Ankara part 2

So I was back at Eski Yeni for a beer on a Saturday night. The doormen were going to turn me away, but smiled and waved me in when I spoke English. Ersoy, who is the owner, recognised me and shook my hand.

Özge was the very kind barmaid who practiced her English while helping me with the menu.

Although this is a café, it looks like a beer hall to me. But you have a smattering of kids and babies out with mum(and sometimes dad, too). This place is in the Kizilay district- tourists are invisible. This is where locals go and it has a great energy. I originally walked into Eski Yeni because Ersoy looked kind of familiar- like my kind of hipster- it assauged a certain amount homesickness and loneliness I felt. I will recommend this place because it is friendly and fun without a touristy vibe.


So getting a smile of recognition and a hand shake was special. I haven't had a conversation face- to- face since Monday. Skype with friends and my little son is better than nothing, but I miss seeing faces when I palaver. 

Malatepe Mosque

The day focussed on putting together my presentation. Since Youtube is banned in Turkey, I was kind of screwed, to be blunt. How else do I demonstrate(an aside to demonstrate is to act out- a word of wisdom to my activist friends). But I found images and began putting together a piece of my argument. After spending most of the day writing and creating a powerpoint presentation, I stepped out to visit the Maltepe and Kocatepe Mosques.

Maltepe was constructed in the '50s but could have been much older. As I entered the courtyard wondering about the etiquette of photographing a mosque, a Turkish man smiled and said hello. I gestured to my phone camera and he said no problem then bade me enter. We removed our shoes at the edge of the carpet and he took them and placed them on a shelf inside the entrance. He then smiled and patted my shoulder and ushered me inside.

I watched for a few minutes as he went through a ritual of prostration, first standing and gesturing with his hands as if he were washing his head. He then knelt and folded across his knees, arms loosely outstretched in front of him. All the while, he quietly recited to himself, although so quietly the words were barely audible and entirely indistinct.
The mosque's interior was square, and carpeted from wall to wall and up the sides with a turquoise carpeting. The fenestration above was filled with stained glass combining abstract patterns with Arabic words. The interior was muffled with only the sense of sound and reverberation coming from the masonry surface dome above; It was decorated with abstract tiled patterns. A few men knelt before the far wall as the went about their devotions.

I left and continued on to see the Kocatepe mosque. A much bigger, more elaborate building, with underground parking, I just viewed the outside and then turned back so I could make a Skype call to my son.

After returning to my hotel, I chatted briefly with the little boy, and felt very lonely with him so far away. I cleaned up, napped, then set out again to see what Saturday evening was like in Ankara.

The clientele in Kizilay are Turks, so it is not as comfortable for foreigners as the tourist districts in Ulus, I suspect. On the other hand, a few words of Turkish and it is easy to gain the Turkish warmth.
Other important information: Koftë is a Turkish traditional dish. Essentially it is a spicy variation on Salisbury steak but it tastes good.

After a few beers and dinner I walked back to the hotel. I bought a can of Efes lager and a package of Ruffles chips(my concession to homesickness), drank it while checking my email and went to bed.

Ankara trip

There were a pair of pants hanging on the door of the bathroom stall  I visited as I walked from the airplane through Munich Airport to my connecting flight. A photo with my phone's camera would have added to the suspicious atmosphere,  so you will have to imagine a reasonably clean looking pair of Dockers style pants suspended in front of me. But where was the owner, and why had he abandoned his trousers?
I pondered this over a breakfast of white sausage, pretzel and a half-litre of beer. This is apparently the traditional breakfast in Bavaria. A three- hour layover doesn't leave much time to sample the local culture. My belly is gratified because the daylight says it is about 8AM but my internal clock says it is about 01:30. Splitting the difference with coffee, beer and sausages works, and besides I have more time zones ahead. White sausage has a special protocol for being eaten. It involves extracting the stuffing whiles leaving the casing virtually intact and uneaten. Look for online video to see how Bavarians do it, because I sure didn't.
The Airbus A-321 touched down in Ankara bang on schedule. The news later that day said the same model aircraft had crashed in Pakistan that day, killing all aboard. But every model of aircraft I have flown on has crashed- 747 to Cessna 172.
The hotel I stayed at was the least expensive that Expedia offered. It is comfortable without being luxurious. But it is well located to almost everything, save Çankaya university, which is hosting the conference that brought me to Turkey.
Çankaya U. is quite small, and the architecture reminds me of my old high school. The concrete block and reinforced concrete both remind me of structures built in the 60's. Much of Ankara seems to be constructed in that era, with trends towards the post-modern pastiche architecture thrown in. Çankaya U seems to reflect earlier practices and budgetary restrictions. None the less it feels oddly like home.

Mosque and apartment buildings

That is perhaps what strikes me most; how similar Ankara feels to me as does the Montreal metropolitan area. This would be especially true of some areas of the south shore. However, the space is much more densely populated, and more provision is made for pedestrians.
One thing that I noticed is the side walks are substantially higher than the road deck. Usually they are about 25cm higher? Is this to keep automobiles off the side walks or to deal with heavy seasonal rains?

Apartment buildings with large Turkish flag in the background

The climate feels very similar to Montréal. It would hit 37C the day I walked from my hotel to the University. The winter temperatures would be mild by Montrealer's standards but the summer days seem similar but perhaps less humid.
This slight variation also appears in the vegetation. Trees are very similar with something like a maple being common. Junipers and conifers also feel like home.
That feeling also extends to the use of Turkish, which replaces French as the dominant language that is not my mother tongue. I am working to learn a few critical phrases. Merhaba, lütfen, hayir, evet.
I got to practice them as I asked directions, bought food and so on. The writer from Frommers was being optimistic in implying everyone speaks English. But I can get by with sign language, the few words I have and being polite.
The next day I set out late, so missing breakfast. My knee was also sore, so I tool the subway two stops to Kizilay, although it would have been a short walk, for me. The kizilay station opened out immediately into a cheap mall- think the little kiosks immediately surrounding Peel metro station in Montréal. 15 turkish Lira got me a pair of black cotton slacks. The salesman handed me a card with the name and address of a tailor. First, I went looking for food.
I stopped at a café for what turned out to be a cheese sandwich(sanviç) and Turkish coffee. Turks seem to prefer tea and usually drink instant coffee if they drink coffee at all.
My pants spent two hours being hemmed- 1Tl. As I walked around the Kizilay,waiting for the tailor, it reminded me of London's Soho, but with more pleasant inhabitants. A conversational grasp of Turkish would greatly alleviate the sense of loneliness I have. I think my features suggest I might be Turkish, but my dress and comportment- subtle gestures of posture and movement- mark me as other. Once I open my mouth, that is clear.
There are few obvious tourists here- I saw a young in shorts and converse hi-tops. Probably from Japan, although I didn't see her face. A couple of times I saw college age men who might have been americans. Compared to Montreal, this area seems very homogenous.
I had arrived here at about 11 am. It was now about 14:00 and the day was getting hotter and hotter. The fish mongers were becoming more fragrant, although their goods were well packed on ice. Sitting on a bench, writing this post, I thought about how this city is new and modern, but built on a old series of previous cultures, civilzationscand empires. As the day wears on younger people are appearing.
I am going to go back to a cafe I passed, and have a beer.