Why I'm going to Turkey alone this summer

I’m going to Turkey this summer, and I’m going alone. This decision was not an easy one to make – I had friends and relatives on all sides trying to discourage me – but now that I've booked flights and accommodation, and sorted out a visa, I am quite confident that it is the right one. Below, I’ve listed all my reasons for embarking on this adventure, and if anyone I know tries to challenge me further, I shall send them here. To those of you who don't know me: I will be opening up in a way that I haven’t before on this blog, and in doing so, will, I hope, inspire some of you to leave your comfort zone and realise your own wildest dreams.

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Why Turkey?

My interest in Turkey began about five years ago with a dream. I was staring down at a glistening turquoise sea, watching as it lapped against a rocky shoreline. Nothing else happened in the course of this nightly vision, but I remember two things about it: (a) I felt wonderfully calm, and (b) although I've never been, I knew I was in Turkey. Ironically, I’ll be spending the majority of my trip away from the coast, but part of me does like to think that this reverie had some meaning behind it.

Before I start sounding like a madwoman, let me fast-forward half a decade to June of this year. While browsing a travel website – the name of which, I regret to say, now escapes me – I came across a photograph of the pink dawn skies of Cappadocia, studded with hot air balloons. The beauty of this place quite astounded me, and (sorry, bank account) brought on a whole new flare-up of the old travel bug. From here, I discovered Istanbul, Pamukkale, and Izmir, and before long, I’d drawn up an itinerary that would see me through all these extraordinary towns and cities.

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On top of this, I found out a great deal about the Turkish way of life: everything from traditional cuisine to hammams. However, it’s not just the sights and culture of this place that drew me in. Below, I’ve outlined the country’s three other main points of attraction.

It’s cheap

I already knew – setting aside the cost of flights – that this would be a cheaper than usual holiday, but I’m not sure I quite realised the extent of this until I started doing some proper research on the place. Beds in hostel dormitories averaged out at £10 a night, long taxi rides cost half as much as this, and even fancy meals out would hardly alter the bank balance. As a student, my eyes, of course, lit up upon discovering all this, and frankly it was the one extra push I needed.

The tourism industry is beginning to blossom in Turkey, but with many put off by the country’s tense political situation (among other things), it still remains a bit of a hidden gem. There is, then, no better time to visit this place than right now. On top of that, with Brexit looming on the horizon, I’d like to make the most of the pound's acceptable economic value, before it most likely plummets for good!

I want to challenge myself with language barriers

I have travelled quite a bit in my lifetime – especially over the past few years – but I have never been to a country with whose language I was totally unfamiliar, or where English was not widely spoken. Turkey will, then, be quite challenging in this respect, especially since I'll have no companion to help with conveying messages across.

How am I planning to deal with this? Well, in the weeks leading up to my trip, I’ll be learning as many basic Turkish words and phrases as I can (I’ll write more about this when I get round to it). Since I'm a student of Modern Languages, I believe this will actually be quite the fun pastime. Then, if I get stuck while I'm out there, I’ll be using guidebook glossaries, online translators, and maybe the odd bit of sign language to get around.

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I want to prove the stereotypes wrong

Call me naïve, but when someone tells me I mustn’t go to Turkey because I’ll be assaulted or murdered, I hardly bat an eyelid. For one thing, these crimes occur even in the safest parts of the world (although admittedly less frequently), and the likelihood of my being a victim of one is, I believe, fairly slim. What is more, as an extremely stubborn person, there is no way I would let a risk like this stop me from visiting what is potentially one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

However, perhaps most importantly, half the people who warn me about these things have never even set foot in Turkey and are making wild assumptions based on things they’ve heard in the media. I intend, therefore, to go out there and see what things are like for myself, and I hope that in doing so, I’ll be able to dispel a few of the myths that have been regurgitated to me over the past few months.

Why alone?

