Frommer's Turkey
From the Blue Mosque to the Blue Lagoon
Chapter One
The Best of Turkey
People's perception of travel has been tragically and drastically altered by world
events. And Turkey lies disturbingly close to a tumultuous region in upheaval. If
that weren't enough, Turkey has been unlucky enough to succumb to a series of
events in the past decade that includes terrorism, earthquakes, and a relentless
hammering of the local economy. On the surface, any rebound of the tourist
economy seems farfetched. But this trend of stagnation will only continue if
people continue to be influenced by fear of the unknown; because people who
know just can't get enough of Turkey.
Like the land that makes up this vast, contradictory landscape, Turkey straddles
East and West, modern and traditional. But if Turks are having problems
defining who they are, then foreigners are completely in the dark. The omission
of some of civilizations' most significant influences (Hittites, Selcuks, and
Ottomans) in Western history books just feeds the emptiness of what Westerners
know about Turkey. Considering the depth and breadth of what Turkey has
to offer, this is shameful. And, with the Western medi ... read full excerpt from Frommer's Turkey: From the Blue Mosque to the Blue Lagoon, 3rd Edition ebook
