I am from Australia and first came to Turkey in 2000. After travelling the country for 1 month and attending ANZAC day dawn services I headed down to Kusadasi and now 3 years later I am still here. The Turkish people are very friendly and welcome foreigners with open arms. I was unsure about visiting Turkey before I arrived here. I had backpacked through the Middle East and Turkey was my last stop before heading into Europe and now I am still waiting to get to Europe!!!
Upon arrival to Antakya from crossing the Syrian border into Turkey my first encounter with Turkish people was very friendly and I felt at ease immediately. I was not expecting this, as on entering other countries such as Egypt, Syria, Dubai my first thoughts where be careful watch your back these guys look dodgy!! However in Turkey the feeling was total opposite I felt comfortable immediately and this was in a part of Turkey where English isnt commonly spoken.
After organising a bus I did the long haul, 23 hours to Istanbul and on arrival discovered one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited in my life. Istanbul is massive something like 15 million people, but it is very clean and the people are so friendly even the carpet salesmen!!!!!! Sultanahmet is the backpackers district with heaps of accommodation and night life plus all the sites, The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Underground Cistern, Grand Bazzar, Topkapi Palace, Bosphorus, the list goes on.
After a week in Istanbul I ventured to Gallipoli to pay my respects to ALL those men who fell at Gallipoli. A crazy war where so much life was wasted but ironically a great friendship was built between 3 countries as a result of this war.
The Australians and New Zealanders came to Gallipoli to fight the Turkish under orders of the British army and this was expected to be an easy victory, how wrong the British were. The Turkish fought valliantly for more than 9 months and eventuaaly the allied troop s retreated, handing victory to Turkey. They had defended their country.
An experience I will never forget, attending the dawn services and I have been back every year since and have toured the Gallipoli battlefields atleast 10 times.
After Gallipoli I ventured south and travelled the Aegean and Meditterranean coasts, I was amazed at the amount of tourist attractions and ancient sites Turkey has to offer, to many to list.
Do yourself a favour and come visit this beautiful country, even in this time of war Turkey is still very safe and we would not even know there was a war going on if we didnt have television!!!!!!!
By:Luke Koenitz
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