Travel

The beautiful sky

I`ll tell you, dear reader, about a place usually people, especially tourists, are not entitled to visit making a tour of the best turkey has to offer. Ankara.
The capital, one of the three biggest cities, home to more than 4 million people.
You rarely hear anything good about it and I won’t lie.
Like anywhere more and more people in turkey move to the big urban centres, making it more crowded, more vast and more dangerous.
On the other hand this city does give a hint of reality, that more touristy places rather cover.
Because apart from the beautiful mountains, the blue sea and the sun- there exist the cold, brown anatolian plain, smog and erosion scratched landscape everywhere you look.
Next to the rip-off tourism, you can find the genuine friendliest people you’ll ever meet.

Between the Armenian and Greek Churches and turkish Mosques, you can also find hate on gay people, foreigners or kurdish. Not because there are the Churches and the Mosques, rather as an example of an sarcastic contrast in this world, that is not everywhere, but can be found.

The Macho culture is definitly something to see.
The situation of women is complicated and not to describe without hurting somebody.
There are educated, secular housewifes, headscarfed religious university students, headscarfed religious housewifes, secular educated and traveling university students. Gays, transsexuals, foreigners, Taxidrivers (maybe the most special), Machos (most) and I’d like to think anything you can imagine.
Any focusing on one particular piece of the mosaic is in danger of becoming a cliche, although they all exist somewhere in their pure form.

Coming back to Ankara. Apart from the above described, there are certain things that can and have to be seen. First the Anitkabir- the mausoleum of Atatürk. Something you don’t see everyday in a democracy and something you won’t understand from a 3 day visit. Atatürk, Nationalism, the Military. A story of its own.

The Kocatepe-Mosque. Biggest one of Ankara. Truly beautiful with white marble, on a hill in the middle of the city, quite as if it was closer to the sky, than to that stinky anthill beneath. Interesting fact, other than our european 500 year old Cathedrals it was build in the 60’s, reminding us that religion is still a very important factor in turkish life.

Last but not least there is the Castle area. The antique citadel resides in a mostly very poor area, reminding us more of anatolian villages, than of the capital of 70 million people. Also it is the most classical touristy area with poor people selling you homewoven purses for 50 cents. Although tourism is rather poorly developed and real Ankaraeans won’t step a foot here, you get an awesome view over the whole city, including Anitkabir and Kocatepe- if the smog is with you,- or better without you.

The last thing, they have plenty of and its free: Beautifull shiny, shimmery- pink- purple and orange, blue-grey anatolian sky.