Category

Turkey

Category

The Turks are the most hospitable, friendly, and helpful people I’ve ever encountered. They usually go well out of their way to make sure their guests feel welcome in their country or city. I’ve always met people curious of foreigners, many eager to ask questions about me and compliment my bad Turkish, and others who happily want to practice their English for a few minutes. When I rolled into Afyon, I was expecting the same, but Afyon is different. Afyon is a Turkish parallel universe.

Uşak is an Anatolian city located in an area untouched by tourism, and for good reason. There’s not much of interest in this city to detour travelers, but there’s enough to keep someone busy for a few hours. All in all, it’s skippable.

The tiny village of Çavdarhisar, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, holds one of the most unvisited and underappreciated ruins in Turkey – the ancient city of Aizanoi (Αίζανοί). It was originally settled by the Phrygians and later conquered by the Greeks and Romans. You may not have heard of it, but it contains some structures that were unique in the ancient world.