Swan Park

Today we visited a small, but really lovely park in the downtown district of Ankara called Swan Park (Kuğulu Park). So named because there's a pond with swans (and geese and ducks).

They have little houses on islands in the middle of the pond for nesting birds. The man was feeding the ones in this picture, so we got to peek inside. It was a mother goose with a nest of goslings in there! I guess they keep them shut in houses to protect the babies?

Elias checking out a swan. If you zoom in on the upper right of this picture, you can see a pair of black swans that was also there.

There was a trough on that cement block that was just full of moldy bread for the pigeons!

 

It's a really picturesque park with flowers and fountains and playgrounds. The waterfowl aren't the only avian attractions there, either. They have a special area that is the pigeon-feeding area, and they flock there by the hundreds! There is also a man there selling little cups of bird seed in case you aren't prepared with bread of your own.

We took some old bread with us, and the pigeons were pleased to enjoy it! Elias didn't enjoy feeding the pigeons as much as I thought he would. He just didn't get the concept. He just had a slice of bread in his hand and was running around trying to get the pigeons to take it. When I explained to him that you had to put it down and then walk away and watch from far away so you didn't scare the pigeons, he didn't think that sounded like much fun. So he went to play on the playground while I fed the pigeons. Ah well.

Then after we played for a while, we walked down the street to a little street cafe where we got lunch. We're still learning about Turkish food, but we all seemed to enjoy our lunches!

Elias' cheeseburger had peas and carrots on it, and my baked potato (It was actually twice-baked. They scooped out the flesh and mashed it up with butter and cheese, then returned it to the skin and topped it!) came with olives, pickles, corn, mushrooms, and cheese! Umm, ok! By the way, that's not a side salad next to my potato. That's the gigantic lettuce leaf that came on Elias' burger!