When people ask me my favorite place, Turkey is always among the handful of countries I name. I spent three happy weeks there in 1997; this passage about my visit to Selcuk is from my second book, A Way to See the World (2003):
"Nearby stood the train station, with its own cafe tucked under branches and a fountain where a girl, with a little red wagon full of empty plastic bottles, graciously motioned me to go ahead of her to get my drink. And here it was again: not just kindness, but that instinctive radar for detecting a stranger's need for it. I thought of the wine merchant in Cappadocia who opened a bottle to give me a taste, the woman in Ankara's old town who emerged from nowhere to hand me a warm loaf of bread, the van driver who made sure that I caught the right bus, the sweets seller who knew I wanted more nougat. ...Turkey was proving my theory that there are countries that treat you as a tourist and others - often the less celebrated ones - that receive you as a guest."
