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Hold onto your hats, I have a story. (I've changed some names)

After leaving the internet cafe last night, we (Torben- Germany, Daniel- Denmark, and Clement- France) went to get something to eat and drink. We ended up at this somewhat clear bar whose walls are plastered with Turkish movie posters. Time moved on, and after my friends have a couple beers, the pub closed.

At this point, we move across the street to some hip place. Dim lights, everything shaded reddish orange. Chill out music playing. Beads hanging from the wall. Tipsy Turkish men and women sitting on trendy sofas and bean bag pillows making lots of noise, and so on. I have one beer, because I knew it'd be a long night if I didn't. The guys had 2 more. We stayed there until they had put all the furniture away and kicked us out once again (around 2:30am).

Of course, the guys want another beer, so we wander a bit down the road. Daniel says he'll sell me to the taxi driver and they can get 3 camels for me. Hardy har har.

We finally find this place with LOUD Turkish music. Daniel says he has a good feeling about this, so we go in. There's a guy greetng us at the door, and then someone sits us at a booth table. The booth faces the stage which has a skanky looking Turkish woman in a tight, shortblack skirt singing. The rest of the tables are full, mainly with men, some with their skanky girlfriends. Some woman wearing stiletto heels and fishnet stockings sits next to the guy at the booth next to us.

The waiters start by offering us different plates of appetizers which we refuse. The guys only came here to drink. It's hard for a tipsy German-speaker to explain that to the Turkish waiter. The guys each get a beer, I have a tea (we drink tea all the time). They decide to go to another place, so we ask for the bill.

70 freakin' liras!! That's about 53 USD for having a drink and sitting down for a half an hour. We ask the table next to us, they assure us we're not being ripped off. Torbin doesn't want to pay that much. 20 lira (15 USD) for one beer was too much for him, but they don't barter there. They thought we had language miscommunication problems. We paid our outrageous bill and left after 20 minutes of failed haggling. We didn't tip anyone, not even the guy at the door who held his hand out for money.

10 lira (7 USD) is hopefully the most I will ever pay for a tea. Needless to say, we didn't make METU's midnight curfew and I got to my room at 3:30 am.

[Edit] On the 17th, Torben finally brought it to my attention that the expensive place we stumbled upon was actually a Turkish brothel. I guess that would explain the woman in fishnet stockings and the waiter asking the guys if they had girlfriends. I am quite oblivious to such things.