He completed his primary and secondary education at “Galatasaray Lisesi” and got his B.A. from Marmara University. Since Galatasaray’s primary school was overlooking the Bosphorus, he would gaze into its dark blue waters and daydream about travelling to faraway places. Those dreams took a whole new turn when he began working as a tour guide during his high school years and culminated in his professional tour guide certificate in 1975.

Bülent Demirdurak has been on the road for 40 years. In the last 15 years, he began writing travel books about his country and all sorts of interesting places in the world.

According to him: “Sometimes, you need countless trips and tens of source material just to write a single page. Other times, you are shocked to discover that the information you were so sure about was actually incorrect. Occasionally, you make inadvertent mistakes. For instance, when i mention the seating capacity of some old theaters in this book, my figures may not correspond to yours. Or maybe my version of a certain myth is different from what you recall. Such discrepancies are inevitable as our knowledge and sources differ. Besides, regardless of how many times you write about this supremely rich geography, you always omit some details. My hope is that, over time, I will find out about my mistakes and correct them. And I will complete the missing elements in my narrative.

Our beautiful country is a true paradise for metaphors. For over 40 years, tourism was my only occupation. I never cared for awards as they are just tools for personal publicity. The best awards for me have been thousands of tourists going back to their country with pleasant memories, happy friends who travelled with me to faraway places, fellow travellers who sought guidance in my books and colleagues who thanked me for my efforts.

A foreign reviewer called me a “contemporary traveller.” I liked that description very much. When I have been trying to see and understand the world, all I asked was a clean bed and a healthy plate of food.  I never looked for adventurous trips or voyages that require you to push yourself to your limits. Wherever I went I wanted to see and understand its people, its general lifestyle and the surrounding nature. I tried to convey that anybody can live what I have lived and anybody can become a traveller. My biggest discovery was that there was no way I could see everything there was to see. The number of countries you visited is a meaningless sign board. What remains from your travels are dreams you fulfilled.

They say that “Life is like a book.”  Don’t just read a single page; go through as much of the book as you can. Every page you turn will bring you wisdom and serenity. Believe me, you will be happy.”

Bülent Demirdurak
August 2012

HIS WORKS

Going far away means discovering, knowing, meeting, researching and learn about new things

History, nature, different tastes and surprises hidden from the maps wait for you wherever you go.

The series “The corners of a Round Earth” will show you what you will experience in the places visited.  By the moment you set foot on the country, the books will explain to you how to get easily to the city center, how to use the metro and bus systems, the specifics of the local cuisine, the dances, restaurants, historical places, museums, shops and streets with the eyes of a traveler.

These books are for all the travelers, those who dream about traveling and those who travel in their dreams…

The series has 17 books with the following titles:

The four corners of a Round Earth
The five corners of a Round Earth
The six corners of a Round Earth
The seven corners of a Round Earth

About Turkey
About Turkey (special edition)
La Turquie

India
France / Paris: Mon Amour
Mexico
Peru / Bolivia / Galapagos islands
Portugal
Chile
Iran
Morocco
Egypt
Middle-Europe

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