Turkey Time

High above it all

We used to use Turkey as an escape from Schengen and the pitiful Brexit restrictions on our travel in Europe nowadays - thanks to the gullible souls who voted for that, hope it improved your lives a little. Now we come to Turkey because we love it, super-friendly people, great weather, inexpensive plus an amazing landscape and associated history to explore. We have only really started exploring the southeastern corner between Bodrum and Antalya which amounts to about 5% of the country, there is a huge interior still to go at. The coastal strip is often heavily developed and caters for holidaymakers from across Europe and further afield, but get away from this and you can really step back in time, with more tractors and mules on the roads than cars.

Wayside animal feeder and water bowl

On mentioning Turkey we quite often get a bit of a sideways look and 'oh, I'm not too sure about that as a destination' - which is rather odd really - there are a lot of police around and checkpoints with armed officers on some main roads, but to us it feels as safe as anywhere in Europe. It is worth mentioning the openness and friendly nature of everyone we meet - it really is refreshing.

River boat and 2,500 year old tombs

And of course there is the way the Turks treat the stray animals, almost every street corner has feeding stations and water for the cats and dogs, most of which appear to be sterilised - "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Mahatma Gandhi 

Any finally I read recently that Erdogan will not trade with Israel until the Gaza situation is resolved - I rest my case!