Over the summer of 2022, I lived in Turkey for a month. When I told my friends here in the United States, several didn’t understand what I meant until I said that I was going to Istanbul. However, Turkey, of course, isn’t just Istanbul; I lived in other Turkish cities and towns, such as Ankara (the capital), Tekirdağ, Arsuz, and Mudurnu. Istanbul is its most well-known city, but Turkey has more to offer to world travelers.

It wasn’t my first visit to Turkey. I began my elementary education in Turkey in the Spring of 2013. Later, I visited this country, where my parents were born, several times again. During my most recent visit, last year, I lived in the Istanbul house of my aunt, a psychiatrist and an Istanbul expert living there for 30+ years. In Istanbul, I saw touristic spots like the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the Galata Tower.

I was able to experience Istanbul’s local life as well. I ate authentic Turkish food, went to the bazaar, and even got a haircut at an Istanbul barbershop. Istanbul from most standpoints is like the New York of Turkey, a large metropolitan city. However, it has an aspect that New York doesn’t–a deep history of multiple civilizations. Istanbul served as the capital of two of the largest empires in the history of the world–Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.

Although Istanbul with its Bosporus is a city of wonder, Turkey is a country with much more cultures and offerings. For example, Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is something unlike Istanbul. Regarding people, food, and climate, Ankara has a completely different vibe. Ankara is home to many government institutions and represents the center of the Republic of Turkey. I saw the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founding president, and visited the Parliament of Turkey. Although Ankara not seeming like a city with touristic appeal, it provided me an experience Istanbul could not. I saw another parallel with my home country: Ankara was like the Washington D.C. of Turkey—a city with political attractions for tourists.

I also had the chance to live in rural settings. I lived in two rural places–one in the north of Turkey (Mudurnu) and the other in its south (Arsuz). Here at farmhouses, I saw a rural aspect of life that I never experienced in Istanbul, Ankara, or large American cities. I observed the lifestyle of rural people, the town community, and the self-sufficient communal lifestyle (living off farming and livestock). In Arsuz, specifically, I indulged in foods different from what I ate elsewhere in Turkey. Arsuz, a Mediterranean town, is part of the Hatay region, where Turkish and Arab cuisines intermingled. Mudurnu, on the other hand, is landlocked, between Istanbul and Ankara. It is part of the Bolu region, which has produced some of the most famous Turkish cooks.

The assumption that “Istanbul is all Turkey has to offer” is wrong. Turkey is a country with many different cosmopolitan cities and rural towns. All of these have different customs, foods, and even accents. Although Istanbul is a city that has established itself through tourism and history, Turkey, in my experience, is a vast country with more to offer.