"Turkey's Hot
By Rick Steves
Turkey is even tastier, friendlier, cheaper, and richer in culture and history than its more popular neighbor, Greece. But the average Turk looks like a character the average American mother would tell her child to run from. If we're able to look beyond our visual hang-ups, we'll find some of the friendliest people in the world.
Turkey is a proud new country. It was born in 1923, when Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey, rescued it from the buffet line of European colonialism. He divided church and state, liberated women (at least on paper), replaced the Arabic script with Europe's alphabet, and gave the battle-torn, corrupt, and demoralized remnants of the Ottoman Empire the foundation of a modern nation. Because of Atatürk, today's 66 million Turks have a flag — and reason to wave it. For a generation, many young Turkish women actually worried that they'd never be able to really love a man because of their love for the father of their country."
More:Rick Steves' Europe: Turkey's Hot
