Jim and I are an American married couple who have had the opportunity to live all over the world thanks to our work. We are both teachers, and currently we’re working in Ankara, Turkey where we plan to stay for the next few years.
No matter where we live we try to take full advantage of the travel opportunities found in that region of the world; to see and experience as many things as possible. We try to be open and spontaneous, allowing the unknown to fit in as well as the expected.
Seeing the Sights- We consider ourselves to be middle-of-the-roaders when it comes to hitting the sights. We certainly like to see the major tourist attractions in any country we visit, but we also don’t want to overdo it. For us, the best part of traveling is getting to know the people and just being there. We do try to hit as many World Heritage Sites as much as possible as well as a fair number of religious, political, and human interest types of things. For the most part, we find that if we stick to just checking off the guidebook recommendations, we are too tired to appreciate them…so we take our time and just try to have fun, and more importantly try to get to know some people, because that’s where the real experience begins.
Food- To us, eating is not only sustenance, it’s a passion! One of the best things about traveling is sampling the different food of the country. We are not so die-hard as to stop at the corner cricket vendor and get a bagful to eat in front of the t.v., but we do give new things a go. One thing we’ve tried to do, and hope to expand on, is start collecting some recipes that we’ve enjoyed, and hopefully can replicate in our own kitchen at home. In our blog, we will happily recount those unusual tidbits that we’ve had the chance to try, so keep checking that as well.
Accommodations- Travel is not a cheap pastime. So, we try to make the best out of it by not trying to scrimp, but also not going overboard with spending all our money on a comfortable bed. Once in awhile we’ll splurge, but for the most part we try to stay in guest houses. We feel we get to know the people who run the houses better than any hotel staff, and we don’t spend two-thirds of our budget on our sleep time. We have put some of the places we’ve stayed on our site and given our opinions of them, but if you like to really have the creature comforts of home, you probably won’t want to stay in the majority of the places we’ve stayed.
Entertainment- We definitely try to go to as many cultural shows that we come across. That means we may end up going to one or two touristy dance shows, but we try not to overdo it. We like to check out the pubs, even though we’re not big partiers, and we’re not much on “catching rays”, so we don’t really do the beach thing, but other than that, we try to seek out as many events that will give us just one more glimpse into the society as we can. We’ll try to tell you the ones we like and recommend, and also let you know which ones we feel are complete wastes of money!
Shopping- We aren’t big shoppers and even though we seem to spend, spend, spend, we never seem to have much to show for it, so you won’t find too much about that here.
We’re always willing to meet new people, so if you are in the vicinity of Ankara, Turkey, or anywhere that we might be going, please drop us a line. We enjoy meeting like-minded travellers, sharing stories, and finding new adventures to plan!
