Ankara part 1

Cem picked me up after the conference and we spent the next few days exploring the city. I was able to see the castle, Ataturk's tomb, a mosque and hang out with his friends.

The castke was great! It was a few centuries old and I had fun climbing all over it. Cem doesn't like heights so he stayed in the courtyard while I went as high as I could. Inside the caste was a gypsy shanty-town, with crumbling houses, dirty children running everywhere and women trying to sell us handicrafts.

A few children came up to tell us that the castle was closed. We couldn't figure out of this was their idea of a funny joke or what. I suggested that Cem tell them that we were disappointed, because we wanted to hire them to give us a tour. Sadly, he never told them that. The shops inside charged exhorbitant amounts for souvenirs. Unfortunately, I also found the nicest postcards there.

Ataturk's tomb might be interesting for Turks (I've been told that turkish parents off make a pilgrimmage there with their children) but for this Canadian, it was slightly less interesting. We went inside and were forforbidden to take photos. All that's there is a big stone box. Ataturk isn't even inside the box: he's buried 20 metres below!

Afterwards, we checked out the museums. I learned everything I ever wanted to know about Ataturk and more. I saw his books, his swords, his cars and even his rowing machine. All that was missing was his toothbrush! The exhibits were well-described in English and Turkish but after a while, they all started to blend in to each other. While it's history, it isn't my type of history and I had trouble staying interested.

I completely enjoyed visiting the mosque. Growing up in Eastern Canada, I never had the chance to enter one. Cem isn't Muslim and he made me promise we could only stay for ten minutes.

I had a scarf with me so I wrapped it around my head. We had to take off our shoes before entering.

I was surprised at how peaceful and beautiful it was inside. Men were praying and I was the only female on the main floor. Everything was carpeted. We sat on the floor and just looked at the beautiful decor.

Cem's friends are a lot of fun! We went on a pub-crawl with them. First we went to a Rock bar which played nice grunge classics from the early 90s. I headbanged to Nirvana. Then one of his friends came with bootleg copies of old He-Man, Voltron and G.I. Joe cartoons! Nice! Then we went to a new bar for more Turkish beer. On the way, we bought some mussels from a street vendor and ate them inside the bar. How cool is that? They even gave us lemons!

Coming out, the guys got even more food from a sausage vendor. He cut up the meat and mixed it with spices and then served it in a bun. I had a few bites and it was delicious!