July 7, 2011

• The Silk Road Overland
  Tuesday 5 July 2011
  
  When I arrived at Ankara train station, I did what I often do when I have two night trains booked in a row: I went straight to the luggage lockers and popped my suitcase in one of the lockers. Minimum fuss, maximum use of the time available.

  As I was leaving the luggage lockers and walking past some counters, I suddenly had this memory of a railway staff member raising his eyebrows and throwing his head back repeatedly in response to a question whether there were any language lockers available. This memory was from January 1986, when I was last in Ankara, travelling with a group of eight. It was around that time of our journey we started to understand the Turkish way of saying no by using one’s head – not by shaking it, but by throwing it backwards and raising one’s eyebrows. How funny how a 25-year old memory can suddenly pop into your mind when you return to the same spot!

  Now, what can you do if you’ve got one day in Ankara? Several people I know have said there is nothing to see in Ankara, but in my opinion there is always something to see when you get to a new city (or semi-new in my case). TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.co.uk) says that the number one thing to do in Ankara is to visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, so I went there first, via a two-hour stop at the SAS Radisson to get into a WiFi zone, and where I ended up ordering the most expensive orange juice + water in my life = USD9.00. TripAdvisor was right: the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations is excellent. It’s well organised, with lots of info included in the audio guides, and it has got masses of interesting finds, for example a whole room full of Hittite slabs/reliefs. Also, there’s written info in English for everything. My favourites were the Hittite elk-like stags.

  My next stop was the Ankara Citadel, next to the old town, a compact area of semi-Ottoman style houses, some of them very old. I immediately fell in love with this place. This is – from now on – my favourite spot in Ankara. Great atmosphere and fabulous old archıtecture. There were babushka-style women sitting everywhere selling souvenirs, “Only one lira, monsieur!”

  As it was lunch time, I went into this restaurant and got my second surprise for the day. This restaurant forms part of the citadel wall and you have this amazing view of Ankara from above, seated by the oldest wooden table I’ve seen in my life. I ordered Emperor’s Delight – lamb served over creamed asparagus – and I ended up staying at this restaurant for quite a while. There was no name sign for this restaurant and when asking the waiter, he said it was called “Aunt’s Restaurant”, but adding,  when asked,  that Aunt was a name. Hmm, I’m not sure I got that right.

  I managed to squeeze in a visit to some Roman remains in the middle of the city, but I missed out on Ataturk’s Mausoleum as it closed already 5.30 PM.

  I’m again on a very nice train, on my way to Adana – all with an excellent restaurant car, special train-supplied slippers and a fridge in my sleeping cabin. There’s a clear difference between this night’s train and last night’s. I think I’m the only Westerner on the entire train. It could be that everyone is flying, of course. The heating is on full force and so is the A/C. I’ve spoken to the conductor about it several times (what a waste of energy!), but he just waves vaguely with his hands and seems to think it will take of itself. Right now, the A/C seems to be winning.

  I’m writing this on my iPad in the restaurant car, sipping (a very nice!) red wine accompanied by ymmy mixed nuts. I just don’t understand why people prefer flying!

  [I am still unable to add photos. I need to find a Internet cafe with PCs that take the SD memory card from my camera. Or an iPad app that would help me with photo uploads to Xanga. I'm working on it.]

  • 12:29 am
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