Atlas Obscura
During the 1960s, the Lale Restaurant became a popular meeting place among beatniks as well as hippies traveling along the famous “hippie trail,” between Europe and South Asia. While enjoying their meals, the customers conversed with one another about their experiences. At this time, the restaurant was a go-to place in the area where travelers could get direct transportation to Asia and tourist information on Turkey. Seeing this, the owners put up a bulletin board to handle messages from people offering or hitching rides, as well as communications between family members, friends, and lovers. One well-known example was a love letter from one “Megan” to “Malcolm,” in which she apologized for “the business down in Greece.”