Our 7th wedding anniversary was last Monday, but being so busy and tired with VBS, we decided to wait until this weekend to celebrate. We got a babysitter for Elias; this was the first time we'd done that since coming to Turkey, but Elias did great with Miss Brooke. :) Then we went out for an afternoon adventure and dinner. We took the bus out to a district on the northeast side of Ankara called Keçiören. Justin had been out there a couple times, but Joni never had. Like the rest of Ankara, it is a very hilly district, but they have a really neat section where they built amazing waterfalls in the cliffs lining the roadside. It was gorgeous! (In the picture you can make out five different wedding parties getting their pictures made.)
Then directly across the street from the waterfalls is this cool building that houses a Turkish history museum and an authentic Ottoman restaurant. The museum is free and houses cool Ottoman artifacts.
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| Although this isn't a historic building, it was built to look like an ancient Ottoman fortress. Yes, those are stairs going up from the street, and yes, we climbed them all. |
Behind this building was another series of ethnic restaurants including Turkmen, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz. We decided to try the
Uzbek place, and it was cool! Very reasonably priced, Justin had a sampler platter and Joni had chicken kebab. Both were fantastic and served fast, we highly recommend it.
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| The restaurant is made to look like an Uzbek tent. Most of the tables were on platforms so you're seated on the floor Uzbek style - we wanted the full experience so we sat that way too! |
After our delicious dinner, including the best
künefe we've ever had, we decided to ride the cable car that crosses over the district. (You can see it going along the top left of the photo with the white building above.)
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| Looking down on the restaurant where we ate dinner (left side) |
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| Looking down on the same waterfall pictured above |
So we had a really neat time exploring a new district, and we were so thankful to find a great babysitter for Elias! Happy anniversary to us!
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