Official Name: Republic of Turkey
Religion: Muslim 98%, Christian, and Jewish
Capital: Ankara (population 3.7 million)
Per Capita GDP: $3,200
Languages: Turkish (official), Kurdish, and Arabic
Currency: Turkish Lira
(~572,000 lira = $1.00 US)
Our Route:  We thought we had a great adventure seeing so much of Greece, but we had an even greater adventure discovering Turkey! During our 5.5 weeks here, we got to see a good portion of the country. The only parts we missed were the extreme east and the Black Sea regions. We arrived in Turkey via an overland crossing from Greece, which put us on the European side of Turkey. We took a bus south to the Gallipoli peninsula (the narrow finger of land jutting into the Aegean near the Greek border on the map above). We spent a few days in the Gallipoli area (including Canakkale) before moving south to Selcuk and Ephesus, which is just north of Izmir on the map. We then moved south along the coast, taking a little over two weeks exploring the area between Izmir and Antalya as shown on the map. This is where Turkey's most famous resort areas are, including Kusadasi, Bodrum, and Fethiye/Oludeniz. After tiring of constantly busy, touristy beach areas, we headed inland at Antalya, visiting the much more authentically Turkish towns of Egirdir (near Isparta) and Konya before spending 6 days in the amazing Cappadocia region. Cappadocia is just west of the city of Kayseri on the map. From Cappadocia, we moved northeast to Sivas, then began our quick 5-day journey west through Amasya and the capital city of Ankara before ending up in Bursa. We spent a night in Bursa before taking a short bus ride and ferry to Turkey's biggest and most exciting city, Istanbul.

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