Ankara, Turkey Travel Blogs

Visiting the Capital
Oct 15, 2005 (25 photos)

... of Independence with Greece, the new president of Turkey, Atatürk, moved the capital from Istanbul to Ankara. Atatürk is credited with bringing Turkey into the modern age; he introduced various social and political reforms, changed the education system, ...

Ankara Day 1
Jul 3, 2007 (5 photos)

... my Swiss Army knife. It still seemed kind of early to go to sleep, so we took a taxi to Ankamall, the largest mall in Ankara on a quest to find a power transformer, but no dice. Bummer! I was impressed, however, with the fact that there were very few ...

Kids' entries
Jul 4, 2007

... simit. It's this bread with honey and sesame seeds on top. We're walking to Ataturk's mausoleum, he's the guy who made modern Turkey in the early 1900's. Mom made us walk all the way up a steep hill and much more flat land, the mausoleum was cool though ...

Bus then train
Jul 7, 2007

Today really wasn't much to write home about. We had the long bus ride (see tail end of the entry I counted for yesterday) and then we made our way to the train station. The traveling is starting to wear on us and we're looking forward to staying in ...

The rules of the road
May 11, 2008

· On the road to İstanbul, Turkey · GMT +2:00hrs Entry to follow...

Last night in Turkey- Wedding in Ankara
Aug 31, 2007 (2 photos)

... , so I started having visions of getting to Istanbul and having to choose between missing our connection to Ankara or leaving our suitcases in Turkey.  Josh must have polished his silver Pegasus charm because we barely had time to get off the plane, ...

Made it to Ankara
Jul 3, 2007

... baths and slept for 12 hours. Now we are venturing out in search of food. Our hotel room has a really great view of Ankara, including Ataturk's tomb. We are also across the street from a Metro station. With that, Josh proclaimed, "Ankara is in the palm ...

Ankara
Oct 1, 2008 (11 photos)

Ankara is a big, sprawling modern and ugly city, with few redeeming qualities. True, some parts of it don't look all that bad, but the central area where we stayed in was rather seedy. We decided to stay here for 2 full days in order to ...

Through Ismir
Jul 2, 2007 (1 photos)

... terminal is a much better place to hang out than the domestic terminal. Only 10 minutes delayed, we caught a Turkish Airlines flight to Ankara. On board we tried Ayran, a salty yogurt drink. It wasn't bad, but I don't think any of us will order it ...

Ankara Day 2
Jul 4, 2007 (7 photos)

... of the museum doesn't sound very snappy, but it really is an incredible museum and probably the first thing anyone coming to Ankara should go see (I'm completely in agreement with the guidebook on this one). At this point, one would think I would now talk ...

All The Dodgy Kebaps Finally Caught Up With Us..
Aug 7, 2006 (5 photos)

Greetings friends and family from bustling Ankara, Turkey's capital city and the beginning of the end for the Turkey leg of our trip. Ankara is essentially the halfway point of for Turkey and from here we head up to the Black Sea and then head east for a ...

Technotrekker Software Technologies - FULL LIST
May 9, 2006

Just a quickie for a few readers wondering about different aspects of the blog production process. These come from other entries but to make them easier to find, here is a full list of the software technologies I'm using to produce the blog. Please ...

Capital to Smurf Villages! (Ankara to Kapadokya)
May 10, 2003 (9 photos)

... for me was modern history and Ataturk changed so much, but not so long ago and you are reminded of that in Turkey every day. In Ankara we visited the castle and here talked to some children who were playing skipping games in the streets, we attempted to ...

A Real Bit of Turkey (blog)
May 7, 2007 (9 photos)

... in a full internet cafe on a busy intersection in Ankara. At last we have left the tourist saturated areas of Turkey and I am much grateful. Ankara is very much a European city, good stuff before we head off into the depths of conservative Eastern Turkey. ...

