Answers to 6 questions about Turkiye...

5w1h of Turkiye...


WHAT IS TURKIYE?

Turkiye is the original name of Turkey. As a Turkish person, I prefer this version rather than the English one. Nearly 80 million people live here and as you may guess, most of them live in the big cities. 60% of the population is young; thus, we can actually call Turkiye a young country. Despite its young population, the history of the land is very old. From the beginning of human history, the land of Turkiye, also called Anatolia, has hosted many civilizations. Hittites, who signed the first pact after the war with The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, the Lydians, who have one of the world's most ancient walking trails, called "The Lydian Road" with a distance of 509km, and the people of the ancient Greek city states, where the great philosophers of Greece like Socrates and Platon gave lectures, the Byzantines and Ottomans are the examples. It is also the intersection of the three major religions. The first seven churches of Revelation represent an important visiting route for the Christians.

This land of Turkiye is a mountainous peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea at the north, Aegean Sea at the west and Mediterranean Sea at the south. Its coordinates are 26-45degrees N and 36-42degrees E. It is contagious with Bulgaria at the northwest, Greece at the west, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan at northeast, Iran at east, Syria and Iraq at southeast. It is located both in the Asian and European region. There is no difference in bureaucracy between these two lands and their citizens.

from web

Regardless of the nowadays politics, Turkiye is a secular country; the citizens being mostly Muslim, there are also people from the other religions. Family and family members are important and cared. Number of Turkish titles belonging to family members may show you how important this concept is. Anne, baba, kardeş, teyze, amca, hala, dayı, yenge, enişte, baldız, bacanak, kayınvalide, kayınpeder, anneanne, babaanne, dünür, görümce, kuzen, yeğen, dede, nine. :) ... some of these words may be translated to mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, nephew, grandmother and grandfather. 21 to 9! There is no English name for the rest.

wHOM TO VISIT?
Ok. There are various types of holidays and travelling options in Turkiye. Actually...for everybody. You can have a family with kids, partners, friends, couples or you may visit alone. Bikers, motorcyclists, backpackers, divers, climbers, honeymoon lovers... Just decide what kind of a visit it will be, and who you are coming with.

wHEN TO GO?
Due to its geographical and logistical conditions, Turkey enjoys a variety of climates, earning the country the nickname 'the land of four seasons'. Throughout the year, every month or season you can find a spot that is worth seeing and has a suitable climate. Summer time (June, July, and August) is generally hot with the temperature exceeding 30°C. Temperatures differ due to geographical locations and the east is the winner with over -20°C. Inner parts of the country also have cold winters with many days of minus degrees and snow. Climate of Mediterranean coast is more tropical than any other parts. The rest of the country enjoys a climate between these two.

wHERE TO GO?

from web

For the ones who are interested in history, limit is the sky:) I mean, everywhere on this land is full of history. You have to either draw lots or just follow the famous touristic destinations for history lovers.

Turkiye is a mountainous country as I have mentioned before. It has two big mountain chains. One is at the north; the other is at the south. Both mountain chains start from the back of the coast lines and form a line parallel to the seas. This formation makes them look like a wall while looking from the sea and are generally covered with old forests. They are preferable for tracking and camping. If you are both interested in nature and history, my suggestions will be Mountain Ida at the west and the Mountain Ararat at the east. By the way Mountain Ararat is the highest point of Turkiye (5.137m). It is a dead volcano, famous with the rumor on the Noah's Ark. There are also many other mountains beside these two mountain chains waiting for the climbers.

