"How’s Turkey?"
"Istanbul’s great!"
…
"Yeah but how’s Turkey?"
"Istanbul’s great"
...
...
110 days I’ve been here, that’s 20 days longer than the Turkish government have kindly granted me to stay. A case of oversight on my behalf you see. Thankfully there was oversight on their behalf as well, and that has me happily sitting on seat 21D of Turkish airlines flight TA1855. I’m sitting on the uncomfortable bulge of my wallet, awkwardly full of Turkish Lira I was going to exchange for the pleasure of a three-month entry ban for overstaying my entry visa.
I’m feeling pretty full of my self right now, the kind of pride that idiots have when they’ve done things the wrong way and come out all the  better for it.
---
My first encounter with Turkey was, like the greater majority, Istanbul. It is a place of magic and beauty. It’s a big ugly city and it smells awful. The Food is amazing and made me very sick, it's east, its west, its so true to its heritage, its not moving forward. All these contradictions are true. I love Istanbul, it’s a fantastic place, but it is just one City. The short dialogue I started this post with, was such a reoccurring  conversation I had had prior to arriving, that I drove myself straight out of the city the following day. I had to see more.

An epic hook-up through my fantastic housemate Chris,had me booked for a full weeks sailing on the Lycian coast, at a cost of little more than pocket change of the then strong Aussie dollar. This was a definite win. It was here i had my first encounter with greater turkey and my first encounter with the wild walkabout australian cliche.

The boat was run by a company called Busabout. Normally a bus company offering a Contiki-esque australian slingshot: flinging young Australians around the world with the thin guise of 'cultural experience'. In reality its magic carpet ride of sex, alcohol and narrow minded australian comfort. "Put down your beer, red hot chilli peppers and each others thighs for a second, If you look out the left window, you might be able to see the Eiffel tower. "

Thankfully the boat was great deal better than that, but due to the banner we were sailing under, i did find myself amongst the company of a different kind of traveler. The "Australia Didn't"

Terrible turkey travel cliché no #2

"yeah mate, we just did Croatia, sailed it for a week, got hella drunk"

"…before that did Europe, you done Europe?,we did Europe, seen that now, wanna do South America"

...

I was baffled, confused and outraged, having forgotten how naive and proud this yearly epidemic of young Australians could be. Whilst they compared notes on who had been on which bus with which company and who had seen who's boobs, I couldn't help but question myself. Was I doing this wrong? Week one of Turkey and 13 to go. maybe i should just get on a bus?

Maybe it's me just being an old man and a grammatical Nazi, but suggesting a place can be 'done' in any amount of time, breeds the kind of ignorance that should be beaten down by the great hammer of travel. 

I try to see it from their point of view: Maybe it's the byproduct of travelling quickly. Glance the surface of a place and it might be easy to tick all the boxes. 

However, spend any amount of time there and you will inevitably need more. In the same way every scientific experiment suggests further future testing and hypothesis. Each day of travelling didn't satisfy a doubt or question, it fuelled deeper curiosity.

 I entered Turkey 110 days ago ignorant and nervous, keen for some sunshine, colour and meat on a stick. Now i'm flying out trailing 20kg of luggage and miles of curiosity, anchored like a giant elastic on the doorstep of Asia. Three months of questions and curiosity, that require further exploration.

No i didn't 'do' Turkey, i did go, but theres so much more to 'do' yet, and with it, even more possibities.

A quick chronological list of the places i visited whilst  in Turkey:

(as usual, click on the photos to see larger)

If anybody is heading that way, I'd love to share what i've learnt along the side of the road in Turkey.