My husband and İ have been travelling for two and a half weeks now and are having a great time. We started in İstanbul on the 12th of May and went first to Ankara then north via Safronbolu to the Black Sea coast at Amasra.From there all the way to Georgia stopping at İnebolu Sınop Ãœnye and Trabzon. From there we diverted into the Kackars (Ayder)and had a wonderful couple of days in the mountains. We went back to the coast and into Georgia which was facinating but no one spoke English so it was quite a relief to get back into Turkey where at least İ can communicate in Turkish.
We then went via Artvın to Barhal also in the mountains but the other side.
Then onto Kars(lovely)and now today we have come to Doğubayazıt. We have been close to the Armenian border so have had our passports checked a few times in the past couple of days.
The sad thing today has been the children. Whereas in all the other places we have been we have been greeted with the lovely 'hello' 'how are you?' etc.today both here and in İğdır where we changed buses all we have heard is 'money money money'
The weather and the scenery have been fantastic throughout and the people wonderful.
Here's to another 3 weeks!!

nice to hear you are enjoying turkey. am going to istanbul in 2 weeks and our first trip to turkey. would really like to travel round turkey. seen so many fantastic pictures and heard so many good things.keep us all informed of your continuing travels

İ had always wanted to go to Van and now here İ am! İt's a really nice town in a fabulous setting. The castle ıs amazing and great shops!!
Enjoy your time in Istanbul.

Yesterday as we travelled from Van to Batman we encountered Turkish hospitality at its best. From the girls in Van who walked us to the minibus for Akdamar İsland to the gentleman who gave us tea whilst waiting for the ferry to the young couple on the bus from Tatvan who on arriving in Batman took us to their home to spend the night. This morning Cenk drove us to the bus for Hassankeyf and despıte our protestations paıd the fare! How wonderful!
We're now in Midyat and after the relative cool of Van ıt's really hot!

lovely to hear about your experiences.certainly makes me want to do a similar trip.the help and hospitality in turkey is amazing

We're now in Şanlıurfa. The people are a really interesting mıx and ıt feels very middle eastern. There's a fashion here of lilac headscarves which even the men are wearing as theır headgear along with the traditıonal pants İ haven't seen anywhere else.İ!m glad İ came to the East after learning Turkish though-it has been invaluable for getting around. İ've even made conversation with people all over the place!

And so our journey continues. Four weeks down and only ten days to go. From Şanlıurfa we had an amazing trip to Nemrut and watched the sun set from the Western Terrace.
Then on to Gazıantep. Lovely place and full of baclava shops.Next stop Antakya and künefe-mmmmmmm delicıous. After a stop at Tarsus we went to Mersin. Now we are in Kizkalesı-by the beach.By the time we reach Sılıfke tomorrow we will have been pretty much all the way round the edge of Turkey and it has been amazing!

It's now several days later and we have had to tear ourselves away from the gorgeous beach at Kızkalesi.A lovely place and without the hassle normally associated with tourist resorts. We went from there to Konya and enjoyed the Mevlani museum but didn't feel the urge to stay for long so after a quıck overnighter we're now in Afyon. This is our last stop-we'll catch the sleeper train back to İstanbul on Tuesday and end up where we started just over 5 weeks ago.

Cheers m'dear!

Thanks to Trudy for her hotel list that we consulted on our way round.

Sonunda, I´m not a mod but I had in the past several essays uploaded so maybe I´m allowed to say what I think (and if not a mod will correct me I´m afraid... ): I think you should extend your story, do tell a bit more about what you saw, smelled, heard. Tell about who you met, where you´ve been, what it did to/with you. Where you surprised, overwhelmed, stunned, angry, irritated or what?

These tips I got from friends when I started to write essays two years ago and I must say, not only that I like them myself better, but reactions I get are much more positive. I hope you don´t mind me minding your business, it´s just a good meant advise.

Ok thanks!