Aegean and Mediterranean seas offer their crystal blue water and their underwater treasures to their coasts. Water temperature is 23-24 degrees for the Aegean Sea, and 28-29 degrees for the Mediterranean Sea during the hottest months. If you love swimming, sailing, diving +history, you won't regret coming :)

I haven’t even mentioned Istanbul, Capadocia, Ephesus, Trabzon, Iskenderun, Van, Olympus and etc. yet.

wHY TO GO?
Well, it is up to you. As a citizen of this country, I want to explore and learn more about it. I’ve been travelling to the places I've mentioned above, discovering and interiorizing of myself and pursuing to find a place to build up my owned "water mill". Besides, it is the land I was delivered to. The motherland of me.. Through my life I've listened and learned mostly about this land and its people. Now I'm not sure how much of them are true. Travelling through Turkiye makes me find my own truth. Everybody has a different reason for travelling. What is yours?

hOW TO GO?
Turkiye is at the trans-section of the motorways connecting Europe and Asia. Busing may be an option from European countries mainly like Greece and Bulgaria. Although they are slow and not very new, train travel is also a possibility from the west to the east.
When it comes to flights, you can reach here from all around the world as Istanbul is a connecting stop for lots of long-way flights. Besides, there are cheap charter flight companies, through which you can find a good deal.
Now all of us know that Turkiye is surrounded by three seas. So I guess I don't need to mention the cruise lines coming to Istanbul, Izmir, Bodrum or Marmaris for the ones who would like to come by the sea.

Answers to 6 questions about Turkiye... Hope it will help you. Bye for now!

Day 36: Pergamon, a modern antique city in a traditional modern day one

the old city of Pergamon

Bergama is one of the biggest towns of the city Izmir. Still it doesn't look very different from a big village with its people, habbits and accomodations. For this, the best way to visit the ruins of antique city Pergamon is to have a daily visit while staying in Ayvalik. It is a one and a half hour way with minibuses which are passing from the main road of Ayvalik at every hour between 09:00am and 19:00pm. It takes around two or three hours to visit Pergamon proparly. When you reach to Bergama village, you should say 'kale' which means casttle to ask for road description. It was weird to notice that people started looking me with a meaningless look when I was talking about the ruins. There is also a cable lift from the village to Pergamon as it is set on a hill which you can see nearly from every point of the village.

The Temple of Trajan

After the shiny days, the last king of Attalids, Attalus III bequeathed the whole of Pergamon to Rome in order to prevent a civil war as he had no heir. Pergamon became the capital of the Roman province of Asia, before the capital was transferred to Ephesus. Pergamon reached the height of its greatness under Roman Imperial rule and was home to about 200,000 inhabitants around 120 BC. Still its masive temples, amphitheatre, ruins of the gymnasium, arsenals and palaces protect their magnificence. Pergamon's library on the Acropolis (the ancient Library of Pergamum) was the second best in the ancient Greek civilization.

The theater with a seating capacity of 10,000 had the steepest
seating of any known theater in the ancient world

underground passageaway under the temple of Trajan

steps of the Zeus Altar

Pergamon was the most attractive sight I have seen by now. I know Ephesus is also on my way and is also as attractive as Pergamon or maybe even more but the only thing I can say is you should definetely visit Pergamon anyway.

Day 33: Ayvalık, land of islands

Ayvalık on map

islands of Ayvalık

Ayvalık is a town near Aegean Sea. Its roots go back to antique Greek. Its old name was Kydonia which means a wild kind of quince. "Ayva" also means quince in turkish and "Ayvalık" means where quince grows. Today there are not so much quince around Ayvalık. Most seen trees around are olive and pine trees as the rest of this area. Ayvalık is also known as the land of islands as it has 22 big and small islands belonging to itself. Some of these islands have habitats but most of them don't.

Before 1920's, Ayvalık was mostly a Greek town but after the Turkish War of Independence depending to the Population Exchange Law its population had been changed with turkish citizens coming from Greek island Lesbos and Crete and Macedonia. Now the third generation of these habitans are living in Ayvalık. Because the average of age is very high, it is very usual to hear a dead announcement from the town's mosques nearly everyday. People of Ayvalık say that Ayvalık is famous with three things; cats, deaths and insane people. I haven't noticed any insane person on the streets but at the top of the hill of Ayvalık, there is a rehab center.

