The day we found the silver!
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2006
1
17
40
Trip End
Oct 28, 2006
Ankara,
Turkey
Thursday, October 5, 2006
After breakfast we went to the market on campus which is pretty tatty, ill stocked and expensive where we bought some of what we would need for supper - tomato bredie.
Mandi:
Went up to the little campus supermarket to see what they had for sale. If I thought shopping for the first time in Australia was hard because I didn't recognize packaging, I should have tried shopping in Turkey where I can't read the damn packaging!
01 With a fan at Ataturk´s Mausoleum
! The fruit and veg were very sad and there was no meat but we got a lot of the heavy things like rice and potatoes so that we wouldn't have to lug them up the hill later.Graham:
Feza had told us that we wanted to catch a SM bus on the main road, and they left at 40 minutes past the hour and we made the 9:40 one which was free. Its route was directly past Ataturk's Mausoleum, and we had noticed that you just stand next to the back door if you want the bus driver to let you out at the next stop. Unfortunately the next stop was a couple of hundred yards further along the road, so it took us a few minutes to walk back. Stopped to buy a paring knife and a potato peeler.
The mausoleum is situated in huge park, probably 800x1200m in extent.
We entered, checked in my rucksack and walked up the hill to the building. It too is quite impressive. The mausoleum proper stands at the end of a huge paved square about 100x200m, which is surrounded by low buildings. Stopped to take Mandi's picture posing with a group of guards all in traditional attire. It seems that they are there for the entertainment of the tourists
02 Ataturk´s Mausoleum
. the reals guards are much more formal and stand very still at each of the entrances. it would appear that this job is undertaken by the army and the air force. The navy guy seems to wander around in the car park. People kept approaching Mandi, who was wearing her Turkish flag T-shirt, to congratulate her, which was rather sweet.We went up into the mausoleum which is a tall rectangular gilded structure with a large sarcophagus at the one end. It is pretty impressive.
We then went into the museum which fills much of the area below the square. This was pretty interesting insofar as it had a whole bunch of Ataturk's personal belongings including most of his ceremonial swards and the books that he had read and annotated etc. as well as some dioramas of the battles that he had he had fought.
Mandi managed to find a hatpin in the shop, and then we walked back to the entrance and collected a taxi to take us up to the Haci Bayram Camii Mosque on the hill behind the museum. The driver warned us of pickpockets, so we were ultra cautious. The reason for going here was to see the ruins of the Temple of Augustus and Rome. This was a disappointment to say the least. There was very little left, it was dirty and ill preserved
03 Ataturk´s Mausoleum
. Mandi:
Then we caught the bus into town - it arrived exactly on time, was big and comfy - and free! Stupidly we were so focused on getting to Ataturk's Mausoleum that we stood by the back door (the signal, we learned, that you want to get off) as soon as we saw it and then didn't know where to catch it back to campus. Walked back a few blocks to the Mausoleum, buying a kitchen knife and a peeler on the way back - I hope the next guest appreciates all this! And then remembered that we had read of heavy security at the gate and wondered how we were going to explain a vicious potato peeler to the guards! Luckily G's backpack crossed some sort of size boundary and was confiscated instead of being x-rayed!
The Mausoleum is very impressive but rather soviet somehow. We went all around the Museum to strains of heroic choirs singing marches. There were scads of smart military men (all men) in the uniforms of the different branches doing everything from amazing Silly Walks to cleaning out the gaps between pavers - the latter a big team of lads in camo fatigues, I'm sure conscripts.
