Blogs from Ankara, Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 3

Today we visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, which has some relics that date back to 8,000BC, stone carvings and cave paintings and the like. It also has relics from the Hitite Empire, which existed around 3,000BC, and others which are slightly newer. Some very impressive stuff from the early Bronze age too. It wasn't hugely exciting, but interesting and a good intellectual exercise nonetheless. After this museum, we went to the mausoleum of Mustafa Ataturk, father of modern Turkey. Unfortunately, we had only an hour and a half to see this shrine to an amazing man, I am thoroughly impressed by his achievements. He defeated the Ottoman regime, which had ruled since the 1400s, instituted wide ranging reforms in every sector of life, from educational to intellectual and social changes. I could have spent hours ... read more

Thursday, 15th Sept - early morning flight Istanbul to Ankara Due to the fact that Istanbul is very expensive and the fact we are flying out of here and will have to come back here, I made the executive decision to spend the night at the airport after our midnight arrival flight and catch a 7.30am flight from Istanbul to Ankara. Also the fact that this airport is so far out of Istanbul that it would have cost us more to catch a taxi to the city at this time of night, than waiting and flying out in the morning. This of course all went bum up when Air Arabia cancelled and changed our flight date which meant we lost the original internal flight I booked and had to rebook one for the changed date. But ... read more

So, the next major hurdle on my trip is that I need an Indian tourist visa to be allowed into India. I had tried to do this in America, but conveniently, you need to prove residency, so I couldn't get a visa in NY since I was an Indiana resident at the time. You needed to give a bill or something showing residency. I should have just tried anyway. It would have eliminated this saga. So this saga begins in Dogubayuzit - having just said goodbye to Didier, I boarded my bus for Erzurum a little after 1pm (1:12 or something I think). Not too late to start. So we start driving for a bit, and then we pull over. At first I thought that we had stopped to pick up people, but no one was ... read more

Today was the last full day in Ankara, Turkey. We’ve had several days of lectures learning everything about the Turkish economy, history, art, and language. We’ve had several free evenings to explore our little section of Ankara, and we’ve also had a couple formal dinners with the U.S. Embassy Counselor for Public Affairs and with the Director of the Turkish Fulbright Commission. Today was really special though. We visited a local Women’s Center, whose mission is to help women, especially housewives, build a stronger self-identity. We met the Director of the Center, Sati, and she told us her story along with the stories of several other women whom we met. Then, they had a gentleman come in with his baglama, a six-stringed instrument, and he played several songs with one of the women singing along. This ... read more

Drove to Ankara, capital of the new republic from 1923. Visited the tomb of Kemal Attaturk, father of the republic and still much loved and respected. Also he was the leader of the Turkish troops that held back the Anzacs at Gallipoli. Great museum with realistic scenes of the Gallipoli campaign and the Independence war with Greece.... read more