Fragments of yesterday

We are, sadly, running out of time.   We have to get back to Istanbul and we haven’t even explored the territory of the Hittites, the Phrygians, or, even fully explored the Ottomans yet.   Nor will we be able to.   We needed weeks longer than we planned to do all that we had hoped. Turkey’s history is simply so dense: it is everywhere. 

As we were particularly bereft at missing Hattuşaş and the Hittites, which we’d been looking forward to as much as Çatalhöyük, we decided to compensate and head to Ankara, enroute to Istanbul, and visit their much acclaimed Museum of Anatolian Civilization, one of the top museums in the world. 

Major error.  

To start with, Ankara is the capital of Turkey.  It is full of pigeons.  Aside: A little known fact: Turkey uses pigeon guano for fertiliser.  I think they likely could get most of it from the streets of Ankara. 

Pigeon guano everywhere

Where old men sit around doing what they do all over Turkey: absolutely nothing.

   

The meeting of the elders

And chaotic traffic is of the frightening kind.   Drivers oftentimes appear not to be able to distinguish the pedestrian thoroughfare from the roadway.  And if they can, they seem not to give a damn.   

Anarchic driving

Drivers in Turkey are notoriously bad, but in Ankara they are anarchic.  There are no rules to be observed.   Red lights mean nothing.  Double parking on driving lanes obstructing on-going traffic happens as a matter of course.  They, most times, don’t even put their blinkers on to alert you that they have left their vehicle— and gone across the road shopping.   Nor do pedestrians observe any lights, or road rules.  And there appears to be no policing of any of it.  

When we arrived at our first stop the Ethnographic Museum was closed.  It was Monday.  Every Monday this month we have missed something special in Turkey because we happen to arrive on a Monday, which, unlike Sunday, seems to be a day of rest.  We weren’t too sorry about this as someone had told us this one was all about Ataturk, which, quite frankly we could do without.  His picture and his statues are plastered everywhere, like Mao’s, and we are well and truly over him. 

The Museum of Anatolian Civilisation was open. Partly.   One very tiny hall.  The rest were under wraps and not able to be visited.  Someone said it had been like this for nearly two years, but I doubt it.  I think they were just repainting and cleaning up in preparation for the summer, as the rest of Turkey is.   But, I nearly wept.  There was one tiny display of Hittite finds in this hall, and I coveted every little piece.  

I particularly loved the exquisite jointed container.  

Hittite container

And the beak-spouted jug. 

Hittite jug, over 3000 years old

It is hard to conceive that these Hittite pieces are 3,500 years old.  The quality of the pieces, even the tiny ones in this single hall, is so superb it is no wonder Ankara’s museum has such a great name.  

I loved this Phrygian pottery mug, too.  This is nearly 3,000 years old, yet I have one at home that is shaped so similarly.  Good design lasts.  

Simple everlasting design

And the lines of this Byzantine jug with its filter that is made of glass.   I have rarely seen anything so fragile, so fluid and yet so functional.    

Byzantine. So fragile yet so functional 

As for this bearded man’s head.   He is from Hadrian’s time, so this piece is nearly 2000 years old.  Just beautiful.   

Beautiful male in stone

So, in truth, the visit was not all bad.  

Especially as we spent time walking the old part of the city and found the wonderful old Bakırcılar Çarşısı, the Ankara bazaar famous for quality original and handmade copper goods.  In every little alcove and behind many dusty shop frontages, we found copper artisans at work, hammering away at their  pieces.  We spent a lot of time just ogling. 

Copper artisans at the bazaar

The bazaar covered many hilly lanes and alleyways and different streets were devoted to different products.  One street was all about bathroom fittings; another about hardware; another about lighting.  It reminded us of Athens.  This alley was all about the cutlery.  

Only cutlery for sale in this laneway

ooo000ooo

Lunch, enroute, the next day was at Aksaray.  We had passed through here a week before, enroute to the Ihlara Valley, and ended up with a meal that looked like this.  

A simple pizza in Aksaray

Exceptional.  

We hunted the place down again, which was no mean feat, but thanks to Recent Destinations on our Sat Nav we found it again.    And, this was our lunch, today.

Pizza, again, a metre long

Both times the chef and the wait staff took photos of us to put on their Facebook pages.    

This only started happening in Aksaray, but happened non-stop after that in all parts of Cappadocia.   Pete was kept so busy posing with teenage Turkish school girls desperate for photos of him in his Aussie hat and grey hair with them for their Facebook page, that he has missed out on many of the sights. 

Crocodile Dundee in Cappadocia, I think they think he is.  

Sadly, I missed getting a shot of him.  

ooo000ooo