cats waiting for the fishermen

Ayvalık still has its old time houses

For my opinion Ayvalık is a beautiful town with all its old houses, island views, friendly cats and beautiful sunsets. But still it is away from being a touristic town. First of all there are no beaches around the town. To swim, you have to go to islands or beaches away from the town city. The temperature of the water is low, around 18-20 degrees and the sea is shallow. But despite all these there are very famous spots for divers around Ayvalık. Especialy rich coral reefs and remains of old time sunken ships are very popular for underwater photographers.

sunset from Ayvalık

Day 28: after eleven days of sailing, some valuable information about Blue Voyage

Resim yazısı ekle

Sailing in a 20m turkish gulet for two weeks, following the Lycian route from the sea, visiting the ruins of previous settlers, observing their daily usages by present day habitants, feeling the soul, smelling the iodine of the sea, wishing on the shooting stars... This is an experience which shakes you till your bottom, brings everything out that you have inside, wash you with salty water. 

I have done blue voyage tour twice before. They were all one week tours from Fethiye around Gocek bays. These ones were mostly away from open sea, at sheltered bays. I should except that Gocek bays may be one of the most beautiful bays area of the seas around the world but sailing till Kemer from Fethiye, somedays starting before the sun born just not to be caught to strong wind and waves at open sea makes you understand a little bit about a sailor's life and how small we are when the subject is the nature. This trip will cut all your connection with the world you are living. At some point internet and phone included.

Üçağız Village

Kekova from Simena Castle

We still have three more days to reach to Fethiye but till now we stopped at five special places to go to shore to see the ruins. These places were St. Nicolas Island, Olympos, Simena Castle, Phaselis and Patara. Also visited the harbours and villages of Üçağız, Finike, Çıralı, Kaş, Kalkan and Kemer. Stopped at bays over sixteen to swim or stay for the night like Turunç Pınarı, Ölüdeniz, Ayışığı, Salyangoz, Gökkayalar, Kekova...

Maden Bay where we stayed for one night

Blue voyage at Turkiye is not new. It has a history starting from a famous turkish writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı who is famous with his love to Bodrum and lived between 1890-1973. The turkish gulet type ships first made around Bodrum then spread to other locations of Turkiye. There are several routes of blue voyage that you can choose. They generaly start from Fethiye, Marmaris or Bodrum. Some routes also contain Greek islands like Rhodes, Symi or Kos. Of course these routes are more expensive than the ones around turkish shores. Blue voyage tours has two options... 

Private charter, in which you rent the whole gulet only for you and your group and nobody else. At this form of blue voyage, you have the chance to buy all the ingredients for your meals or leave it to gulet's cook. But in every case drinks will be extra.

Cabin charter, in which you rent a cabin of the gulet and sail with other people who rent the rest of the cabins. In this case, meals belong to the price but again, drinks are extra.

In a turkish gulet generally there are 4-8 cabins and each cabin is for two people. All cabins have their private toilet and shower. Gulets are categorized as standart and luxury. Standart gulets' one day price for private charter starts from 500€ at May, increases to 700€ at July and August, again decreases to 500€ at September. Tours are usually for one or two weeks and it is necessary to make reservation with the payment of %20 in advance. Of course these prices are the avarage rates for you to have an idea. And for the luxury ones these rates can be over 1000€. For cabin charter in a standart turkish gulet, one week for one person is around 400-500€ depending on the month and these prices are also avarage. Although you depend to the cook and his or her talent, you will have a nice and satisfying turkish breakfast, a relatively light lunch, some cookies with the evening tea, fish, meat or chicken with salads and different types of turkish mezes for the dinner. At least this is our menu for this trip with Sultan Suna. 

the turkish gulet named Sultan Suna at Salyangoz(Snail) Bay

Suna and Erdogan are the owners of this lovely turkish gulet Sultan Suna named after Suna. She is also the cook of the ship and a magician in the kitchen. Her fish soup, turkish mezes, traditional style rices and surprises like ottoman deserts are delicious enough to come back. The cabins and the bathrooms are clean as a hotel room and the kitchen as a house. They call themselves as a family boat where they try to make people feel themselves at home. Even when they come with their children.