Turkey

Ankara – a shopping metropolis if you know where to look

Ankara store fronts
My coffee came with flowers
Wedding car in Ankara
Little Miss K

Our second full day in Ankara began with a Turkish breakfast kindly prepared by G. Fresh tomato, cucumber, white cheese, beef salami (and a bit of a German bent with pork based salami from Adelaide’s central market), boiled eggs, fresh  bread and honey. It was delicious. TC, G, Little Miss K  and I were joined on today’s adventure by G’s British friend Tony, as we strolled down the hill towards Ankara’s version of Double Bay (well as close as it gets anyway – it has a Marks & Spencer). Our first stop was a framing shop where G dropped of a load of stuff for framing which costs a miniscule amount compared to Australia. After that we headed towards the shopping strip for a coffe at Mado, a chain in Ankara (and possibly futher afield in Turkey. My latte came with a sweet that tasted like it had spinach and something similar to mung beans in it, and a vase of daisies. TC had some chocolate profieroles and Little Miss K hads chocolate ice cream which she proudly ordered herself.

After a pleasant coffee, we wandered up to our first shopping mall. In Turkey you have to be security screened to enter just about anywhere, including shopping malls. After we passed the screening point, TC went off to look at the price of electronics , G went to a phone store and then we all headed around to a jewellery store run by a friend of G’s where I looked at a cute amethyst and glass pendant and spectacular silver ring, which was a bit too small. G’s friend measured my ring finger and said she could have one that fits there the following day. [Perfect Government – NOFX – one of their overtly political efforts – I remember listening to this song at a friend’s place after going out to shows. When we did a requesrt round, it was always my pick.]

We wandered further down the street and grabbed a cab to head into Kizaly, one of the big shopping districts where you can find pretty much anything. First stop was G’s leather bag man who was located up a few flights of stairs in what one presumes used to be a private apartment– she stopped off to pick up a couple of bags. Our next stop was lunch at one of Turkey’s oldest restaurants where they served home-style cooking. You go up and choose what you want from a selection of bain maries and they bring it to your table – I chose lamb, creamed mashed potatoes and the spinach dish G had served on our first night. TC was a bit skeptical at first as he had been craving a kebap but eventually had the same as me. My only regret was not choosing the traditional buttered rice. Lunch was followed, of course, by tea

Our next destination was a fabric shop. It was a treasure trove and really cheap too. Conscious of the fact I still had quite a bit of travelling to do, I limited myself to one purchase – some gorgeous embroidered cotton which cost about A$2 per metre. I could have comfortably purchased my weight in fabric in this store but will wait until after our tour.  The cheap crappy sewing machine is going to have to go when we get home.

After the fabric store it was off for what I consider to be another quintessential travel experience – the supermarket. There are a few oddities – a huge cheese counter that mostly stocks different types of white cheese – feta, goats cheese etc with an occasional flash of blue vein. Of course the cold meat section is all beef or chicken – no ham here. There’s lots of fresh in season fruit and no tampons. That’s right ladies, come prepared. We picked up the supplies for dinner – to make a pasta Bolognese and salad and headed home as Little Miss K was by this time a little bit exhausted.

After a short sojourn, TC and I decided to head back to Kizaly on our own for a bit more of a look around. With some handwritten instructions for the taksi driver from G’s Turkish house cleaner, we jumped in a taksi and headed back to Kizaly. First stop was the toy shop hidden inside the walkway across the main thoroughfare. TC was amazed to find incredibly realistic plastic guns, which are well and truly banned at home. It was also easy to buy a real gun and there were plenty of them on the street in the hands of the Turkish soldiers that guarded almost everything.

After a few more electronic shops, TC once again declared Turkey ridiculously expensive for electronics, and we only went into about  one or two more after that. Shoes, however, were a different matter. Somehow we managed to stumble upon shoe row, which TC was really reasonable about. I was tempted a couple of times and too down the name of a store, I think is probably a chain so I can search out their wares in Istanbul.

