Elocution on strangest place I have ever visited
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I’ve slept in some really weird places – trains, gers, tents in the middle of nowhere, cars – but a little apartment in Istanbul was the strangest I have experienced to date. In fact I’m sitting in the living room of the shared apartment now and I can hear the drilling – a constant hum – but the windows are closed and the drilling isn’t coming from outside – it’s coming from inside. The drilling isn’t from construction of a building or home repair – instead the drilling noise comes from the construction and repair of teeth.
I’m staying in a dentist office.
As the eternal budget traveler, I decided to book a room in a shared apartment for the last 5 days of my stay in Istanbul. I have done many shared apartments before and they are generally all great. But I never saw this one coming – this apartment in Istanbul completely floored me with it’s strangeness. It was amusing to me to be in such a situation, but more than that it was fascinating for me to learn just how much American and Turkish culture is different when it comes to visiting the dentist.
When I saw the cute little room and apartment online I exchanged emails with the Irem who was managing the place for her parents who didn’t speak much English. Via email she told me that no one lived there and that her father simply came in each day from 9 to 6 and is in the apartment but that he doesn’t stay there overnight and I would have the place to myself. I thought this was slightly odd – but maybe her father needed a man cave or something and he came to the apartment to get away and have peace and quiet.
Irem met me at the apartment entrance and walked me up the 3 flights of stairs to the apartment where there was a big sign on the door. I tried to slowly pronounce it with my slight understanding of Turkish pronunciation and asked, “What does Dis Hekimi mean?”
Irem replied, “Dentist” so the mystery was solved, her father was a dentist. Once again I thought – that’s strange for a retired dentist to be renting out his office, but it was a bed and I wasn’t going to overthink it too much.
I walked in, put my bags down and surveyed the place. It was a lovely 4 bedroom apartment with a nice view. Two of the rooms were bedrooms and the other two were dental rooms. The apartment sort of smelled like a dentist office – a sterile sweet smell that immediately brings childhood memories of trips to the dentist rushing back.
When Irem left I was quite surprised that the dental room with all of the equipment was left completely open – heck I could sit in the chair if I wanted – but I didn’t…at least not yet. After an hour, Irem’s father, Dr. Mustafa , showed up and sat at the desk in the living room and read a magazine. We couldn’t really communicate due to the language difference, so I could only conjure up explanations in my head and thought once again that he must be retired and this must be a ‘get away’ apartment for him .
The next day the bell rang and I buzzed the mail delivery person in. He came up to the apartment and delivered teeth to me for Dr. Mustafa. It was at that moment where my mind’s explanation of the retired dentist started to crumble. I looked at the teeth in the plastic envelope, thanked the man, and placed the small package on Dr. Mustafa’s desk.
Dr. Mustafa showed up that afternoon with a friend and I heard them talking in the dental room and as I got up to refill my tea in the kitchen I noticed that they were doing their afternoon prayers (Salah) – which made me feel slightly odd and intrusive – but I went back to the living room and kept working.
Two other women arrived and Dr. Mustafa let them in and led them to the living room where I was sitting in my bare feet, shorts, tank top and working away on my laptop. The women sat down and Dr. Mustafa chatted with them in Turkish – soon they all walked away down the hall and that’s when I heard it – the drill.
The door to the dental room was left open and my ears perked up to the noise. My mind went into overdrive as I thought…this is totally strange. For the next 40 minutes the drilling went on, some slight yelps of pain came from the room, and then finally it was finished. The women came out with Dr. Mustafa and sat with me again on the couch (which I realized is actually the waiting room) – they talked a bit and then said goodbye to me and left
Then was time for Dr. Mustafa and Deniz to ‘get to work’ and soon they disappeared down the hall and the drilling started up again.
Since it was the only room with air conditioning, and it was horribly hot in Istanbul…of course I sat in the chair and worked in the evenings! Wouldn’t you?!
Answer:
Man thank you for this ☺️ questions