Ah, the dolmuş—Turkey's answer to public transit and a master's degree in sociology rolled into one.
For the uninitiated, a dolmuş is a shared minibus that operates somewhere between a taxi and a bus, with a business model best described as “seat-of-your-pants capitalism.”
There are no apps, no formal schedules, and certainly no passenger limits that would pass safety inspections in the West. I love it. I especially love watching the driver count change, smoke, and talk on the phone all while swerving through bustling Anatolian streets.
To catch one, you flag it down like a boss, hop in, squeeze yourself into a space smaller than your ego allows, and pass your fare hand-over-hand to the driver.
It’s a beautifully chaotic ecosystem of humanity: old ladies clutching grocery bags, teenagers in their rebellious stage blasting pop music through earphones, and me, the foreigner who still doesn’t know the Turkish for “Let me off!”
Today, I took a little video on my time on the dolmus on my way to a lesson.
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