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Also while waiting for a lift, have your backpack on the ground ''in front of'' your feet, in a position that is easily visible and recognizable as a backpack by passing by drivers. As many will admit, seeing a large backpack and camping gear such as a mat always makes Turkish drivers more comfortable with the idea of letting a stranger in their car—since it kind of proves that you are travelling on budget, not a serial killer—and thus enabling you te get far quicker lifts.
== Getting In ==
== Safety ==
Following the [[Pippa|recent events]] in April 2008, this [http://youarealltourists.blogspot.com/2008/04/hitchhiking-guide-to-turkey-for-girls.html hitchhiking guide to Turkey for girls] might be an interesting piece to read for everyone (not only for girls) who's planning to hitchhike in Turkey. Safety is always important while hitchhiking, so check the [[Safety]] article before going out to wave your thumb!
===Women hitchhiking in Turkey===
A personal story:
:My friend and I (both female) hitched through Turkey from the Greek border to Kappadokya and it was quite stressful. We never waited long for a ride and most of the people we rode with insisted on buying us chai (just tea) and meals. However, I would say that with about 90 percent of our rides we got our butts, boobs, or crotches grabbed, or at least asked for sex. There is a hand sign in Turkey that means sex, which is quite different from that we have seen in America (much nicer, actually) you just rub your two pointer fingers together back and forth. It took us a while to figure out what that meant! We had to make our driver leave us on the side of the road a lot in the middle of nowhere so that was kinda dangerous. And it took us about 10 hours to make it 25 miles from just before Istanbul to just past the city. People kept trying to take us into the city or someplace we didn't want to go. We were so glad when we finally made it out of Turkey at the Bulgarian border. It was an adventure though and I would recommend traveling through Turkey, just be aware that all of the other women standing on the side of the road are prostitutes. It was all just a giant misunderstanding and a lack of respect, to some extent, on our part, for the local culture. When hitching here maybe you can learn how to say "we are just traveling and we aren't looking for sex may we still have a ride" before getting in a vehicle. For the record, our drivers always let us out when we told them too and nothing dramatic happened beyond the daily grabbings.
== Climate ==