Bored and sick in Ankara

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I'm not a big fan of Ankara so this is going to be a quick post. Well, I suppose it is not entirely Ankara's fault.

As soon as I dropped off my visa application I went back to my hotel, and pretty much immediately I felt sick, and I was hit with a strong bout of the runs. I felt really terrible and I quickly came down with shivers and a fever as well. I popped a loperamide and climbed into bed in the hopes of feeling better. My guess is the food in Erzurum bus station did it, but it might have just been a flare up from my first being sick in Istanbul.

Even after when I woke up I still felt pretty nauseous. I tried to eat some yogurt and drank some Fanta, which after a few minutes I threw up. I felt much better after having thrown up and went back to sleep, and didn't wake up until the next day.

When I woke up I felt somewhat better, but still far from 100%. I figured it would be better to at least try to get out and do something rather than stew in my room all day long, so I wandered over to the Ankara castle. It wasn't very impressive, but it was good to get out. I also stopped by the Museum, which was nice, but I wasn't really in a museum mode. I wasn't in much of an anything mode.

The next day I was feeling even better, and I decided to make the most of my time stuck in Ankara. I have a set of three journal papers that have been dogging me for the last three years and I decided I was finally going to get them done. I took a metro to the downtown and set up shop in a Starbucks. I flew through the first paper and was into the second paper when I found a problem in our analysis.

Everything seemed to be going wrong. This is probably the low point of my trip so far. Traveling solo is great most of the time, but being sick in a un-fun city all alone really sucks. I was staying in the old city, which double-sucked because everything is closed by like 9 at the latest, so you are basically trapped in your hotel after the sun sets.

In addition I went on a quest to find Pepto Bismol, which apparently doesn't really exist in Turkey. I could not find any pharmacists that spoke English, but I was able write down the active ingredient and one guy had a sample of the generic equivalent of Pepto Bismol (bismuth subsalicylate), good for 5 doses. Another guy (who spoke French) gave me some tablets of basically Alka-Seltzer. I figured at least some pharmacists would speak English and was surprised to find that none did. Especially considering all the diplomats and ex-pats in Ankara. Oh well.

Anyway, to cut my whining short, I called on Thursday and the Indian Embassy didn't have my passport/visa ready (well it was worth a shot anyway). I went over to the Embassy on the Friday at 5pm with all my stuff and there waiting for me was my passport with a 6 month tourist visa stamped into it. YES!!

I got into another taxi immediately and headed for ASTI - the enormous bus station in Ankara. I was able to straight-away buy a ticket for Goreme in Cappadocia for the 6:30pm bus which left me with little waiting time. Perfect.

The bus ride to Goreme was uneventful. On longer buses in Turkey they serve snacks and tea/coffee or soda. They even have someone walking up the aisle to serve it. Luxury! But no bathrooms. Oh well.

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Comments

[Mom]

Ankara
Hey Ian, I love your \"citadel scarves\" and you. Mom

[Nate]

On the positive side... India, here Ian comes!