We wandered a bit further and found some jewellery shops selling mostly mainstream jewellery – diamonds and gold and the like. TC also discovered some police stores selling uniforms and capsicum spray. We hoped that police officers needed to prove they were police officers to buy them but in Turkey, anything is possible. After a bit more of a wander, we decided to head back to G’s. We realized there wasn’t much beer so TC and I wandered up to the local supermarket and stocked up on beer and chips.

We enjoyed yet another home cooked meal on the rooftop terrace – this time Bolognese pasta, a fresh salad of lettuce and tomatoes. Tomatoes in Turkey are exquisite – rich plump and red, like the ones that come out of your garden at home and the cucumbers are fresh, crisp and flavourful. As it was Friday night and the end of their working week, a few drinks were consumed including a caparhina, made with bottled lime juice and lots of cacasa. I had noticed piles of what I imagined were limes at the markets but they were actually very small oranges. Limes are almost impossible to find in Turkey. After dinner we chilled out with G&S and chatted before hitting the sack ready for another relaxing day in Ankara.

A magic carpet ride

Graffiti on the carle
walking to the carle
our carpet

After being awoken at dawn by the call to prayer, we managed to stay in bed a little longer to get over the jet lag. When you hear the call to prayer from the loud speakers attached to the minarets on mosques, you know you are in Turkey. The call to prayer comes five times a day and every mosque, no matter how small has an ornate minaret.

Our first day exploring Ankara began with a quick breakfast of bread with the local version of peanut butter, which is incredibly sweet and then we hopped in a Taksi (taxi) with G to visit her carpet man, Mehmet. Taksi is a cheap and easy way to get around hilly Ankara – pretty much every taksi we got cost us less than 10TL (A$6). None of the drivers spoke English but G was able to get us where we wanted to go with ease. There are ranks everywhere, including just around the corner from G and at ranks and other places there are yellow buttons you press to call a cab. After a short taksi trip downtown we arrived at the hotel Mehmet was using as his carpet showroom. When we arrived Mehmet was having breakfast, a Van breakfast, from the region he comes from which included a range of different things including a bolied egg  and a number of other interesting looking things that looked like they were actually ingredients to cook with. Mehmet offered for us to try some – it was good but hard to describe – perhaps lightly fried grains of some kind. He also offered us tea. Business in Turkey revolves around tea and G had already schooled us in the etiquette of tea. Essentially if people ioffer you tea, acceopt, it is rude not top and is part of the way transactions are done. We were introduced to the hotel’s manager, a relative of Mehmet’s and TC asked if he could get some baklava. They had none in the hotel but sent out to get it for us. G was Mehmet’s guest and we were her friends so we were treated wonderfully.

Buying a carpet is widely recognized as one of the quintessential Turkish experiences and the salesmanship is a huge part of the experience. After Mehmet had finished his breakfast we went into the carpet room, where we were brought more tea and two large plates of baklava. The tea here is served in tulip glasses with a couple of sugar cubes. The apple tea is particularly good. The carpet buying is a lengthy process so if you intend on buying one, put some time aside.  Mehmet had a stack of probably 40 carpets and he pulls out each one, lays it on the floor and tells you where its from and a bit about the age and quality of each one. Some of them were extraordinarily old.  There are carpets (with the tufts that we normally associate with carpet, kilims which are weaved flat and often lighter, and prayers rugs, which can either be carpets or prayer rugs. As Mehmet pulled the carpets out we put aside the ones we might like to consider. G had a list of carpet sizes for her sister-in-law with instructions not to get anything green – which turned out to be challenging as green means luck in Islam. We weren’t intending to buy a carpet but as Mehmet showed a prayer rug with rich red tones, we put that in our pile and then another one – this time with brown and blue tones. After all the carpets had been gone through, Mehmet re-showed them quickly as he packed the unwanted ones away. Then it was decision time. TC photographed the ones for G while mehmet measured them and then it was our turn to choose whether to buy a carpet and which one to buy. I was a little bit too eager (as I usually am when I decide I want to buy something) so I let TC do the negotiating. In the end we paid US$250 (originally US$450) For some reason in Ankara (and I suspect a lot of Turkey) expensive things are priced in USD while everyday items are priced in Turkish Lira (TL). You can pay in TL though, which is what we did for our carpet. Carpet shopping done, and G’s perfect record of getting everyone to buy a carpet intact, we took a taksi home to send the carpet pics to Australia before we headed out for the afternoon. [ Too Drunk to Drive- Bodyjar – from their pop punk register rather the hard core stuff but still fun nonetheless]

