I was excited for this. Not that I’m not always excited for a new country. The difference this time, was that this felt like I was going into a new region of the world. An ancient one with beautiful architecture, unique culture and people. Welcome to Turkey

 

 

Because of its colorful boutique shops and restaurants, Fener & Balat is one of the more popular neighborhoods to visit in Istanbul. But it also has an interesting story if you look below the surface

 

 

Bursa sits across the sea from Istanbul, but doesn’t get a fraction of the tourists that Istanbul does. Despite the fact that it has the best skiing/hiking resort in the country with Mount Uludag. In fact, there is so much more to the former Ottoman capital that I really enjoyed

 

 

Although my tour of Ankara started off on an unpleasant foot (see why in the video below), I don’t regret coming to the country’s large and interesting capital city