Smiles from the heart...

I Lived in Turkey for a few months , and I fell in Love BIG TIME..

The people, so charming and helpful. The old fashioned feeling of the place. The smells evoke all sorts of memories.
The children..so respectful.
I will retire to Turkey, it is my dream.
I have seen the different seasons, and the beauty of that is..there are actual seasons !!
Now , whenever I get off the plane ..at whichever airport..I sigh
and think "I'm Home "

Yes, there is so much in life to celebrate.

As I regularly say to Turks who ask "which is best: England or Turkey" every place has good points and bad points. The important thing is to learn to be content wherever you are.

I agree with peacetrain about Turkey being what England was in the 60s (or some other time, I was born at the very end of that decade!), but we need to recognise that this also means some of the negative things about the past. When my mum first came to visit she was in floods of tears. She saw the young boys going through the rubbish containers for cardboard, and people trying to eke out a living without very much. This reminded her of her childhood in the 1920s which was very deprived. "I never thought I would see such things in my lifetime again" she said.

YES: Turkey has an exciting air because 50% of the population are under 25 and 75% of the population are under 35.

YES: friendship, family ties and neighbourliness are at a level that we have long since lost in London

YES: a Turkish proverb says a cup of coffee commits you to 40 years of friendship

YES: the Turks are very helpful and kind

YES: I want to be here right now and have made roots and a life for myself here, and don't inend to leave in the near future

but, we do need to recognise that there are things (mainly legal and economic) that Turks living here, and those of us who live here long-term, suffer that the short-term visitor does not experience because they can go back home.

I am not trying to ruin the thread, I am a long-term supporter of Turkey and have become a Turkish citizen. I just wanted to add a touch of reality for those who are thinking of moving here permanently, not a short-term or even medium-term romance with the country.

Remember, there are three stages to culture shock.
In stage one everything about the country is wonderful.
In stage two everything about the country is terrible.
In stage three you can have a more balanced view and see both the good and the bad.
Different people go through these stages at different speeds.

If, when you go back to the tree, you can't smell the same scent and experience the same emotions it just may mean you are at a different stage. If you think everything in Turkey is just awful for you right now, then hold on - you are just stuck in stage two.

Let us enjoy celebrating the wonderful good, but not deny the problems of unemployment and other societal ills that make this a part of earth, not a part of heaven.

My first experience of Turkey was in fact in Hong Kong! Although my grandmother was half Turkish, we never talked about Turkey at home. It was not until I met 5 Turkish business men in Hong Kong that I started to want to know more.

Later that year we made my first trip to Istanbul to meet with one of these men, having invited us to stay. Within a few months of this first trip, we were then invited to his wedding. From that day on I have loved Turkey.

Since then we have been to Turkey a few times. I find Turkish people to be very hospitable and welcoming. The food is fantastic, the scenary is to die for.

We will return time and time again.

My romance with Turkey began when I was a child. My family befriended a Turkish family when I was very young. I was very close with the two daughters who where close to my age. Every summer their family would go to Istanbul. One summer I was lucky enough to go with them. Thru this friendship I met my husband. To articulate what it is I love most about Turkey is impossible. It is as much a part of my life as my own country. I do love that when I am there, I am reminded of how things used to be in my own country when I was little....before the age of Walmart and chain restaurants.

Good points Marion,
I think what I love about Turkey is the culture and people first. I have had a lot of Turkish friends a long time before going to Turkey,thus I had an introduction to the culture prior to actual visits.
Once there it lived up to what I expected. Many in this thread mention the fact that Turkey reminds them of how life was where they currently are, be that US, UK or other more "modern" Western country. I'm in the same boat, so to speak.

When I was a child we had chickens ducks and rabbits and a few fruit trees, Then they were zoned out of existence.
"Zoning is a term used in urban planning for a system of land-use regulation in various parts of the world, including North America, the United Kingdom,[1] and Australia. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another."

Zoning

The break up of the family by people having to move far away from the family for work. People purchasing homes not to have a home, but rather for an "investment property" with no intention to actually invest in the community is another sad trend in the US. It seems the current mortgage crisis has shown Europe involved in this as well.
I've seen the breakup of not only families, but whole communities as real estate increases in value.

It is very possible this same thing can happen in Turkey, in fact it looks like it is starting already as foreigners purchase property as investments.

Another thing many mentioned in this thread is the ability to find people who actually make things, like tailors, shoemakers, tinsmiths and more. In the US, it's hardly possible to find anyone who can do any type of manual skill. In fact there does not seem to be pride in being able to use ones hands in a skilled manner.

I saw the area I grew up in not only loose our chickens and fruit trees, but all the beautiful Victorian houses to new concrete cracker box apartment buildings. Orhan Pamuk mentions this in some of his books, but it's not unique to Turkey, and it's worse other places IHMO.

It seems this is a World Wide trend. Hopefully it will slow down in Turkey.

Thanks for that Alameda. Turkey has an opportunity perhaps, to study what has happened in such western countries and try and avoid making the same mistakes.

Almeda you are one of those people guilty of viewing the past with rose tinted glasses. You want to re-live the REAL past or the "Little House on the Prairie" past?

You are welcome to your all white American "past" where you had slaves, civil war, prohibition, poverty from the depression, poor education, mafia rule, racism and segregation....