One of the nicest aspects of today was people's reactions to my T-shirt
04 The Ministry of Silly Walks strikes again!
. This is one I bought in the Spice Market and is bright red with the white Crescent and Star on the front - effectively I'm wearing the Turkish flag. One is never quite sure what people's attitude to their flag is - could be anything from utter indifference to such fierce protectiveness that you're not allowed to wear it at all - I have a feeling that the Americans aren't allowed to wear their flag. And whatever it is, there's always the concern that foreigners could be seen as doubly disrespectful if they're wearing a major patriotic symbol. But I figured they wouldn't sell them if it could be misconstrued. Anyway it would seem that it's taken as a huge compliment here in Ankara, anyway. I wore it in Istanbul with no response but perhaps they're more patriotic here, especially in the Mausoleum. It started with an old lady walking with her daughter and beaming "cok guzel" at me and progressed to guards telling me it "suited me" and a woman of about my age, smartly dressed and by no means a peasant, taking me by the arm and telling me something very earnest about how happy she was that I was showing respect. All in all I must have had about 15 people smiling and/or commenting so this wasn't a minor phenomenon.We caught a cab (after redeeming G's pack) up to the Cami which we knew how to ask for in order to see the nearby Roman temple ruins, which we didn't. The cabby (another admirer of my T-shirt) was a bit concerned that we were going to be pick-pocketed at the Cami - we think there must be a gypsy population up there or something. This took a lot of communication because we had just passed a pretty street sculpture showing a flock of shaggy, horned Anatolian sheep/goats (very reminiscent of our favourite bronze sheep in Sydney & Melbourne) with their big sheepdog & shepherd, and had been showing off our extensive and useful Turkish vocabulary by pointing to and naming the kopek (dog) and kuzu (lamb.) The cab driver told us the names of all sorts of other things (one never knows what - horns? udders? the fact that his cousin Ali was a shepherd for 43 years?) and then immediately launched into a careful, slooooww explanation of something very significant
05 Ataturk´s Mausoleum
. Of course we thought it still had to do with kopekler and kuzuler and were even more puzzled when he started pointing upwards and enunciating "dikkat" which seems to be "beware" or "warning!" Were whole flocks of frightful horned Anatolian sheep going to drop from the sky? Eventually he mimed a wallet being stolen and we realised we'd missed a turn in the conversation.Thinking of dogs, when we were at Beypazari we passed a smithy which various Agricultural Implements on display outside. Amongst them were fearsome spiked chains. We couldn't work out what they were but the smith explained they were for the sheepdogs - we assume to protect them from wolves.
Up at the cami we had been so spooked by the cabby's gypsy warning that we didn't look at the market or even feed the pigeons (I wonder whether feeding pigeons counts as alms-giving? Certainly the main mosques in both Istanbul and Ankara had pigeon-food sellers and zillions and zillions of pigeons) but went to find the Roman temple. Initially all we could find was a big lump of vaguely Roman-looking masonry covered in weeds but then discovered a side of the hillside that the Mosque was on top of was all rather badly restored and very weedy and dog-peed-on Roman masonry. So that was less than thrilling.
Graham:
We walked back down past the Column of Julian with its storks' nest back down to Ataturk Boulevard. Mandi had obtained some directions to a Jeweller who was supposed to have good stuff. We spent some time trying to find the palace, and when we did it was worth it.
06 Roman ruins!
As we walked in, we saw the silver bracelet that was perfect. It is made of silver wire that scribbles back and forth to make a lovely deep band. The moment we saw it, we knew that it was what we wanted. I found a very elegant heavy silver neck chain with a circular cross section, and chunky rectangular links that looks very good, and Mandi found a more delicate chain made from silver leaves that is also lovely. These are exactly what we came to Turkey to find, and now we have found them. The total cost of the two heavy items was supposed to be 250YTL, but the owner threw in the smaller necklace for free. Whether we have paid more than we could have for the items, I don't know, but I do know that they are worth every penny for me!Mandi:
We wended our way down to Ataturk Bulvari and walked some distance down it. The traffic is truly horrendous but most people seem good natured about it. They hoot and rev their engines madly but don't seem cross. We looked, as we passed the equestrian statue, for the stop for the bus back to Bilkent but it's a big place with dozens of stops for municipal buses so it could have been anywhere.
We had some trouble finding Seraf's silver shop but knew immediately we saw it that the long slog down the busy road had been worth it - his stuff was substantially more interesting and varied than we have seen elsewhere
08 The silver!
. There is a sort of entryway with display cases full of sort of tribal stuff - very attractive, a lot of it, but needed a lovely young 20-year-old neck to wear successfully. However the very first case inside the shop had The One in it - we both knew it immediately. It is a heavy silver bracelet made out of tangled wire beaten flat. I should think modern but could almost be from any era - organic and unusual without being in any way over the top. We then started looking at chains for Gray. He was still debating neck or wrist and, I think, feeling he was too old for either, but when he saw what nice and unusual and very blokey chains Seref had, he was quite happy to choose a very nice one - sort of round in cross-section. I also found a lovely one in the form of leaves or wings or some other flattish organic shape linked together. When we came to ask prices, Seraf weighed the bracelet and the first chain, calculated the price, discounted that and threw in the second chain for nothing - how could we argue with that?Graham:
To celebrate, we broke our fast with a cup of elma cay before catching a cab back to the REAL Supermarket at Bilkent. Managed to get everything that we wanted except saffron or turmeric, so the rice will have to be white. When we tried to pay, first there was a problem with the Kuzu (lamb) that we had bought and the checkout chick had to phone. Then when Mandi tried to leave through the security portal, the alarm went. We tracked it down to her large moon belt - pannier thing, so she had to go off with security to explain herself.
