I offer no advice..but best of luck wherever you end up and never give up xir.

2, 4, 3, 1

Agree with what Preston said except Istanbul is good for far more than a couple days, more to see in that city than any other city I have ever been to. Also my favorite city in the world to date. Not sure what year Preston went but it isn't that cheap anymore. Eastern Europe is cheaper

Cappadocia is also a must see place. In the top 2 places I've ever been far as ancient sites and that sorta stuff goes, I rank it up there with Petra and far beyond anywhere else (Pyramids, Angkor Wat etc.) I heard Pammukkale closed, if that isn't true, see it before it does.

Turkish people are very friendly with a very very rich history. They have been ruled by the Greeks, Romans & Ottomans. It's where East meets West and different worlds collide. The sights and places to visit are pretty endless

ok thanks guys... also any advice for travelling outside the country in general for a noob?

Marrakesh is the nuts. Hope you really, really like orange juice (there's this place with like 140 vendors who only sell orange juice and it is one of the great beverages of life.) It's really, really hot though, so drink infinite water (or infinite orange juice, I was traveling with someone who doesn't drink so I was pissing orange). It's dry heat, but it's at least 40 (104) every day or at least was in August. I loved that place though, great food (lamb's head, tagines with lamb and dates, etc... hope you like lamb), gorgeous women, amazing markets, day trips or longer into the Atlas mountains (I can't stress enough, more water and sunblock that you've ever brought in your life for golf) or the Sahara. Heard nothing but great things about Essaouira from other travellers, but didn't get to go there as I had to take my zero euro flight to Barcelona instead...

Oh, and crush those tournaments too...

Been to Istanbul twice and spent 7 days in Morocco. Both are fantastic places but I will never be going back to either. On my first flight to Istanbul I had a bloody nose and it caused our plane to have a 2 hour delay. Second flight to Istanbul my plane had an emergency landing. And while in Marrakesh, a cafe that my friend and I both ate at was hit by a suicide bomber 8 days later. I feel like someone is trying to tell me something.

Best tips I have for you regarding Morocco are don't let the store owners bully you, keep your valuables close, don't ever entertain anyone(especially in the main Marrakesh square) unless you are willing to pay them, drink as much orange juice/mint tea that you can, try not to stray outside of the touristy areas, buy a cheap soccer jersey, don't do drugs, and if you can go to Chefchaouen. Its a beautiful blue mountain town in the north.

and fyi it will be extremely difficult to find attractive women in Morocco and virtually impossible to get in their pants. Your best bet is other foreigners.

 

Originally Posted by zeppelinzoso16

I recommend you to ignore everything in Hodge's post. Except the picture, that is cool.

FYI Turkish girls are smoking hot and finding one in Istanbul, Izmir etc. is quite easy. Other parts of the country are more conservative. Dunno where you went out at night in Istanbul but I think you were in the wrong place

I could easily be wrong when it comes to Turkish girls. The touristy area in Istanbul and the clubs I went to were full of tourists and unlike most countries I had been to, I was OK not trying to immerse myself in their culture so no time was spent researching where the natives hang out. People have told me though that it is not easy finding girls there for a multitude of reasons(dudes there are crazy aggressive so tough competition, language barrier, finding them is difficult etc). I really did love Istanbul though and the OP should love it. Just did not feel the need to go into much depth due to how there is going to be an abundance of information about it. I stand by what I said about Moroccan girls though.

 

Originally Posted by zeppelinzoso16

Morocco you may be right, I've never been. It is basically impossible to talk to a girl in Egypt.

In Istanbul it is definitely not hard

I have also been to Egypt. Egypt and Morocco are pretty much identical when it comes to girls.

Hodge, Can you explain the bleeding nose story? Haha Im seriously interested not trying to troll or anything. I have to disagree with what you said about the women of Morocco. I was last there quite awhile ago but I got action from two local girls that I met at this shitty arcade in the market(I guess it might be a different between adults there, I was 17 at the time). I can only imagine its more liberal now. As for OP, I would suggest hitting up Asilah, its a nice and smaller coastal town with beautiful architecture, nice beaches, really good seafood. And from what I remember you can take a quick boat ride to some amazing Spanish beaches from there. Good luck and enjoy yourself.

