10 reasons to visit Turkey in 2016

I’ve had my share of woes in Turkey, especially when it comes to bureaucracy but I have to say that that I consider myself quite lucky to have been able to experience it as an almost-local. As I take on possibly my last year here (time FLIES), it’s a good time as any other to already start making a list of reason why I should come back after leaving (IF I leave). With Turkish Airlines now serving the Istanbul-Mauritius-Antananarivo route three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) and possibly an additional flight on Mondays as from the 8^th of February 2016 it is still quite fair to assume that many Mauritians would soon be making their way towards Turkey in the near future – not that they haven’t been doing so for the past years (from what I know anyway).

So without further ado, here are my 10 reasons for you to visit Turkey this year.

1. Istanbul would be reason enough

The Blue Mosque – the face of Istanbul

The only city spanning two continents, Istanbul is definitely one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities I have ever visited (although I wouldn’t want to live there, the traffic is truly horrendous). With over 2500 years of history, culture and traditions, it is a city with beautiful and certainly famous landmarks representing worth of the capital that served four different empires.

From a corner in the Hagia Sophia

2. But then, you’d miss the other historical and archeological gems Turkey offers

Ephesus: The library of Celsus

From Lycia to Mount Olympos

We spent our remaining days at Olympos exploring the ruins and mostly just enjoying the glorious weather and beach. I did quite like the way that the ruins had merged with the natural surroundings to form some surreal exotic place.

What’s left of the Lycian civilisation…

Endless walking and the eternal flames

We thought we would take on the ruins on the second day but ended up a hiking trail, part of the Lycian Way, the 540-km trail along the ancient coast of Lycia – one definite thing on my bucket list. Since we had water with us – as well as chocolate – we abandoned the old ruins in preference for a short but quite good walk away from the buzz of the beach. According to the timestamps on my photos, we apparently did about three hours walking, more or less. We definitely came across more ‘serious’ hikers who were armed properly for the long haul, even in spirit as some of them went along singing as loud as they can.

Weird trees among other things