Many of the visitors at the site have been to Turkey multiple times. How about a paragraph of what your expectations were before you came the first time, what your first impressions were once you got here, and finally, how your views have changed since your last visit here.
(My God, this sounds like a school assignment, but there has to be some funny stories here...)

I first went to Turkey, Gumbet 15 years ago, i imagined a third world country, with people wearing tradional muslim long clothes..... ha ha how wrong i was, i went to the most friendly place on earth, the only problem then was the four and half hour flight plus the four hour coach journey, that was until Bodrum airport opened..... Since then i have been going back to Turkey 3 or 4 times a year as i find the people, the food and the culture, the best ive ever seen..... Hopefully this year i wil move out there once i have learned the language, with the help of the Turkish sites on the computor,my good friend Ayla and my new Turkish language school which i will attend in February........

I thought it would be dirty and unsafe. I even went to my GP and had a hepatitis jab even though I have a fear of needles!
Couldn't have been more wrong. Instantly fell in love with the place and had a real sense of it being where I was supposed to be, I'm sure I lived there in a former life.

12 years and many visits later have bought a house near Fethiye and want to move there sometime in the future

To be honest, I didn't have an expectaion on Turkey. I never do when travelling. I just make the most of it when out there. Speaking/laughing/dancing with the locals....always great fun! It's the best way to go I think. You get the real way of life in anothers then

As for a funny moment...should I reveal it?

Before going there for the first time I thought I'd see a land of the savage and a bunch of hairy guys walking five metres in front of their wives dragging a donkey. I don't have to tell you that what I saw was absolutely different. Istanbul shocked me and made me fall in love with it instantly. Since then I have returned to Turkey three times visiting Bursa, Ankara, Izmir, Side, Ephesus, Pammukale and many other places. Still, I cannot free myself from Turkish obsession and I wish I could go there in the near future, which, unfortunately, is out of the question for at least three more years

Funny stories? I could write a book about them!

Reading this thread, it suddenly occurred to me that I can't even remember what my expectations were.. My first time in Turkey was in Istanbul, 2 1/2 years ago. I felt very excited because it would be my first travel on my own. But as soon as I got there, the city captured me. I know my way around Istanbul better than I do in some nearby places in my own country I jumped up and off buses and boats as if I had done it for years I realized that knowing a couple of Turkish words brings you to places you would never see otherwise. One day I wanted to go to a kahvehane on Çamlıca hill, took the dolmuş, started walking up the hill, but couldn't find it. A taxi driver stopped, but the guy didn't speak any English. All I could stutter out was "kahvehane - manzara çok güzel". The guy replied "aaaahhhh!!!" and in 2 minutes I was enjoying a tea and the stunning Istanbul skyline in the garden of that place
Offf, so many memories and impressions spring to my mind, I'd better write an essay but I wouldn't know where to start... and I haven't even mentioned anything about Kapadokya and Bördübet yet...
Anyway, I hope to see much more of this challenging country..

We first went to Turkey almost by accident. A week before we were due to go to the Greek island of Poros in 1988 there was a terrorist attack on a Greek ferry in the Aegean with many people killed and injured.The travel agent switched our holiday to Altınkum where we had a really wonderful time.In those days there was only a handful of hotels very few swimming pools but a lovely beach.There were power cuts every night but it did not lessen our enjoyment.We have been going back to Turkey 2 or 3 times a year ever since. My wife does not enjoy travelling so much these days so I sometimes come over myself to Hisarönü where I enjoy walking in the Kayaköy valley.

Ahhhh Kayakoy, thats where my love for Turkey became almost obsessive. I spend hours every year wandering around there. I know so many people now and have more friends there than in my own street in UK! Absolutely magical

first went to Turkey in 2003 i think and i fell in love with it straight away i have been back dozens of times since and have been lucky enough to see so much more of the country rather than just the holiday resorts, althought they are beautiful. All that travelling to different parts of Turkey became a reality when i met my wonderful fiance.Maşallah.

First time I went to Turkey was in February 2006, I wanted just a city trip as a rewarding for myself after a nasty divorce. Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna I had been there so I thought why not Istanbul? I expected a big city, nothing more, nothing less. I got caught by the people, the culture, everything. For my summer holiday I went back in May and June 2006 and I travelled 37 days through the middle and east, backpacking all by myself. Then I met that man I fell in love with and I returned to Istanbul to meet him again - not a good decision I can tell now. Fourth time was in October/November together with my sister because I had three weeks autumn holiday and I didn't want to spent them by myself here in Holland. It became Alanya, to see some culture things and to be honest because it was cheap. The fifth time was only 3 weeks ago, I went to Kuşadası for seeing marvellous sites and meeting a friend from Turkish Class. Now I am planning a new trip to the south, east and north probably in June and July 2007. And what I did, saw and who I've met during these trips I already wrote in my essays.