MC's Ankara

WiT Clue

Ankara, the capital of Turkey could not be any more different from Istanbul. There is no sea, no river and is a stark landscape in comparison. The temperature is much colder than Istanbul, frost every night and most days have started out in the minus Celsius range. 
Ankara is a very young capital established in the 1930's.  It is a modern city and some areas remind me of Irvine.  They have an incredible number of shopping malls that make Stone Ridge or Sunvalley look like nothing.  All the big names are here, Gap, Levi's Ralph Lauren etc etc. But they also have Tefal and Samsung as their own store. 

Somebody's back yard

They do have some historic areas and some pretty remarkable museums. We visited the Archaeological Museum and the artifacts they had were incredible. I always felt bad when visiting the British Museum or the Pergamon, that house stolen antiquities, but they have so much in Turkey that maybe they don't care?

When we were in the Archaeological Museum, Murat told us that his assistant comes from a farming community. Recently when they were plowing the land they unearthed a roman statue. We saw pictures of that enormous statue, in very good condition, that they donated to a museum. That is the law, unless you have obtained a license to have your own collection, which must be open to the public and conform to other guidelines. It is pretty normal here.  Many people have found statues, benches, pillars etc. in their backyard.  It’s mind boggling and amazing to me.

Turkish people are quite amazing.  They are warm and so hospitable it makes you want to stay forever.

Scott's former student, Murat, was the consummate host.  He organized our hotels in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and even Athens, drove us around and showed us the sights.  His passion for Turkey, as well as Greece (having studied there) was a fountain of information and insights into what is happening daily. The time he spent with us is unforgettable.

His friend Tugba, who studied in Alabama some years ago, was so kind.  She took time off to chauffeur us around though she rarely has time to take a day off from her job as head of programming at a political channel not popular with the current government.

But there was also the police officer at the Turkish Parliament, who spoke about 20 words in English, but decided we were ok and took us into the parliament to visit.  He then found a journalist in the hall who spoke a few more words in English to explain things to us. After the visit he insisted on taking us to the cafeteria for a cup of tea. He found someone else to translate (this time a friend of his) and ended the visit by inviting us to dinner at his house.  He would send someone to pick us up and drive us back to our hotel!  Would this ever happen at home?

Now we are in Izmir on the shores of the Aegean.  Today we visited Ephesus and Mary's house.  They say that Ephesus is the second best Archaeological Site after Pompeii.  Well, next week we will be there so we'll see.  But Ephesus was quite spectacular. 

Tomorrow we leave for Athens, so the adventure continues, although the end is in view for me!