Merhaba! I'm heading to Turkey.

This is simply a place for me to document my travels in that country and for you, the visitor, to chart my progress. So be sure to check out my blog and photos. It would be nice if you got in touch too.

The plan is to make a small amount of money spread thin over six months in Anatolia. I'll do that by couchsurfing, hitchiking and WWOOFing my way around. The itinerary is loose and if I reach such a monetary state that I have to head home early then so be it, but that's a last resort and shouldn't be neccessary. There's also a chance that I'll head into my beloved Eastern Europe, to discover the corners which have so far evaded me and return to places I already know. That said, I like the idea of spending a long period of time in one particular place and really getting to know its culture and language.

We will see!

So, why Turkey?

Good question.

Its September 2006 and a hefty bout of depression has left me needing to pick life up again; but one of the benefits of depression is that, to an extent, you get to pick and choose what kind of life you pick up! First I decided to travel, nothing new - its been a passion for some time, which until now has been far too unfulfilled. Then came several questions: where? when? how? how long? It shortly became clear that the answer to when was ASAP, my feet had an itch that your average athlete's foot cream cannot remedy. Thus I had some idea of the where. It had to be somewhere at least relatively inexpensive and somewhere I could reach for next to nowt. As the damp and wintery weather of the waning British year started to set in I decided I wanted it to be somewhere with a nice, sunny climate. The places in the world I most wanted to visit were the Middle East and Central Asia (I still hope to of course), so vaguely east.

Well I love searching for cheap flights to exotic places. £22.49 from Luton to Istanbul with EasyJet, all taxes and fees included on January 9th? Sounds good. Turkey is east, somewhat unknown to me and I vaguely knew it had a warm climate (I've since found its a little more complex than that, Turkey is almost a continent unto itself when it comes to weather) - let's go with that.

So things have developed from there. For those umming and ahhing about travel, booking a ticket is a real good kick up the backside. It helps you visualise and start preparing in practical ways.