Job Discussion Forums

[N_Ashdown]

1. What vaccinations should I get (if any) before coming to Turkey? I am from Canada.

2. What are the easiest and cheapest countries to travel to from Istanbul, if I only have a couple of days or so? How much is a bus trip to a border country and how much is a cheap plane ticket to a nearby country?

3. How prevalent is English in Istanbul? What percentage of people can speak it, at least semi-fluently?

[Frizzie Lizzie]

Hi, not sure about vaccinations, I didn't have any (I'm not Canadian, though), but regulations might have changed recently with this new bird flu threat.
Neighbouring countries are the easiest to reach, by bus, train, ferry or plane. The nearest by bus is Bulgaria (3 hours from Istanbul to the border), and from there it's pretty easy to go to places like Greece, Macedonia, Romania. A friend of mine went to Cypruss by plane once - not sure how much it was, but can't have been too expensive. Plus, it was a really nice temperature change in the middle of winter, according to him.
You will find that people speak English in the touristy areas because they have to (in order to attract tourists and sell them carpets, amongst other things), but that's really as much as you can get. I had a bit of a culture shock when I first arrived in Istanbul and realised I couldn't order food, shop at the bakkal's (grocer's), or have my hair cut unless I had some basic Turkish.

[turkishlover25]

How much would it cost to get to Hungary do you think?

[turkishlover25]

And learning basic Turkish isn't that hard if you want to memorize just enough to get by. A phrase book or anything like that would be enough, though I would think that those in for the long-haul would like a bit more knowledge. I learned that having a more in-depth understanding and mastery of Turkish really ingratiates you with the natives. I mean, how many other people in the world really want to learn Turkish? Even bad Turkish goes a long way to make friends.

[DukeJob]

Vaccinations....well, Hepatitus A, Typhoid, and Tentnus is what i read in a travel book for good vaccinations to get, mainly cause of the food is what it said....As for travel to other places, i too want to venture out....i was thinking Egypt and Greece and Bulgaria of course. I hope its fairly cheap.

[turkishlover25]

Egypt would be great, though I'm not sure a single weekend would be near enough time. I had my shots last time I went thankfully. Of course, a word to the wise, normal tap water isn't near as clean as what Americans are used to, so stay away from that stuff. I learned that the hard way

[molly farquharson]

never say never, turkishlover!

Re vaccinations, I don't think you need anything more than what you need at home. You should not drink the tapwater, though it is better than it used to be. I had an American friend here who always drank it, though, and he never suffered. Don't eat the street food, except for simit. Your system may have to get used to the food here, but it is pretty clean-- and yummy.

[turkishlover25]

sigh... boy do I miss lahmacun and iskender

[DukeJob]

you're right, one weekend isn't enough time. Molly, is there a holiday in Nov. or am i just totally thinking of something different? All i'm saying is if we have a week holiday in Nov. or whenever, Egypt would be nice. (Greece and Bulgaria are just weekend trips).

[Frizzie Lizzie]

The holiday you're probably thinking about is Ramazan Bayrami, but the dates change every year (it was in early October last year). You also get 4-5 days off for another bayram, which is happening as we speak.