My strategic redeployment in the face of harsh winter is complete, leaving me warm if not entirely dry in south-western Turkey. The weather has actually been most cooperative so far, raining at night and before we leave in the morning, and leaving us beautiful sunny days. My current traveling companion, Jun-E, and I have taken full advantage. In four short days in Fethiye, we’ve managed several ruined cities, much walking, a beautiful beach and coastal road via scooter, and a ridiculously secluded monastery, among delicious food and other random adventures.But I’ll do a travelogue next post, in the interest of keeping things organized. First, a few sweeping generalizations based on my short time here (augmented by talking with Jun-e, who’s had a few weeks).

Turkey seems to be in the excellently balanced in-between in lots of ways. First, economic development. Even when roaming around tiny villages on a scooter or local bus, people don’t seem desperately poor. Certainly, most can’t afford cars, but they seem to be happily getting by. The country hasn’t reached that point (though I’m sure there are lots of cultural factors at play here besides) where lives become segmented and separated by virtue of wealth. When everyone can afford a car, and a large house, and a computer and a tv and so on, there’s less interaction required in daily lives. It of course affects the kind of stores and the feel of the commercial districts as well – lots of small shops and cell phone stores, relatively few fashion boutiques and lexus dealerships, which suits me nicely.

Then there’s religion. Turkey is certainly a Muslim country, but it seems so far that most people are relatively casual about their faith. I think that this might let them reap the benefits that religion can bring (sense of community, strong values, and so on) without it’s more sinister aspects (repression and discrimination against the other or any religiously proscribed group).

It even extends to traffic, to my great delight. People seem to follow the rules that make sense, and break them only in fairly safe ways  which don’t inconvenience others. Contrast this to Italy, which has plenty of lines and traffic lights and so on, but where people frequently park in the middle (literal middle) of the street, because there’s ostensibly room to go around.

Some initial thoughts. We’ll see what the next days bring.