Hey there! My name is Ana and I am an Expat Woman in Turkey 🙂 I have been living here for the past four years. I am stay at home mom to a three-year-old boy and a baby boy. My husband is Turkish. I created this website to share my expat experience and connect with other expat women. Hope you enjoy browsing through my website! :)
Turkish culture and lifestyle
I’ve been living in Turkey for the past four years and I am a wife and daughter/sister in law for a wonderful Turkish family. I cannot say that I know everything about Turkish culture and lifestyle, but I observed, learned and have some opinion about it and you may find it useful on your way to understanding this big new country of yours 🙂
When I first came to Turkey all the people that I interacted with seemed like angels with their smiley and friendly faces, polite voices showing amazing hospitality. I still didn’t understand a word of Turkish language and was relying only on what my intuition is telling me. Of course, as a woman, I always trusted less men on the street, because I know as a foreigner, I may be more interesting to them, so I just ignored anyone who I felt is not as good as he is showing to be.
What is my opinion about Turkey after spending here few years
Now, after four years spent here, my feeling is actually not very different, even I know a lot of Turkish language now and can communicate easily with people. I still think most of the people are very helpful, nice and hospitable people. I traveled a lot in Turkey, from East to West and my experiences were amazing on every step of the way.
You can relax and trust people, as most of the people will not try to trick you. Of course, common sense should be applied, but I try to make my life easier and just try and relax and give my trust to people and believe that everything will be ok. And usually, it is. This is a new skill that I’m still learning, but it’s the one Turkish culture is teaching me and I’m so grateful for that.
Everyone can find something for him/herself in Turkey
Turkish culture is very versatile and full of many surprises that are still waiting for you to discover them. From bargaining at Pazar (bazaar), eating different kinds of food, all made with gifted hands of Turkish women and men, drinking liters of black tea in small Turkish glasses while you smile and try to understand this new group of people, who thankfully accept almost everyone with open hands and hearts.
It is not a secret that I am in love with this beautiful land and hopefully, you will be too 🙂
This is a very broad subject and I hope to help you understand more of the Turkish culture and lifestyle through my blog and posts.
Browse through my posts for more stories about Turkey and feel free to write me if you have any questions.
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Hi Ana, this is a nice post about Turkey. I always find Turkey fascinating and this article made me interested in visiting it in the near future. 1 thing to ask you though, I prefer budget and backpack travelling, is Turkey affordable enough for me to do that?
Hello Will, I’m happy to hear you want to visit Turkey. Yes, budget travelling is completely possible in Turkey. If you are a member of a wonderful community called COUCHSURFING, http://www.couchsurfing.com , then you can usually find a host in almost any city to accommodate you and show you the city and share with their daily life, which is great when travelling. Even if you sleep in hotels or hostels, usually you can find a good deal. Hope you will visit! I’m waiting for your impressions afterwords 🙂
When I worked for a lawn service company, one of the highlights was mowing for a professor that had a wife from Turkey. She always awed me with the natural grace that she exuded from her. One day, I asked her what was her most favorite and least favorite parts of America.
“My most favorite part,” she began in mildly accented English, “is that there are so many different varieties of Americans within this country’s borders. My least favorite part is the same thing. I guess it is all about perspective.”
Nice story 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
I like this article, I have lived in Turkey about 10 years and personally have never been shafted by a Türk. I do know people who have though and it is always best to cross your t’s and dot your i’s when buying property as it’s easy to extend trust beyond the line.
I’m happy for your positive experience and I totally agree with you about the trust issue. Better safe than sorry. 🙂