When I had to leave Pakistan after 9/11 and Iran did not seem a safe option, for a moment I vacilated on where to continue my journey:

Turkey is a perfect next step, refuge and right at the heart of all "east-meets-west" issues. Asia minor, crossroads of Mongolian, Arab, Persian, Greek and early Christian, Byzantine, Islamic Caliphate, Ottoman, and the modern secular Attaturkocracy - both the roots and the solutions to modern issues can be sought here.

In Istanbul, I made up for all the food and hot showers I'd been missing, went down the coast meeting lots of Aussies and Kiwis as the tourist season drew to a close, and retreated to Cappadoccia to explore the huge archeological jungle gym that are the cliff houses and catacombs of early fugitive Christianity there.

On my way back through Turkey (from Syria) I lucked out and got to swoop down into Konya, tomb of of the great mystic poet master Rumi for the yearly week-long Rumi Festival held there to mark the night of his death (called "the wedding night").

Here are my journal entries for Turkey: