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

Journey to the East

About two months ago, we were sat on a train, embarking onto a new adventure in south east Turkey, and to be honest, that was one of the weirdest train ride I’ve ever had. We thought it would be good to finally check out the old Turkish trains, and it was also much cheaper that taking the bus but longer – yes they really are old. It was still Ramadan at that point so we had stocked up on loads of food to break our fast on the train, and off we were to Malatya, our first stop.

Loving the view from the train!