Turkey is my Camelot – return to Istanbul (part 5)

I have come to see a lot of similarities between Turkey and Camelot probably because I find them both so alluring. Camelot was a land of legends with knights, a round table and the search for the Holy Grail. Turkey had its own legends involving sultans, domed mosques and the search for the best trade route along the silk…

Another November in Turkey (part 4) – 24 years later.

I fell in love with Turkey as a young backpacker in the late 1980s and have never stopped talking about my experiences since.  After 24 years of retelling my tales to anyone who would listen, I returned to Turkey in 2010. On a glorious autumn morning in November Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth sailed across the Aegean from Athens…

One November in Turkey (part 3) – Gallipoli to Istanbul

Destination Istanbul was only two more smoke-filled bus trips away.  The first stop on the way, a must-see for ancient history buffs, was Canakkale.  Here we made a quick trip on the local dolmus out to Troy, with its 4000 years of history. Nice place, shame about the wooden horse. Then, on 15th November 1986, a small…

One November in Turkey (part 1)

His steely eyes surveyed me through a sea of stubble (his five o’clock shadow grew well past the usual demarcation lines), as he slung my overly heavy backpack into the deep hole beneath the bus, one November in Turkey. He grunted and jerked his head towards the door.  I watched him watch me climb the…

The music is all around us

(As posted by Emma on She Goes – Thursday, January 13, 2011 · 3 Comments The Music Is All Around Us By Genevieve Frew Prior to a recent overseas trip, I prided myself on being organised enough to download my iPod songs onto my new iPhone (OK, my thirteen year old did if for me)…