Blogs from Ankara, Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 7

It is "Darlink's Day" here in Turkey, a capitalistic holiday during which people, motivated by love and guilt, spend lots of their hard-earned lira on their special someones. Large red heart-shaped decorations have popped up all over the place. What a change from Valentine's Day in the States it... isn't! Why would I venture all the way to Kızılay on this of all days? I was on what I consider to be sort of a Robin Hood mission. I once paid $130 (USD) for an awful textbook for an awful class, only to find at the semester's end that the bookstore would offer me no more than $30 to buy it back. I'm also always curious as to why some subjects require new textbooks. I mean, have there been any major recent breakthroughs in Algebra? So ... read more

Here are a few pictures from Ankara. The Kocatepe Camii is certainly impressive, though it is not breathtaking the way İstanbul's massive mosques are. It's a big new mosque in a big new city. Anıtkabir, is a much more powerful place to visit. Anyone who has traveled to Turkey will no doubt remember seeing images of Atatürk everywhere, all day, everyday. An article in today's NY Times mentions Anıtkabir and concisely sums up Mustafa Kemal's legacy: "In these confusing times, Ataturk is apple pie, Washington and Jefferson all in one. A brilliant military strategist, he led the Turkish uprising against occupying European powers at the end of World War I, driving them from the land they had seized from the dying Ottoman Empire. He was also a statesman, imposing a radical secular revolution on a poor, ... read more

Geo: 39.935, 32.847It's midnight on our last night in Turkey. It literally ended with a bang. We booked a room in the Allstar Esenboga Airport hotel so that we could be close by for our 6am flight home. Little did we know that there was a wedding also booked at the hotel that involved, conservatively 750 guests and two fireworks displays. We were able to watch most the lavish spectacle from our 6th floor balcony. If you ever get married in Turkey, from what we were able to discern, you just have to speak a simple, "Evet" and sign something and the deed is done. Whether you serve dinner to close to a thousand of your nearest and dearest, hire two bands (one traditional strolling band and a more modern on) and party on 'til the ... read more

Geo: 36.9499, 27.4219Here is the first part:Today's favorite part of the day will undoubtedly be the shuttle bus ride from the hotel to the airport. The bus with the driver and another guy showed up about 20 minutes late. This was apparently due to their need to gas up. Luckily, we left ourselves plenty of time. We laughed about this some more as our driver wove over around and through the backstreets of Istanbul, obviously lost. I say obviously because we were revisiting scenes from National Lampoon's European Vacation when Chevy Chase cruised the same streets over and over saying, "Big Ben, Parliament!"Eventually we got loose and onto the freeway and things were looking good. We were only running about 40 minutes behind. Then our bus sideswiped a taxi. Mike was able to get video of ... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856Today really wasn't much to write home about. We had the long bus ride (see tail end of the entry I counted for yesterday) and then we made our way to the train station. The traveling is starting to wear on us and we're looking forward to staying in Istanbul for a week-- and even more forward to seeing "Dad" and then heading down to our house. We have some interesting experiences everyday though. I learned how to use a locker at the train station (much more difficult than one would think). I'm sure there was something else, but I'm pretty tired.We're on the train now. It's two beds per room and our rooms are right next to each other. It's 10:24 and Alex and Josh are falling apart. I'll be glad to get ... read more