With Little Miss K, G’s young daughter, in tow we headed out to the Carle, a castle that sits high atop Istanbul. We grabbed another cab. Cabs in Turkey don’t often have working seatbelts so we made sure Little Miss K was wedged between us. First stop was Ankara Gar, the train station, so we could collect the tickets to Istanbul staff in our co-host S’s office had helpfully arranged. Finding where to go and how to collect them proved a challenge  but eventually we found the right window and after we got through what was a short and ordered queue by Turkish standards, we succeeded in getting the tickets. We hads left TC and Little Miss K with the cab driver so they were a little bit hot by the time we got back.

It was then onto the Carle. Unfortunately we couldn’t drive to the top because they were ripping up the road. In Turkey they don’t believe in fencing off big holes in the ground so walking anywhere near roadworks is a perilous task. We negotiated our way around the roadworks and headed up to the Carle, past the souvenir shops, touts and gypsies selling jewellery, handmade children’s clothes and exceedingly faded postcards. Little Miss K showed us the way up the stairs and helpfully pointed out that the Turks weren’t very good at railings. We climbed to the top and watched as TC walked out to the edge to take some shots of the city below. It really was a great view of Ankara.

As you walk down the cobbled lanes on the other side of the Carle, there are jewellery, antique and carpet stores lining the route. We stopped by one, another fave haunt of G’s where she went to pick up and pay for a lamp. There was more tea served, some gifts for little Miss K, including a bell and TC bought me an amber and quartz ring with Arabic script on the stone.  We wandered down the hill into one of the budget market places of Istanbul, shopping amongst fully scarved and frocked Turkish women selling low quality clothes, haberdashery and bridal wear, mostly made entirely from nylon. Some of the bridal outfits would rival Big Fat Gypsy Weddings gear. There were also loads of children selling simit , a kind of bread ring, kind of like a French stick but a quarter of the thickness fashioned into a ring  and baked for longer. You get about two for 1 TL (60c). Bottled water costs about the same.[Bar room Hero – Dropkick Murphys – one of my fave drinking songs – will incite dancing at any time.]

Eventually we wound up at the produce market at the bottom of the hill where all manner of things were available, including roasted sheep heads and heaps of fresh fish. The Turks aren’t keen on a low fat diet so you can actually purchase big slabs of fat. TC sought out some black olives and G bought a big slab of beef to roast and some salad vegetables to have with it. We grabbed another cab and headed home after our big day out in Istanbul. It was fabulous just to chill out in the afternoon on the rooftop deck at Casa G&S. In the evening, we enjoyed a delicious meal of roast beef, fresh salad and potato bake. We sat around and chatted for a while before I promptly fell asleep in front of the telly at about 8pm when g suggested I go to bed. I really do need a mother wherever I am.

Turkey bound

We needed to leave about 7am to ensure we arrived at the airport with enough time to spare. Fortunately breakfast was available in the hotel from 6.30am.  Not cheap – 220 AED (about A$60) for two of us but there was the hugest smorgasbord of options I have ever seen for breakfast. There was a healthy food selection, middle east selection, Scandinavian selection, English selection (including bacon), an entire wall off pastries, about eight different types of bread and even a Japanese breakfast We asked the concierge to book us a taxi to the airport and gratefully accepted the suggestion of the hotel’s limousine. It was comfortable (the driver was even wearing a tie) and he knew how to drive fast without sitting right on the tail of the car in front. We arrived early and breezed through check-in and immigration. We had a look around the duty free area and found somewhere to buy postcards and stamps. Unfortunately they only had two stamps for Australia. TC snapped them up and we went and purchased a very expensive coffee and sat down, wrote on the postcards and then found the old school red post box to post the two we had written.

