OOps, I thought you said 'yes'

I've just been sailing between Greece and Turkey, from Marmaris to Bodrum via Simi and Kos and the differences are quite remarkable. You can see Greece from the Turkish mainland, and Turkey from the Dodecanese islands, but they look and feel,very different places.
The Greek islands are mostly a brown, almost barren dryness, broken only by scrubby plants and grey olive trees. The towns though are a tumble of beautiful gleaming white houses, decorated with brilliant flowers, reds, yellows, blues and blue painted doors. Pretty white fishing boats bob on the blue sea, decorated with colours as bright as the flowers. The beaches tho' could do with a clean. Everywhere there are signs of their EU zoneness. New marinas, new roads,(not always finished ), lots of new cars and smart new shops. It's a lot more expensive than I remembered, and people seem a bit less interested in you, bored with tourists but happy to take the valuable euros, in the hours that suit them to open.
The Turkish coast, as you get nearer to Marmaris becomes greener and greener, pine forests reach down to the sea, and the mountains rear up in a blue haze. The Gullets that ply the sea on the 'blue cruise', look impressive but you rarely sea a sail actually set to grace the tall masts. The towns and villages, when you reach them, have an almost temporary look to them, lots of square concrete, and they don't begin to compete with nature.
It isnt so prosperous either, new cars do appear now, but there are still a lot of old ones, and most of the boats that offer trips , or are still used for fishing look a bit worn, less cared for, more used.
The shops though sell great fresh vegetables and meats, and a less international, more challenging, variety of food. Everyone is very friendly. In some places perhaps a bit too keen to entice you in, but its good natured and fun, and you feel very welcome.
The languages, given the physical closeness and the historical mixing, are surprisingly quite quite different. I couldn't even begin to pronounce fron the written greek. It really is all greek to me. Turkish letters I mostly recognise, though after five years I still pronounce them wrongly . Today Greeks vote for Turkish songs and Turks for Greek songs in the Eurovision song contest, so the ancient antagonism seems to be lessened but I realised in a flash of insight, that the language is and has long been, the cause of so much trouble. The greek for 'yes' is 'Nai', pronounced 'Nay', the turkish for ' what' is 'ne' . also pronounced 'Nay'. 3000 years ago the trojan wars were fought between Greeks and Trojans in what is now western Turkey. I bet it all happened because when Paris said ' I say Menelaus old chap. can I shag helen' Menelaus' response of ' NE!!!' meaning 'WHAAAT!!!', was taken as 'nai' meaning 'yes', The rest is history.