Just tell your friends and family that Turks are a very social, community orientated group who look after lone travelers.

I have got on a bus, and asked the person next to me to help me get off at the right place. BEcause they were getting off before me, they made sure that the other passengers knew and would help me: I became a community project!

If all that fails, remind them that mobile phones cover nearly 99.5% of the country, so if you take your phone with you you will always be safe.

As a tip for you, if you happen to meet the one in a million guy who is a pain even when you make it clear to him you ain't interested, try the phrase "teyze, bu adam beni rahatsiz ediyor" and address it to an older lady on the bus/in the hotel or restaurant etc. She will then lay in to him in a loud voice, and he will slink away ashamed!!

We have a phrase to describe that someone is very very special to us : the apple of my eye.

The Turkish equivalent, I think, is the "baby of my eye" - göz bebeğim.

I am pleased to help!

Jenks "and we can meet in a second in memories" is a better reflection of the Turkish.

When I became a Turkish citizen they added a y to make the right phonetic pronunciation: Mariyon.

No worries. I am used to being called all variants of Marion e.g. Mary Ann, Marianne etc. Here in Turkey I am often called Meryem, which makes things confusing 'cos one of my team is called Meryem too.

In my last apartment the bulding manager used to call me Mario (I guess from the tv Super Mario brothers) Then they had this tv program here with a foreign teacher called Mary - spelt Meri - so the building manager at my new house calls me Meri Hanım ...

As long at is polite, I don't mind what you call me

U R welcome. I hope you didnt mind me writing that, I LOVE to have my Turkish corrected, as thats the only way I learn. Please feel free to do so as often as is necessary!!!!

Hey .. you have never been travelling round Turkey, I guess.

The road network gets all the investment, so it is beter.

Train network is being upgraded (we expect a high speed link from Istanbul to Ankara soon) but it is old. Sometimes the train goes a very long way round (I heard a story to explain it: the track was laid by the Germans before the First World War and they were paid by the mile, so never took short cuts!).

Also the train tends to stop at every little village.

I once got on an "express". These are even slower than the other trains,as I soon found out! It is nice to get a sleeper train overnight, though.