Day 4 En Route to Cappadocia

Trip Start Jun 28, 2009

Trip End Jul 11, 2009

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Where I stayed

Old Greek House Mustafapasa

(Mustafapasa hotels)

Flag of Turkey Ankara, Turkey
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Day 4 began the evening of Day 3, when we all hopped on the overnight train to Ankara. I have never ridden overnight on a train. It was quite an experience. After having had a hotel room to myself for two nights - Oh my God, I forgot to mention I'm getting my own room for four out of the twelve nights because there is an extra solo woman. Rather than give one woman a 2-week single, they give all of us a third. Sweet!

In any case, my first roommate experience of the trip was sharing bunks with "Other Stephanie." Like a complete and total retard, I said I'd take the top bunk. Not a problem except that that night, my body decided that I would need to get up to pee three times. Nancy, if you're reading this, I should not have been quite so dismissive of the idea of Depends. Seriously. If you're ever on the top bunk on an overnight train and don't want to climb up and down the teeny, tiny ladder and then go out to a fluorescently-lit hallway to the icky, icky lav, consider it.

Oh, and while we're talking about going to the bathroom, Turkish plumbing is very "developing world." When you go to the bathroom, you use toilet paper, but you are not supposed to throw it in the toilet. You throw it in a little canister right next to the toilet. It does have a lid, but that only makes it slightly less gross. The plumbing cannot handle paper. It is rather bizarre.

Anyway, I survived the train and the ladder, but got so little sleep that I felt like I had jet lag all over again. Fortunately, all of the bright sunshine and the strange new activities of each day help me to stay awake.

Anatolyan Civilizations Museum

BTW, I have not yet had Turkish coffee. I've had coffee made in Turkey but not the kind with the grounds in it. Instead, I've been opting for tea at breakfast. It's very strong and does the job. It's kind of like drinking Irish or English tea.

So we got off the train and went into downtown Ankara. Big deal. Then we went to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, which was voted "Best Museum in Europe" in 1997. Mine is always quick to point out with things are the "best" or "top of the line." It ain't necessarily so, but I can always play along. In some ways, she reminds me of the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, except that with her it's along the lines of, "You know who invented that? The Turks!" Turks, for the record, did invent coffee, left it behind while retreating from an attempt to conquer Vienna. They also invented the croissant, money, writing, and tulips.

Anyway, I have to admit the Anatolian Civilizations Museum was very boring. You've seen one cave drawing, you've seen'em all. I did, however, win the prize for finding the urn with the sex scene on it. (I had some practice on Mother's Day when Alicia and I scoured the Greek vase room of the MFA looking for the "sexy vases.")

After the museum, we drove to Cappadocia (pronounced Cappadokia) a six-hour drive, broken up by a couple of rest stops. Rest stops are actually pretty nice and have very nice food. One rest stop had this amazing garden with a fountain in the center. I just can't imagine that a McDonald's along Rte.95. The long bus ride was helpful to make up sleep lost on the train.