All the good things end, so did my 7-day trip to Turkey as a member of Ukrainian medical-journalist delegation. The visit consisted of inspecting and writing about Turkish private hospitals and thermal resorts (expect of wandering around and sleeping in hotels, of course).
I must say we went not without a tint of prejudice, as some of us visited the country 5, 10 or 20 years before. Well, they were all wrong! The Turkish Republic evolved greatly.
The thing which surprised us is the portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is everywhere wherever you go - in the cafe, 5-star hotel, office, shop, flat. I'm happy for Turks, at least they know who's a 100% national hero, unlike us where debates ever Bandera vs. Stalin (or neither of them) continue up to this date.
Untypically for Eastern European countries, the streets are very clean, even in the outskirts of the cities. The third thing puzzled me is a relatively high-percent of speakers of Russian (Turks learning Russian) and relatively low % of those who handle English. Well, England and USA are far away, while we are close!
Thanks personally to mr. Çakmak for making this happen and all friendly guys which I met by the way :P
Way to go!
That's very interesting. My travels to the Middle East have always been surprising too.You go in expecting one thing but you relize it is very different. I guess that is really in anywhere really. It's amazing what the media says something is abut it really isn't.