Turkey has a hold on me... they even love our Johnny!
After a few years in the tourism doldrums, early bookings are indicating that Turkey is making a comeback. Whether due to terrorist attacks or earthquakes, in recent years poor old Turkey has really suffered. But now people are starting to head, once again, to this lovely, welcoming country.
I have written many times about the wonderful city of Istanbul, a destination that has daily direct flights from Dublin with the award-winning Turkish Airlines. I have visited on a number of occasions over the past 30-odd years and it has never disappointed. It would feature, without doubt, in my personal top five when it comes to cities that I have visited around the world.
For many people however, Turkey conjures up a whole different vibe, and something very different to frenetic, atmospheric Istanbul. It’s a country, after all, with some lovely coastal resorts, plus many other areas of historic interest.
The first time I ever ventured into Turkish resort territory was decades ago when, after a few days in Istanbul, I caught a bus to Ayvalik on the Aegean coast. Ten hours on a bus it was, but when I arrived, the lack of other tourists and the beautiful beach at nearby Sarimsakli were reward enough. I can still recall watching an excited family clustered around their son one weekend evening as I strolled along Sarimsakli beach.
The young man had returned on holiday from his job in Germany (the destination of choice for young Turks back in the 1980s) and carried with him a gift. What was it? An electric deep-fat fryer, something, judging from the family’s reaction, that was a real luxury item for them in those days.
It was a lovely, unspoiled part of Turkey then, and even today, while busier, nothing can take away from the appeal of this historic town and its archipelago of islands.
Belek, not far from Antalya, was another discovery one summer. It was my first experience of a ‘resort hotel’ and, lovely as it was, it was just too cut off from local life for my liking. I can still remember the pine trees edging the beach, however, something that was a truly beautiful sight. I preferred Side, east of Belek, a place I visited because of its famous classical ruins – its Temple of Athena and its second-century amphitheatre. When I think of Side, however, it’s not those that spring first to mind. Rather it’s the lunch I had there – sitting at a little table on the edge of the beach, the Mediterranean gently lapping a few yards away, eating some of the best seafood I have ever tasted.
Then there was Kayakoy, an inland spot that is known as the country’s ‘ghost’ village. When an exchange programme was insti- gated in the 1920s, all the Greek and Turkish Christians who had been living harmoniously in the village with their Muslim neighbours found themselves evicted to Greece, their homes taken over by other Muslims. The rocky land proved too inhospitable, however, for the Muslim farmers and they abandoned the village.
Nowadays the houses lie in ruins and the ghostly atmosphere still prevails. It’s a beautiful spot, however, and not far from Fethiye on the coast. We stayed in a villa on the edge of Kayakoy about eight years ago. It was a best-ofboth-worlds situation – peace and quiet in a lovely landscape with Fethiye (and its fantastic food market) only a short drive away.
That’s the thing about Turkey – there’s something for everyone. Whether it’s the wonders of Istanbul, the beach resorts of Bodrum or Kusadasi, the ancient sites that pepper the country, the lure of history in the likes of Gallipoli or Troy, it’s a country rich in diversity. And the people could not be more welcoming.
One of my enduring memories is from a long time ago – 1983.
I’d taken that 10-hour bus journey to Ayvalik and, after that, made my way to see the site of Troy and the nearby town of Canakkale, just across from Gallipoli. After crossing the Dardanelles by ramshackle ferry, I jumped on a bus for the long haul back to Istanbul but stopped at a hotel for a couple of nights to break the journey. It was one of those places in the middle of nowhere, and although it wasn’t really out of season there was virtually no-one else there.
That first evening in the diningroom the young waiter started to talk to me. On discovering that I was Irish his face lit up and, really animated, he turned to me and said: ‘Ah, you know John Logan!’ It was a statement, not a question.
John Logan, I thought. No, I don’t know any John Logan. And then the penny dropped. This young waiter, in a hotel in the middle of nowhere, equidistant from Istanbul and Gallipoli, was talking about Johnny Logan, a regular performer in Turkey back then. ‘Yes’, I said, ‘I know John Logan’. I think he thought that I actually knew the singer personally. And so, for the rest of my stay, I was treated like royalty.
It’s an incident from my travels that still makes me smile.
So, yes, I am so glad that, after a tough few years, Turkey is on the up again.