But actually in this kind of trips we usually are able not only to see another country with different eyes, but to look at ourselves from a different perspective as well. During this period we started to know the real Turkey. Ramadan suppers, the ways how religion influences behavior, the multiplicity of sounds, Syrian refugees, a visit to a brothel, living in Turkish family, conversations with foreigners who decided to stay in this country; then coming back to Lithuania and communicating with Turks who developed critical approach to their countryβ¦ All this was turned into stories that are a key to a different Turkey β without the glamour of seaside resorts, and this key was helping to open authentic doors to this country.
Today it was more difficult than ever. The flat we were staying in seemed depressingly empty. We felt as if the traveler took all the quietness with him, and the walls of the flat were made of melancholy. Do you know the odd feeling when it seems that you are growing up too quickly? Growing with such inhuman speed that it tears all your body apart? It was too much of everything β emotions, people, knowledge, news. When you feel this way, no experience is able to unsettle you.
When our Turkish friends heard of this idea they were perplexed and could not understand what we were going to do there. But Godze was quick to understand. We took our cameras and voice recorders with us. I also took a piece of paper and a pen β somehow I had a feeling that they will be more useful to me in the upcoming confrontation.
There were busses that run regularly to the brothel, but we found out that only when we arrived there. And before that we argued with taxi drivers who persistently tried to dissuade us. What are you going to do there? It was surrounded by wire fence and was enlivened only by blue and pink-painted walls.
Security guards were keeping an eye on 6 houses within the structure that was inhabited by 7 girls. We could not verify if there were really 7 of them because we as women were not permitted to enter the premises. It was a citadel for men.
