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| "TOM BROSNAHAN" |
I was an English teacher at Izmir Koleji from September 1967 to May 1968. During my first few months in Turkey, I realized that it was a beautiful country with friendly people, wonderful cuisine, and lots to see and do.
I was an English teacher at Izmir Koleji from September 1967 to May
1968. During my first few months in Turkey, I realized that it was a
beautiful country with friendly people, wonderful cuisine, and lots to
see and do. It was perfect for tourism, but it had few tourists.
I decided to write a travel guidebook to Turkey. In June 1968 I moved
to Istanbul and began work on the book. I worked on it until December
1969, and in 1970. It was published as "Turkey on $5 a Day" in 1972-
and you really could travel in Turkey then for $5 a day (though a room
at the Istanbul Hilton cost $14).
I returned to the USA and studied Ottoman language and history from
1971 to 1974, hoping to become a university professor. I was awarded a
Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship and I returned to Istanbul late in
1974 to do 15 months' research reading Osmanlica documents in the
Basbakanlik Arsivi at Bab-i Ali.
When I returned to the USA again, I realized there were very few
history professor jobs in universities. My Turkey guidebook was
selling well, and the publisher, Frommer's, offered me the job of
writing a guidebook to Mexico, so I decided to become a travel writer.
Over the next 30 years I wrote dozens of guidebooks to many countries,
but my favorite was always Turkey. In 1985 I wrote the Lonely Planet
Turkey guide, and later the Lonely Planet Istanbul guide, Lonely
Planet Turkish phrasebook and Lonely Planet Turkey Atlas (maps).
For many years I was a consultant in public relations to Ambassador Dr
Sukru Elekdag in Washington, and to the Turizm Bakanligi in Ankara.
In 2002 I decided to give up guidebook writing and to develop travel
websites instead. My TurkeyTravelPlanner.com website now has about
5000 pages, and receives more than 3 million visitors from 210+
countries each year. I have other websites as well, including
FranceTravelPlanner.com and NewEnglandTravelPlanner.com.
In 2004 I published a humorous travel memoir. Turkey: Bright Sun,
Strong Tea, was published in Istanbul (in English) by Homer Kitabevi,
and in the USA by my company, Travel Info Exchange, Inc.
My wife Jane and I live in Concord, Massachusetts. Our daughter, who
is at university now, speaks four languages, and she says that she
will learn Turkish next!
I am still in contact with several Izmir Koleji graduates, including
Suha Ersoz, Omer Riza Cam, Feyzi Acikalin, etc. I visit Turkey about
three times each year to update pages of TurkeyTravelPlanner.com.
Best regards,
Tom Brosnahan
https://www.TurkeyTravelPlanner.com/
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Amusing airplane/train/bus or end-of-the-day reading? Turkey: Bright
Sun, Strong Tea, my humorous travel memoir: https://www.brightsunstrongtea.com/ |
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