BootsnAll Travel Network



Touching Down In Turkey: Istanbul and Ankara

I’d had some difficult with my flight to Istanbul on the Bruxelles end, and unfortunately it didn’t end there. The flight touched down not at Istanbul’s main, Ataturk airport, but at Sabhia Gocken, a different one some 50km east of the city, which catered mostly to package tours and which was newer than my guidebook (this is what you get when you try to find an English-language guidebook to Turkey in Brussels in two hours.) I’d expected this might be the case, but having expected it didn’t help me to deal with the eventuality.

I’d arrived in the middle of nowhere, at an airport where most arrivals are whisked away to hotels on pre-booked buses, and with no idea of how to get into the city.

Thankfully a group of young people (two Turks and a Bosnian who lived in Istanbul) saw me doing my lost puppy dog impression and explained that while there was an infrequent airport bus, it would cost only slightly more to be the fourth person in their taxi to the centre of Istanbul. Done.

It was certainly a long ride into town. The one small benefit of this was that I got to see a bit of Istanbul sprawling out over the hills valleys and waterways that cover the locale. It was odd being in a city with such strong relief after the flat (or at most gently sloping) low countries. Even better was the trip over the Bosphorus (the narrow channel that separates the Marmara and Black seas, which marks the boundary between Europe and Asia.)

The taxi dropped us off near the heart of new Istanbul, Taksim square. My Turkish companions gave me a quick introduction to Turkish hospitality by taking me into a restaurant for lunch. While we ate they drew me a map explaining how to get to the main tourist area of Sultanahmet, and also gave a bit of advice about finding a place to stay.

My walk through new Istanbul was an eye-opener for me, in a couple of ways. First, it was abundantly clear that despite the crowds of football spectators at the airport, the European Champions League fans had NOT all gone home yet. Indeed, Istanbul was fairly awash in the red proudly displayed by jubilant Liverpool supporters.

In addition to being surprised by the current state of the city, I was surprised by the city ITSELF. I’d always heard that Turkey was a blend of the European and Asian, but if Taksim was anything to go by, Istanbul leaned a LOT more towards the European. Indeed, when looking through my photos, I examined the ones of Taksim and it took me several minutes of confusion to realize that they weren’t pictures of Brussels.

Things started looking a bit more historical as I made my way towards Sultanahmet, and by the time I’d crossed the Galata Bridge and climbed up into the district, ancient Constantinople was showing its colours bright and clear. As I climbed up the hill into the heart of the old city, huge domes and towering minarets could be seen everywhere. I walked around Sultanahmet trying to find the hotels that my friends had recommended, but the only one I could locate was already full. With a bit of anti-help from the city’s touts, I managed to find a place to stay that wasn’t outrageously expensive and was still well placed.

After getting checked in I talked with the hotel manager for a bit about possible itineraries. Between his advice and what I’d seen walking through the streets of Istanbul (i.e. a city jam packed with football fans who hadn’t headed home yet) I quickly decided that I’d be best off to leave Istanbul the following morning and save my main exploration of the city for when I returned at the end of my travels in Turkey.

Even so, this left me with a whole afternoon to get a first taste of Turkey’s largest city before I headed out. Unfortunately the night before had taken its toll on me and I spent a good chunk of that time sleeping.

Eventually I did get out to have a look about Sultanahmet, and despite the crowds was amazed by the neighbourhood. Sultanahmet is very, very heavily touristed even at the best of times, but for good reason.

I spent a lot more time at most of these places on my later visit to Istanbul, so I’ll just give a quick summary of my day there in this entry. My walk through Sultanahmet first took me along the “main drag” past mosques, quiet tea gardens and Ottoman cemeteries before I arrived at the Istanbul Grand Bazaar. The place was like a giant shopping mall, but less sterile, and more exciting (if heavily touristed.)

After a wander through the bazaar I headed back out into the Istanbul streets for the opposite end of Sultanahmet and its “main attractions” the Aya (Hagia) Sofia and the Blue Mosque. While I didn’t venture inside either of them

Later on in the evening I went out looking for a bite to eat and was a bit distressed by what I found. Things clearly weren’t as expensive as in western Europe, but Turkey (or Istanbul at least) didn’t look as though it would be quite as wallet friendly as I’d hoped. In the end I did find a very reasonable priced meal: two chicken Doner sandwiches for about a dollar a piece.

I walked around the neighbourhood for a while longer, but soon the sun was starting to set and I was ready to rest up for the following day’s journey to Ankara.

