Originally Posted by
Leo L.
(Sorry for two posts that could have been one)
Glen,
I've been to Turkey once and really loved it.
But this had been decades ago (in the 80ties) and travelling by car.
Things changed very much down there. Mr. Erdogan tried very hard to make Turkey a modern country, in which he succeeded in the big cities, but failed to provide all the smaller towns and rural people a reasonable good life.
The political situation is tough, its pretty close to dictatorship.
And the whole country changed from saecularism (state and religion being separate), tending to be Christian, into a Muslim (officially 99%) state+religion mix.
Not that Muslim is any bad by itself, but it just changes so much in everyday life. Not so much being male, but much worse for females.
Then, Turkey dug out some long forgotten laws and invented a few new ones to oppress people, especially minorities (Kurds) and opposition members.
This goes as far as, the English name "Turkey" being banned because some offending jokes making it a moniker about the US Thanksgiving habit.
So be careful to always use the native name Türkiye, not the English Turkey.
On the positive side, economics rely heavily on tourism, and this sector is suffering a lot recently, as even Russians, the most constant customers, are staying home now, so you as a tourist will be very welcomed.
There are endless historic sites to be visited, many of them world-famous, and while hiking you might find loads of nameless, never researched sites of all periods of history.
Hiking in Turkey is no habit of the locals, and not common among tourists.
Public transport is great, there are busses and minibus-taxis everywhere.
To find water is very easy in Muslim countries, as mosques are everywhere and there is water at every mosque.
Food again is on the meat side, but going more veggie recently due to enormous inflation and meat being too expensive. Not to forget the famous pastries.
I remember having had great soups, and brillant salads (tomatos+parsley).
I've never even thought about Azerbaijan, but know something about the Dolomites. If time's ready for you, would be great to give me a note.
At the moment I'm packed and ready to go to Crete, flight is tomorrow.
See you!