Pictures from this part of the trip can be found in Gallery.
All set to go! Ken took the entire day off from work, and Julie worked a half day. We had enough time to take the 1:30pm bus near our house to downtown Minneapolis, then take the light rail to the airport for our 5:00pm Delta Air Lines flight to Paris. The flight was uneventful, and then we had a 4 hour layover in Paris. In Paris, we saw several huge Airbus A380 planes, and got "breakfast" at a really overpriced cafe. Then, we took a flight to Istanbul.
We had a 3 hour layover in Istanbul before our next flight on Turkish Airlines to Ankara. We planned such a long layover since the Turkish Airlines flight was a separate reservation, and we didn't know how long it would take to transfer. It's a good thing we had that much time, because we spent 45 minutes to get our visa and another 45 minutes in passport control. We hustled over to the domestic terminal and had enough time for a snack before getting on the plane to Ankara.
Turkish Airlines uses buses to load most of its flights, so the "gate" we sat at was down on the ground level next to a virtual highway of airport vehicles (shuttles, baggage trucks, etc.). The airport road turned out to be a microcosm of Istanbul itself, with the airport vehicles passing each other, honking at each other, etc.
Even on a 1 hour flight, Turkish Airlines fed us a meal! We arrived in Ankara about 9:30pm (to a dark and virtually empty Ankara airport) and got picked up by a limo driver arranged by Mark. We had some confusion with the driver, since he didn't speak much English and we didn't know where we were going. The driver originally stopped at the wrong building in Mark's complex, and then didn't know that Mark had already paid, but everything eventually worked out ok. We arrived in Mark's apartment around 10:00pm, close to 24 hours after leaving.
The next morning, we decided to sleep in a little and take it easy, although Mark woke us up early enough that our jet lag was fixed and we were mostly on Turkish time.
Mark thought we might want to visit Hattusa, the ancient home of the Hittite people. It was about 2 hours east of Ankara by car. The ruins of the Hittite civilization are about 3000 years old, on top of a hill where there was very good visibility of the surrounding countryside. These were probably the oldest human settlements any of us had ever seen.
Although there wasn't really a museum, there was a loop we could drive with the car, with turn-offs at interesting places. So, we stopped at all of the different turn-offs and read the signs, and eventually ate our picnic lunch at one of the more comfortable stops.
After we felt like we had seen most of what was there, we got back in the car and headed back to Ankara in time for dinner. We ate some food cooked by Mark's maid earlier in the week, relaxed, stretched, and generally took it easy. It felt more like a family visit than a vacation, which was fine by us.
Monday, we decided to stay around Ankara. We took a taxi downtown, where we visited the Ataturk Mausoleum and the attached museum of the Turkish Republic. Ataturk is basically the "George Washington of Turkey" in that he was the commander of the Ottoman Empire forces in the Battle of Gallipoli in World War I (more on that later in the trip), commander of the Turkish revolutionary forces post-WWI, and founder & first President of the Turkish Republic. The mausoleum was very striking, and there was a lot of interesting information about the history of Turkey that we hadn't known before.
After finishing up at the museum, we got some ice cream to tide us over, our first introduction to Magnum ice cream bars (which we've since found here in the states). Then, we wandered the grounds of the mausoelum a little before taking a cab back toward Mark's apartment. Mark asked the cabbie to drop us off at the big park in the valley below his apartment. We walked partway through the park, had lunch, and then walked the rest of the way back, including a huge climb up the valley wall to the level of the street Mark's apartment sits on.
Lots of things in Ankara kind of surprised us. For instance, Ankara has a pretty dry climate, and we're not sure where its water comes from. However, the big valley park (which took us most of 45 minutes to walk through) seems to require very active watering — virtually everything that grows seems to have its own watering system. We were also kind of amazed by what women wearing a headscarf would wear along with it (i.e. tight clothes that seem to defeat the purpose of being covered up).
Once back at Mark's apartment, we cooked burgers to celebrate Memorial Day, and then stood out on his patio and took pictures of the sunset. We were finally aware of the nightly Muslim call to prayer, and found it interesting just how many mosques were within earshot of Mark's apartment (all with their own independent singer). We also couldn't get over how many local dogs started barking and howling along with the call to prayer.
Tuesday was our final day in Ankara. We visited the Ankara Citadel, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and the Ankara market.
The citadel was in the old town, on the highest point available, a very steep walk up from the city on narrow streets. We took a cab most of the way there, and then walked the rest of the way. The foundations of the citadel were laid by the Galatians and completed and enlarged by later civilizations. You can climb all around the citadel, even up on the walls, where there are awe-inspiring views of the city but no railings — definitely not OSHA compliant!
After leaving the citadel, we passed by a group of teenage girls. The first girl in line proudly said "Hello!" and then the rest of them joined in. They got a good laugh out of it and so did we.
We had lunch at a restaurant in the old city that Mark knew, and then we went to the museum. It had many artifacts of the ancient civilizations in the Anatolian region. It was worth visiting even though most of the museum was under renovation. Finally, we walked through the open-air market before returning to Mark's place via another cab (this one much hotter and crazier than the first ride).
Back at Mark's place, we ate leftovers and frozen pizza for dinner and did laundry and packed in preparation for Istanbul. Later in the evening, Mark went to go get cash and put gas in the car. Once he was back, we relaxed and stretched again before turning in early.