We left Cappadocia at 8:00 p.m. on the Fez Bus and still feeling the effects of traveling and hiking, I nodded off to sleep in the cramped quarters after a bit.
We were supposed to arrive in Ankara around midnight, at which point our group would get dropped off and the rest of the Fez Bus would continue onwards. I snapped awake sometime around midnight only to witness the sign for Ankara wiz by on the left as we took the highway on the outskirts of the city under the Istanbul sign. Prof. Sarah was sitting up front at this point and she turned to tour guide Ket asking if our bus driver, Mustafa, knew we were supposed to be dropped off in Ankara. Ket assured us that Mustafa had been informed, or was supposed to have been informed, but before long she started to get a little panicky as Mustafa kept heading down the highway.
As Ket and Prof Sarah kept telling Mustafa to go to Ankara, he got angrier and angrier, shouting in Turkish and taking his hands off the wheel to gesture. By this point, the front half of the bus was awake, and as Ket began making phone calls as Mustafa continued driving along, the rest of the bus awoke.
Mustafa kept passing exit after exit, even slowing down to just 50 km/hr for some reason. I eventually decided to go wake up Yekta who was asleep in the back of the bus around 12:45 because, you know, she spoke Turkish fluently. I was in kind of that antsy, excited state that drove Kristina, sitting beside me, crazy as I couldn’t sit still. I was a little worried, but not overly so even as Mustafa kept shouting as Yekta, Prof Sarah, and tour guide Ket kept trying to tell him to turn around to Ankara.
Ket finally got Mustafa to turn around after calling his boss, but then I got really worried as Mustafa deliberately took the split of the highway to Konya when the other side was clearly marked as Ankara. Then Mustafa decided to back up on the highway, which is a bit more acceptable in Turkish driving than American, but still not the norm as you can imagine. Eventually Mustafa stopped to ask directions to a taxi driver and we took our chance, jumping off the bus and grabbing our luggage. We yelled good luck to the rest of the Fez Bus as we immediately hailed four taxis on the side of the highway at 2:00 a.m.
With Yekta’s translation, we eventually came to the conclusion that Mustafa didn’t go to Ankara because he didn’t know it and as a solution, decided to skip it entirely. Yeah, okay, that logic obviously works.
So here we were, on the side of a random highway in Ankara at 2:00 a.m. Don’t worry mom and dad; everything was under control after we got off the bus and weren’t possibly being kidnapped by an angry Turk with a grudge against Ankara. In the taxis, we headed to Bilkent University where we were staying. Luckily we were on the side of Ankara where Bilkent was, so the drive wasn’t all that long.
Unfortunately, the taxi drivers of course had no idea where each individual dorm was that we were staying in for the next two nights. So we had to stop a fair number of times on campus and ask directions to random students. Good thing it was a Saturday night and a university campus is a university campus no matter where you are in the world. My favorite was when the car I was in, which was the first of the four, pulled right up next to a couple that was getting cozy on a bench to ask directions. My automatic reaction was, “no way is the cab driver going to ask this couple,” but he got out of the car and strolled right up to them like nothing was wrong. I can only imagine what they were thinking as four cabs pulled up next to them with twelve Americans peering out the window.
We eventually found the boys dorm first, and then the Prof Sarah and William found theirs. So after dropping off the boys, we consolidated into two taxis. Luggage and Prof Sarah went into one, while six girls plus the cab driver went into another. I ended up on Kelly’s lap in the front seat with no head room, so I quickly asked for the window to be rolled down so I could hang halfway out and have room. Don’t worry mom and dad, it was a short drive to the dorm and there weren’t any other cars out.
We finally got to crash, split between two rooms, at 3:00 a.m.
Prof. Sarah luckily didn’t have to wake us up until 10:00 as our original guide’s daughter was sick. So without any immediately plans we decided to head out to Gordian - Phrygian ruins and an excavation site run by UNC Professor Ken Sams. The Phrygians were best known for their King Midas, who by legend has it, had everything he touched turned to gold. And Gordian itself is known for the famed Gordian Knot that Alexander the Great cut into two with his sword to fulfill a prophecy. Professor Sams was the second excavation leader of the site since 1957, which was the longest running American excavation in Turkey.
