Vacation, Part 2: Touring the Old Town

(If you missed it, read Part 1 of our vacation series here.)

The historic district of Safranbolu is called Çarşı, and it's just a few minutes' ride on a minibus from the modern district where we were staying. It is beautiful and full of history!

Elias cheesing in front of Çarşı's main square. You can see the mosque behind him on the left, the Turkish bath on the right, and the old-style Ottoman houses in the center.

The front side of the mosque

The old Turkish bath. It's still operational, and Justin seriously considered having one, but we ran out of time.

The History Museum

We stopped for some peynir gözleme (cheese crepes) at a little cafe. Elias LOVES this Turkish food!

 

We took a golf-cart tour that had English narration, and that was awesome to be able to hear some of the stories and see things pointed out to us.

The tour took us to an amazingly beautiful overlook and it happened that the Muslim Call to Prayer started right when we were up there. Here is a video looking out over historic Çarşı with the English tour narration and the Call to Prayer in the background:

One thing the tour made sure to point out is how open and friendly the culture was, even in ancient times. (This is still true in modern Turkey - people will go to great lengths to help someone in need, even a stranger.) A few examples:

They built their homes with the corners rounded to make it easier for people to go around the corners with carts.

They also built external taps on the outside of their homes in order to share their water with anybody who happened to be outside that needed some. Here are Elias and Justin playing in one:

Çarşı, like all the rest of Turkey I've seen so far, is built right into the mountains around it, so there are hills and valleys everywhere you turn. There is also a river that runs directly under it, and so you can be going down the street and suddenly realize you're on a bridge over a 300 meter drop down to this:

Note: This picture was taken through the protective fencing. It was NOT just wide open for any dodo to fall in.

Um, yeah. That was really cool.

And then to finish up a great day, Elias had his first-ever Magnum bar:

Yum!

I had to throw that in since my parents are Magnum fanatics. :) Next up is what was my favorite part of Safranbolu - come back later!

Vacation, Part 1: Bus Trip to Safranbolu

If you keep up with us on Twitter, you saw that we took an amazing vacation last week to the Black Sea region of Turkey! I'll do a series of blog posts with pictures, so keep coming back to see more!

We don't drive here, but it's pretty easy to find public transportation anywhere you want to go. With Elias' deep love for trains, we briefly considered taking a train for our trip, but the rail system here is extremely old and SLOW, so we decided to take a bus instead. Opposite of the train system, the bus system is quite modern and comfortable. The Turkish bus system can be compared to the American air system - there are a lot of competing companies that have different prices and amenities and go different places. The buses are all air-conditioned charter-type buses and very comfortable for long travel. The bus terminal is pretty far on the edge of town, but it is HUGE and very much resembles an airport.

The lady next to Justin apparently didn't want her picture taken...

Our bus had individual TV screens at each seat just like an airplane, and they also served snacks and beverages mid-trip!

Elias loved having his own TV.

He did great wearing the headphones too!

One of his favorite things to watch was the "road show." They had a camera mounted to the front of the bus, so we could watch the road ahead of us.

As we traveled, we really enjoyed watching the scenery change from city to countryside! It turned into farmland with towns dotted throughout, but we never left the mountains - Turkey is really rugged!

It was only a 3-hour trip to our first stop, which was the town of Safranbolu. This town has been designated a UN World Heritage Site because of its dedication to preserving the ancient Ottoman culture. (Stay tuned for more of our exploration of that!) We stayed at the Sultan Saray Otel, which was comfortable and was all we needed.

Image from their Facebook page

We had a triple room, with a double and a single bed. There was a mini-fridge and we had our own bathroom.

And it gave us some beautiful views!

Come back tomorrow to see our exploration of Safranbolu!

Some Books About Turkey

Turkey lacks no number of books written about it in English, but I wanted to post about two that I've read recently for those interested in the country.

Turkey: Federal Research Study and Country Profile (Kindle)
This first book was written by researchers at the Library of Congress and reads like a comprehensive (400 page) encyclopedia entry about Turkey. While boring, it's the most comprehensive non-partisan book about Turkey probably ever written. Looking at the history, geography, economy, politics, and military of Turkey going back centuries. The history overview was fascinating and helpful for me, particularly the changes made after the 1981 coup. If you want to know more details about Turkey than anyone else, read this book. The book only goes through the mid-1990s however, so you miss the remarkable decade to follow.

But the second book can help fill that gap:

Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future tells the story of parallel struggles for democracy in both Turkey and Iran. Kinzer is the author of The Crescent and the Star which is usually a recommended read about Turkey (here's my brief review).

Most Americans don't know that private American citizens were active in joining pro-democracy militias and fighting the Shah's armies in Iran in the late 1800s, for which there are monuments paying tribute to them still standing in Iran today. (The irony of this is that of course that after WWII, the CIA later worked to undermine Iranian democracy and support the Shah.)
Turkey's struggle toward basic human rights and democracy also began in the late 1800s as reforms began to be pushed on the last of the Ottoman Sultans. After the Ottoman Empire's disastrous defeat in World War I, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk helped lead the military struggle for independence as well as the political battles for democracy and modernization.

