Sunday 15 May 2011

The Best Tour Guide Ever!

I thought I would tell you a little about our tour guide, Yalcin... Well he definitely has a sense of humour, but most of the time he will say something only slightly funny to which the group will laugh at a little. Then he laughs, the group laughs harder at his laugh, so he laughs even more because we are laughing harder then before, so we all end up almost in hysterics because of his laugh!

He is also very laid back. For example when he counts to make sure we are all on the bus he will say 'ok, we are complete'. When we ask him how many of us there should be, his answer is 'I don't know' :P After losing Cath, (and a couple of other people) we decided to buddy up with each other, and had a double buddy system in place. Towards the end of the trip we just needed to make sure Lorraine (my 'Turkey mum') was on the bus, as she was generally the last one on.

Yalcin's favourite phrase  is 'under normal conditions', followed by how long it should typically take us to get somewhere. We learnt fairly quickly that conditions were rarely normal.. especially in getting to Gallipoli, which I shall post about next. I was certainly glad that the tour consisted of Aussies and New Zealanders, as our laid back, relaxed attitude definitely shone through!

But given his 'faults' Yalcin is the best tour guide ever (thus the title of this post!). He knows his stuff fairly well.. and when he doesn't is honest about it :P He interacted with the group, drinking a lot of Raki (Turkish aniseed liquer) with some of the guys on the tour, and he was interesting. Having a great guide and a great tour group made for an entirely different experience to my Egypt tour, and whilst it was good to say I have been to Egypt, I don't particularly want to go back there, whereas I would LOVE to go back to Turkey one day :)

So, to Yalcin and to everyone else on the tour, thanks for making a GREAT holiday!! xox

And to everyone else, if you ever do a tour of Turkey, make sure Yalcin is your guide!!

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