Customer Reviews

Globe Trekker: Turkey [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Justine Shapiro, an unattractive spoiled young woman goes to a country with some of the greatest archeological sites in the world, and ends up producing a video featuring (what else?) herself involved in a series of trivial activities. She spends only a few moments in Ephesus because (surprise, surprise) it's too crowded, but spends a lot of time on living in a tree house youth hostel on Mt. Olympus, races through the tunnels of Cappadocia being oh-so-cute, the same with a peasant wedding. And all interspersed with poorly focused and faded footage of the Anatolian plateau taken from bus windows. But if you do buy this bomb, you'll get to see lots of pictures of (what else) Justine Shapiro.

Justine appears, by the way, in a green dress with a hem so high that it barely covers her Thunder Thighs, a curious choice in a country where conservative dress is appreciated.

I've been to Turkey, and it's a fascinating country, but you'll never know it from watching this stinker.

A much better quality video on the same topic is: Biblical Treasures of Turkey

A GREAT DOCUMENTARY ABOUT TURKEY, ANYONE WHOM IS PLANNING TO GO ON A VACATION MUST SEE IT BEFORE DECIDING FOR THE PLACE

This is an awful video. The visuals spend too much time on the narrator and other tourists and not enough on the sights. The narrative is banal , and half the time you can't hear it because the "background" music is so loud. It's as if no one listened to it before it was released. Incredibly it skips Istanbul completely . On the positive side, it does show some interesting out of the way places.

I really like the Globe Trekker series (shame it's on our local PBS station at midnight on Sundays). It's hip (sometimes too much so) and tends to focus on the roads less traveled. This episode skips Istanbul since that city requires its own hour-long show. Instead we visit some ruins, the magical fires on Mt Olympos, Kapadokya (seeing lots of sites I hit on my latest Turkish trip) and some smaller eastern towns. It's great stuff: Justine stays in a treehouse, participates in a village wedding, and stumbles with the language.
I had a problem with the rug lesson that she got. It looks like the dealer said that the only important factor in a rug is the tightness and number of knots, when that's not true at all. (I won't get into it here, but the most important factors are the quality of the wool and dyes.)
Besides that, this was a fun, inspiring trip. I now badly want to get back to Turkey and at least visit Mount Olympos. Got to see that magic fire.

This was actually made in 1997.

How can you make a tour of Turkey and not see Istanbul? Well that's what this video does. It also doesn't go to Pamukkale's hot springs, another must see spot for tourists.

What it does include is great coverage of Ephesus, shows you what a Turkish bath is like, how to buy a Turkish rug, highlights of all the cheap hotels and transportation she uses. This video visits unknown cities not on your usual tourist route. So you get a feel of the culture as the traveller talks with local people and attends a wedding in a small village.

Supplement this video with Rick Steves' Travel the World Eastern Cities for great coverage of Istanbul. Includes visits to the Topkapi palace, the Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia, the bazaar, a Turkish bath house, a boat ride and a view of modern Istanbul.