The following morning I joined thousands of other late rush hour commuters on the tram, then the Istanbul Metro and found my way to the Aksaray bus terminal. To say the place was confounding would be an understatement. There were over 100 different bus companies at the terminal, each with its own office, and none giving much of an outward indication of why I ought to pick them, or, indeed, if they even went where I wanted to go.

After a few minutes of standing around looking bewildered, a friendly fellow walked up and asked where I was going and directed me to the nearest office that offered service to Ankara. I purchased my ticket and was on board less than ten minutes later.

I’d been a bit distressed by the cost of the ticker (once again, Turkey was proving pricier than I’d hoped) but I had to admit that the vehicle itself, not to mention the service, was commensurate with the price. Pretty much every bus I’d seen at the terminal (including the one I boarded) looked brand new. Once on board, the conductor made regular trips up and down the aisle offering passengers alcohol based handwash/cologne, drinks or small snacks. The seats were large and each was occupied by no more than a single passenger. Luggage was stored in locked compartments underneath the coach. Furthermore, the bus actually left ON TIME. This was NOT one of the buses I’d come to know, love and loathe during my travels in other parts of Asia.

Almost as surprising as the quality of the bus service were the landscapes we passed during the drive. I’d always had an image of Turkey as being a dry country, primarily brown and olive coloured, with sparse or even bare mountainsides. Contrary to this image, most of the trip passed through richly forested green hills. The dark clouds above and rain falling from the sky detracted further from it. As we approached Ankara the rain stopped and the countryside started to change from exposed grey rock and trees into golden grain, farm fields and tile-roofed houses.

The Ankara bus station was almost as large and difficult to navigate as the one in Istanbul, and perhaps even more outwardly impressive. It s two horseshoe shaped levels (one for arrivals, one for departures) gave it a very strong resemblance to an airport terminal building. Somehow I managed to find the entrance to the Ankara metro in all of this (it was situated, incomprehensibly, halfway between the two floors off a large stair landing.)

Like the Istanbul Metro, the Ankara train system was modern and tidy. While it didn’t appear QUITE so modern as the ones in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, I was still very impressed with the clean and efficient subways in Turkish cities. I disembarked at the Ulus station, the one nearest the old city and many of the less expensive hotels. I set out on foot, hoping to find a hotel in my guidebook, but immediately ran into trouble. With no street signs, I had to guess which was the north-south and which was the east-west thoroughfare. Even after a while spent wandering and sorting this out, I still couldn’t seem to find the place I was looking for. It was only after considerably more time spent bumbling around Ankara that I finally realized the problem: The location of the metro station had been mislabelled on the map in my guidebook and I my starting point was two blocks away from where I thought it was.

At long last, I located my desired hotel, and tried to get a room. Ankara is not a tourist city. In fact, it has very little tourist accommodation and exactly ZERO budget tourist beds. Fortunately it IS a business centre, and as such had many inexpensive hotels used by Turkish businessmen. This meant that while I DID find a place to stay, I had some trouble communicating with the staff at the hotel, who spoke only Turkish and German. Using a lot of hand signals and the little Turkish I’d picked up, I managed to get myself a bed (though not to get a discounted rate, or to convey that I’d prefer a cheaper room without an ensuite.) Even so, it was already late enough in the afternoon that I was pleased to have managed this.

I spent the remainder of the daylight hours out for a walk around old Ankara. I’d been told that Ankara was a boring place, and that I shouldn’t bother visiting. My impression of the place on arrival could hardly have been more different. The old city castle on a hilltop above the old city was a beautiful sight, and the squatter houses on the hillsides were perhaps even more interesting (their Turkish name translates to “built at night,” which they were, as a result of an old law protecting structures constructed after dark from demolition.) My walk also helped me to locate some dinner. I picked up some delicious crusty bred for 0.15 per loaf, and also found myself a bustling food market that, save for the preponderance of cucumbers, tomatoes and olives, and the Turkish language in the air, could almost have been part of Toronto’s St. Lawrence market. Throughout my whole walk, I hadn’t seen a single other foreign face. The contrast with Sultanahmet couldn’t have been greater, and the feeling of being the only tourist in town was really cool.

Picked up from a street vendor near the end of my walk, the final piece of my dinner was an absolutely delicious pita sandwich filled with a spicy red mixture. The filling looked a little like uncooked falafel balls and was supplemented with fresh coriander, tomato and onions. It was only after I returned to my hotel and checked it out in my guidebook that I learned what I’d eaten: a mixture of raw minced lamb and bulgur. It was probably for the best that I enjoyed the food BEFORE learning what was in it.

