My friend Carol, a wonderful and unique woman in her early 50s, is a high school math teacher, a gifted painter, a very decent piano player, and what else - a world traveller. I only really met her about a year ago or so, but once I found out all the places that she'd been to I knew I had to do an interview with her.

Carol has been travelling since the 1970s, and she has forged some amazing connections with 2 countries: Turkey and Greece. She lived in Turkey for close to 8 years and has made life-long friends in what she calls her "second country". And she's also developed some close ties with people in a special little village in Greece. Here's her story:

1. Please tell us a bit about your travel experience in general. What places have you visited?

It started with my first trip to London, England, to visit my uncle when I was 16. That trip changed my life and opened the world up to me. I basically led a sheltered life in Scarborough (a suburb of Toronto) and really had known nothing else. The trip to London gave me this travel bug that has never left. I backpacked Europe the summers of 1972 and 1973, that