3 million rubles) for a two-room apartment with an area of ​​50 square meters. There are also apartments in Sita – this is a residential complex with a well-groomed territory, a gym, a swimming pool. The difference is that for housing here you have to pay more aydat – money for maintaining the house and territory.

Turkey has become one of the most popular destinations for Russians to move this year. This drove the rent up a lot. “Our contract expired in August. We rented an apartment for $400, and now the owner is asking for $800. I had to look for other options through my friends, but it was quite difficult,” a Russian-speaking man in line shared with me. He moved with his family to Turkey in the winter, he and his wife work remotely.

On a wide foot

You can afford a lot on a Moscow salary here. Tomatoes at 15 lire per kilogram (about 49 Russian rubles), cucumbers and tangerines at 10 lira (32 rubles), a kilogram of chicken legs will cost 60 lira (196 rubles), meat is a little more expensive – 100 lire (327 rubles) per 400 grams. The Turks are very fond of ayran, and it is sold here in huge quantities, also within 30 Russian rubles per liter. The drink is noticeably different from what is sold in Moscow, thicker and less salty.

But with the very choice of products – everything is more complicated. They exist, but quite unusual for Muscovites. Sausage only from beef or turkey. Pork sausages can also be found on the shelves, but they cost the price of a can of red caviar.

With the purchase of alcohol, too, has its own characteristics. In each area there are small shops, they can be found by the blue color. In ordinary shopping centers, alcohol-containing drinks are not found. You can order wine in restaurants, but only in tourist areas. But the farther from the center, the more difficult. But everyone gets free tea.

Locals manage to live on 300 lira (about 1,000 rubles) a week as a family of four. True, for this you need to go to the markets. There are several of them in Antalya, and they wander to different places depending on the day of the week. So if you want to visit the bazaar, it is better to once again check the map and the schedule of their work. My first unprepared campaign ended in nothing – the place of the alleged counters turned out to be empty.

One of the most unpleasant surprises can be the opening hours of pharmacies. They are open only until six in the evening, some until seven, but I would not count on it, most likely, they will also be closed. In each district there is a 24-hour pharmacy on duty, and every day it is different. Without knowledge of Turkish, it will be quite difficult to find it. However, local taxi drivers have already learned their work schedule and will take you without any problems.

But the drugs themselves are sold at ridiculous prices. What in Russia costs one and a half thousand rubles, is sold here for 300. For counterfeiting drugs, Turkish laws provide for severe punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 50 years.

Service is five years behind

In Antalya, a lot of things are not available in terms of assortment, but there is delivery from Istanbul, by analogy with the Russian Ozon. On average, goods arrive in three to four days, but sometimes it takes up to a couple of weeks.

Couriers are sometimes cunning and do not want to carry you a large cargo. Then they put a mark that you did not pick it up, and the application offers to walk to the pickup point on your own. In which branch your parcel got, one can only guess. You can find out the address by phone, but the operator does not speak English.

Taxis in Turkey are also special. To call a car, you need to find a pole on the street with a yellow “Taxi” button attached. You can meet them almost every ten meters, or even closer. On average, drivers arrive in five to ten minutes. You will have to explain the road on your own, for some reason Turkish taxi drivers have not taken root with navigators.

You can call a car using the application, but the driver will drive longer, and the operator will still call you to find out the address. Without knowledge of Turkish, it will be difficult to explain yourself, but you may be lucky for an employee with knowledge of English.

Internet banking is very developed in Russia. The country is ahead of the world in many respects, and this is felt in Turkey. A whole ecosystem has been created in Russian applications where you can order theater tickets, transfer money instantly and without commission by phone number – there is no such thing here. The functionality is limited and not intuitive. And opening an account for foreigners is not so easy. Each bank has different conditions, but most often you need to make a deposit of $ 1,000, which must lie for six months.

Stay vigilant

The first thing you notice in Turkey is perfectly smooth, almost shiny roads. However, their movement leaves much to be desired. A large crosswalk sign and a neatly drawn zebra mean little to local drivers. As soon as you try to use your pedestrian right, cars will start frantically honking and flashing their headlights at you, as if wondering: “Where are you going?”. With me at a traffic light that was clearly green, a motorcyclist almost hit a woman with a child. Everything worked out, no one was hurt. But it seems that the driver did not realize his mistake and did not even apologize.

In fairness, in Turkey it is not customary to let drivers pass. Leaving a secondary road, many use the rule “who is more arrogant is right.” Otherwise, you can stand at the intersection for hours. I am a driver with ten years of experience, but here I would not dare to drive. Such recklessness for the Turks is not in vain – on the street you can find a lot of dented cars.

Turks become extremely friendly and benevolent as soon as they leave the car. When stocking up on groceries in a store, the cashier will most likely want to treat you to something. I’ve already had sweets dropped several times, and two large mugs appeared in the house as a gift. Refusals in such things are not accepted.

In general, Turkey is very comfortable for Russian-speaking people. On the street, you can easily start a dialogue with someone in your native language. Sometimes only the calls of muezzins to prayer from mosques – five times a day – remind of abroad. But you quickly get used to it, and gradually you even begin to navigate the time of day by these voices.