The next day would be my sightseeing time in Ankara. I packed up and left my bag down at reception, allowing me to wander through the light rain down to the bakery for breakfast. Bread in hand and mouth I climbed up the hill towards the castle and arrived at Ankara’s prime tourist attraction: the Museum of Anatolian Civilization. I was far from alone inside, with loads of school groups already flooding the place. The children were all friendly and curious, with many of them excitedly trying out their few English words on me and one (in direct contrast to children of many other countries I’d visited) even offering ME a sweet from her pocket.

The museum itself, housed in two 500 year old Ottoman buildings, was very impressive, especially its Bronze Age section. This collection contained dozens of pieces that would be the highlights of bronze age collections of most other museums. They ranged from beautiful metal staff-headpieces to clay tablets covered in intricate cuneiform writing to huge stone carvings transported from sites across the country. The Phrygian, Lydian, Hittite and many other vast ancient empires that had once occupied Turkey were all well represented.

The classical sections in the basement were also interesting, containing many beautiful works from Greek and Roman times, but weren’t nearly as extensive as the older collections upstairs.

By the time I was done I’d spent about three hours in the museum, during which time the rain had stopped allowing me to climb up to the very top of the hill and the castle itself. The castle was old and crumbling, with houses pushed right up against its walls, both outside and inside the old structure. The residents of these were quite friendly, with the few souvenir salespeople seeming happy to take their sales as they came without pressing passersby to buy things, and the children happily interrupting their football games to point me to the open sections of the castle.

At one of these I climbed up to the top and admired the spectacular views out over sprawling Ankara. As I dangled my feet over the castle walls, the early afternoon call to prayer began from the city’s many mosques. Soon there were ten or more of them ringing out, echoing and swirling in and out of one another.

After my clothes had dried out from the morning’s rain, I headed out through the busy streets of old Ankara and into the newer parts of the city.

While nowhere near as ancient as Istanbul, Ankara was very important in Turkey’s more recent history. The city featured prominently in Turkey’s war of independence, which was led by the legendary Mustafa Kemal Ataturk following the first world war, which left the country controlled by Britain, France and the despised Greek occupying army. Ataturk fled Istanbul and organized the military resistance in Ankara, driving the occupiers out of the country, then negotiating a settlement that gave the Turks control of Anatolia, the land mass that makes up almost all of modern-day Turkey. This led to Ankara’s establishment as the capital of the Turkish Republic. It was also the beginning of the cult of Ataturk (meaning “Father of the Turks” the name was conferred on him by the Turkish parliament.) Almost everywhere I went in Turkey, an image of Ataturk, painted, photographic or statuesque was visible. The people still revere him as the man who created modern Turkey, and as an almost god-like figure. Thus it was unsurprising that his mausoleum was one of the most significant places in Ankara.

Located on a hill away from the centre of town, it wasn’t too hard to see the mausoleum from a distance and make my way towards it. When I arrived, I checked my bag at the entrance, walked through a metal detector, read the long list of rules intended to maintain the solemnity of the site and then followed the long, winding road through the gardens that led to the mausoleum itself.

I arrived and found positive hordes of visitors. Many were school groups, but many others were ordinary Turks, intent on making the near-pilgrimage to the resting place of their nation’s founder.

The sky had been darkening all afternoon, and even though it was filled with the chatter of school children, the echo of thunder-booms inside the mausoleum near Ataturk’s sarcophagus was awesome.

I didn’t have that much time to stay at the monument, as I’d promised to be back at the hotel to pick up my bags by 16:00. I realized that the time was drawing near and rushed back down the road, only slowing to listen to scoldings directed at children climbing on lion statues and tourists walking on the grass.

My walk back to the hotel followed much of the same route as I’d taken there, but also took me through a large park filled with beer gardens where the live bands were warming up for their evening sets, and where young children were beginning to flow towards the amusement park at the centre.

I arrived back at the hotel and picked up my bag. After a good chunk of writing at the internet café across the road, I picked up some bread and vegetables for that night’s dinner and headed back to the metro and then to the bus terminal where I’d be catching a night bus for the next leg of my trip through Turkey.

Since the bus didn’t leave until midnight I had a long wait, during which I read, ate dinner, and grew very sleepy which allowed me to drift off almost as soon as I hit my seat. The bus headed off into the night, bound for Goereme, the tourist centre of the famous Cappadocia region.



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