Welcome! I also backpacked when I was 26, sadly only lasted 8 months and had to head back home. And enjoyed Turkey tremendously, spent about a month there. Have fun, keep doing it!
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Welcome! I also backpacked when I was 26, sadly only lasted 8 months and had to head back home. And enjoyed Turkey tremendously, spent about a month there. Have fun, keep doing it!
Thanks @leighleigh, I'm glad you had such a great experience! Turkey is such an incredible country. I really feel at home here, I'll be continuing my traveling as long as I can!!
Have you been to the Cappadocia region yet, with the fairy chimneys? It's really amazing. My friends and I had quite a nerve wracking experience on our way to Van, because we had hitch hiked part of the way to get to the busstop. The police actually stopped the bus, made us get off and wanted to take our passports! Are they still so strict there in those more remote areas?
Yes I went there just 2 weeks ago, it's such a beautiful place! I had a few really enjoyable hikes around the towns, and loved waking up to the balloons rising with the sun.
I've really come to love hitchhiking in this country. The people are so generous and the Turkish hospitality knows no limits!!
I was in Eastern Turkey around November, and we got stopped a lot in buses for routine searches and passport checks, they've never kept our passports but they take everyone's off them, and don't return them until they've checked them all. It was a bit of a hassle but I can understand why. A lot of neighbouring countries are trying to immigrate illegally with fake syrian passports which is becoming a bit of a problem for the government. So the police searches are very common in the east now. I would say they are usually quite friendly though.
Yes I remember the hospitality so well! We were generally very well treated and taken care of, especially as we were 3 girls :)