kizilay and ulus

Happy Saturday! It is another beautiful Saturday in Ankara. The sky is actually pretty clear today, so you can see across the entire city to the mountains on the other side. I love it! Moving on...we made it through week 2 of school without any disastrous happenings. I am loving teaching, and I am beginning to see my students as little people to teach rather than little rugrats to round up everyday. They are so cute, and I am afraid I really love them already. I am starting to wonder how teachers can pass their kids on every year (excpet for those moments when they drive me crazy or do something so stupid and then I see how teachers happily let them move on to the next grade...i am kidding...a little). Anyway, school is good for both Bo and I. Thank you for all the prayers and support. I know we could not do this without all of ya'll.

Last weekend I was able to do some exploring of the city with some friends (two teachers at the school). Our plan was to go early Saturday morning to the House Cafe in Kizilay (a bigger and busier area of Ankara), and then we were just going to explore Kizilay for the day. Well, we did start out going to House Cafe, which is a restaurant that started in Istanbul and is delicious. We splurged getting fancy coffe drinks, an appetizer, and huge breakfast meals. It was wonderful, and the atmosphere was perfect. We sat outside on couches and every ten minutes or so a perfumed mist would spray from the ceiling (it sounds strange i know but it was so refreshing and acted like a free body spray for the rest of the day). After we finished eating, we started walking around the city. We found out Kizilay is more of a suburb where people live and shop and eat. It felt a little bit like walking around the suburbs of Chicago. It is really nice and clean, but there is only so much walking around you can do (especially when you cannot really ask anyone where to go or what to do because you cannot understand them or they you). We decided to hop on a dolmusch and go to Ulus, another area of Ankara that is more touristy and has more historic places and things to see.

Statue in Kizilay

Fountain in Kizilay

The House Cafe Patio

Brunch: Granola, Fruit, Tomato and Cheese Platter, Latte

Michelle, Brittany, and I at House Cafe

As we were riding to Ulus, we saw a huge crowd of people in a park and thought there was some sort of festival going on so we yelled "Enijectvar" (let me out) and got of the dolmusch to see what was happening in the park. We were pleasantly surprised to find out it was a wedding chapel and four wedding had just ended. We got to see all the brides taking pictures outside. They were decked out. It looked a bit like a scene from an 80's movie...lots of big hair and sparkles and poofy dresses and amazing bridesmaid dresses...we loved it. It was so funny because we were just walking among the wedding guests acting like we were suppose to be there. Brittany (one of the teachers) actually had the guts to take some pictures of the brides herself...I was too embarrassed to get out my camera but she said she would send me some of her pictures so I will try to get them on here...they are a sight to see.

The park beside the Wedding Chapel

Anyway, we decided we were probably very close to Ulus so we could just walk the rest of the way (even though we had no idea where we were going but we saw a sign saying Ulus and pointing straight so we followed)...we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and then when I thought I might pass out from exhaustion we walked some more...We finally made it after who knows how long. We knew there was a castle (more like a fort actually but called a castle) on top of a hill in Ulus, so we knew we made it when we saw the castle. We were so tired of walking, but we knew we had to go up to the castle since we were there, so we started walking again. This time we were walking straight up some stairs because the castle is at the very top of the highest hill in Ulus. We took a picture at the bottom of the hill and again at the top so you can all see how sweaty and tired we were at the top...ha. We walked all the way up the hill (which was actually a really pretty walk because it was through an old village with old houses and roads and it looked like what I pictured Turkey to look like), but when we got to the top of all the stairs we could not find the castle. We saw it when we started, but we seriously could not find it anywhere. We saw some little boys playing, so we asked them "Castle?" and all they did was mimic us and laugh. That did not work. We looked up one more road, and then we just said forget it. We were so tired and my calves felt like they may catch on fire from burning any moment so we walked back down...defeated but elated to be going downhill. It was late, and we needed to get back because the school was having a dinner for all of us.

At the bottom, about to start the climb

View from the bottom

On the way up, peppers being hung to dry

Halfway: very sweaty already

View from halfway up

The castle seen from halfway up.

A of a pretty mosque

Here we are. This is as high as we could go.

We thought we would just catch a dolmusch or a bus back to Cigdem, but of course it was not that easy. We ended up asking around, and we ended up with our own personal bus finder. This Turkish man decided to personally help us find our way back. He even got on a dolmusch with us, told the driver we just needed to be dropped at the next stop, and told us not to pay. He stayed with us for about thirty minutes in total, until we got on our bus home. We probably exchanged about 20 words between all of us, but it did not matter to him. He just wanted to help us get home and never asked for money or anything from us. Maybe I will meet him again some day, and I will be able to thank him in Turkish (we started our Turkish lessons on Tuesday so I would like to think I will be able to have a conversation with a Turk before we leave...we will see...i am having a hard time with the pronunciations...i blame my lisp of course). He was the nicest man, and I am very thankful for people like him. We made it back to Cigdem and back to the dinner...but we did have to tell people we never made it to the castle...o well... we did not have to tell them we made it to the top of the hill but not just could not find the castle.

We love you and miss you lots.

-K and B