Day 5 - Istanbul to Ankara 2012

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Today was a lot slower paced, we had a tour of Hagia Sophia, which was a church, which got destroyed, then rebuilt, then destroyed again, then rebuilt again, then taken over and turned into a mosque, and finally turned into a museum. In its current form, it is over 1500 years old. The Christian mosaic ceilings were plastered over by the Muslim invaders, and only found very recently. It took 11,000 slaves 5 years to build.

After that, we went on a boat tour of the Bosphorus, which is a very interesting bit of water. Too big to be a river, yet too small to be an ocean. It is lined with palaces, mosques, superyachts and luxury mansions. Our boat nearly collided with another ferry, which was a little scary. We then depart Istanbul, which takes forever. We drove for nearly 2 hours before reaching the city limits. Turns out Istanbul is over 180kms across. We had lunch at a little gas station on the motorway.

Ankara is roughly 300km from Istanbul, and watching the landscape change is great. From lush, verdant, green forests near Istanbul, it gradually gets more and more desolate as you drive in country. There is very little flat land, most of the time you are going up or down a hill or mountain. We drive through a 3km long tunnel. There are no little towns on the way, only the occasional mosque surrounded by half a dozen houses, often with no electricity. Nearing Ankara, the scenery becomes much more dramatic, with sharp, tall mountains and gorges. I am surprised by how pervasive religion is here, according to our tour guide, last census 99% of the population are Muslim, yet the government is secular.

We arrive in Ankara about 7:15pm and are staying in the Crowne Plaza, a 5 star hotel.

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