Thursday, 5 July 2012
After the long day (and long night) the day before, we woke up and had breakfast in our hotel in Cappadocia. That day, Thursday, 5 July 2012, we were to leave Cappadocia for our next destination, Ankara, the capital of the Republic of Turkey. The total journey would take roughly half days, with one stop in Tuz Gölü (Salt Lake) on the way to Ankara.
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| View from our hotel that morning |
But before leaving Cappadocia, we were brought to a carpet factory, producing Turkish signature carpets with unique motifs. All the carpets sold there were handmade and the design was elaborate, therefore the price was high also. Again, my family was not interested :))
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| The making process of the carpet |
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| The sample on the wall |
We left the carpet factory and went on to Ankara with one stop in Tuz Gölü (Salt Lake), the main source of salt for Turkey. The lake is shared among three provinces, which are Konya, Ankara, and Aksaray. We visited from the Ankara Province side, while city of Ankara itself is two-hour drive away.
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| The Tuz Gölü with white salt spread along the lake sides |
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| People entering the water. Since I wore shoes, I did not enter the water. Actually, Ümit told us not to do so but some of us still found it fun :)) |
After enjoying the Tuz Gölü, we went to the restaurant where we had lunch. The menu for the day was beef kebab. As far as I remembered, that was the only meal where we were given beef instead of fish or chicken.
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| The mixed meat and vegetables on the pan for four people |
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| Found this display in the restaurant: Turkish National Anthem lyrics |
After lunch, we then continued our journey for two hours to Ankara, the administrative centre of the modern republic. Actually, the historical capital of Turkey was Istanbul, but since it was occupied by the Allied after the World War I, the Turkish nationalist who fought for their independence moved their activities centre deep to the Central Anatolian city of Ankara. It was less important city by then, but flourished to become the second largest city in Turkey after the republic was founded. While being just relatively newly built capital city, there were less point of interests in the city. In fact, our only point of interest was Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of the founding father of the modern Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
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| Modern city of Ankara |
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| A landmark of Ankara, the Atakule Tower |
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| Turkish flag fluttering on the outer building of the Anıtkabir |
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| The Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk |
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| The long road spanning to the background is called The Road of Lions |
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| Inscription of the eulogy of Atatürk's death by his successor İsmet İnönü |
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| From the Ambassador of Vietnam, indicating the most recent visit to the mausoleum |
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| The inscription of the last speech of Atatürk |
The main building hosted the tomb of Atatürk, which was actually located in Istanbul, his death place. The mausoleum itself was built quite long after Atatürk's death, so the remains were transported from Istanbul to Ankara to be buried here. It was also said that actually Atatürk did not wish to be buried with this honour, but it was the government that decided that Atatürk deserved this honour as the founding father. Meanwhile, on the sides of the field in front of the building, the museum of Atatürk is located. It contains the milestones on various military and leadership events of Atatürk during the Turkish War of Independence and during his leadership as president. There were also some of personal belongings of Atatürk exhibited inside. Also, Turkish patriotic songs were played inside. No photography was allowed inside the museum.
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| Flowers of different colours arranged to form the map of Turkey filled with Turkish flag |
After visiting the only point of interest for the day, we continued our journey to our hotel. This hotel is 4-star, but not better than those we got near the tourist spots. This hotel was rather small, gloomy and old. Even the elevator outer door was the older model which needed to be pushed outside to exit, not the commonly used sliding doors.
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| Found this on the way to the hotel: The old building of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey |
We had dinner in our hotel, as usually did while in Turkey. The restaurant was located on the topmost floor, so we could see the view of city from there.
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| Another ancient castle, Angora Castle on the background |
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| The real life of Turkish people down there |
Friday, 6 July 2012
The day was the last day of our trip in Turkey. We woke up at 4 a.m. that we could leave for Istanbul on time for our itinerary last day programme. We had to return Istanbul because on that very night because we would fly back to Indonesia from Istanbul Atatürk International Airport, as well as to visit our last point of interest, which was the Dolmabahçe Palace we saw during the Bosporus cruise. To allow sufficient time in Istanbul, we had to wake up and leave early.
