Ankara!

Actually, I'm in Kapadokya. But I am behind on my blogging. So today you get Ankara.

When I told people I was going to Turkey this summer, I often got this response: "Don't go to Ankara." But Rebecca's take on the city was that, while it probably wasn't all that fun to visit, it was a great city to live in, so much, in fact, that she had decided to do her Fulbright there. My general feeling was that I stuck out a lot less. Compared to in Istanbul, not a lot of money is to be made off tourists, so people pretty much left me alone. This also probably had to do with the fact that, as Ankara is the capital, they are used to foreigners living and working in their city.


After getting off the bus, we went to drop off one of her suitcases at the Fulbright office, which was in the embassy part of town. The people working there let us take showers, which were greatly needed.

Then Rebecca showed me some sights. Ataturk's tomb is ginormous. The museum part of it had some of his personal belongings-- for example, his dog, which had been stuffed. We passed by plastic battle scenes with battle sounds playing in the background. Then there was the hallway with the children's choir renditions of Russian propaganda film esque national songs.



It explicitly states that you're not allowed to sit on the lions.
















Then it was the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations:







Here are some other random pictures of Ankara:

Then we had dinner at a nice Western restaurant in the embassy part of town. I had pesto, and Rebecca had caesar salad. Our tea at the end of the meal came with, well, stuff: