Turkey

From Wikitravel

Located in Mediterranean Europe and southwestern Asia, Turkey (Türkiye) is a country that spans these two continents. The Turkish Straits (Bosphorus, Sea of Marmara, and Dardanelles) divides Europe from Asia. That portion of Turkey to the west of the Boshporus is geographically part of Europe while the rest of Turkey is part of the Middle East.

With the the Black Sea to the north and the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea to the southwest, Turkey is surrounded by Bulgaria and Greece to the west, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to the northeast, Syria, Iraq and Iran to the southeast.

There is evidence that the bed of the Black Sea was once an inhabited plain, before it was flooded in prehistoric times by rising sea levels. The biblical flood may be an account of this event. Mount Ararat, at 5,166 m, is the country's highest point and the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark, lies in the mountains on the far eastern edge of the country.

Table of contents

1 Regions 2 Cities 3 Other destinations 4 Understand 5 Get in 5.1 By plane 5.2 By train 5.3 By car 5.4 durch Bus 5.5 By boat 6 Get around 6.1 By plane 6.2 By bus 6.3 By dolmuÅŸ 6.4 By boat 7 Talk 8 Buy 9 Eat 10 Drink 11 Sleep 12 Learn 13 Work 14 Stay safe 15 Stay healthy 16 Respect 17 Contact 18 External links

Regions

Turkey can be divided geographically into:

• Aegean Turkey (Ege)
• Black Sea Turkey (Karadeniz)
• Central Anatolia (Ic Anadolu)
• Eastern Anatolia (Dogu Anadolu)
• Marmara
• Mediterranean Turkey (Akdeniz)
• Southeastern Anatolia (Guney Dogu Anadolu)

Administratively, Turkey is divided into 81 provinces (iller, singular - il) named for their adminstering cities.

Cities

• Ankara
• Istanbul
• Izmir
• Marmaris

Other cities 

Adana, Adiyaman, Afyon, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Antalya, Ardahan, Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bartin, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Duzce, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Icel, Igdir, Isparta, Kahramanmaras, Karabuk, Karaman, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kilis, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli, Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir, Nigde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Siirt, Sinop, Sirnak, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Usak, Van, Yalova, Yozgat, Zonguldak

Other destinations

• Gallipoli - Site of First World War battlefields and memorials on the Gallipoli peninsula on the north bank of the Dardanelles. The 1915 landings and battles are commemorated by Australians and New Zealanders on ANZAC Day, 25 April, each year.
• Mount Ararat (Agri Dagi or Mount Agri)

Understand

Turkey was created in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter the country instituted secular laws to replace traditional religious fiats. In 1945 Turkey joined the UN, and in 1952 it became a member of NATO.

Get in

Visitors from Western European countries (with the notable exception of the UK) do not need a visa. German visitors can enter even with their identity card (Personalausweis) unless they arrive at the non-European land border crossings (i.e. to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria).

By plane

Turkey's main international gateway is Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport. Ankara's EsenboÄŸa Airport handles a comparatively limited selection of flights, and there are also direct charters to Mediterranean resort hotspots like Antalya in the peak winter season.

By train

You can still travel from Europe to Turkey by train, although these days this is more of historical or perhaps even romantic interest than fast or practical. The famed Orient Express from London now travels no further than Vienna, but you can take the daily TransBalkan from Budapest (Hungary) via Bucharest (Romania), a two-night journey with a scheduled 3-hour stop in Bucharest. 1st/2nd class sleepers and couchettes are available, but the train lacks a restaurant car so stock up on supplies.

There are also once-weekly services from Istanbul to Aleppo and Damascus in Syria, Tabriz and Tehran in Iran. Other international routes include Uzunköprü to Pithion (Greece) daily, Kars to Akhurian (Armenia) weekly and, for the very adventurous traveller, Gaziantep to Baghdad (Iraq) weekly.

By car

From Central Europe getting to Turkey is not too difficult. In any case you'll need your International Insurance Card (Green Card) when willing to enter Turkey. Pay attention to "TR" not being cancelled and be sure your insurance is valid for the Asian part of Turkey, too. Otherwise you will have to buy a Turkish car insurance.

durch Bus

By boat

Get around

By plane

Major cities are served by airlines as well, with reasonable prices, beating the bus travel experience especially over longer distances. Tickets can be conveniently bought at least at the Istanbul domestic terminal and local ticket offices of Turkish Airlines and Onur Air, among others.

By bus

Turkey has a good long-distance bus network with comfortable air-conditioned buses, reserved seats and generally good service quality, at least with the big operators. See the external links below for more information on bus travel.

Travel by bus is a joy in this country. Go to the Otogar in any of the major cities and find you can travel to almost any destination within half an hour, or a couple of hours at the utmost. Busses are staffed by good drivers, and a number of assistants. On long haul travel a second driver will take over when the first gets exhausted. During the ride you will be offered free drinks, a bite or two, and stops will be made every two hours and a half or so at well-stocked road restaurants. The further East you travel, the less frequent busses will be, but even places as far as Dogubeyazit or Van will have regular services to many places hundreds of kilometers away. And a town must be real small not to have a bus straight to Istanbul or Izmir at least once every two days.

Finding the right bus quickly does require some help and thus some trust, but don't overdo it. Touts will be waiting for you, and some may assist you in buying a ticket to a bus that won't depart in the next two hours. Sometimes there simply is no other bus, but on other occassions you will be sitting there while other busses with the same destination start well ahead. So if you have some time to spare: check the departure (and arrival) times of other companies, that may save you time overall. Still if you indicate you really want to leave NOW (use phrases like "hemen" or "shimdy", or "adjelem var" - I am in a hurry ), people will realize you are in hurry, and off you go on the next bus departing for your destination.

Don't be surprised if halfway down to some strange and far-off destination you are put out of the bus (your lugguage will often be already standing next to it) and transferred to another. The other bus will "buy" you, and will bring you to the destination.

Sometimes long-haul buslines will leave you stranded on some ring-road around a city, rather than bringing you to the centre. That can be annoying. Inquire ahead (and hope they don't lie). On the other hand, many companies will have "servis arasi" or service vehicles to the centre, when the Otogar is on the periphery of a city, as they nowadays often are. In cities like Ankara these service vehicles are used by many companies combined, and a fleet of them, to different parts of the metropolis, will be waiting. It helps to keep your ticket ready as proof you were on a bus (though most of these services are run on good faith).

Seating within busses is partly directed by the "koltuk numerasi" or seat number on your ticket, partly by the ritualistic seating of women next to women, couples together and so forth. So don't be too annoyed if you are required to give up your seat. In general, as a foreigner, you will have the better seat much of the time.

One hint: it often is easiest to take a seat in the back, whatever the number of your koltuk, and not be bothered for much of the ride. This is particularly true if you travel alone, and want to keep it that way. Although the last row may be reserved for the driver-off-duty, who wants to sleep. And remember: many busses pick up short-track fare along the ride, and park them in the last two or three rows.

By dolmuÅŸ

The dolmuş is a small bus (sometimes car) that will ride near-fixed routes. The ride may be from the periphery of a major city to the centre, but may also take three to four hours from one city to the next, when the route is not commercial for large busses. They sometimes make a detour to bring some old folks home or collect some extra heavy luggage. You will find them in cities as well as in inter-city traffic. The name derives from “dolmak�, the verb for “to fill�, as they used not to start the journey without a decent number of passengers. Increasingly they start at fixed hours, whatever the number. All during their journey people will get in and out (shout “Ineçek var� – “someone will get off� – to have it stop if you’re in). The driver tends to be named “kaptan� (captain), and some behave accordingly. The fare is collected all through the ride. In some by a specially appointed passenger who will get a reduction, in others by a steward, who may get off halfway down the journey, to pick up a dolmuş of the same company heading back. If the driver collects himself, people hand money on from the back rows to the front, getting change back by the same route. As always men tend to be grouped with men and women with women, but if the car gets crowded (people standing in the alley, sitting on small stools) these rules break down. On some stretches tickets are sold in advance, and things can get complicated if some of the passengers bought a ticket and others just sat inside waiting – for maybe half an hour - but without a ticket.

By boat

Hizli ferries are fast (50-60 kilometres/hour) catamaran-type ferryboats that connect for instance Istanbul to the other side of the Marmara Sea. They can cut travel time dramatically. Again for instance leaving from the Yeni Kapi jetty in Istanbul (just a bit South-West of the Blue Mosque) you can be at the Bursa Otogar in two hours, with less than an hour for the actual boat ride to Yalova. Similar services are operated to connect several parts of Istanbul with the Asian side, or places farther up the Bosporus. And this type of fast ferry is increasingly seen all over the country wherever there is enough water.

Talk

The sole official language of Turkey is Turkish. Kurdish is also spoken by an estimated 10-15% of the population. Several other languages exist, like Laz in the North-East (also spoken in adjacent Georgia), and in general near borders people will often be speaking the language at the other side too, like Arab in the South-East.

Thanks to migration, even in rural areas most villages will have at least somebody who has worked in Germany and can thus speak German The same goes for other West-European languages like Dutch (often mistakenly called "Flemish" there) or French. English is also increasingly popular among the younger generation. The "Universities" that train pupils for a job in tourism pour out thousands of youngsters who want to practice their knowledge on the tourist, with varying degrees of fluency. Language Universities produce students that nowadays are pretty good at their chosen language. The older generations of "English" teachers can be pathetically bad.

Buy

On January 1, 2005, Turkey adopted the New Turkish Lira (Yeni Türk Lirası or YTL, currency code TRY), at a rate of 1 new lira to 1,000,000 old lira. Old banknotes remain legal currency until the end of 2005.

As of January 1, 2005, 1 TRY is worth €0.55.

Eat

Turkish cuisine combines Mediterranean and Arabic influences. Lamb is the most important meat, and eggplant, onion, lentil, bean, tomato, garlic, and cucumber are the primary vegetables. An abundance of spices is also used. The main staples are rice (pilav), bulgur wheat and bread, and dishes are typically cooked in olive oil.

A full Turkish meal starts with a soup — often lentil soup (mercimek çorbasi) — and a set of meze appetizers featuring olives, cheese, pickles and a wide variety of small dishes. Meze can easily be made into a full meal. The main course is usually meat: a common dish and Turkey's best known culinary export is kebab (kebap), grilled meat in various forms including the famous döner kebap (meat shaved from a giant rotating spit) and ÅŸiÅŸkebab (skewered meat), while köfte meatballs are a variation on the theme.

Turkish desserts are modeled on the sweet and nutty Arabic kind: famous dishes include baklava, a layered pastry of finely ground nuts and phyllo dough soaked in honey and spices, and Turkish Delight (lokum), a gummy confection of rosewater and sugar.

Drink

Ayran is a popular drink of water and yoghurt not unlike the Indian lassi, but always served without sugar (and, in fact, typically with a little salt added).

Turkish coffee (kahve), served in tiny cups, is strong and tasty, just be careful not to drink the slugdy grounds at the bottom of the cup. Sade kahve is served black, while as şekerli, orta şekerli and çok şekerli will get you a little, some or a lot of sugar in your cup.

While almost all Turks are Muslims, alcoholic beverages are widely available. The local firewater of choice is rakı, an anise-flavoured liquor usually mixed with water.

Sleep

Learn

Work

Stay safe

Stay healthy

Respect

Contact

External links

• Republic of Turkey - Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://www.mfa.gov.tr/) http://www.mfa.gov.tr/
• Ministry of Culture and Tourism (http://goturkey.turizm.gov.tr/) http://goturkey.turizm.gov.tr/
• http://www.turizm.net/
• Comprehensive site about the ruins of Ani on the border with Armenia: http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/ (also has info on Akhtamar Island in Lake Van and other Armenian monuments in Turkey)
• Information about travel within Turkey. Note especially the information on buses from the main Istanbul bus station: http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/
• Photosite, over 4200 pics, with lots of explanatory text, aims to cover the whole country, now covering 75+ cities and pretty exhaustive regarding some museums: http://www.pbase.com/dosseman