A Warning For Everyone That Will Travel To Turkey Or Other Eastern Countries.(Food Poisoning)

If you read my previous post, i have announced that i would go to Turkey for my cousins wedding. I was his best man and i had to arrange alot for the wedding.

The days until the wedding

We landed in turkey on May 3th and the wedding was in the evening of May 6th. We had a couple of days to arrange things and also just chill and enjoy the delicious food the city offers. Everything went well, on the 6th i had arranged everything and i was sure that the wedding would be great.

The wedding

The wedding was amazing. I brought a bottle of Chivas and some others brought other liqour so we could losen our muscles. The bottles went empty pretty fast which resulted in nice dance moves paired with funny actions by people. The guy who drove the wedding car was the most drunk of us all, which didn't seem to be a problem in Turkey. After the wedding we took of with a couple of cars, traditionally escorting the married couple to their new home. On the road, we took every chance to step out of the car and dance while waiting for the traffic lights to turn green. I have to say, i had alot of fun!

The day after

I woke up early in the morning and i thought i was having a hangover. I immedeatly threw up everything that i had eaten. This evening, i had another wedding which was not that important as my cousin's. I was just a guest for this one but still i had to be there. After throwing up everything i had eaten i went back to bed. I woke up in the evening, i had slept around 12 hours after i already woke up from a good night sleep. I never sleep this much, not even after drinking alot. When i woke up, i went to throw up again but nothing was left in my stomach. I don't want to mention this, but the throwing up was not the only thing happening, i also had diarrhea. Apart from those, i was also tired all the time and could not eat anything. My family begged me to go to the hospital where they treat everyone the same way; you get a serum and they tell you that you should be ok. I refused to go because i did not trust a treatment like that, i wanted to become better with my own strength and i was sure i would be okay.

The day before the flight back

It was May 8th, the day after i got sick. I was feeling a bit better but that did not mean i was feeling okay. Every hour that passed made me feel worse. Everything i ate, was getting out again one way or another. In the night i realized that i was flying back to Holland tommorow, i wouldn't be able to fly like this. You can imagine, i wanted to go home as soon as possible so i decided to go to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctor could see me right away. It was a special hospital where we payed cash (around 60TL = 12 euro's) to see me and treat me. The doctor layed his hand on my stomach after hearing my complaints, he touched my stomach for around 5 seconds and said that i was having a food poisoning.

How could he know what i had after just touching my stomach for a couple seconds? I did not trust it but i went for the serum that they gave everyone. I think it's just full of pain killers, but i still wanted it just to feel well enough to travel back home tommorow. After doing a blood test it was certain, i really was having a food poisoning.

I got poisoned at Burger King

Before going to Turkey i knew they had a meat problem there. Food company's were mixing other meat and bad meat with each other to keep selling food. Not all of them did this, but alot do. Knowing this, i promised my self to only eat at home or somewhere where i would trust it.

On the day of the wedding i took my wife and mom to the hairdresser. It is traditional for women to spend alot of hours there to get their hairs and make up done for the wedding. Meanwhile, i was at the shopping center being a tourist in my own country. I was checking prices and comparing them to euro prices in Holland. It was fun and i bought some cool stuff. I got hungry and went to the food court where many restaurants were placed. Out of the many, i chose Burger King. The reason for this was that i knew them and there were ALOT of people in line to order. This meant that they were doing a good job, or else there would be no line(like in front of the McDonalds which poisoned me before).

I ordered a Big King menu since they had a special action causing it to cost less than the others. While writing this, i realize that this was a bad decision.

You might wonder, how did i know that it was Burger King which poisoned me? Well, we went there with a group of people. We made sure we always ate together, wherever we went. We did that and everything was fine untill i was alone at the shopping center and had to eat. Basically, that Burger King is the only place where i was eating alone. All other places we ate together, even at home. Burger King had to be the place where i was poisoned, because i was the only one that got poisoned. We all ate the same things everyday, we even drunk the same things everyday (including the Whisky).

Everyone be warned!

I wrote about this because i want everyone to know that this can happen to any of you. It has been over 1 week now and i'm still feeling terrible. I still have trouble eating and get tired early for no reason at all. This is not something you want to deal with during your vacation, something you probably have saved up alot of money for. Try to eat at places you know or try to make your own food. Cheap food= bad food, spend money on your food. Your health is the most important of all.

Final Notice

Turkey or any other eastern country has no blame in this. The food there is delicious but like many places we have to watch out where and what we eat. The problem there is bigger than in western countries, but that does not mean this problem does not exist in western countries.