Anyway, we took taxis from Bilkent to the bus station where we loaded up on a, you guessed it, charter bus. We made it to the city close to Gordian with no problems and then, in the process of figuring out which bus to take to the city center where we could catch taxis, a mystic Turk appeared. Before I knew it, said mystic Turk led us to an empty charter bus where the 12 of us loaded up and we were off to Gordian for 100 lira. Along the way, mystic Turk driver (on his cell phone and driving!!! – see previous post about Turks belief on cell phones and brakes) opened the door and one of his buddies jumped on the bus with us.
I can only imagine that conversation:
“Hey, I’m heading out to the middle of nowhere with a dozen Americans so they can look at some ruins; want to come? I’ll let you drive the bus.”
“Sure, I’m on the street corner.”
“Hang on, I’ll be right there, you can just jump on.”
Yekta later affirmed that’s essentially how the conversation went.
Professor Sams gave us a great in-depth rundown of the site. I love archaeology I really do, I find it fascinating, trying to piece together history from whatever ruins and artifacts ancient cultures have left. Archeology is a sister to history; where history is learned from texts, archeology teaches you from artifacts and ancient signs of life. Ideally, you need both to complete a full study of ancient life, but for sites that date back to the B.C. you mostly just have artifacts from which to piece together people’s lives. Despite this however, I don’t think I have the kind of love for it that it takes to toil weeks at a time on one site in the hot sun for just a little money. Of course, that just ups my respect for people like Prof Sams.
I think this is a good point to talk about all the different cultures that have made up Turkey and Anatolia. Here’s a brief rundown of the major empires that have existed in Anatolia and that we’ve encountered in our past two weeks traveling.
-Hattian
-Akkadian
-Assyrian
-Hittite
-Phrygian
-Troy
-Lydian
-Persian
-Hellenistic
-Roman
-Byzantine
-Seljuk
-Ottoman
-Republic
And that’s just to name a few. Turks are confused about their identity with all these different things and to add to that confusion they like Hittites and don’t like to acknowledge the Hellenistic stuff unless if it’s for tourists. We don’t quite have that same complication of empires in the US.
After walking us around the site, explaining what they think the Phrygians lives were like, Prof. Sams took us to Midas’ Tomb. Or it’s possibly Midas’ Tomb; they now think the dates are more suited to Midas’ father. The tomb is inside a burial mound that reminds me a lot of the Indian Mounds near Macon, GA where I grew up, but those Native Americans used mounds in their daily lives instead of just as important burials. The tomb is made entirely of wood and, dating to the 8th century, is the oldest surviving wood structure in the world - seeing something organic that old and still completely intact is pretty amazing.
Then after running around the onsite museum for a few minutes we were back on our empty charter bus and back to the small bus station to catch an actual charter bus to Ankara. After a relaxing ride that ended up in Ankara’s very large and busy bus station, we left Yekta to visit a friend and Prof Sarah and William to figure out how we were going to make it back to Istanbul the next night. Fez Bus was not an option after the Mustafa-fiasco. We headed down into the center of Ankara for some strolling of the streets and for food, considering we hadn’t really eaten anything all day besides snacks.
We sat around at a cheap Turkish fast food joint for a long while watching the people pass and talking amongst ourselves. Some of our group went to visit an internet café while the rest of us got accosted by some of the Turks working there after sitting there for an extended period. When I say accosted, of course I mean just attempted conversation. They held a conversation mostly through Clayton who somehow, seems to mystically understand mystic Turks. They eventually figured out we wanted to go see Kocatepe Camii, the supposedly largest mosque in the world. It’s relatively new and, interestingly enough, now somewhat of a symbol for Ankara.
The Turks found some friends to direct us to Kocatepe for some of the way. After we left them, we stumbled up the straight they pointed out to us and then tried to figure out where to go from there. Luckily, we were rescued again by more Turks, this time two women (uncovered), who asked us if they could help. This was the first time we had been purposefully approached by women. Turns out these two university students were on their way to Kocatepe so they would take us. I love coincidences.
