Ankara
Friday, September 1st, 20069:20 pm, Thurs Aug 31, 2006 (from paper journal)
I’m sitting at a combination outdoor cafe - indoor internet shop in Ankara — I’m just sipping çay (tea) at a 4-top table by myself; the decor is silver-tube low-slung chairs with lime green vinyl cushions. It’s one of the only places with outdoor seating we’ve actually seen women at — and they’re both with guys. There have been a few couples at restaurants but no single women anywhere, especially not at the male-dominated cafes and tea houses, where gropus of men sit drinking endless cups of çay, smoking and playing aggressive games of backgammon. (I read in the guide book that single women are often ushered into seperate ‘family rooms’, segregated behind curtains — I assume so they can retain theır virtue and pose no temptation to the common men who might see them dining alone…)
This area of Ankara is clearly a young, hip, modern area. (We actually saw what we think was a gay couple strolling down the street holding hands and acting rather flirtatıously toward each other… imagine that!) The women ın tight jeans, strappy tank-tops and teased or dyed hair outnumber those with headscarves by like 20 to 1. A few of those women, walking around mostly paired together, we guess to be ‘Natashas’, the name given to the pretty young immigrants from the former Soviet Union countries who often work as call girls. I doubt I’ll be mistaken for one, though, even though I’ve dared to sit alone at a cafe. With my ultra-conservative by US standards (and clearly Ankara standards) loose blue t-shirt and flowy black pulazzo-style pants, unstyled long straight hair, short nails, no makeup, birkenstocks, and the minor problem of my (rather lacking) height, not to mention my massively untrendy, bulky travel purse I’m carrying, I’m no Natasha.
(It reminds me of when I arrived in Costa Rica and went to a local bar with a male friend — he noticed way before I did that there was something odd about the female clientelle. Only after İ went to the bathroom and two scantily-clad, heavily made-up women were obviously trying to impart some friendly advice indicating that I needed to change my clothes and fix my hair did I get it…)
Anyway, another interesting thing about his area of Ankara are the street vendors. Marcus and I had been walkıng down the pedestrianonly street, which was crowded only with people strolling along (most on cellphones). We ducked into an İnternet cafe for about 10 minutes, and when we came out, both sides of the street had been taken over by vendors who’d set up shop on sheets and cardboard boxes, selling everything you can imagine, from sneakers to fake designer wallets and purses to scarves, t-shirts, chess\backgammon sets, travel pıllows, caribiners, clothes, blinking\moving plastic robot toys, perfume, jimi hendrix posters, carpets, jewlery, wet-naps, you name it, they were selling it. It was crazy — he sheer numbers of them, the way they were practically on top of each other, and how they all seemed to appear out of thin air all at precisely the same moment, kind of like cockroaches when you turn off the lights in a too-dirrty NY apartment…
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We checked out 2 of Ankara’s museums today, both very interesting, and walked around the old citadel area which has tiny, tiny cobbled back streets climbing up a hill and buffered by the ımmense rock walls of the old fortress. We popped into a small, old antique shop where the owner made his own beaded jewlery and bought a pair of earrings for 5 YTL. We ate overlooking the old part of the city, then took a taxi to a tourist site — the glass elevator and restaurant at the top of a tower with unsurpassed views of the city. Sadly, we were at the top of the tower for Ankara’s first day of rain in 3 months of sunshine. But, the view was stıll pretty good, if the food only so-so. Afterward, we poked around the huge, modern mall downstairs (which comes complete with a KFC, which, I must admıt, had me salivating) and bought what we hope is conditıoner plus some REAL apple juice at the supermarket.
Now it’s off to the massive bus station where hopefully we’ll manage to get on the right bus and head back down south toward the ‘Turquoise Coast’ (on the Mediterranean), where we have on schedule: absolutely nothing. Well, exept for swimming, sunning, and relaxing. I may be able to convince Marcus to take a boat trıp or venutre out to see one or 2 of the few other sights in the area. We’re hoping for good weather, a comfy place to sleep and a pleasant bus ride.
More later from the Turquoise Coast!