30 Apr 2015

Ankara, the Concrete Capital

The way in

The coach ride from Safranbolü to Ankara took me about three, four hours. We drove southwest towards Bolu and then southeast towards our destination. The journey took us through some beautiful mountains and plains, parts of which stil held small patches of snow. So much for my plans to travel through warm countries only…

Another thing I noticed during the drive were many small villages along the highway. Most of them looked…poor. Small cabins and sheds nailed together from driftwood and tarp. People dressed in patched, stained clothes toiling away on acres the size of tennis courts with handheld tools. Even in the small cities we passed, most houses were in various states of disrepair and trash was strewn everywhere. Trash also seamed every single meter of road, even in the otherwise most untouched places.

But aboard the coach I had wifi and coffee, so that was good.

The view changed quickly as we approached Ankara: First, there were industrial buildings. Next came massive warehouses, then your assorted megastores and car dealerships. Before long, I saw the city. Ankara is somewhat larger than Izmir and it looks very different. Since the development of Ankara as the capital took place within the last 90 years, the city appears incredibly modern. More modern in fact than any city in, say, Germany. Wherever I looked, I saw shiny, new towers of glass and steel, and more were being built all over the city. Just to give an impression of the developments going on there: When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, its new capital had about 35,000 residents. In 1950, it still had less than 300,000 residents. Today it has 5 million. And it didn’t look like they were going to run out of money or hunger for growth anytime soon. The contrast between this and the countryside I’d just passed through could not have been more striking.

The coach took us past several parks and military installations before reaching the coach station. Again, the coach company provided a handy - and free! - shuttle service to the city centre.

The shuttle itself was easy enough to find: I walked up to the tourist information and grabbed a map. The attendant pointed me towards a carpark full of shuttles. Waving the map energetically, I walked up to a group of teenagers outside and quickly learned which shuttle I needed to get on. This was done by pointing at spots on the map, grunting and waving my hands about. Works like a charm.

Lesson 0089: English. By and large, they don’t speak it here. They teach it as a mandatory class in school, which apparently does a sterling job of turning people off of ever learning the basics. Outside the tourist-y places, speaking English didn’t get me very far. Pointing and grunting did. Generally, the young are more likely to understand English than the old. Those of the female persuasion often seem to speak better English than those of male, but are also more hesitant about starting to speak it. While this whole thing is a bit inconvenient at times, it’s not really a hindrance. At first I got a bit frustrated when they would just keep talking at me in Turkish, even though I very clearly did not understand them…then it occured to me that I was doing the exact same thing in English. Anyway, before you come, download the offline language pack for Google Translate and you’ll be golden.

As I hadn’t planned on coming to Ankara, I had neglected to look up a hostel. So I grabbed a quick meal and found myself a nice cafe with wifi. After finding a hostel and reading for a bit, I walked over the hostel, got a bed and stashed my belongings. Then I went out to explore the city.

Underrated!

The late afternoon found me walking north through the city center and up into the neighbourhood of the university. Past a concert hall advertising its rendition of ‘Carmen’ and through a nice little park.

Is it me or does that fountain look like a cat on a bicycle?

The next day I made the acquaintance of an Australian hostel guest (Hi, Marc!), and through him I also met a Yemeni pilot (Hi, Mohamed!) who was actually living in Turkey. Together we did some more meandering in the city. For example, we visited Kocatepe Mosque, the biggest mosque in Ankara. Marc and I were a bit surprised to learn that the mosque actually had a shopping centre in its basement. Yeup, didn’t see that coming. Despite this somewhat strange property arrangement, the mosque itself is beautiful: Serene on the outside, ornate and lofty on the inside.

->The mosque in question. It’s big.<-

It’s also big on the inside, and rather pretty.

We passed the evening in a bar which had beer and nargile. You know, that pipe-thingy with the hose-thingies, which people think won’t kill them because the water miraculously filters out all the cancer…

A castle!

The next day we decided to go climb up to Ankara’s castle. The castle is well-positioned on a hill overlooking much of the city and actually so old nobody has dated its construction with any certainty. When the Galatians turned up around 300 BCE, they found the castle and started using it for themselves. So there is that.

Why does everything have to be either an incline or stairs?

The castle is also located in a part of town which a friend of mine (Hallo, Holger!) called “historical” and which I would call “shitty”.

Up in the castle

View down from the castle.

In the castle there wasn’t a whole lot to do, besides take in the view or have coffee in a cafe tucked away in the corner. After a while we got bored and headed back down into town.

The way out

In the evening, Mohamed was due to go back to Istanbul, while Marc would leave for Pammukale the next morning. I myself was planning on taking a bus to Amasya or Samsun the next morning as well. I split for a few hours to do sort out some documents for my tax return in a cafe(the dreamy life of the traveler: “Glistening beaches. Dusty winding roads. Smiling locals. Tax deduction with original receipts only.”)

Once I got back, I asked whether the two of them had managed to get their coach tickets. They had. Kinda. More on that in the next article.

A word on Ankara: Many people, both locals and foreigners, seem to dislike the capital. Unlike Istanbul Ankara has few truly ancient ruins or monuments. Instead, its history is the history of the Republic (coincidence, do you think?), which is fairly recent. Not much older than the house I grew up in, in fact. So there is that. Unlike so many other places in Turkey, the landscape is not spectacular. It doesn’t even have beaches. People bemoan the lack of nightlife and entertainment. This seems plausible as a large share of the population are administrators and bureaucrats, whose notion of a. exciting evening out means filing taxes in a cafe. Yes, I know.

But all those factors aside, Ankara seems to be a city that works. It’s organized. It’s clean. It has all the trappings of progress and civilization. It is clearly a place where people go to get stuff done. And even in this terribly functional city you find really nice spots - just look at the pictures! So if you find yourself in the area, give it a try!

Until next time,
Arne