>>903720That's what I mean... actually I had a couple touts approach me on Istiklal Cadesi, and one near the Hagia Sofia. On Istiklal Cadesi, one slick-looking guy in a business suit offered us whores, hash, whatever drugs we might want, even gave us a card with just a phone number on it. Another tried to lure us into a brothel. Another offered us tours and such, but no one was really that pushy (compared to Egypt, say).
I had a 'poor helpful shoe shine guy' scam us when I was with a couple of guys from the hostel. He dropped a brush 'by accident' while running past, and being the nice foreigners, we called out to him to give it back. In return he offered us a 'free' shoe shine (with filthy street water and a dirty tooth-brush, we all had canvas sneakers on). Naturally, when it was over, it suddenly wasn't free and then the sob story came out. My alarm bells went off immediately and I gave him nothing and told him off, but there was a Brazilian guy with us who felt bad I guess, and gave 5 YTL. Then the bastard straight up asks for more, and all the Brazilian had was a 50 YTL which he gave over. I was trying to tell him not to, but whatever. That's less than $30, but still, for what? Fucking gypsies.
But still, overall, Turkey was a breeze compared to all the hassles of Egypt and Morocco.
