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Turkey is a country that completely captivated my soul and stimulated my senses. Out of the some odd 25 foreign countries that I have been to in my life, Turkey is by far and away my favorite. Within its borders lie everything a traveler could want. The west is full of beautiful beaches, amazing archaeological sites, and plenty of opportunities to party the night away. As you cross over to the eastern part of the country you discover an undiscovered treasure full of a very rich and exotic middle eastern culture (Turkey boarders Syria, Iraq, and Iran). However, the area is void of any type of tourism and tourist leaving the culture and daily interactions real and the traveling a true experience. I have never had such an authentic experience . . . i was seeing the real turkey not the tourist version . . . absolutely amazing.

Turkey : The Wildest Place I Have Ever Been

Andy Wunder
2007-04-19 22:57:13

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it to me for free.¨

¨we meet these two Turkish guys in the street (two of the many that we spoke with that day . . . not to mention every kid that wanted to say hi) and ended up speaking with them for an hour. we invited them to dinner and they in turn invited us to a home made dinner at their house. the dinner turned out to be hard core Turkish . . . difficult at times for me to eat (i actually threw it all up later that night). . . but the night was filled with a lot of laughs and plenty of hand signs as only one of the family could speak English. they invited us to stay at their place the next night and we agreed. the next night we went to the grocery store and bought food to cook dinner with. we went back to their house and cooked some Italian pasta. we spent the rest of the night playing with the kids and playing tavala (back gammon), a game that Turks are crazy about . .. we laid our bedding on the roof (it´s to hot to sleep inside, temperatures regularly get up to 120F during the day) and watched shooting stars as we fell asleep.¨

¨the city that is about 15km from the Syrian boarder. it is draped over a hill and has an incredible view of the sun blazed Syrian planes. i meet three Turkish university guys. they walked around with me all day showing me the sites. we had dinner and then they took me to their uncles shop where we had tea and more traditional food.¨

¨i was off to a village named Hassenkyf . . . ended up wandering around the castle and bumped into about 10 locals that were about my age. (they were excavating the castle because it turns out that the Turkish government has plans to build a dam that will flood this thousand year old village (IMF funded, hmmm) . . . they were so excited to meet me that when they found out i played soccer, they organized a game for when they got off work. lets just say that soccer in the desert is very very hot . . . i almost died . . . and that says a lot because after 5 months of ...