To be honest, Anna and I had some initial reservations about traveling to Turkey. As our guide at Ephesus nicely put it, “Turkey is in an interesting neighborhood.” Now that our time in Turkey has ended, we can’t say enough good things about the country. We’re so, so glad we decided to travel there. It definitely “wowed” me more than any other country on our trip so far. In just a little over a week we saw ancient history in Ephesus, a one-of-a-kind landscape in Cappadocia and a world-class city in Istanbul…and we barely scratched the surface of all Turkey has to offer. And don’t even get me started on the food. But what we will remember most about our time in Turkey is the people and the millions of laughs we shared. Our guidebook says, “All the peoples of Turkey tend to be family-focused, easy going, hospitable, gregarious and welcoming of visitors.” This, times a million. I’ve never met a group of friendlier, more helpful people in my life. Whenever we were lost looking at our map, somebody would ask us if we needed help finding someplace (and usually walk us halfway there). I can’t tell you how many times we were stopped on the street with, “Hi. Where are you from? How are you liking Turkey so far? Can I offer you some tea?” And no, it’s not just merchants trying to give you the runaround. When I was finding an ATM alone one early morning in Selçuk, and old man approached me and told me I should wear some extra layers because it was going to get cold that day. These are just some small examples of things that would happen everyday.
It’s funny, we wanted to visit Turkey on this trip because it was one of the countries we weren’t sure if we would make a return trip to later in our lives. However, since we’ve been gone, we keep saying, “Let’s do this next time we go to Turkey. Let’s stay here next time we go to Turkey.” Most definitely a special place.
Ciao for Now 