#tbt series: memories from Turkey

May 29

May 29 #tbt series: memories from Turkey

This is where it all started.
This is exactly when and where I got my travel bug and when the decision was made that I’m going places - January 2010 in a small town of Amasya hidden between the mountains in the central-northern part of Turkey.

How did a 17-year-old get there? Well, by chance, really, like most of the places I found myself in over the next years. I remember it like it was yesterday, walking down the stairs at my parent’s place screaming “I’m so excited!” (seriously, they talk about it until today…) but a bit unsure whether they will share my outburst of joy. It turned out that a friend of a friend was actively taking part in the projects of Youth in Action (currently taken over by a similar Erasmus+ initiative) and was about to go for another one in Turkey but unlucky for her (and very lucky for me), it was taking place exactly at the time of her prom leaving 2 free spaces needed to be filled in quickly.

And so this friend of mine thought about me and there we were. My parents surprisingly had no objections to sending me to the middle of nowhere with a bunch of unknown people (and they never did afterwards supporting even the craziest of my decisions - how thankful am I for that!).

After this project in winter 2010, I came back to Amasya several times after that in 2011 and 2012, every time leaving a little piece of my heart in the middle of these mountains…. Thanks to that, I got to experience Istanbul for the very first time and fell in love with it as well.

What amazed me the most about Turkey was how rich in tradition it is. Maybe I never really paid attention to it in Poland, or perhaps we are not as traditional (unfortunately, I believe in the second) but Turkish focus on culture and customs were something extraordinary and something I never experienced before. The approach to others, the meals, the daily habits… everything is in place and with so much respect. I’ve travelled to other places since then but I must say that, apart from Japan, until nowI haven’t experienced anything close to that in any other place.

Maybe one day I’ll find myself back there, who knows?!