Ankara & Atatürk

We departed for Ankara this morning, a four hour drive, with our first top of the morning featuring ice cream!  You certainly can't go wrong there.  We tried Mado brand "dondurma", a Turkish mastic ice cream - it's a bit gummy because they add salep (a flour made from the tubers of orchids) and mastic (gum or resin from a specific type of tree) to the other "usual" ice cream ingredients.  On our drive we passed Tuz Gölü (literally meaning Salt Lake), the second largest lake in the country (the largest being Van Lake).  It is also one of the world’s largest hypersaline lakes: fed by two streams it has no outlet. Oddly, it is extremely shallow with a maximum depth of 5 feet!

Also en-route, Serdar treated us all to a honey soaked chestnut, kestane şekeri.  Since one of our main stops for the day was at the Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, he spent part of the drive providing us with some history and background of the country's favorite son.

“Commander-In-Chief in Ilgen” with Atatürk on the left

Ankara is the capital and second largest city in Turkey and Atatürk is the founder and first president of the Turkish Republic.  Not only was he excellent in his various military roles, he also was the one credited for campaigning for independence and then fighting to expel the Greeks in 1919.  I find the last part slightly ironic as he himself was born in Greece.  The last Ottoman Sultan (Mehmed VI) left the country with the British Navy and in 1922 Turkey became a new country.  As the first president (he served from 1923 until his death in 1938), Atatürk completely reformed and westernized Turkey.  He changed the alphabet, the clothing styles, capitol city, education system, type of government, calendar system, he gave women the right to vote, and even introduced surnames -- it is astounding how much his people allowed him to change about their country!  

To read more about the architecture and building of the
museum itself, check out this site.

Our visit to Anitkabir (the beautiful mausoleum built for him) was good, albeit far too short for me. 

"The mausoleum complex is mammoth, with a grand staircase known as the Path of Honor, flanked by reclining Hittite lions, leading up to the Court of Honor where the mausoleum itself and a museum dedicated to Atatürk's life both sit".  I did not have enough time to soak up all the information available about such a fascinating historical figure. The museums many sub-sections were extensive and I simply had to skip many of them to ensure my group didn't leave me behind.  A quick perusal of his library was insightful and I loved looking at the beautiful old books.  I’m not sure how many languages he spoke, but he had many books in various languages.  We were able to see a changing of the guards before we left, but sadly it seemed marred by how many people were rude in their attempts to film the whole thing (thereby ruining it for countless others).  The security forces overseeing the entire affair were certainly used to dealing with the rudeness and were quite brusque in their directions and scoldings of the crowd.

Our last stop of the day was the Museum of Anatolian Civilization, but I just couldn't get interested in all of the 1200 B.C. Assyrian, Hittite, and Phyrigian artifacts - I'd have much rather spend more time at Anitkabir, but alas, that's the price you pay by not traveling on your own.

Statue of King Mutallu - a local king dependent to Sargon II
(king of Assyria) - sent to govern Aslantepe; circa 1000 B.C.

Back at our hotel for the evening, I got a call from Jonathan and Oak asking of I'd like to join them, Marcia, and Frank for a walk over to the mall for some dinner.  With nothing else to do than journal, upload photos, and repack, I decided to join them.  I always enjoy a wander through a grocery story (in this case MM Migros) while visiting new places, and it was interesting to see the food court at the shopping mall as well.