Living in Turkey

Priscilla Windsor Brown, a writer for escapeartist.com, moved to Turkey over 20 years ago and still finds it to be one of “the loveliest places in the world.” Read about her life in Turkey in her article; Life in a Turkish Tourist Town.

“I wake up every day knowing that I live in one of the loveliest places in the world. That, in spite of the invasion of thousands of people who have arrived these past few years to buy into our quality of life. Fortunately, I arrived in Bodrum, Turkey in the late eighties. Little did I realize then that I would still be here 20 years later. I am not the first foreigner to have been lulled into the Lotus Eating syndrome in Bodrum, Turkey. Hundreds of foreigners arrived before I.

It was 1983 when I first arrived in Bodrum for a sailing holiday. I had been working in London for a non-profit with teenagers from the inner city. We flew into to Izmir, a military airport, where we were thoroughly searched before climbing aboard a rickety bus and traveling south for an endless five hours without air-conditioning in high summer. It used to be work to get here. Foreigners who came to Turkey then were highly motivated travelers, in search of eastern culture, atmosphere, food, and music.

And so, in spite of the throngs of tourists that flock to our seaside town each summer, the sun and the Aegean Sea continue to mesmerize. My neighbours, landlady, and her family are simple and honest, and genuinely concerned for my welfare. And so I think I’ll stay.”