If you’ve read my articles on the pros and cons of solo travel (linked here and here), you’ll know that I positively enjoy venturing out into the world alone. There’s something so liberating about being able to do exactly what you want, when you want, without having to run your plans past someone else. That is not to say, however, that I haven’t considered inviting someone else along: indeed, I thought long and hard about doing just that. Below, though, are the reasons I ultimately decided against it.

I want to combat my fears

In case you hadn’t already guessed, I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat. I go into panic mode if I hear a noise downstairs while I’m home alone, I shudder at the thought of giving a class presentation, and I wouldn’t be caught dead next to a slug. (Seriously: I’ve decided that I want to be cremated when I die, and that’s largely because I don’t want my corpse to be devoured by slimy creatures. ) This trip, then, will test me all sorts of ways.

There are two main issues that I would like to work on during my time in Turkey: my fear of death, and my social anxiety. The first of these problems only really came about a couple of years ago, when terrorist attacks began to occur more frequently across Europe than ever before. I remember a point when I was hearing about them so regularly that I almost didn’t react when a new one was reported.

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Since this time, I’ve had a phobia of dying. It’s not crippling – indeed, my daily lifestyle hasn’t really changed since its onset – but certain situations make me more nervous than they used to. I suppose I've just really begun to appreciate just how short and fragile life is. There's so much I'd like to achieve, but I can't even be sure that I'll wake up tomorrow morning. You never know what might happen.

My social anxiety, on the other hand – enough of the morbidity for now! – has been a lifelong battle. I suffered from selective mutism between the ages of two and eleven, and although I’ve long since got over that, there are certain remnants of the disorder which influence my life to this day. I don’t, for example, like entering crowded rooms, unless I’ve made specific arrangements to meet someone, and I quite often assume that people dislike me, unless they make it quite clear that they don’t.

How will going to Turkey help with these problems? Well, regarding the death phobia, I’ll be putting myself in a lot of situations that could – but almost definitely will not – put my life at risk. I’ll be spending two weeks in a country that often makes it onto lists of the world’s most dangerous nations; I’ll be taking multiple flights during my holiday; I’ll be walking around as a lone, visibly foreign woman, in a country where men consider Westerners to be ‘easy game’ (or so I hear); and some of the time, I’ll be staying fairly close to the Syrian border.

Right now, these things don’t frighten me at all: in fact, after convincing countless people that everything is going to be completely fine while I'm away, I’m quite confident that nothing will go wrong. However, I know that once I’m actually there, I’ll have frequent moments of panic. My job, then, will be to overcome these alone, and I hope that as the trip goes on, I begin to have more faith in my ability to do so.

My social anxiety issues are slightly different. Certain things will put it to the test directly – for one thing, I’ll be staying alone in hostels, and meeting new people each day – but my main goal is just to start feeling more comfortable in my own skin. I hope that getting to the end of this trip in one piece (touch wood!) will make me more aware of my potential and help me to grow in confidence. This change in mindset is what I believe will help me most in the long run. When I make that breakthrough, other things will fall into place naturally.

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I like to prove people wrong

I said it before, but I'll say it again: I’m an extremely stubborn person. I may doubt myself on a regular basis, but if someone tells me I can’t do something, there's nothing I like more than proving them wrong. Each time I’ve been advised not to go on this trip, I’ve become all the more determined to see it through. This is especially the case when people use my sex as their main argument. I don’t see why my being a woman should limit my opportunities in life, and I refuse to stand for this.

That is not to say that I won’t be taking precautions. I am, of course, aware that females are not yet as emancipated in Turkey as they are in the UK, and I’ll be dressing modestly so as not to attract unwanted male attention. However, you’d best believe that I’ll be hopping onto that plane on 28th August, raring to go, and ready to prove all the cynics back home wrong!

I believe in myself

Finally, somewhere deep down in my pit of self-hatred, there is a little glimmer of hope, which I like to call ‘self-trust’. I know that I can do this, and I want to show myself that I can, too. I’m tremendously excited to visit Turkey, but perhaps what I’m looking forward to most is returning home. Why? Because I’ll be able to look back on my holiday and think to myself, ‘I really did that’.

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