Turkey

We began in Istanbul where we met up with a friend that was living there at the time. We immediately fell in love with the city; it was clean and everyone was very helpful. The male to female ratio was crazy though; a lot of males and we saw few females. We did not stay in a hostel, but a funky secondhand store with rooms upstairs. There are many hostels to choose from though in the Sultanahmet district. Great places we saw: The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia), Cistern Basilica (Yerebatan Sarayi) , Pierre Loti (Eyup district), Buyukada, Topkapi Palace, Taksim Square. Pierre Loti is a beautiful cemetary that slopes down a hill; Buyukada is a small island where motor vehicles are not permitted so we rented bicycles and toured the island for a day and had a picnic. Cistern Basilica was once the underground place where water was stored for the Sultan; it is very eerie, I recommend it. Istanbul is a great city to wander around in, there is always a street market to stumble upon and when the Tulip Festival is happening there is so much color to the city. Great food too and loved finding small nargile (sheesha, hookah) cafes where we could sit for hours and drink apple tea and play backgammon. Our friend also took us to a local Turkish Bath so we got the full experience as opposed to the tourist baths.
After Istanbul we went south to Fethiye/Oludeniz. (trains go as far as Izmir then transfer to a bus but I recommend just taking a bus the whole way, they havent quite figured out an efficient train system.) Once we got to Fethiye we realized it was somewhat of a resort town and we were not there in peak season. It was still a great place. The Blue Lagoon is beautiful and once again the locals were very friendly and there was great food and markets in Fethiye/ Oludeniz. We did day tours to Butterfly Valley and various other islands. We also did paragliding over the Blue Lagoon which gives a spectacular view.
Overall we wish we could have stayed longer and visited Antalya (Olypmos), Pamukkale and further into central Turkey, but it will have to wait until next time.
I traveled with another female and we were both 18 yet Turkey made us feel extremely safe and I recommend it to anyone; especially the west and southwest coast where it is easier for travelers.

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