Márta and Géza Nemeth

We have spent a wonderful week in Turkey! I’d like to share some of our experiences with you.

We arrived to Istanbul in a beautiful day in May, 2009 with excitement and great expectations. I do not know what are you doing when arriving to new place, I use to smell and try to feel it. The smell and the feeling were good. Istanbul is a city with a busy life and you can feel the rhythm immediately. We had a very nice hotel room. After packing we enjoyed our first meal – it was sensational! We have tried so many different foods. We can not recall all of them. Some of them were different from our usual food some of them nearly the same. It could be because of our common history – Hungary was occupied by the Ottoman Empire for 150 years.

We enjoyed the boat trip on the Bosporus – Golden Horn, it was fantastic. Our host was very polite – as were all of our hosts. It was a unforgettable moment when we stopped for our hosts have the opportunity to pray and we could enter to the mosque and hear – without loudspeakers – the beautiful voices of the muezzin. We were outsiders but could feel the prayers goodwill and enjoyment.

We have visited so many historic places. Both of them are taken very good care of. We could see that not only tourists but school-children are visiting the historic places they are learning history by experiencing not only from their books. The children were very friendly, many of them spoke English.

At Hagia Sofia it was a great experience that when the church was changed to a mosque the original decoration was not destroyed only covered!

It was a good feeling to walk through the remains of Ephesus. The only disappointment was that Austrians who are helping to conserve the remains forget to write the notes in English – the notes are written in German and Turkish only.

We were glad to light candles at the House of Virgin Mary. We drink from the water of the fountain and washed our faces in it as well. It is good to see that the Christian historic places are kept in a beautiful condition.

We enjoyed the visit at the pottery factory. The designs are ancient and modern at the same time and the hand painted plates, cups, etc. can be used in every homes.
Cappadocia is a magic. It was very exciting to walk through the caves and try to discover how life was there during the ancient times. It is very nice how the wall paints are still enjoyable. Thanks to our good camera the photos are enjoyable although the flash wasn’t used.

Kariye Museum – Chore shows how talented the artists were at that time. With ancient tools they could make so precise job what would be a pride with today’s equipment as well.

Suleymanie Mosque – it was very interesting to learn that there were no damages despite the numerous earthquakes. It is an architectural masterpiece.

Grand Bazar – we were lost in it! It is impossible to get to know it within a few hours.

At the Jewish Museum we met a Japanese man who was sitting at the entrance and claimed he is one of the few Jews from Japan.

Topkapi Palace – we liked it much better than Dolmabahce. Topkapi is more friendly. Dolmabahce is very nice and beautiful but a bit distress/afflict with the too much treasure.

Miniaturk is a lovely idea –it shows so many very important buildings or places at the same time.

We will not forget the dinner at the house of a businessman; Mustafa Dugral. The food was delicious. Our host could find the time to prepare our fish himself. He invited musicians to entertain us. It was very good to see how our host enjoyed themselves! I am sure it was a usual evening they used to have these kinds of family events it was not arranged only for us. We were very happy to be a part of it.

We visited schools, so called “Gulen Schools“, and university – the idea of non-violation is very sympathetic for me. We are against war and violation. We believe in negotiations with tolerance. If we teach the children to accept different cultures, costumes and ways there will be much more laughter and joy in the world instead of crimes and war.

We have visited a few organizations which are working by the idea of Fethullah Gulen. We could feel that each organization is a very fell formed, the leaders are bright. We were received everywhere with openness and friendship. It was a good feeling. The reports enlightened us about the aim of the Fethullah Gulen Movement. So far what we could hear, experience during the trip and could find with the help of the internet we like the ideas. We even found that there is a school in Budapest as well. We will recommend it to our friends.

Our visit at the Kimse Yok Mu Foundation showed how a catastrophe can bring people together. Our host’s introduction and speech was very interesting and moving. The visit at the Journalists and Authors Foundation was ‘very educational’ as one of our group member used to say. We were informed about their efforts for piece and friendship – wishing them many-many successes in the future as well!

Our group was really an intercultural group – people from America, The Bahamas, Hungary, Syria and Tacikistan. By the end of the trip we were not only a group of people but a group of people who are caring for each other. We had a 10 month old boy, Omar, traveling with the group and because of him the collaboration grew quicker and it was stronger between the members of the group.

Each and every host (waiters, people in the train, in the bazaar, etc.) during the trip was very friendly and polite with us. We will not forget the beautiful roses in Izmir, brings us good memory to use the beautiful coffee cups received from the Journalists and Authors Foundation.

Our guides were well educated and very friendly. They could answer to all of our ‘stupid’ questions. Their English were excellent as well. It was a pleasure to have them.

We would recommend to everybody to visit Turkey and experience this exceptional hospitality. We hope to go back and visit this beautiful country again. We are planning to show our sons all the beautiful places we could visit. Our best friends are going to visit Turkey in September they are eagerly waiting for us to show our pictures and share our experiences.

We can not thank enough to Rumi Forum for this beautiful memory.

‘The Hangarians’ Márta and Géza