WHEN IN ROME....................

I drove to Cappadocia recently, a trip taking about 13hrs, with a friend who shared the driving. He was a bit nervous, he hadn’t driven in Turkey before, and he asked me for a few tips on driving, which I gave to him. We had a very pleasant trip, the scenery on the way was stunning, and afterwards he said I should pass on my hints – so here goes.
The First thing you have to remember that you are the Only person on the road, and it all belongs to you. When you have an obstruction on your side, say a parked car or a pedestrian, - you can pull out and it is up to any traffic which may be coming towards you to get out of your way.
Similarly when overtaking, particularly on bends, you can pull out whenever you want to. If someone overtakes you, you should move towards them as they go past, to see who they are.
When driving around bends -use the entire road, in fact the middle of the road is the best place to stay, it shortens the journey and it is less tiring for you to drive. It is also easier to talk on your mobile phone as there is less steering to do. One useful tip is to use the double white lines as a guide, a wheel either side is ideal, and people will often wave cheerily at you as you come towards them on their side of the road.
At traffic lights , the sequence is – green , which means GO, followed by orange, meaning GO, then red - that means GO, If someone stops in front of you at lights, you must hoot your horn furiously ,then hoot again when the count down gets to 8, so you can get away at 3.
At ‘T’ junctions you stop when YOU are level with the end of your road. That means that the front of your car is protruding into the junction, and gives you the best view of traffic braking or swerving to avoid you.
On dual carriageways and at roundabouts, or crossroads, be careful as taxis have special privileges, for them the left hand lane is for turning right, and the right hand lane is for turning left. The middle lanes can be used for either direction or for turning
Remember that Pedestrians have special rights. They have to walk with their backs to traffic; that way you cannot hit them because they cannot see you. Scooters also have specific rules, No less than 3 people and no more than 7 are allowed on any one scooter at the same time. They don’t need to give signals and when they hit you from behind it’s your fault, you should NOT have stopped, - how could they see you when they were turning round to talk to their friend behind them.
Have fun and drive carefully - iyi yolcluklar.