Hello!
Up this morning around 6, and out for breakfast across the courtyard a bit after 7. Breakfast was minimal – hard boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes and bread – but quite enough for us. We thought we were the only guests at the hotel last night, but on seeing the breakfast plates, I think there were actually four more people there! Who knew?
So…packed up the car and headed to Ankara. We were told it would take 3 hours to get there, but for some reason (probably mostly my driving…) it only took 2½. We neither of us had any idea of Ankara’s size, although I did read somewhere that there are over 4,000,000 people here, so we knew it was considerable. Emmy did an absolutely first-class job directing us in to the city (with the exception of our screw-up right at the very beginning.) And whew, is really the only word I can muster. This place is HUGE, and there is chaos EVERYWHERE! You’ve got buses, taxis, cars, motorbikes, and scooters, all trying to all cram in together, making 4 lanes out of 2, literally – and then you’ve got an incredible amount of pedestrians just walking back and forth across the streets! Not to mention hand-carts being pushed. I have not seen any tractors or donkeys pulling things, but it’s early days yet! So…somehow, we made it directly to our hotel (won’t mention the “street” that turned out to be a construction site…) and pulled up in front.
We are staying at the Ankara Plaza, and it is WONDERFUL!!!! Yipee!!! It ranks #4 on Tripadvisor, and it is a truly great place. We came in about 10:30, and while our terrace room wasn’t ready, they did have a “deluxe” room we could take a look at…did, and it’s GREAT! HUGE room, with sofa and chairs and coffee table; lovely bathroom. Lots of windows that actually open, so plenty of light. Our plan is to leave the car in the garage until we leave on Sunday morning … and hopefully then the traffic won’t be quite so bad, and we can make it to the highway and out on our way.
Settled in the room, and of course the first thing I think of is laundry. They charge by the piece, which is really expensive, but as tomorrow turns out to be a national holiday (May 19 – Ataturk Sports Day!) I am told that everything will be closed. So, sent the minimum – some socks and undies and t-shirts for R; a few things for me – to housekeeping. (Editor’s note: They got the things at 11 a.m. and when we got back from lunch about 4:30 p.m. they were finished and waiting for us in our room! Should have sent more…) By this time, R is of course doing what he always does first in any and every hotel – making sure that we can get to email and the internet…and he can’t…great hotel; they send up a techie to help, but still nothing. R is convinced that it is some setting or other that he probably played around with in Bogazkale – and a few minutes later, voila! We have internet!
The one and only thing we’ve come to Ankara for is to see the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, which collects the crème de la crème of artifacts from all over Turkey. I did ask the man at the desk to call and verify if they would, in fact, be open tomorrow; he did, and they will be. However, as it was just about 11:30 a.m. we decided to take a taxi to the museum and see it this afternoon. So…taxi…the museum is located up on a hill (there are probably more hills around here than in Rome; not a flat space to be had!) and away we went. I have to say, the ride was incredible…and I don’t mean good…Refer to paragraph 2 above…and now we’re in the thick of things, not in the ritzy embassy area – unreal; have never seen traffic to equal it, and I’ve driven in London, Paris, Rome and NYC!
Arrived at the museum to find that large sections of it are being renovated and are closed! Can you believe it?! Where is THAT mentioned in the guidebooks!! However, it turns out that the majority of the “prize” items have been moved into the central courtyard, so in we go. Wow!! Robert took endless pictures that we will enjoy looking at, but the Hittite section was incredible. There was also a large section of the finds from Catalhoyuk, which we visited a week or so ago. The funny thing about the museum was that at one moment it would be flooded with a school or tour group, and then 3 or 4 minutes later, we’d have the place all to ourselves! So, no problems going mid-day; it was great! We spent almost 3 hours wandering around, collecting the names of other places that we either missed or didn’t know about and will want to find for next time…so many ruins, so little time…
The following are either Hittite or Neo-Hittite artifacts:
One thing that we've learned is that the Egyptians were not the only people to use hieroglyphics -- so did the Hittites! Take a look!
Now comes the really old stuff -- mostly from Catalhoyuk, where we visited a week or so ago!
Then the fun started…how do we get back to our hotel, when we don’t know the address and barely know the name? Obviously we are idiots! We found a cab right outside the museum, but the driver did not know the Ankara Plaza hotel – turns out we should have just said “Plaza” and that would have been fine. We did know approximately where the hotel was located, although of course not the name of the street it was on. (We had gone out without guidebooks, as we were planning on using audioguides rented at the museum, and just going to the museum and back…) So, the cab driver took us to the approximate area, and as it looked to us like he was getting further and further away, we finally yelled to STOP and got out and paid him off. So…now what do we do? We were in a good shopping district, and R found another taxi kiosk, and it turns out that one of the drivers there knew where we wanted to go. It didn’t take him 5 or 6 minutes, and wow, we’re home!
Immediately went in and got a card and small map which is now safely (and perhaps permanently!) in my purse!
Reunited with our room at last, we decided at this point to get some lunch. I don’t think I’ve mentioned any U.S. chains of any sort so far, but there have been just a few. I think we’ve seen McDonalds in Fethiye and Antalya, and a Burger King in Fethiye; also one or two Starbucks. NO other chains other than that! Very refreshing, actually! However, after weeks of eating exclusively Turkish cuisine with the rare spaghetti bolognaise thrown in, today I wanted a HAMBURGER. So, we Googled McDonald’s and found one within walking distance. So…we walked! Didn’t manage to find a McDonald’s, but there was a Burger King, and at that point I was starving! So – Whooper and fries; VERY tasty, I must say! We were both a bit surprised that here in Ankara, a huge city and the capital of Turkey, there is not that much English floating around or spoken by people in shops (or taxis!). Not sure why I thought there should be; my Turkish is non-existent! However…ate our burgers (as R pointed out, as this is basically a Muslim country, you can’t get that hamburger with bacon!) and sauntered back to the hotel. R now in the process of napping and reading; I’m going back to my book and have a lie-down as well, even though I’m supposed to be researching dinner options for this evening!
Lots of love, and more later!
m
xxx
Turkey notes: R has been saying that there seems to be a very laid back life style in Turkey; people don’t seem to be in a big hurry – until we got to Ankara…Whew, that is one good theory gone west!
Note #2: The people here seem to have an absolute fetish about clean vehicles! We’ve noticed since day 2 or 3 that when these big tour buses stop somewhere, the drivers seem to immediately break out buckets and scrubbers and start giving their buses the once over! We’ve never seen that before! And the same seems to be true for cars, too.
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