From Turkey with love
With one leg in Europe and the other one in Asia, Turkey knows how to welcome its visitors. From Edirne, Konya and ancient Cappadocia, down to Antiochia from the “other” Turkey whith no 5 star tourist resorts, no yachts or swimming pools, people are just as eager to communicate.
Turkey is so alive. Everything is so immense but despite this so familiar. Museums, churches, palaces, mosques build up an endless world which gave me a sense of freedom of beginnings. I’ve got lost on the crowded streets on the banks of Bosporus. In Konya I saw the whirling dervishes that carry their grave stones as hats and in Cappadocia I walked to where religion, nature and history have created one of the most impressive wonders of the world.
Anywhere you look, something is sold on every corner. The merchants ask you where you are from, then say “Hadji” (much known Romanian soccer player) and “Good Evening”. I saw the black fabric clad women always walking a step behind their men, the elderly men with red hats wearing the high nose slippers and the shoe-shiners lined on the side of bazaars filled with oriental spices. The Red Crescent flag is ubiquitous. The towns are full of cats. Everywhere on the street, people feed them. At noon the mosques resound of faith of Allah. It is both fascinating and terrifying.
Turkey always knew how to negotiate and survive during centuries of political, philosophic and cultural revolutions. Reconciliation between conflicting goals, the ongoing confrontation between East and West, traditional and modern is the great challenge which this fascinating nation is facing right now.
From Turkey with love
With one leg in Europe and the other one in Asia, Turkey knows how to welcome its visitors. From Edirne, Konya and ancient Cappadocia, down to Antiochia from the “other” Turkey whith no 5 star tourist resorts, no yachts or swimming pools, people are just as eager to communicate.
Turkey is so alive. Everything is so immense but despite this so familiar. Museums, churches, palaces, mosques build up an endless world which gave me a sense of freedom of beginnings. I’ve got lost on the crowded streets on the banks of Bosporus. In Konya I saw the whirling dervishes that carry their grave stones as hats and in Cappadocia I walked to where religion, nature and history have created one of the most impressive wonders of the world.
Anywhere you look, something is sold on every corner. The merchants ask you where you are from, then say “Hadji” (much known Romanian soccer player) and “Good Evening”. I saw the black fabric clad women always walking a step behind their men, the elderly men with red hats wearing the high nose slippers and the shoe-shiners lined on the side of bazaars filled with oriental spices. The Red Crescent flag is ubiquitous. The towns are full of cats. Everywhere on the street, people feed them. At noon the mosques resound of faith of Allah. It is both fascinating and terrifying.
Turkey always knew how to negotiate and survive during centuries of political, philosophic and cultural revolutions. Reconciliation between conflicting goals, the ongoing confrontation between East and West, traditional and modern is the great challenge which this fascinating nation is facing right now.
