Tuesday, July 25, 2006

How did Izmir Blog get started?

Prior to moving to Izmir, I did some googling, and didn't find much. And what I did find was in Turkish, which I do not understand.

When we actually moved here, we found that on top of the language barrier and notwithstanding the wonderful Turkish hospitality, Izmir is not really geared to welcoming foreigners, as a capital city would be for instance. This makes it more difficult to integrate at first.

Also, Mymerhaba "a community portal to make you feel at home in Turkey" does wonders for Istanbul and Ankara, but is not very helpful for Izmir.

Finally, although there are various web-connected groups of expats in Izmir, you have to know they exist to find them. The advantage of a Blog is that it is just as interactive as a forum with the added features of photos, links, and accessibility.

So there you go. Basically, I'm trying to find my way here and I thought it might as well be useful to others!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love your site. I don't know how I've been in the TUrkey blogospher so long and I haven't come across your blog. Your vision for an Izmir blog is similar to my dream to have a site that helps foreigners in Adana. Good luck to you, and if you think to add me to your Turkey Blogosphere blog, I'd be greatly pleased. As for me, I look forward to reading more here.