Jake F. - USA
Jan. 18, 2010
Itinerary:  Private Tour with Homestay

Regarding Ali and Hatice. I asked Rina to see if she could make arrangements for me to spend some time in the home of locals, which obviously she did. I must admit that it was a little uncomfortable because neither Ali nor Hatice spoke much English and I obviously don't speak Turkish. I will also tell you that spending three days with them was one of the highlights of the trip. The fact that they did not change their lifestyle to accommodate me, the fact that Ali included me in his day to day life, including spending the day with him and his friends, playing backgammon, some other game like dominoes and later that evening playing cards with the mayor's armed guard, drinking wine, in the guardhouse was the best.

Would you believe that in the mornings, when we would all take our walk together, Ali would pick wild flowers for his wife and I?

We ate most of our meals on the patio, surrounded by chickens, roosters and cats. We ate food that was obviously prepared from scratch, with tender loving care by Hatice, that was absolutely picture perfect, and we ate on a table in the shape of a heart that Ali had made by hand for his wife. I honestly feel honored that they would share their life with me in the way that they did.

I think all too often people visit different places and just see the sights. I think the way to visit is to see the sights and experience the lifestyle, like I did with Ali and Hatice. As you probably recall, Ali is what I would call a character. He has a great sense of humor, and in spite of the fact that he doesn't speak English, I got his sense of humor and really appreciated it, even though I was sometimes the victim and especially the way he teased his friends, as the victorious player in all the games that he played.

I'm reminded of what I tell myself and others all the time. "It doesn't matter what we do, what matters is who we do it with". and "It's the experiences in life that we remember not what we see or buy".

Rina did an outstanding job putting together my tour! If you look at the schedule, you can see that I saw a lot, probably more than I really needed, to get a real sense of the historical Turkey. Now that the tour is over, I could make some very minor changes to the itinerary, but only in the sense of seeing a few less things and having more experiences.

The absolute best part of the trip was the time spent with the tour guides and locals, including dinner with Rina and the lady who introduced us on-line with her husband who is a LCDR in the Turkish Navy. Even the brief time we spent with your friend the caligrapher was "special". The questions he asked as well as his response to my answers, was especially interesting and I'm glad we did it.

Rina's choices of tour guides was very well throughout and much appreciated.

Life is good!
Jake