After that it was time to board so we went to the gate to wait with our fellow passengers to board our flight to Istanbul. There were a number of Japanese girls with very short shorts and Etihad blankets wrapped around them as skirts, one imagines at the request of the airline. We took a bus to our (black) plane which had been sitting on the tarmac for some time and prepared to swelter. I had never seen an air hostess sweat before but there was a French hostie on our flight literally dripping it was so hot. We were sitting next to a guy whom we presumed was Indian and discovered at the end of the flight, he was actually from Sydney and was going to study in Ankara for six months. The meal on the flight wasn’t bad. ITandoori chicken on pasta salad, spinach and potato pie and a cardamom flavoured mousse cake. The most interesting part was the route we took. We flew directly over Iraq. Seeing Baghdad from the air was quite surreal.[Feel the Pain – Dinosaur Jr – one of the 90s tunes I loved. Saw these guys at UC about five years ago and it was well worth the effort.]

Hot and bothered was definitely not the right way to arrive at Attaturk International Airport in Istanbul. After the ridiculously organized and efficient Abu Dhabi airport, entry into Turkey was a nightmare. First you have to queue to pay for your visa, then you have to line up to go through the immigration gates. The visa took about 10 minutes of queuing and we thought we could slip quietly into the near empty gate next to us. Except that it was reserved for Iraqi citizens only. We then wandered up to the main immigration gates which were divided in two – Turkish citizens and others. The others gate resembled the security screening gate at LAX that weaves back and forth so far it snakes out the door.  Waiting in this line, we came across four more Australians – this time from Brisbane on their way to Tel Aviv. Eventually just as we got near the front of the line, the airport staff decided we could go throough the Turkish citizens gate. We breezed through and headed off to find our bags. After collecting them we headed over to the domestic terminal, checked in at the kiosk and dropped our bags. On (very good) advice from our hosts in Ankara, we had left quite a lot of time between our flights. We headed through the security scanner. Security scanners are really sensitive in Turkey. The underwire in my bra set it off and I got thoroughly patted down. After that little embarrassment, we wandered around the terminal and sat down for a coffee in a Starbucks (for shame). Then a bit more of a wander and a sizable beer for TC – about 800mls of Efes.  Eventually it was time to depart, again on a bus to the plane. The flight to Ankara was half empty, the way you might expect a 3pm flight to Canberra to be, so TC and I had a chance to spread out a bit. The plane food included a sandwich, a salad and some cheese and crackers. The flight took us down lower than the flight to Istanbul but was basically the same route we had flown earlier that day.

We arrived in Ankara overtired and feeling in desperate need of a shower. And then came the drama. When we arrived, we got directed to the International terminal where after a few minutes it became apparent was not where our bags had arrived. The girl in the airport sent us up to the domestic arrivals hall but the guys there wouldn’t let us in. TC spied my name on a placard held by the driver our hostess G had arranged. (I’ve always wanted to be picked up from the airport by someone holding a placard with my name). The driver was really helpful and basically wouldn’t take no for an answer from the airport staff. Eventually they let us in to go to the lost luggage office. TC was more on the ball than me and spied our bags on a carousel in the distance – saved. The driver got us to Casa G&S safely and our hosts greeted us warmly, and showed us our room in their two-floor, four bathroom luxury apartment and then served us a magnificent Turkish feast of Ispanak Etli, a traditional meat and spinach dish, zuchinnis stuffed with lamb mince and peppers stuffed with rice. A few glasses of wine, some pleasant conversation, some planning for the day ahead, and a little bit of cable TV and it was time for bed. [Deanna – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – regular readers will recognize this song but it is one of my Nick Cave faves]

Footprints in the sand

camels don’t like photos
camels at sunset
Our tour group
Te Shag-ri-la Hotel Abu Dhabi
the shifting sands
Footprints in the sand
smiles in the desert

Refreshed, we headed to the lobby of the hotel to wait for our Arabian Adventures Tour guide to arrive and then climbed into the air conditioned four wheel drive that would ferry us around for the next few hours. Apparently the tour company had been trying to get into contact for the past couple of days to delay our pickup time. With a bit of time to spare, the guide drove us to a few local sites including the huge mosque designed to fit 40,000 people and the hotel. There were only two other people on the tour – a couple from Sydney – and once they were safely on board, we headed out towards the desert. Our tour guide was from Syria and told us quite a bit about the political history of his country on the drive (partly because I asked quite a lot of questions). After half an hour or so we went off road into the dunes and got scared witless as our guide drove up and over the dunes and then slid sideways back down them. The desert is beautiful in the afternoon, at twilight and at sunset. We got the chance to take photos, visit a camel farm and then take a ride on a camel. Albeit a short one.

Just in case you were wondering, camels actually bite. Apparently the farmed females are quite tame and you can pat them but the males can become quite vicious, something a couple of our touring party almost found out the hard way when the male camel got a bit cranky. After the camel farm we drove to our desert camp where we would have dinner that evening. We crossed a truck road, which had a 24 hr stream of trucks heading into Abu Dhabi. It hadn’t occurred to us that we really hadn’t seen any trucks on the 140km and hour freeway. It’s because in Abu Dhabi there are dedicated truck highways. How much easier would that make a trip up the Hume?

Our short camel ride took place at the camp. The camel seemed a bit cranky actually and I wasn’t sure he was actually going to stand up at one point. He did and really it was just like riding a tall horse. After our ride we were greeted with local coffee, flavoured with cardamon which seems to be a favourite in the UAE, and dates which we were surprised we hadn’t seen yet. We sat on the Bedouin cushions and chatted while our guide prepared our barbecue dinner which consisted of two dips – lets call them babganoush and hummus, a number of salads with chick peas, greens, and pickled vegetables, turmeric rice, beef, lamb and chicken kebabs and fresh fruit salad. It was accompanied by a selection of non-alcoholic drinks. After dinner we sat and had a sheesha pipe, filled with apple tobacco. My years of smoking had stood me in good stead as I was the only one wo didn’t cough up a lung. Not that the apple tobacco induced a coughing fit- it was the smoothest smoking experience I had ever had. And despite our guide warning us it was 10 times stronger than normal cigarettes, I haven’t been tempted to re-indulge.

After our sheesha experience, our guide drove us back to town (via the truck road and then the highway) He seemed a bit cranky but given the impromptu tour he had given us earlier, TC gave him a tip. We were exhausted by then and went straight upstairs to bed.

In the heat of the (morning)

The Abu Dhabi skyline from our hotel
Abu dhabi through the haze
Abu Dhabi’s newest mosque

Finally, after months of planning we were relaxing in the Qantas Club, toasting our holiday, and awaiting the first leg of our middle eastern jaunt. The short hop to Sydney went smoothly and with my inbuilt redundancy scheme to make sure a cancelled flight couldn’t hurt us, TC and I had plenty of time to head into the city and purchase the boys toy (a laptop/tablet) he had coveted for some time. After a short panic that a series of missed calls on my phone may have been an escaped fur child (it wasn’t), we collected the laptop and free (large) monitor and headed back to Sydney airport. Then we had to find something to do with the monitor. Storing it would have cost almost what it was worth and just ditching it would likely have caused a security incident. Fortunately Australia Post is open late and would deliver for about $15.

Last time we were airside at Sydney’s international terminal it was being refurbished so there wasn’t many dining options other than Maccas or Subway. This time there were many so we had a (very late) lunch of Beef Fillet Ramen while we waited to board our Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi. Etihad international economy is not designed for the tall. TC had to sit with his legs apart to be comfortable. While the entertainment box presented enough choice so you didn’t get bored, I was close to running out of options by the time we landed. The service, though, was friendly, the restrooms cleaner than any other plane I had been on, the seats comfortable with decent lumber support and the meals good. For dinner we had a dolmade and salad, pasta with tomato and parmesan, bread, an apple crumble style desert, a chocolate muffin and (semi) proper coffee. Breakfast was an omelet, mushrooms, tomato and spinach, yoghurt, fruit salad, bread and juice.

After 14 long hours (most of it at night over the ocean), we arrived in Abu Dhabi at 6am where the local temperature was about 40 degrees. Abu Dhabi is an easy airport, despite the fact that you have to get security screened when you arrive. Customs is just a walk through if you have nothing to declare and immigration was a quick stamp with no queues. While we were deciding what to do next, a tout approached TC and we agreed to go with him. I had a few concerns when he started walking away quickly with all our gear.  – Our gear made it to the hotel safe and sound but it was a miracle we did. The speed limit in lots of the UAE is 140 km an hour. That wouldn’t be quite as bad if they stayed more than 10 cm from the car in front. After hurtling down the highway at break neck speed, we arrived at our hotel, the Intercontinental Abu Dhabi, and the blast of heat as we opened the taxi door was overwhelming. We headed straight into the expansive, cool lobby and checked in. Recognising we would likely be completely ruined after the 14 Hour flight, we had booked two nights of accommodation which allowed us to check in immediately, have a shower and snooze for a couple of hours. The staff were fabulous. They couldn’t have been more helpful or courteous. Our electricity wasn’t working and was fixed within minutes. As they could tell our visit was for leisure not business (the T-shirts, jeans and backpacks were a bit of a giveaway), they had given us a room with a beach/pool view. The room was fabulous – a big shower with rain shower head and handheld, a separate toilet (with bidet) and an impressive mini-bar (which we left alone). [Army of Me – Bjork – I discovered her hushed tones and belting voice at my first Big Day Out (hers too I think). What we knew about Iceland before the GFC and volcano]

My snoozing was rudely interrupted by my ringing phone. It was Qantas, checking because my Qantas Club card was returned to them as undeliverable. If they checked their records they would see it was the first of three cards they sent to me because they kept getting lost! I surmised that the series of messages on my phone the previous day were probably from them. We decided it might be an appropriate time to get up and go explore Abu Dhabi. We went downstairs and while waiting for  the hotel’s shuttle bus to the Marina Mall, had a coffee in the café in the lobby, which was a great people watching opportunity.  So far in our travels we hadn’t encountered many local Emiratees, apart from those on the Immigration desk at the airport. The tout was probably Bangladeshi, the check in staff Eastern European, the head concierge Chinese, and the porters Indian. There were a few Emiratees taking coffee or tea in the café, or having business meetings with Europeans. There was a real mix of dress codes too – from British people in holiday wear to Europeans in business suits and a few Emiratees, mostly men, in traditional dress.

We arrived at the mall in air conditioned comfort. There were some great views of the city from the mall but in the overwhelming heat, we were keen to go inside. No wonder shopping is one of the Emiratees’ favourite pastimes. And this is where all the locals were. Groups of men wandered around the mall in traditional dress as well as groups of women, many with children, also in traditional dress. There were different levels of dress too. The traditional black robe that we rarely see at home was everywhere but it was really just a black linen coat, often with brightly patterned maxi skirts peeking out. There were varieties of headdress too. These ranged from a head scarf to the veil which reveals only the eyes to a full black head covering. Whether just the veil or the full head covering, most women were heavily made up. While we were sitting in the hotel lobby, a young woman wearing a full veil flipped it up to use a mobile phone, revealing rich red lipstick and heavily made-up eyes.

We wandered around the mall which contained some familiar stores such as Top Shop, Zara, Bally and Armani along with some less recognizable ones. We decided to stop for lunch and while looking a Filipin o café spruiker convinced us to sit in a little takeaway outlet. The other customers included a range of Emiratees and English tourist included an older couple with poorly designed and executed tattoos.  We ordered burgers which came with turkey bacon and were not very tasty. We also had a coke each. I went to open it and thought I had broken the top. On closer inspection it turned out to be an old skool ring pull – something I hadn’t seen for the past 20 years or so. The can also featured the coke ribbon complete with Arabic script. We sat looking over the mall ice rink while the kids skated around.

After lunch we took a bit more of a stroll around the mall, past the under construction indoor ski slope, complete with windows where other shoppers will be able to observe your snow plants. We saw expensive watches, interesting shoes that I didn’t dare ask the price of, and some expensive electronics equipment. TC bought a computer game and we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. We enjoyed a drink at the swim up bar and I’m sure annoyed all the Brits and Germans in the pool who just wanted to sit on the edge by swimming about under water. The water temperature was reasonable but we needed shoes – the concrete was really, really hot. [Come as You Are – Nirvana – a fabulous track off a fabulous album. I was a latecomer but my tape of Nirvana got a good workout driving around in my Suzuki Alto in the mid nineties.]