Kocatepe is pretty imposing. On top of a hill and designed to look like Sultanahmet in Istanbul, it was twilight when we approached, giving it a mystic glow. The two women took us inside, but unfortunately we were short on headscarves and the mosque had run out as well. After I took a look around, I gave mine over to Kristina so she could go take a look and play photographer. I sat outside a few minutes before one of the women came out and gave me her headscarf. She ushered me inside and in broken English told me that she had a friend that would show us Kocatepe.
The friend was another university woman who had just come down from praying. Unfortunately we got a bit lost in translation, but they were an interesting bunch. Just observing their behavior in the mosque was curious. They weren’t submissive in any sort; talking at a normal level and approaching the front of the mosque.
After a bit we got ready to leave as the EuroCup final between Spain and Germany was approaching rapidly. We said our goodbyes and I tried to give the headscarf back to the woman outside. She insisted it was gift however, and so I still have it as a testament to my time in Ankara, their amazing hospitality, and as a reminder as to what modern Islam can be.
We wandered our way back to the area we were in before and found a good bar to watch the game. I was pulling for Spain much to David’s disdain. Our group was split between Germany and Spain, but luckily Spain pulled out the win – they’re first major tournament win in 44 years.
Unfortunately during this time, Kristina was slowly going under and by the end of the game, she looked pretty miserable. We made our way back to the metro to begin our journey back to Bilkent by taking the metro to the end of its line at the bus station, but unfortunately none of the toilets there were open. Edward went with Kristina as they dashed back to the surface to find a toilet while the rest of us anxiously waited for what we thought was the last metro of the day. We were forced to board without them as they still hadn’t made it back as the metro pulled up to its stop.
Luckily, we were wrong and the real last metro was after the one we took, which thankfully Edward and Kristina caught. Somehow things fell together and as I waited at the metro’s entrance to the bus station with Amanda for them, Clayton somehow organized a dolmus to take the group of us from the bus station all the way to the dorms at Bilkent. Remember, a dolmus is a lot cheaper than a taxi and with nine of us, it just made it easier as well.
We managed to get Kristina who was only getting worse onto the dolmus and the driver who turned out to be a great guy got us to the dorms. We gave him a massive tip for waiting, stopping, and finding our dorms. As us girls rushed off to the dorm to get Kristina inside, the guys stayed behind and also managed to get the driver’s number to call him for transportation in the morning.
Most of the girls went to bed pretty quickly. Kristina was still feeling horrible and, seeing as we are constantly roommates, I was a bit worried. I stayed up a bit to blog in the suite lounge only to watch her repeatedly get up to make it to the bathroom. By 3:00 a.m., I couldn’t even keep my eyes open and so making sure she didn’t want me to call anybody, I went onto bed. I was asleep pretty quickly and woke up only once to see a figure that I later found out was Prof. Sarah in our doorway. Turns out, Kristina called Prof at 5:30 and when I woke up a bit before 9:00 a.m. I found out from Amanda that Prof Sarah came and took Kristina to student health that morning.
With Kristina taken care of and staying behind with Prof to sleep, we began our final day of the trip. Yekta called the dolmus driver and he appeared with his perpetually constant cigarette to take us off to the train station where we would drop off our stuff for the day. For you see, instead of taking Fez Bus, Prof. Sarah and William had got us three cabins on an overnight train to Istanbul. Perfect.
We stuffed our luggage into lockers and William led us to Anit Kabir, Ataturks’ massive mausoleum. Mid walk, I felt a couple of uncomfortable rumblings in my stomach but ignored it for the most part. After all, we were going to visit The Man, The Father of the Turks, Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk and well, all things Turkish Republic.
If I could buried in similar style to Ataturk, complete with all the military guards, the national park, the long walk-way, and the giant columned-building with gold that actually housed my sarcophagus --- that would be perfect. I guess all I have to do is take a crumbling Empire that’s about to be divided up among European forces and turn it into a Republic after winning a couple of great battles and then pass a bunch of reforms to lead the country into the modern era. I better get started.
