Wonders of Turkey

INTRODUCTION – WHERE EUROPE AND ASIA MEET…

Turkey is an extraordinary country taking place in two continents: Europe and Asia, which is pretty amazing. Imagine that you are in Istanbul and you take a boat there. When you get on it, you are in Europe and when you get off it, you are suddenly in Asia, even though you are still in the same city! I had a chance to experience it a couple of years ago and would recommend it to everyone keen on travelling. Take a glance at one of the photos I took on my boat trip.

Turkey embraces both modern and ancient culture, has very deep-rooted traditions and a dominant religion – Islam, which is of considerable importance to the majority of Turkish people.

THE TURKISH LANGUAGE

Its official language is Turkish, coming from the Altaic family. It is not a piece of cake to learn it for a European person as the Turkish language is very different from European languages in terms of syntax (the structure of sentences), morphology (the way words are formed), grammar and vocabulary. However, once you get the hang of how this language functions, things get much easier and with some practice, you would soon be able to engage in at least basic conversations. What is more, Turkish is not the only language spoken in this country. In the eastern part of Turkey, Kurdish is spoken by Kurds, who had and are still having some difficulties in getting on well with Turkish people because of some political issues, which will not be discussed in this article.

TURKISH CULTURE: CUISINE

Turkish people are real food lovers! They are especially keen on eating bulgur (a kind of wheat), pilav (Turkish rice), different kinds of soups, meat (e.g. köfte, şiş kebap), mantı (a kind of pasta), menemen (an omelette), lahmacun (crispy bread topped with minced meat and salad), dolma (stuffed peppers), etc.

Their famous desserts are: baklava (layers of dough with butter, sugar syrup and a variety of nuts), aşure (a pudding that includes nuts, apricot, garbanzo beans, golden raisins, bulgur or barley and some other ingredients depending on the chef), künefe (a sweet cheese pastry) and many others.

What is more, a cup of black tea is an indispensable part of the Turkish culture and a symbol of getting together and socializing. When I was living in Balıkesir (a city in the Western part of Turkey), I even saw some cups of black tea in the streets next to trees!

I hope you enjoyed this article. More articles about Turkey are coming! See you soon!