Time to finally stop moving for a bit.
Jun 17, 2006

... mausoleum and associated museum, some statues and things, and probably a couple things I'm forgetting... all quite cool. I have a Tues-Thurs class schedule and 4 day weekends... how fantastic is that? Next weekend is Cappedoccia (a place in Turkey)

ignore this
Jul 25, 2006

this entry is just for proper continuity of the lines and dots on the map

pictures, yay!
Jun 26, 2006

hello my peoples... i have finally gotten around to partaking in the painstaking task of uploading pictures. the selection is fairly random, but a decent cross section of the 250 or so i took.

More observations of Turkey
Jul 20, 2006

... aspect of their culture. The western world, on the other hand, grows up to fast. We become jaded, selfish, unfriendly. Turkey is somewhere in between. This is, of course, only the geographically western, more industrialized, more modern, more wealthy, ...

Turkish Delight
Aug 31, 2002 (7 photos)

... his flute. As the soft soothing tones of the flute filled the air, we retired into the cabin and I prepared to awake in another country, Turkey. "Goodnight Nicoli" "Goodnight Luke Skywalker" Maybe Nicoli understood a bit more than I had thought.

One last day in Istanbul
Sep 3, 2002 (27 photos)

... for breakfast and we all feasted on locals breads, of which I was given the choicest bits and feta cheese, a traditional breakfast in Turkey. Being slightly clueless as how to eat it, Babane showed me by rolling chunks of Feta Cheese into a long Pita-like ...

Random observations: Turkey Edition, V1.0
Jul 10, 2006

... random interesting observations about a country. First, a couple about money. In the hundred(s) of monetary transactions I have had in Turkey, I have only received 1 korush (100 korush = 1 lira =~ .6 USD) pieces in, maybe, three of them. I would ...

Apologıes for any squıffy punctuatıon - ...
Nov 4, 2000

apologıes for any squıffy punctuatıon - keyboard has turkısh layoutç Arrıved ın turkey on saturday. Flıght ın from Frankfurt was a bıt haıry, some turbulence and spılt drınks and screamıng chıldren (me ıncluded). Was very happy to arrıve at Ataturk aırport ın one pıece. ...

Ankara... a city of neighborhoods
Aug 26, 2007 (10 photos)

... boys the multitude of sights and sounds that awaited them beyond the gates of our Bilkent East Campus neighborhood... In many ways Ankara is that place... although English is spoken...most do not speak it, or speak very little... and unfortunately my ...

Ankara: Chapter 7: Interlude: Of Eliot and Me
Mar 17, 2008

17th Mar 2008 Of Eliot and Me; New York News Provokes Memories Eliot Spitzer certainly has been in the news lately. I haven’t been able to follow all the sordid details, being pretty much confined to the internet--and not much of that-- and the ...

Looking just a little bit closer at life...
Dec 7, 2007 (25 photos)

When I was a young boy... my father bought a polaroid camera... took me on a drive into the countryside... drove by a few horses grazing in a green pasture... pulled over to the side of the dirt road... and gave me the camera... Ever since I snapped ...

Ankara
Jun 15, 2008

Day 26 of Trip: 1. Transfer to Ankara (5 hours) 2. Ataturk Museum/Grave 3. Transfer Saffranbolu (2 hours)

Ankara, Chapter 2: Not A Travel Blog; A Soap Opera
Mar 9, 2008

... of my thoughts and ideas continued to wrestle in my mind throughout my following many months of travels in Turkey--and multiple returns to the scene in Ankara. Some of my ideas changed. It took many months of thinking and observing. Some answers I never ...

Ankara: Chapter 14: A Last Dance
Mar 30, 2008 (2 photos)

27th Apr 2008 Maybe I'll Leave Ankara Tomorrow [Again, the date above, rather than the posting date of this entry, is the true chronological period for this entry] It's 11:30 Sunday night. I've been trying to catch up on stuff all afternoon and ...

Ankara'dayim!
Jul 12, 2006 (3 photos)

... a car this morning from Konya and I drove us the 250 kilometers to Ankara. I was a bit nervous about driving in Turkey and driving around in Ankara, but it was really fun. I was finally able to drive how I always want to in the States. I passed people ...

Ankara
Sep 20, 2004 (1 photos)

Excursion to the capital.