I never knew there was more to turkey than hooliganism and rape...

 

Originally Posted by eg23

Hodge, Can you explain the bleeding nose story? Haha Im seriously interested not trying to troll or anything. I have to disagree with what you said about the women of Morocco. I was last there quite awhile ago but I got action from two local girls that I met at this shitty arcade in the market(I guess it might be a different between adults there, I was 17 at the time). I can only imagine its more liberal now. As for OP, I would suggest hitting up Asilah, its a nice and smaller coastal town with beautiful architecture, nice beaches, really good seafood. And from what I remember you can take a quick boat ride to some amazing Spanish beaches from there. Good luck and enjoy yourself.

Where did you meet the girls? The cities in Morocco differ pretty widely I think when it comes to how conservative they are. Fez and Marrakesh imo were super conservative but Chefchaouen was more liberal and it probably would have been easy to meet a girl. The coastal towns are probably the same.


FYI I suck at writing stories. So it was March of 2008. I was studying abroad in Vienna with a bunch of kids who spent all of their money on German booze than travel(understandable) so for one weekend I decided to hit up Istanbul by myself. Got on the plane which was extremely full and was in my estimation 95 percent Turks and 5 percent whiteys and sat right smack dab in the middle of the plane. We leave our gate and we are taxing to the runway when all of a sudden my nose just bursts. I sat there for a good 3 secs just stunned watching blood pour out of my nose when all of a sudden the girl next to me starts screaming because she sees the blood(possible some of it hit her not sure though). I try and ask her for a napkin in both English and German but she just screams. I can only imagine what people were thinking when they heard a girl scream and this little white kid getting up with blood all over his face. Any sympathy that I might normally have gotten though was destroyed when instead of walking to the back of the plane, I sprinted as quickly as I could with my hands cupping the blood. As a result of that and tripping a couple times, a bunch of people got to experience their first American blood.

I get to the back of the plane where the attendants are trying to help me. They took off my shirt so that they could wash it and then made me lay down. Took about 15 minutes for the bloody nose to stop and for me to wash up. During this time I heard people yelling in Turkish in the cabin and there was an unusually long line to get in the bathroom(the result of 10 or so people having blood on them). I then noticed that the plane was not in the air as it should have been but was just chilling somewhere on the tarmac. Suddenly 3 guys come rushing onto the plane to see me. One of them thankfully spoke English and explained to me that I must get off the plane since they can not be liable in case I die while flying. I emphatically state that I am fine(I have a history of bloody noses) and after five minutes of deliberation, they tell me they will return shortly with some forms to sign. Fine by me. After 45 mins they finally return but without the forms. Instead they just had me write on a piece of paper that I was fine and that they were not liable. Sure whatever. At this point they tell me that its time for me to return to my seats and I politely ask if i could just chill in the back for obvious reasons. No go. When I reenter the cabin I hear the loudest chorus of boos that you will ever hear. To make things worse, they all thought that I was leaving the aircraft but instead they had 2 people who were together in a row separate just so that I could have a row to myself in case I needed to lie down. This got people more upset. Somehow everyone knew I was American and you could hear people saying something in Turkish and then American. I was positively frightened. Looking back on it, they probably should have taken me off the plane for my own safety but instead they got one of the crew to sit on my left. I went to the window seat of that row, put on my headphones and placed a blanket over my face while waiting for us to to get back in the air. That took another 45 minutes or so. When we finally landed, I waited until everyone had left, found the first bathroom, and played freecell on my computer for 30 minutes before venturing out to customs. That night so desperate for friendship I found a gang of cats and played with them for 2 hours. This one was my favorite. His name was scruffles.

cab drivers in morocco try and rip you off more than anywhere I've been. I studied in prague for a term and they were fairly scummy there (especially the closer you are to that damn astronomical clock), but morocco they're out of control. morocco also won't let you leave their country with over some amount of their currency. coming from wash dc, i have to admit , i expected to see more black ppl when i got to africa.

Been to both. No such thing as shorts. Very odd to walk around a crowded city and not see a pair of shorts anywhere despite the temps being 90+ degrees. Recommend both tho.

GL man!