My name is Akinsal, and I am an Aegean traveller who has been exploring the history, culture, and the natural beauties of the Aegean coast of Turkiye for more than a decade. I have been running The Best of Bodrum since 2013 to share information which you will find handy during your trip to Turkiye.
My personal interests are not only limited to travelling, though. I am also a nature enthusiast, an art lover, a stamp collector, and a heavy reader. In my professional life, on the other hand, I am an engineer and a business communicator.
Travelling has always been an important part of my life since my high school years. I travelled to see new places, to meet new people and to experience new cultures. At some point, my Bodrum story has started, and I found myself extremely curious for the culture, history, and the lifestyle of the Aegean Region.
In This Article
Becoming an Aegean Traveller
Although my hometown is Izmir, which is the biggest city in the Aegean Region, I studied and worked mostly in Ankara.
For someone who left his heart and mind at the Aegean coast, living in a city without a sea can sometimes feel a little dull. So, I travelled to Bodrum and other Aegean destinations as often as I could. I travelled so much that my friends began to call me “Ege Gezgini” which translates to Aegean Traveller in Turkish.
Preparing The Best of Bodrum brought a new dimension to my Aegean trips, a new purpose. My getaways would have to be regular and more organized from that day forward. I was already familiar with the territory, but I learned that writing articles about it requires much more.
As Aegean Traveller’s The Best of Bodrum grew and reached to a larger audience, collecting information got easier and more fun. Your participation with your comments and questions motivated me and helped me plan with what comes next.
Early Times in My Life
My parents were actors at the state theatre. I was surrounded by art and literature in my childhood, making it quite an adventure and fun.
You know what they say: “When you plan something, the God smiles”.
I and my family were sure that I was going to study performing arts after high school. Something – I don’t remember what – happened and I decided to be an engineer instead. I succeeded in the national university exams and took my bachelor’s degree in mining engineering at one of the most popular universities of Turkiye, Middle East Technical University in Ankara.
After graduation, I started to work as a site engineer for a significant construction company. My first assignment was at a Turkish – German consortium working for a Canadian company. The construction site was on the Black Sea Region. For the first time in my life, I met new people with totally different cultural backgrounds.
Although building ore processing plants was the best job I have ever had, working at wild and remote places was a real challenge for a young man like me. Eventually, I felt I was done with living a deserted and remote life and I moved back to the big city life.
Meeting New Cultures
I still wonder what would happen to me if I had chosen to stay as a site engineer. The satisfaction of seeing a plant working, after installing it one screw at a time, is long gone. However, my decision paved the way for my being an Aegean Traveller.
The next step in my career, was working at a French company as an automation engineer. The job was to design and install automation systems for the factories across Turkiye.
After working there for a couple of years, I was offered my first managerial position in a German company. I took the job and moved to Ankara as the district manager. I was still travelling to other cities but this time I had a team to accompany me on long business trips.
Deep into the Cultural Diversity
One day, I received a call from a head-hunter with an interesting offer. A tech company from the US was setting up a new liaison office in Turkiye and they were looking for someone who knows the country well. I took the challenge and moved to world’s number one microchip company where I was trained to become a marketeer and a business communicator.
My office was the headquarter of META (Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa) region. For 11 years, I had found countless opportunities to travel both domestically and internationally. My job was to organize events and present corporate training sessions, both internally and externally.
The company supported me a lot by providing all the necessary tools to perform better in public speaking, presentation skills and corporate development with dozens of marketing and train-the-trainer courses and certificate programs in various countries.
I enjoyed every moment of organizing more than 300 events in 120 cities in 16 countries to more than 40K people in my region. I liked it so much that I went back to the university once again and took an associate degree in Brand Communication.
Although corporate life brought me amazing opportunities to learn new things which I could apply in real life, the time for a change had arrived and I set up my own small consulting and training company in 2013, Arti Mavi.
In Arti Mavi, I kept doing what I enjoyed the most by offering my services to companies and organizations. After spending years in marketing communications in emerging markets of Africa and Middle East region, I have also started offering marketing consultancy for the companies with expansion plans to these new markets. I still do…
Other Hobbies
Travelling and running Aegean Traveller’s The Best of Bodrum are not my only hobbies.
I have been collecting stamps since I was 5, for example. I meet the collectors around the world in order to exchange stamps. If you are also a collector, drop me a line so we may start trading the spares.
Nietzsche’s famous quote says, “without music, life would be a mistake”. I couldn’t agree more! I am a huge fan of jazz and classical genders, especially contemporary jazz, ethnic jazz, and the Italian baroque.
Sailing is another joy in my life. Although I took my certificate of competence for pleasure craft in 2008, I can’t say that I am a skilled seaman yet. However, setting sail into the blue is probably the most exciting and satisfactory thing I have ever done in my life. That is also why I am so enthusiastic on preparing a Blue Cruise Guide here on Aegean Traveller’s The Best of Bodrum. When I move to Bodrum permanently, improving my sailing will be the number one task for sure.
Learning about the web sites for building a web page is the latest addition to my leisure time activities. Against all the challenges of a travel blogger, I have decided to run my own travel related web page which you are reading at this moment.
The Best of Bodrum has been helping me in many ways since its launch. It helped me improve my English and photography. It keeps me connected with the Aegean, Bodrum and most importantly, you!
Thank You!
Thank you for being here, reading these lines and helping me create something worthwhile. I appreciate your support to make The Best of Bodrum a better resource for the other travellers. I would love to hear more from you. Just keep in touch!
All the best,
Akinsal from TheBestOfBodrum.com
