What ever happened to politely pulling up your windscreen wipers in anger.

I remember when I first arrived in Turkey. If you had parked in someone else's spot and it was reserved or you were cutting off someone's access to their driveway they would be rightly upset. The following morning both of your windscreen wiper's would be pointing sky-high in an imaginary, "Get the feck out of my driveway" salute. This was fine by me since in the UK you would get a real "Get the feck out of my driveway!" salute and possibly two slashed knifed tires to boot. Don't mess with a driveway in the UK. I had experienced the annoyed but friendlier form of this salute in Turkey and was happy with it because I just closed the windscreen wipers to the original position got in the car and drive away without a hint of remorse. I just have to add, I am very careful when it comes to parking and I don't go out of my way to get on someone's nerves, in fact, completely the opposite.

We had bought a new car and the car had already been slightly scratched by people parking too close. Also as people drive away out of their parking spots and misjudge the distance they scratched the car's bumpers. Someone I believe put a hole in our wing mirror as just another injury. The car was already looking pretty battered paint wise from the amount of damage it had sustained, it was now starting to look old.

My wife being a Türk, being a woman, being a hot headed Mediterranean and being not too dissimilar to the woman in the 'Single White Female' film she decides to park on the street next to ours. I would normally park on the main road but my wife has a thing about walking to far when she can use the car. She likes to go the gym a lot but she doesn't like to walk more than 5 metres from the car to the apartment. So, my wife parks in someone else's spot and although there is no law against this because it is a public spot and not owned by apartment owner who has no rights over it, she parks there and then the following morning there is a huge gouged scratch on the side of the car. "What the feck happened to politely lifting the windscreen wipers?" Had we parked at psycho central? Or was it just some kid who walked past the car and accidentally scratched his belt buckle against the paintwork? The latter is highly plausable because there was a case of this teenage boy who wandered around the streets and doing certain things with sticks and then a bunch of cars ended up scratched. On our street there definitely seems to be a spate of scratching cars with a car key or other sharp object. Anyway! Neyse! It has happened and there is nothing we can do about it now. Lets just hope karma works and if this person continues to do this and other stuff to other people that they get what they deserve.

Beware of Turkish windscreen wiper lifters.

Turkish, Turkey, Windscreen wiper lifters. What does it all mean???


Well, if you are in Turkey and have ever had the unfortunate experience of parking in someone else's spot, or blocking someone in their driveway or parking spot, even for a micro-second, you will promptly have had your windscreen wipers swiftly pulled up in to an erect position.

Is this meant to scare you? I am not sure.

Is this meant to offend you? Probably, but it doesn't.

Is this meant to make you shiver and jump out of your skin and maybe even die in a quivering mess on the floor? Who knows? Who cares?

I don't and didn't care but it leaves you in a state of confusion. Why would anyone think that by doing this it will scald you and make you feel that the wrath of God has been blasted down upon you. Do they think it will make you learn your lesson?

"You'd better not park here again or next time i will lift two windscreen wipers up in to the erect position!"
"Oh no!! Please don't Mr Irate Driver, what will i ever do?"

Of course, all you do is just flip your windscreen wipers back down, non the wiser and your on the road again. The next time you pass this place you think about not parking in the irate driver's spot again and then you say to yourself "screw him/her!" and still go ahead and park there. Once again he/she lifts your windscreen wipers up again. And so the cycle repeats itself. A perpetual scalding that is not really a scalding at all.

If you are a Turk reading this and you can explain why you don't just scratch the other person's car, smash the headlights in, or even bend the windscreen wipers, I'd really like to know? It has to be the politest form of annoyed behaviour i have ever seen.

Drivers! Enjoy your wiper attacks, and be careful you don't put your wipers down to quickly after one of these ferocious wiper-attacks. You see, you may hurt your fingey wingees!!

Izmir-2-Blogger

Driving Lessons In Izmir

For driving lesson and information and driving test information in Izmir you can browse any of the below web addresses i have found but unfortunately for non Turkish speakers they are only in Turkish. If you want to do lessons and then later a test you need to know Turkish inside out especially when informing the testing staff about how a combustion engine works, which i believe is still one of the questions.


Elci Egitim Kurumlari: click here

Metro Surucu Kursu: click here

Ozen Surucu Kursu: click here

A big list of driving instructors and telephone numbers: click here

Motorcycle courses: click here

Happy driving (or at least attempting to, in the crazy driving conditions of Izmir and Turkey as a whole)

Regards,

Izmir-2-Blogger