Ankara: Sites and Sounds

TOBB and our apartment are on what we believe to be the outskirts of Ankara. Travel into Kizilay, the new downtown area, requires taksi, bus or metro; Ankara isn't a walking city like Boston. Therefore, our travel into the city has been mostly limited to specific places with Turkish guides.
The first week, we travled alone into Kizilay. Despite offering the bus driver money, he just let us on. 'Wow, everyone in Turkey is so sympathetic to us poor, lost Americans!' we thought as the bus drove into Kizilay. We would later discover that the reason they wouldn't take our money is because the bus requires a bus pass, and since the driver couldn't communicate this to us, he just let us on.
Kizilay is a buzzing shopping area: very modern, like everything in Ankara, and lacking in that olden charm that European cities have. We explored for awhile but didn't find anything too notable (though we did wander onto government property and had to be signaled off the grounds by a soldier in camouflage). We took the Metro back to ASTI after the bus route stymied our comprehension.
Later that week, when Zach and Will arrived, we ventured into Kizilay again, and discovered Kotacepe Camii (Ko-ta-je-peh), a giant mosque in the center of Ankara (there are photos on my Facebook of this excursion).
The next Friday, we were taken out by TOBB's External Relations Department for a mixer with some Turkish and Polish students. Goksel (Gerk-cell -- or Jerkcell or Turkcell, as we joke in private) works for the ERD and arranged the outing. We met three Polish students who are studying at TOBB through the European study abroad program Erasmus. Interestingly, their educational experience at TOBB is entirely in English, the global lingua franca, so spending time with native speakers is actually helpful for them. The Turkish students with us were either from the ERD or from TOBB's Erasmus club. Though the outing was a little hampered by the loud music at the restaurant, the experience was very enjoyable, and we got to know the students quite well. After dinner, we jammed to techno and bowled at an underground alley. Names you will hear again from this excursion are Goksel; Wojtek, Asia, and Kasha (Voy-tek, Asha-- the three Polish students); Harkan (the Turkish TOBB student who is living in a flat with the Polish girls); Aysenur (ash-ih-nur-- from the ERD); Mustafa and Meli (the 'l' is soft-- they are from the Erasmus club I).

The next night we went to Tunali (Tuna- leh), the college hangout district, with two Turks we met randomly one night, Mert and Yeet (they showed up at our apartment looking for past natives). Mert had just finished compulsory service in the military; I'm not really sure what Yeet is doing because he doesn't speak English well.

That Sunday, in a trip arranged by the ERD, we saw Ankara's historic sites. First, we toured Anitkabir, Ataturk's giant mausoleum and Peace Park perched prominently on one of Ankara's many hills. Anitkabir is beautiful: the stones originated from all corners of Turkey; the Peace Park includes native Turkish trees and trees from other countries (to symbolize international unity); several architectural styles reflect the influence of varied Anatolian civilizations; a stunning World War I and War of Independence museum lies beneath the mauseleum. The soldiers at Anitkabir stand statue-still: it was a while before we realized they were not statues, in fact. The entire mausoleum is a testament to Ataturk's accomplishments and lasting legacy.
It is amazing how much sway this leader still has over the Turkish people; I have never heard reference to any other politician.

Later, we ate traditional Turkish kebap in a small restaurant in Ulus, the old part of Ankara. I have one word for this experience: tasty.

After kebap, we climbed up to the top of Ulus to explore Ankara castle, or the Citadel. This was the highlight of my Turkish experience so far. So much could be said from the half hour we spent there. I will try to be brief. The castle was constructed by the Roman Empire, around the Common Era. However, it is surrounded by slums and lacks any sort of protection from tourists or city-dwellers; one can just walk right up into it. The lack of any efforts to prerserve this beautiful landmark, along with the squalid conditions of its environs (houses with collapsed roofs, waste-water in the streets, intense poverty very evident), illumintate an interesting part of Turkish reality. In Turkey, there are so many historic sites that it is impossible for the government to take care of them all. Therefore, though there is some restoration, the process is excruciatingly slow.
The inside of the castle was awesome; I was brought back to my days in Ireland, just hanging out in an abandoned abbey from the 16th century. The castle has a superb, panoramic view of Ankara. For the first time, we had an idea of Ankara's layout. We could see Ankara's progress: the high-rise apartments, the parks, and the wide bulvaris full of traffic; as well as its past: the decayed slum-houses being demolished at the foot of those high-rises, the rolling Anatolian landscape not quite eclipsed by urbanization, and the densely-packed impoverished dwellings of Ulus. Furthermore, there were signs of globalization and its integration into the Turkish identity everywhere: there were satellite dishes sticking out of almost all of the slum houses, a Quonset hut, and ferris wheels. From the top of the Ankara castle, I was looking out over this sprawling city with a history that is at once 2,000 years old and only 80 years old, when the Call to Prayer started up from minarets around the city. The music swirled around the city, echoing off the hills and plummeting down into the valleys and mixing with the different tones of other mosques. It was as though I was standing at the focus of a giant speaker, with the pulse of the Call concentrated on me. It was a stunning moment, where I could really hear, see, smell, feel--experience-- the elements of Turkey that have intrigued visitors for millenia.
To top it off, there were about a dozen Japanese tourists singing and dancing to happy guitar tunes. Their voices echoed just as the Call did; their music blended with the traditional music. There was only one option for us: we jumped in and sang and danced with them at the top of Ankara's capitol.
That Sunday was a great day.

Then on Tuesday, we went with the group from ERD and belted out ballads from the '90s at Karaoke. That was fun too!