This book will prove helpful to tourists who will have noticed that they usually don’t understand the answers they get to the questions in their phrase book. How many times have you seen a woman at the market lift her eyebrows to the sky and click her tongue when you asked her for out-of-season veggies, or a waiter tilt his head sideways and nod gently with a slow blink of his eyes, to say ‘yes, we have the perfect table for you, quiet with a view of the Bosphorous (see Var / Yaparız Abi page).
 
Now you will know what all this means, and you will be better prepared for physical demonstrations that otherwise might chip away at your comfort zone: intense a(ection towards children like cheek pinching and kissing, hair patting, and general squeezing accompanied by the words “ I could eat you;” men holding hands or walking arm in arm, touching each other’s legs while chatting or leaning on each other; or you, the visitor, being held by the forearm and forcibly turned around to face the right way when you ask for directions. Allow yourself to ease into the grace of the moment, be touched by Turkish hands.