I went to Turkey by myself and while it was beautiful, it was way too hard to be there as a single tall blonde female. I didn't go in a group/tour though. I've traveled all over the world (and mostly by myself, including all over South America) but Turkey was too much for me. I wanted to be there for three weeks but left after five days and I'm intimidated by almost nothing. Almost got kidnapped, boys/adolescents just run up and touch you, stressssssssssssssssful. I did manage to see a number of the sights in Istanbul and came away with a beautiful rug and some other artwork. I would never go there again without a big guy along. One of the toughest sights to see was around the University in Istanbul--women dressed head to toe in black, wearing fairly heavy coats in the hot weather. My would be kidnapper, had I not dashed for the locked door of his store, told me that this was because the women had to cover their entire body so the wouldn't distract the men from their spiritual studies. Of course it's always the woman's fault. I did meet some neat people, including a Turkish Greek named Nicholas who read my tea leaves, and without one opportunity to peek at my passport, told me exactly what my birth date was--freaky
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