"This is the Country [they] live in."

Last night we ventured out to a soccer game at the Olympiat Stadium … GalataySarat (sp?) played PSV. We waited on the public service bus for about 45 minutes before taking off for the Stadium. And the Turks on board were NOT happy. Me? I was just glad we were inside and warm, and it’s quite a phenomenon how you don’t get as riled up about stuff when you can’t understand the argument . But here’s a synopsis as translated to us: The bus wasn’t leaving because the driver didn’t know how to get to the Stadium! Now, let me remind you – this was the public service bus FOR THE GAME. We had to show our tickets just to get on the bus. But they didn’t know how to get there. Alif, a local friend, explained: “This is the country we live in. They build a Stadium that can hold 72,000 people, and they forget to build roads to it.” This became quite a comical time for all of us, perhaps climaxing when Ally realized “We’re protesting with the Turks!”.



Well, eventually we did pull out of the station and somehow the driver found his way to the Stadium – right in time for kick off (which was at 9:45 PM!). The Turks don’t mess around when it comes to soccer. As we walked towards the Stadium, it sounded like we were walking into a crowd of Orcs on Lord of the Rings – just the sheer power in their voices and preparatory cheering. And it didn’t slow down … they remained passionate throughout the entire game, and when it became clear they were going to lose, it also became clear why the hundreds of police officers had been stationed around. As they brought out their riot gear, we took that as our exit cue.