In a way, I feel like I’m cheating when I say I lived in Izmir, Turkey. The main reason is that in the criteria I set out in the beginning of this process of documenting where I lived specified that I needed to be working and paying rent in a place to have it listed…
For those interested in historical tourism, Ancient Greek tourism, or cultural tourism – the Niobe rock is something that should be seen, touched, and meditated upon.
5 Extraordinary Souvenirs to Take Home from Turkey Turkey is one of those destinations that will affect you for the rest of your life. The aesthetics of design, the tastes, the smells – you will never forget a trip to Turkey. Still, it’s nice to have a special souvenir to remember your journey. Here are…
When I go to new places, I like to see the things that one should see in those places. Or at least, I have liked that. I don’t know that I do anymore.
I feel very fortunate to have found and joined the Manisa Tennis and Mountain Club. This club meets every Sunday for adventures in Manisa. Many of the members are mountaineers and this Sunday I joined them for my first mountaineering adventure in Manisa!
Travelers have been coming to Manisa, Turkey for a long time. Ancient Greek, Roman, and Lydian travelers voyaged through the area and in some cases set up homes.
From the Otogar in Ankara which was truly massive with hundreds of buses going to all points in Turkey, we followed Ramazan and got into a cab which took us to the modern and architecturally interesting train station. It was situated near a giant amusement park that made me remember going to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm when I was a kid.
Our friend Darren had told us before we left Morocco that the one place we didn’t want to miss was Fethiye so despite having quite a few other recommendations from other friends, we decided we wouldn’t miss Fethiye. I’m not convinced that it was a terrible place, in fact, it seemed like a very nice place- I just think that maybe having great expectations and coming from our great time in Koycegiz sort of meant Fethiye was destined to be disappointing.
I don’t recommend dunking your whole head under the mud since I got plenty of it in my eyes, ears, and nose. Instead it is better to just rub the mud on your face. It was fairly surreal to climb out and look at all the other mud covered people drying in the sun. Like being on another planet. The mud is slightly radioactive and contains many minerals which are supposed to be very good for your skin and health.
Lake Koycegiz is incredibly gorgeous. The water is rich with minerals and so has a pale turquoise color that reminds me of glacial lakes in Alaska. As we biked around, I though to myself, “This is the real Turkey” because we passed kids on bikes, old guys coming down to the lake shore after work for a swim, friends sitting in the shady grass along the shore, and guys drinking beer on park benches (though these didn’t look like the bums in Union Square of Seattle.)