Turkish Delight

Just got back from an amazing trip to Turkey. We spent 7 days in 5 cities in the western half of the country. The sequence was as follows:

1. Istanbul (2 days)
2. Cappadocia (2 days)
3. Fethiye (1 day)
4. Pamukkale (1 day)
5. Selcuk/Efes (1 day)
If you try to ask anyone on a travel forum about this schedule, they are going to tell you don't do it, its not worth it. Then again, they said the same about our honeymoon schedule, when we saw a city a day. For those on a time budget, its not only possible, but in my opinion, well worth it. Granted, I would have loved to stop and spend a few days in just one place, but lets face it, thats just not going to happen, so we have to make the most out of our flight. I used to do the same at buffet restaurants. I had to make sure that I got the most out of my parents purchase, attaining a record of twenty plates on one occation, and twenty ice cream cones on another (void of ice cream, to spare my siblings an unpleasant aromatic evening).

Anyways, here are a few of the highlights of the trip, as well as some reflections about the trip.

Transfering in Beijing: While many will never have the opportunity, I recommend that if you ever get the chance to transfer in Beijing International Airport, or the equally as likely chance to fly Southern China Air, you turn your back and run as fast and as far as you can. The planes are rather old (sounded like it was falling apart during landing), the transfer waiting room is a quarantine room with nothing to eat, nothing to shop for, nothing to look at, and no exit once you enter (until you get on the plane) and baggage transfer is a
joke. The method: send all baggage onto the carosel, once everyone has picked up their baggage, send a jockey to collect the rest, stack it in a big stack on a cart, and push it off to some mysterious place, where, hopefully, it makes it onto your connecting flight on time.

Istanbul, however, is a beautiful city to visit. There is so much color, sounds, smells, LIFE. We were only able to visit a few mosques and bazaars while we were there, but the beauty found inside was unparalleled, the food delicious, and the people are hands down the kindest people I have ever met. Upon arrival at the airport, at 12:30 in the morning, a quick call to the hotel to say we are coming a day early... no problem... and a quick taxi ride later and the manager is waiting outside the door, waiting to greet us. During the day, any time we looked even remotely lost or confused for a moment, someone would come up to us and ask us if we needed help. Anytime we asked for directions, people always helped with a smile. If they didn't know, they would find someone who did. All this during Ramazan, a time of fasting from 4 in the morning till 9 at night. I am talking hard core fasting, no food, no drink, no cigarettes (Turkish seem to love tobacco), no kissing, no gum... the list goes on and on. Oh, and no drink also includes that fancy stuff called H 2 O. Yeah, its that hard core. And yet, throughout our journey, we never once encountered someone who was annoyed by our inquiries, or grumpily shooed us away.

While it was great to be surrounded by such kind hosts, there were some downsides as well. For one, to even begin to understand the cultures of Turkey (it seems there was a plurality of culture), would take far more than the 7 days that we had allocated to it. Turkey is an Islamic state, however it is very liberal towards religion and very accepting and understanding of other religions. But it is still an Islamic state with a very high degree of participation from its citizens. Many women had head scarves to cover their hair. Some had full coverage of their entire bodies. And yet some women were completely lacking in such formalities, being the ideal western woman, running their own businesses. This really made it difficult to understand women's role in Turkish society. It also made it quite unclear to what extent any PDA shared between two people who haven't seen eachother for several months would be judged as acceptable to the locals.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I shall be sharing some of our experiences from Turkey, including architecture, nature, food, and adventures. I hope everyone enjoys and can feel as if they themselves were there.

Enjoy, and if you want to know more about anything, feel free to leave a comment.