Meanwhile, my credit card went through, but the checkout chick wanted me to fill out some address and ID number
Toros and Orhan
. I don't have an ID number, so we had to wait for a manager. Fortunately, the young girl, 1st year at Bilkent Uni spoke pretty good English, so we understood what was happening. Mandi arrived back and showed me that there is a security tag sewn into her moon belt which was obviously not disabled when she got the thing from Kathmandu. A floor manager told to checkout chick not to worry about the ID thing, so we were free to go.Mandi:
We went into a cay salonu for tea & G had a tost (toasted sandwich) which was one of the only things on the menu up on the wall in the upstairs salonu only to see the other clients were buying much more interesting stuff from the pide shop on the ground floor & bringing it up on little trays. We'll learn the ropes eventually.
And so to the nearby taxi rank where as luck would have it, Stirling Moss was in pole position. He drove us home in about 12 minutes and I noticed from my fearful position in the back seat (there are some advantages to being a fragile flower who can't sit next to a strange taxi-driver) that he was doing a comfortable 110kph in the 50 zone and about 150 down the freeway. As we went through an intersection there was a crash as two cars collided nearby; he slowed to look, laughed merrily, and zoomed on.
Anyway he was a cheery enough fellow who said "kangaroo! kangaroo!" when we said we were from Australia. We are constantly amazed by Turkish driving. Yesterday evening on the way back from the restaurant Orhan cheerfully drove, along with plenty of others, up a road under construction. It was a shortcut, apparently.
Stirling Moss dropped us at the big REAL supermarket mall we had been to on Monday. We had a happy half hour trying to find stewable cuts of lamb (from the size, the lambs mhft be slaughtered at birth, poor little things) and oregano and the like. Then the fun started. First there was some problem with the meat that necessitated much explanation and hand-waving, then a call to head office and finally she could put it through the till - max 1 pack per customer? Who knows. Then I was standing with the bag of groceries waiting for G to pay when I set off the shop-lifting alarm. The check-out chick laboriously went through everything in the bag checking it had been scanned but G suggested I try without the groceries - sure enough, I set off the alarm on my own. Then we narrowed it to my bum-bag.
By now Security in the form of a young woman with a walkie-talkie had been summoned, and luckily the young student in the queue behind us could speak enough English to assure me "they want to help you" and please to go with her. So there I was, not a week in Turkey, being marched off to an inner office by a uniformed guard! (My trusty husband, of course, had to stay behind to pay for the groceries!) Of course the worst thoughts start to go through your head - what if someone planted something there? What if I'm really a split personality and Sybil has filled my bum-bag with shop-lifted loot?
So in the dark inner office (Sevim, why was there no lesson on "I need an English-speaking lawyer!" and "May I phone my Consulate?") I unpacked my bag, offering all my odd bits & pieces like the mini-tripod we had just bought to replace the one I lost in Aya Sofia, but the Security officers (the woman had been joined by two men) obviously had experience with this sort of thing and scanned the bag itself, finally discovering one of those little security tags sewn in behind the label!! So then the first woman had to take it to an empty till and scan the damn thing to turn it off. Bloody Kathmandu!
So back to the first till only to find poor Gray still standing there - I thought he'd had to wait for me but he was having credit card trouble because he couldn't give a Turkish ID number and the patient English-speaking girl was still standing behind him.
Anyway, we were eventually done and could go back to our little apartment and cook our tamatiebredie.
Graham:
Took the brief taxi ride up to our apartment as it is too steep and hot to carry the stuff.
Mandi spent an hour putting together the bredie, and it is now cooking and smelling divine!
Mandi:
The Arikans arrived at about 7pm, I suppose. We were trying to make the flavour of the evening Australian / South African, but it's hard to have nibbles with drinks when someone doesn't drink! What did happen was that Feza and Orhan asked what our plans were for tomorrow and then turned on the Arikan Organization Machine, and before we knew it, we had our accommodation in Bogazkale and our transport there all buttoned up. So much for footloose adventures off into the wilds of Anatolia, when we are constantly being pampered and cosseted like slightly dim children!!! We were saying that it's an interesting phenomenon - we were impressed by the way in which the Chinese were willing to go out of their way to help you, but the Turks have something else - there's a sort of feeling that the whole country is turning out as a team to make your stay easier. They put into action these really elaborate plans which allow complete morons like us to somehow bumble our way through their systems without having to do more than say our names clearly into telephones. Sort of like the opposite of a conspiracy theory.
Lara was hungry while the rice was still cooking, but was happy to tuck into some bredie and the excellent kofte that her Mom brought before the rest of us sat down, which certainly eased the pressure on the tiny table, which would have been small for four but was a real squash for five. We had a great evening. It's amazing how quickly we've picked up a really close relationship with these sweet people - I suppose we have a lot in common and yet so many things that are different that we can talk about. I do hope they will come to Australia or we can come back some time.
