lewismark

yes thats my opinion NOT a judgement-- you have to be careful in case your statement gets assasinated as previously

teresa

In the end my opinion is that you should buy where you actually want to be and where you feel happy. We tried to look at France because it seemed more sensible because of access etc.

The problem was that neither of us actually wanted to go to France and once we admitted this to each other we carried on with Turkey - which is where we wanted to be and we have never looked back.

Teresa

mike and hilary

We considered:
Spain - overdeveloped and iffy build quality.
Portugal - too expensive
France - climate not much better than (say) the South of England
Cyprus (south) - Blackpool in the sun
Bulgaria - crime
Turkey - just what we wanted.
You can't visit them all but there is the Internet and although we went to Spain and Cyprus all the other countries we researched via forums like this one (which are invaluable).
My wife had been to Turkey before and I must admit I had preconceived ideas about the country which were totally wrong and for the life of me I don't know where I got them from.
The main attractions for us are the values of the people which we used to have once in the UK.
Polite; law-abiding; love of children and the elderly. It's not just sun and sea.
I just hope that EU membership and the expected rise in prosperity doesn't change things.

Mike

Carolyn

I'm with you there Mike. We first came to Turkey 10 years ago and stayed for 3 successive years around the Bodrum peninsula. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality and friendliness of the Turkish people we met and who, to our amazement, remembered us from one year to the next. We had previously spent our holidays in various parts of France and a friend who had bought a property urged us to do the same. Something didn't feel quite "right" and we never found anywhere we could imagine spending the rest of our lives. After a husband-enforced break (anywhere but Turkey please) we went to Mexico and Venezuela where we saw and did amazing things and finally a magical holiday in Egypt we came "home" to Turkey and had several wonderful holidays at Ocakkoy (between Fethiye and Hisaranou). During our last holiday there (just over 18 months ago) a chance conversation with a travel agent in Hisaranou - "You want a jeep safari, trip to Dalyan, to see Tlos?" to which we replied "Been there, done that..." "Ah, you've been here many times. You are nearly Turkish. Do you want to buy a house?" we found ourselves looking at an old village house in Kemer in need of total renovation. To cut a long story short, it felt right and having come on holiday with no intention of taking any more than Turkish Delight back home, found ourselves the proud owners of a lovely house, surrounded by Turkish people with the imam as our early morning alarm call and a view of "our" mountains from our recently added balcony where we watch them turn from white to grey and finally to pink as the sun goes down at the end of the day. We have visited 3 of the Canaries, the Balearics and a couple of the smaller Greek islands but nowhere has had the magic of Turkey. We are now in the strange position of wishing our lives away until we are able to come "home" to our house in Turkey. We have more friends than we could have imagined and a Turkish family too. We've been to weddings, seen funerals, attended a circumcision party which was delayed for 3 weeks for us to be there and spent a day cotton-picking to name but a few. I think my husband Mike summed it up one day when he said of our friends "If they had one loaf of bread, they would find a way of giving us two". Occasionally it pays to let your heart rule your head!

teresa

Very nicely put Carolyn - a lovely description.

Bryan Sargent

Hi,
I drove through Bulgaria from London to Turkey and it was miserable with communist hangings on horrible western bloc furnishings and buildings in all a very depressing place might be interesting to histoty stuedents but I would nt go there to S***

Pete&Mag

We looked at 3 places in Bulgaria before buying in Turkey. One by the beach and two up in the hills (Ski resort) .Yes the prices were cheap if you bought a farmhouse in the back of beyond.However ,if you look at the prices in the resorts on a new build you will find them similar to Turkey. Obviously it helps their cause being in the E.U. If you want to excape cheaply and keep yourself to yourself.Bulgaria is as good as anywhere. We looked at old 3 bed farmhouses 30 miles inland at 15K . But we thought.... why would we want to go there?? Anyway. I heard in some provincial towns in Bulgaria,they dont bury their dead. . .They prop them up in bus shelters to make the place look busier. Pete

Pete&Mag

Actually. Chelsea are playing there tonight. In Transylvania. They've decided to play wingers ,because they know the locals can't stand Crosses

panther

My doctor thought of buying in Turkey. His deciding factor was he bought in Cyprus and Bulgaria because they were Christian countries and not Muslim.