Exploring Turkey

Hello Everyone! I am Hina…

I am a bachelor student studying in Kayseri, Turkey. In this blog I would like to share with you all my experience in Turkey; The places that I visited, my feelings about them, the Turkish culture and much more.

I have lived in Turkey for about 9 months and no doubt it was a wonderful experience for me. I lived in a small city in Pakistan where life was mainly static. Coming to Turkey was a huge change for me. I have learned a lot from my experience and honestly the times that I spent there were the best times of my life.

My adventure started as soon as I landed on Ataturk airport in Istanbul. My flight got late and I had a connecting flight from Istanbul to Kayseri. That was the first time that I had come to Turkey and unaware of the airport and the people around me, I had trouble finding the local terminal from where I had to catch my next flight. Things also got exacerbated due to the language barrier. I did not know any Turkish and on the other hand, the Turks knew little English. In that hush hash, I missed my connecting flight but the people over there were really kind and gave me another ticket. They also gave me free food coupon, which I could use in one of the restaurants located at the airport. Finally after waiting for about 3 hours at the airport, I got into the plane that took me to Kayseri.

Kayseri is a great place to live in. Most of the people think that it is quite boring as there is no nightlife and most of the shops close at 9 p. m sharp. When we go out on the streets at 11p. m or later, there is hardly any person seen walking on the streets. Beside that there are not much entertainment opportunities. We can only find local restaurants there. There is hardly a restaurant that offers international cuisine such as Indian, French, and Pakistani etc. Moreover, there are parks but very small and some museums which are also not so huge. All these things are true but there are also places that cannot be ignored starting with the city center. Crowded, yet seemingly beautiful with a variety of shops and restaurants located there, the city center is one of the best places to eat and shop around. I usually go there sometimes to enjoy the different kinds of food that the area offers and sometimes just to relax myself after long hours of studying. The place is truly awesome.

The Kayseri forum and Kayseri Park are also fabulous in terms of the food that they offer and the variety of shops that they contain from local to branded shops. They might seem a bit small compared with large shopping complexes such as the ones in Istanbul or Ankara but their interior is really good. They are also great for shopping. I often used to go to one of these malls for eating, shopping, watching movie, bowling or simply hanging around with friends.

In Kayseri there is also an amusement park with lots of fabulous rides that I often enjoyed and near the park there is an ice skating rink. It’s really cool. I often went there for ice-skating. There are also very cheap ice-skating and ice hockey courses that the area offers. They are pretty amazing. Apart from that we can also enjoy laser tagging and cable kitesurfing. I have never tried any of these but have heard that they are really fun which is pretty cool.

The greatest thing, perhaps, that I liked about Kayseri is its bus and tram system due to several reasons. First of all it runs throughout the city because of which a person can travel anywhere in the Kayseri using it. Secondly it costs very less and also being a foreigner in Kayseri you have a pretty big advantage in it as it costs extremely less to travel via bus or tram. When I first came to Kayseri I did not know much about its transportation system as it seemed a little complicated to me. There were loads of buses with different numbers and places written on it because of which it was difficult to know where to go. But as time passed, I became aware of the places around me and using that system became a piece of cake for me. I could go anywhere in Kayseri at near to free rates which was quite fantastic.

Close to Kayseri are the Erciyes Mountains. We can even see the mountains from almost anywhere in Kayseri. They are a great place for visiting especially during the winters as we can do skiing or snow boarding over there. In winters and even during the summers, it’s very cold there and we can see snow on their peaks all year round. The mountains are great place for organizing several festivals and skiing tournaments. I visited the mountains twice in 9 months for either skiing or attending some festivals organized by the staff of that area. The experience was truly awesome.

My adventure was not only limited to Kayseri. In Turkey, I also got a chance to visit Cappadocia; a famous touristic destination located at 45 minutes drive from Kayseri. It is a beautiful region with deep underground caves that are present there since hundreds of years and are very well maintained since then. The caves are very beautiful from inside and go deeper and deeper underground with no signs of ever finishing. The place is historically rich in Turkish culture with many sightseeing destinations. It contains several restaurants that offer international cuisine. We can find some beautiful pieces of craved art that is mostly done on small pieces of rock. The area even offers hot air balloon ride that I haven’t tried but wish to. It is truly a place worth visiting.

I even visited Konya, a city that is rich in Turkish culture. The city seems similar to Kayseri but contains some very beautiful parks and historical sites that are worth visiting. In Konya I visited the Mevlana Museum. It was very beautiful from both outside and inside. People say if you visit the Mevlana museum once, you are drawn towards its internal beauty and wish to visit it again and again. It happened with me too. I was really amazed by its internal beauty and the peace of the mind that occurs when one visits it. Apart from the museum, I visited a park that contained models of almost all the cartoon characters. The park was truly fantastic. My experience over there was really good.

Ankara was also one of the cities that I visited. My visit over there was short lived because I had come there for some work. I stayed in an apartment room that was located in the city center. When I first came to Ankara I experienced some change. It had a slightly different bus and tram system than Kayseri. In Kayseri, we could only see big green colored buses that roamed around the city and a tram that starts from one end of the city and ends at the other end. When I came to Ankara, I saw that they had 3 types of transportation system. They had small vans, big buses like the ones in Kayseri and a metro line. I felt a little weird at first because I wasn’t used to that kind of system, but then after a while, I thought that the transportation system over there is pretty amazing because it covered almost the entire city, from the small streets to big highways. As my stay in Ankara was short-lived, I only visited Middle East Technical University. It’s a very beautiful university with loads of facilities for both the students and the academic staff. I was in a hurry and so didn’t have any time to catch my stay over there in photos but I really enjoyed my stay there. I couldnt even see one sixth of Ankara but can conclude that it is a really good city that one can visit.

On my way back home, I even had the chance to visit Istanbul. I reached Istanbul at 10a. m and had a flight home the same day at 7p. m. So I had 6 hours stay there. Instead of just wasting my time at the airport waiting for the flight, I decided to go see some places. So, the first place that I visited was the seaside that connected Europe and Asia. The view from there was very beautiful. Later, I visited a shopping center. It was huge with a variety of shops located there. My stay over there was truly awesome.

The 9 months that I stayed in Turkey passed within the blink of an eye. I have had so many experiences over there and all of those experiences are truly unforgettable. I have explored too much and a lot is left to explore. I have heard that Antalya is great city to explore with many beautiful places to visit. I have never been there but hopefully I will go there soon so that I can create new unforgettable memories of my stay over there. After all, life is all about experiences.

Written by Hina Najam

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