ULUS!

Uh, my posts are a little late and I'm struggling to update them. ... So...the last weekend in September, a few friends and I headed into Ulus; it's the center section of Ankara, originally the heart of the city. I'm still working on sorting out the inner geography of Ankara - I've been to the neighborhoods of Emek, Kizilay, Tunus, and Bahceliever, which I've recently discovered are all part of the neighborhood of Cankaya, as wells as Umitkoy and I really do not know where that is yet in relationship to Bilkent. Anyhow, Ulus interesting because, from my perspective, it's a mix of the old and the new. Lots of malls, shopping centers, modern Turkish architecture in one part and then the old-school part. Pic above? Giant hill we climbed atop of which is a castle, not sure of any of the history/importance surrounding it yet, but my research continues.... It is a marked change between this beautiful fountain on the left, in front of which stand Charles and Kim and the rather dilapidated neighbors displayed on the pic to the right.

We mostly did a lot of walking and getting lost, entered a few little shops most of which were really neat jewelry stores. From my understanding, Turkey in general, but especially this part of Ankara, is celebrated for its silver, and of course turquoise (orgination of the name, mystery solved). I bought a really pretty and incredibly affordable silver ring with what I think is a hematite stone (?). I still cannot get over the hospitality of the Turks either. We spent about 1/2 hour at this one jewelry shop and before we had even purchased anything we were offered endless glasses of tea and as mini souvenirs, eleborately decorated mailing cards.

The best part of the adventure is when we started to make our way through the bazaars. I have never been to such fantastic produce markets in my life. I remember the first week we were here in Turkey, one of the teachers who's currently on their second year, took us to the Emek bazaar. I had thought that was amazing at the time, but doesn't hold a candle to the one we went to in Ulus. It's absolutely beautiful! All of the fresh produces, honey, fish, cheese, anything you could want! Ideally, I would love to do all of my grocery shopping there, but it's a little difficult when you have to rely on public transportation. And I don't think any of us CSI's really have any idea yet how to catch the bus back to Bilkent from Ulus. Minor glich, but will hopefully be well versed in time.

Photo from the streets of the bazaar. Not produce, but almost anything else you could think of was offered.

There are so many little niche's in Ankara to explore and at time it seems overwhelming. One of the most amusing things about Ankara is our students' perceptions of it...actually, Turks in general. Turkish people are always asking us if we like Ankara and I always replied with an enthusiastic "Yes!", but their opinions of the city are slightly different. They find it boring and consistently encourage us to go, mainly, to two other cities in Turkey: Istanbul and Izmir. We're going to Istanbul this next weekend for the marathon, which means you can probably expect a blogpost from me about it in approx. 3 weeks =) considering I clearly like to procrastinate on these guys. Izmir is intensely popular because it is a long the western coast, and ideally I'd like to make a trip there come spring once it's warmer again and I can enjoy the beach! Of course I have an outrageous list of all the places I would like to go, some of them at the recommendation of Turks and others out of personal interest: Adana, Antalya, Troy, Pamukkale, Bursa, and maybe a little venture out east...maybe. The first weekend we were here the University sponsored a trip for us to Safranbulo and Amasra...I still need to write a much prolonged blog about those as well.

The best part of travelling? The random things you encounter in everday life:

Laundry and peppers left to dry out in the sun!