Yekta’s grandfather led us through Anit Kabir, imparting anecdote and information along the way. He’s a pretty interesting man as well; a lawyer and a politician, one of the guard’s at the museum actually came up and shook his hand upon recognizing him. I swear, Yetka’s family knows everybody in Turkey.
After watching a procession at the tomb – I love how things seem to magically fall into place on this trip – we moved on to the museum where we reviewed what we knew about Ataturk thus far and learned much, much more. Such as what kind of pajama’s the man wore. And that he owned a working rifle disguised as a cane. And that his dog was stuffed put on display in the museum.
But seriously, the museum had information on anything Ataturk even remotely touched during his life, from personal items to each thing he changed and affected in his new Turkish republic such as tourism and women’s issues.
Afterwards we gathered in the café where Yekta’s grandfather treated us to juice and some snacks. I drank a bit of juice and at a small cake, but the rumblings in my stomach increased so that’s all I managed.
Then we jumped into some taxis and headed up to the Museum of Anatolian Civilization. We then did some searching for a lunch place, but I was decidedly not feeling hungry. I didn’t eat and Clayton was in the same boat. I had to visit the bathroom and when I asked the lady working the small restaurant she affirmed my fears that the shoddy little lunch place didn’t have a restroom. Instead she grabbed my wrist and dragged me down a block to a butcher’s shop. She led me inside talking to the workers and showed me the bathroom. I felt a bit better after my bathroom break, enough to laugh at the absurdity of my visit upon returning to the others, but this only lasted briefly.
Clayton and I decided to leave the lunch place early and went back to the grassy area near the museum. We found a shady spot and Clayton laid down next to some stairs, quickly earning a reputation as a homeless man as I kept watch over him and for the others.
After a bit, the others found us and then we waited for Kristina and Prof. Sarah to join us. Kristina still desperately needed some sleep and not in tiptop shape when they joined us so Sarah found her a bench inside the museum. I took another bathroom break with some of the others and in the process made some friends with some high school girls from south of Ankara. Their English was surprisingly good and we had quite a pleasant conversation. While our guide, Prof. Zimmerman, talked to us outside the museum’s entrance, they came up to me again introducing another friend and some more members of their group. I talked with them for a few minutes as my group disappeared.
Here’s some of our conversation:
“Emily, how old are you?”
“Twenty.”
“Are you married?”
“No (displaying my ringless fingers and noticing their shocked looks). I don’t have time to be married.”
They giggled.
“Do you girls have boyfriends?”
More giggles; then…”Do you like Turkey?”
“Of course!”
Anyway, I wished I could have talked to them longer, but I had to catch up to my group and a few of the high school boys were staring predatorily at the edges of our conversation.
The museum was a collection of amazing artifacts taken from many of the sites we have visited (excluding Hellenistic ones) on our trip. We also possibly saw a depiction of the oldest sex scene ever in a series of images on a giant clay pot – I think all the boys took a picture.
Unfortunately, I can’t remember much of what Prof. Zimmerman told us I was increasingly not feeling well during the tour. My stomach was bothering more and more and I was really cold.
With Kristina still not feeling well, Clayton getting worse, and me not in the best of shape, and a dinner engagement nearby and no where to put us, Prof Sarah decided to rent a hotel room for us to crash in.
I told the group to wake me up for supper as I figured I should try to eat something, but Clayton and Kristina remained behind. Unfortunately I couldn’t manage much besides bread and cheese at supper and that didn’t stay in me for very long. I guess I was due for some stomach problems after all this time.
Feeling kind of shoddy, I don’t remember much from supper or the time before getting onto the train and crashing into my bed. I do remember being in a really bad mood though.
The sleeping train was amazing. Amazing as in once I was asleep in my top bunk, I didn’t wake up till the others told me we weren’t all that far from Haydrapasa Station on the Asian side of Istanbul.
Finally we were back in Istanbul and, unfortunately, my last week in Turkey.
