by Vas Mylko, Roman Bilusiak
We are testing our AI engine Ingeenee in Turkey. The result is a Curious Turkey. As usual, we got the inspiration for testing from those who traveled in Turkey and described their travel stories. We have enough domain knowledge to introduce two Curiosio Originals signature trips: Turkish Tea and Time Machine. Discover and enjoy!
Time Machine
Göbekli Tepe (12,000–10,000 years ago) is thousands of years older than Sumer (6500–4000 years ago). Urartu (3000–2500 years ago). Armenia. The flood myth motif occurs in many cultures thru thousands of years. Eastern Turkey is a land of many cultures, layered thru time… The elusive docking site of Noah’s Ark at Mount Ararat is somewhere there…
You can drive back into the history of our civilization that started and developed from Mesopotamia. Visit many sacred and secret places stretching from the Black Sea to the borders of Iraq and Syria, and to the east to Mount Ararat. That big region was a northern part of Mesopotamia. We created an interesting itinerary for you in Eastern Turkey named Time Machine.
It starts in Erzurum and finishes in Kars. You can loop back to the start. You can select a different hub as a start. Click [Modify], remove Erzurum, and type what you want. The starting point is always the first. The finishing points is always the last.
Turkish Tea
Turkey is one of the biggest produces and the biggest consumers of tea. High probability that Turkey has the highest per capita tea consumption in the world.
“Rize tea or Rize çayı is the black tea used for Turkish tea. Produced in Rize Province on the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey which has a mild climate with high precipitation and fertile soil, when brewed it is mahogany in color…Çaykur is a Turkey state-owned tea producing company.” Wikipedia.
Beautiful shiny tea plantations are grown all around the city of Rize and you can see many signs for the Çaykur tea company there. If you like black tea from China, India, Taiwan, Sri Lanka then you should try Tirebolu (blue box, on the left) and Organic Hemşin (claret box, on the right).
You can drive the tea-producing mountainous coast of the Black Sea and enjoy the scenery and the tea. You will visit Rize, Tirebolu, Hemşin, Of [yes, such a name], Sumela Monastery, Kaçkar Mountains, Uzungöl Lake, and more local original and picturesque places. Here is your interactive journey Turkish Tea that you can take as is or modify to your preferences.
Turkish tea is made from Camellia but different types of tea leaves from different gardens are mixed and shredded, so this is not FTGFOP tea. The brewing process of Turkish tea is significantly different from Indian or Chinese tea. Taste it all and figure what you like, figure out what else they add for the flavor and taste. Buy it all and bring it home with you. then… brew, drink and revitalize the memories of your cool road trip in Turkey.
Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse is also in Turkey. “Troy (Ancient Greek: Τροία, Troía, Ἴλιον, Ī́lion or Ἴλιος, Ī́lios; Latin: Troia, also Īlium; Hittite: Wilusa or Truwisa; Turkish: Truva or Troya), also Ilium, was a city in the northwest of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), south of the mouth of the Dardanelles.” Wikipedia.
Troy is mentioned in Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey. “The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy.” Wikipedia.
“The itinerary below will see you exploring the former imperial capital of Edirne, following the recently established Thrace Wine Route, paying your respects on the battlefields of Gallipoli and visiting the World Heritage–listed ruins of Troy.” Lonely Planet.
Turkish “Australian Highway 1”
Travel geek Tom did literally Turkish “Australian Highway 1”. “After visiting Turkey more than 10 times over the last couple years this summer I decided to go wild on my Turkey trip and travel to off the beaten path places on top of the standard top sights in Turkey and created the ultimate itinerary.” Traveltomtom.
“…my Turkey trip in August and September 2020 during the Corona Pandemic. For the most part of my trip I did NOT experience anything different than on all my other trips to Turkey, but one thing did change… the amount of tourists. If you ask me now is the best time to travel to Turkey! Was it safe? Hell yeah!” Traveltomtom.
Filming for Discovery Channel
Bella, a TV producer, photographer, writer, and travel blogger from London, created an educational and scenery rich itinerary for you. “…spent 10 days filming two archaeology programmes for Discovery Science Channel… We worked two weeks straight without a break and at the end of the shoot we were given three days off, so we rented a car and took a short road trip from Izmir up the Aegean Coast and back to Istanbul for our flight home.” Passport & Pixels.
You can loop back to the same starting and finishing point if you need. Click [Modify] and add the last point equal to the first point.
Mediterranean Coast
Long-term travelers Marta and Robert from The Passport Memorandum decided to visit the Mediterranean Turkish Coast, “…missing Out on ‘Disneyland Cities’... make much better use of our time by visiting some off-the-beaten-path locations. Or, at least places that weren’t as touristy.”
We don’t have Kabak in our knowledge graph. This trip is a good case to think about, and design for the countries less represented on English Wikipedia and Atlas Obscura.
Iconic Itinerary
“There are places you can’t help but fall in love with at first sight and return to year after year… We’ve chosen some of the world’s most beloved (and touristed) destinations and, with the help of the best travel specialists in the business, ferreted out their secrets, their treasures, their unmissable experiences. The result is a series of step-by-step trips that will surprise and delight those who have never been to the destination before… or have been a dozen times. Each of our highly detailed itineraries has been road-tested and perfected by a Condé Nast Traveler editor…” Condé Nast Traveler.
Reminders & Hacks
If you select the Rental Car option then Curiosio will consider you are a foreigner in that region and will suggest See & Do everywhere. If you select the Own Car option and your starting point is the same as the ending point, then Curiosio thinks you are driving from home, and will not suggest See & Do around the home.
It is OK to have the first point and the last points the same. This means a cyclic trip that starts and ends at the same point. When you type the points into the search box the order matters only for the first and the last points. All points in between can be in arbitrary order. Curiosio will arrange them automatically in all proposed trip plans.
Default country is the United States. Use red dropdown to select a different country. We are thinking of the landing page with multiple entry points.
Thank you for reading. Here is a direct link to Curious Turkey. Stay tuned and follow your curiosity. Guess which country we will do next?
