Days 74 and 75 (Turkey): Ankara (my second weekend - it should have been a few days)

Let’s just say I am still hopeful that the spare parts will arrive tomorrow. Why should I be? I have no reason to be hopeful. The promised check-up on the website failed for the last two days also. On Saturday I tried it, figuring that maybe Friday the computers were taking a break. Still nothing … It being Saturday, the local office was closed and I ran out of luck in the main office. Turns out that when I asked the lady she recognized me and asked whether this had to do with the wheel going to Turkey. Funny that it was the same person as a week ago. But as then she couldn’t do anything. She essentially looks at the same system as I do. So much for that. The words of Mr. T. still ring in my head: “98% certainty”. That leaves a 2% chance that it will fail. But since I am told that I was born in the wrong country, I will ditch the German pessimism and maintain stoic optimism.

Saturday afternoon I headed out to explore the old part of Ankara on my own. The ride with the small buses (dolmus) gives you an insight as to the level of reverence that the founder of the republic receives to this day.

Here are a few impressions of the old city …

a small festival complete with traditional dancing …

and an extremely amazing puppet player (still photos don’t do justice to him) …

and my search for English or German books as I am finishing Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Which - by the way - struck me as fantastic read. In the process I came across a rather eclectic range of guidebooks - some of which might be useful in the future. Florida - future work place, Jerusalem - worked there for some time, Mongolia - this one might come in handy during this trip even. But more about the latter one at some later stage (and no, I am not referring to the Harry Potter books at the bottom).

There was some selection - so I picked up Moby Dick (wasn’t going to go for a newly written crime novel) and on Sunday I found Graham Greene’s Stamboul Train which I thought was fitting given the route I’ve been taking. I also saw an Iron Lady …

When I was about to go back, I wanted to take a picture of a large mosque cum supermarket on the ground floor. Just then a young couple - M and O - approached me and suggested a different location to take the picture from. We ended up spending three hours in a cafe together (or thereabouts), talking about this and that - including politics. The conversation was about so many different aspects of what I had come across in Turkey and it certainly helped me understand a lot of the things I had encountered. Plus, the two of them were simply great people to talk to. Thanks so much for approaching me in the middle of Ankara.