Ankara and return to İstanbul

Ankara.

The day was spent mostly on buses, whıch meant the same 3 thıngs

1. Schedules were throw ınto disarray as travel proceeded on 'Turkey Tıme,' as an Amerıcan phrased it here ın Istanbul

2. There was much confusıon at the Otogar, thıs tıme wıth me falsely accusıng a man of stealıng my tıcket. Ooops

3. I read another book of War and Peace and watched several bad Amerıcan movıes ın Turkısh (do you need dıalogue to enjoy Blade: Trinity? Of course not.)

So I'm now on a train in poland trying to remember what we did in Ankara, and I'm afraid it was not much. We followed our owner's advice and tried to do Ankara during the day while waiting for the night train. Our bus arrived 2 hours late, so we beelined for the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, an impressive name for a museum th guidebooks raved about as a must see. We took a taxi straight to it, which was an excelent decision as the walk was steep uphill and we had our packs. We flagged down a taxi, and after a bit of confusion we were able to communicate the place we anted to go, or so we thought. The driver started the meter, drove maybe 8 meters, and stopped and asked a pedestrian for directions. So perhaps he had said, "sure, you silly Americans. Hop on in, I'm sure we can figure this out together!" He was quite loud and talked the entie drive, so I smiled, laughed when I thought it was appropriate, said a few thing to Gina, and generally had no idea was going on. I had sat up front and was worried that if I disengaged from the conversation he would get upset and drive use somewhere sketchy. It was like you are at a party and dont know what is going on, so you laugh at the jokes and desperately hope noone notices. Except this party was in Turkish.

The taxi ride down the hill a few hours later was silent.

The musuem was fine, but frustratingly ended when the Romans showed u, viz. right when things get interesting. Frankly, the unheralded Archeological mueum in Istanbul was better. As for the rest of the city, the old city did seem good, but we didnt make time for that as we did not return from th otogar, nor did we see Ataturk's mausoleum.

The night train was sadly sold out. The trans looked quite nice and I was all pumped for trains. Oddly, our subsequent trip to the otogar went exactly as I imagine they should go. We arrived, walked confidently to the bus companies we know and love, and their Istanbul buses are 'full.' A tout comes and rescues us. We quickly purchase tickets and are wisked downtstairs to a waiting bus that leaves within ten minutes. Efficiency!

We were told that the bus, leaving around seven, would get in at midnight, but it arrived around 3am. I'll chalk that one up as language barrier rather than Turkey time. The young men on the bus were exceedingly helpful when we moved into Istanbul, utilizing the 1.5 English speakers at their disposal to figure out where to drop us. They even were going to have someone drive us from the European to the Asian bus station when they thought that that was what was needed. They ended up dropping us off at random dark intersection and had a taxi ready for us.

Sadly our bus did not take long enough to merit roughing it for the rest of the night, so after failing at the first few hostels we reurned to the loved Oriental Hostel and its sketchy Turkish front desk men. We slept in the thirty man dorm in the basement for the next three nights, and it was quiet.

Day 1 in İstanbul
We started out at the Blue Mosque, which is a massive mosque that sits ccross a plaza from the Hagia Sophia. It is modeled after (inspired by!) the Hagia Sophia butis a pinch smaller, and I liked it more than the HS (following day, closed on Mondays) because it is a half melinium younger and so the art and especially the blue tiles (that it gets its nickname from) are still vivid. For the Hagia Sophia some of the mosaics are still stunning, but you can clearly tell it is a shadow of its former magnificence.

Had a heaping pile of thinly sliced chicken for lunch, with the normal sides of rice, lettuce, sliced cucumber, and a few olives and cheese. Gina had a large salad.

After lunch we went to Tokapi Palace, the seaside palace and capital of the Ottoman Sultans. It was very nice and we marched through the audio guide thoroughly. Most memoable for me was the collection of religious artifacts the Ottomans had accumulated, I think mostly from Mecca. Because Islam overlaps with the Christian old testament, I saw Abraham's pot, Joseph's turban, Moses' Staff, David's sword, and John the baptist's skull and arm, and I'm not really sure how I feel about ıt all. Very thought provokıng.
We did not go in the Harem becaue we did not budget our time and it was closed before we got to it.

To shake things up and to get out of Sultanhamet, we took an incredibly packed trolley towards Taksim Square. Took a funıcular* from the trolley to the square.

*Good form of tranportation, Excellent word in the English language

Walked back from Takşım square all the way to the hostel. Bought mussels from a street vendor. Great walk, but then walked along the sea walls and dıscovered we couldn't get back to Sultanhamet and had to backtrack.

Day 2 in İstanbul

OK, this day is incomplete so it may not make sense

Went first t the Hagia Sophia. Really really large on the inside. Cool to stand, esp in the upper balcony and to imagine all the history that had passed throug such a majestic space.

After lunch we hit up the archeological museum, which was very good except for the upper levels ue to the lack of AC, so ancient Cyprus and Palestine got short shrift. The highlight for me was seeing fragments of the Treaty of Kadesh, though striking up a conversation with two cute girls from UC Davis in the coin collection was also nice.

There was a mıscommunıcatıon for leavıng tıme at the musuem. Gina and I both thought we were doıng what the other person wanted, leaving me amblıng around the museum, mıldly bored and killing time, and Gina waiting at the exit freaking out.

Walked to the covered Bazaar, which in my opinion is nothing but a different culture's manifestation of the shopping mall. Wandered about and had to convice one very nice man that I, in fact, did not want to spend $200 on a small carpet.
After the Bazaar we tried to walk through the grounds of Istanbul University but it was closed. We then went to Suleymaniye Camii, a mosque

Chatting with family in Mosque. Probably the best casual, non-comercial* interaction I have had with a local in all of my travels. The mom actually struck up the converstation (with Gina) after she had asked us for a pencil. She spoke decent but limited English but made a valiant attempt (her vocab was limited but her pronounciation was solid. That's good, you can always make do with limited vocab. I do every day). She and Gina talked while I played with her 5 year old kid (the same one I had glared at earlier for being rambuncious), and then the mom had her 2 kids pratice their English with me.

*So no tour guides, nor the monk-chats in Thailand.