Kinzer compares Atatürk with his Iranian counterpart, Reza Shah Phalavi. Atatürk's strong hand and personality cult helped quickly bring some European-style modernity to Turkey whereas Reza Shah was only able to implement a few of the goals of the Constitutional Revolution. Kinzer chronicles Reza Shah's visit to Turkey where Atatürk takes him on a tour of the country, including a visit to a nude belly dancing exhibition--an activity both rulers apparently wanted full appreciation of in their respective countries as an example of secularism.

Kinzer's book portray's Atatürk's life in some detail, particularly focusing on his devotion to secularism and disapproval of religion. Iran's 20th century struggles are also detailed. While Atatürk is still revered (the summer weather here reveals all the Atatürk signature tatoos on women's arms), Reza Shah was deposed and replaced by his son, whose brutal reign was famously ended in 1979.

He offers an overview of Turkey's changes under Recep Tayip Erdoğan and the remarkable economıc growth since the 1990s. Kinzer also details America's relationship with these two countries and offers recommendations for the Obama administration. (Some of these recommendations and other tangents in the book I've chronicled in a separate review here.) About 1/3 of this book is fascinating history about Turkey that Kinzer didn't chronicle in Crescent and the Star, so I recommend it.

Dikmen Vadisi

Today we visited yet ANOTHER amazing park in Ankara with some friends who live near it. This may, in fact, be the coolest and most beautiful park we've found yet. Dikmen Vadisi literally means Valley of the Dikmen district. I've told before about how hilly Ankara is, so in this particular place the city just put a beautiful park into one of the steep valleys between major roads.

Taking the long steps down to the center

The park is HUGE - we only walked a small portion of it - but green and lovely. Even though the weather is sweltering right now, it was cool and breezy in the shade of the many trees.

There is a large pool at the bottom of the park with a pretty gazebo we enjoyed.

Then midway through our visit they turned the fountains on! So this was our view for our picnic lunch.

We also enjoyed playing on the cool playground there.

Elias totally digging the triceratops slide

Swinging on the treehouse

Then maybe the coolest part of our visit to the park was that there's a waterfall you can walk under. Elias LOVED this!

I didn't get pictures of it, but there's also a neat section of the pond that has cattails and a bunch of frogs, which of course the kiddos loved. What a fun and beautiful family adventure!

Caillou Concert / Ankara Shopping Fest

(Justin) This month, Ankara is attempting to set a Guinness record for retail sales (um, how would this be measured and verified?...yeah, the Guinness talk is purely just for promotion). So, every day there are large sales, free concerts, and much hype and traffic. I think it's great. Turkish Caillou has become a regular show in our household in the last month, so we were excited when AnkaMall held a free Caillou & Friends concert in its parking lot last Saturday as part of the promotion.  Joni was home sick but I was determined to brave the crowds to take Elias. The news video below shows the massive throng of families there, we're in the crowd somewhere.(The headline reads "Caillou Rocks Ankara.")


When you heavily promote a free concert in a central location of a city of 5 million, you'll get plenty of people to show up.  Note all the dads struggling to keep their kids on their shoulders for long periods of time. (Elias is off the charts in terms of height/weight, so I was very sore the next day.) Elias LOVED it when Caillou finally came on stage and eagerly sang along to the English songs. The band also sang some Turkish folk/children's songs that apparently every Turk child knows as the kids got really into it.

There was also an amusement park set up in the parking lot complete with roller coaster and log flume water slide. Elias became so fascinated with watching the log ride which was behind the stage that we eventually abandoned the show to watch it. Elias entertained passers-by squealing at every splash of the water. He still talks excitedly about "the water slide at Caillou!" Elias was a trooper, it was about an hour journey both ways on packed public transport but he did a great job.

You can follow the Ankara Shopping fest on Twitter (@shoppingfest).

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!

Roses!

I can't speak for all of Ankara, but I have been so pleased to see that our neighborhood is completely covered with rosebushes! Although nobody has a yard, it seems that people are pretty serious about landscaping, so every building has a garden that someone keeps, and the public trail that I walk to/from Elias' school is beautifully landscaped by the city. I've been watching with great joy through the spring as buds are coming out on all the bushes, and now they're finally beginning to bloom! Our building has an arch covered in climbing roses that are just beginning to bloom out a gorgeous red.

Little buddy is waiting patiently on the doorstep for Mommy to take the picture!

 

The public trail has rosebushes at every gap where there's a sidewalk out to the road, and those are completely covered in buds, which are blooming out a bright and beautiful pink!

So thankful for the natural beauty I get to see every day even living in an apartment in the middle of a huge city!