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| Angora Castle on dawn |
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| Taken before boarding our bus: Call girls! I just realized that our hotel was located in somewhat red light district. This has been confirmed by my Turkish neighbour in my apartment unit |
There were two stops along the last and long journey back to Istanbul, one was near Bolu and another was near Lake Sapanca in Sakarya Province.
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| Through the longest tunnel in Turkey (forgot the name) |
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| Lake Sapanca |
During our first day in Istanbul, we just travelled within the European side, but for this time, we entered through the Asian side of Istanbul and crossed the Bosporus Bridge to go back to the European side. Both our last point of interest and the airport are located at the European side. The Bosporus Bridge is a tolled bridge and our bus was inspected for security check just after entering the toll gate, I remembered Ümit shouted, "Tourists!" Later he told us that the security officers wanted to know what was inside the bus.
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| About to cross over to Europe |
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| Beylerbeyi Palace underneath the Bosporus Bridge |
At the other side of the Bosporus Bridge, there is a sign welcoming us to Europe, "Avrupa kıtasına hoş geldiniz", meaning "Welcome to the continent of Europe". We were once again in Europe that afternoon. Driving through the European side of Istanbul, we had our last lunch which was fish. The area we had lunch in was well-known for serving fish.
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| This fountain has fish statue, conforming to the meals served within this area |
After lunch, we continued our journey to the Dolmabahçe Palace, the second Ottoman Empire imperial palace after the Topkapı Palace. In contrast to the Topkapı Palace, the Dolmabahçe is completely indoor. The good side for us is that we did not have to bear the hot summer air in the afternoon, but on the other hand, we could not take pictures inside the palace due to its museum status :(
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| Ottoman Clock Tower outside the Dolmabahçe Palace |
The clock tower was a typical structure during the Ottoman Empire period. Besides in İzmir, there is also one here, outside the Dolmabahçe Palace, which is also the landmark of this place.
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| Outermost gate of the Dolmabahçe Palace: We entered through the bigger middle door and exited through the smaller left door |
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| Second gate to the palace with the main palace building seen inside the gate: Here, people were waiting for toilet (W.C.) queue |
The Dolmabahçe Palace was built from 1843 to 1856 under the command of Sultan Abdülmecid I. It became the residence of the Ottoman sultans until the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Inside the building, we had to wear shoes caps to avoid stains on the carpeted floor; we had to stay within the red carpet inside the palace building. Also, we were neither allowed to take pictures and touch historic objects, including the staircase railings. One of my friends were scolded because he thought that the railings were not considered historic object. When Ümit shouted at my friend, it required some time for him to realize that Ümit was actually referring to him :))
We were guided by Ümit who explained every aspect regarding the activities and historical aspects of every rooms we went through. We went in to the palace through the guest reception hall, then followed the Ümit to various halls and rooms, including the living room of the sultan's family and the office of the sultan. Some of them also became the venue of various activities during the early days of the Republic of Turkey and the rule of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Although the capital city remained Ankara, Atatürk often held meetings in the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, including the first session of the Grand National Assembly and the formulation of the new Turkish alphabet, based on Latin alphabet and used as the official writing system nowadays. Even, Atatürk spent his last days and died in the Dolmabahçe Palace. Unlike other museums in Turkey, this palace is managed by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
We ended the tour by the sea gate (side gate) of the Dolmabahçe Palace. When still being used as Ottoman imperial palace, the sultans used to use the gate after the trip through Bosporus.
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| Unfortunately, this sea gate is being under maintenance |
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| The corners of the palace from outside: There was another shorter way out but my family ended up with this inconvenient route |
By the palace compound, there is a mosque named Dolmabahçe Mosque. Ümit said that the current Turkish Prime Minister usually performs Friday prayers here.
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| The Dolmabahçe Mosque |
The Dolmabahçe Palace was the last point of interest for the day and the last for the whole trip. Afterwards, we went to Taksim Square for the last day shopping. There were branded items as well as food stalls selling various foods including döner kebab. Not interested in branded items, my family opted to spend time here to eat döner, chestnuts and drink coffee in the local Starbucks.
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| One building in Taksim Square, just an ordinary busy shopping district. For me, Orchard Road is still better ;p |
After Taksim Square, we had our last dinner in the old city (again), the area that we visited during our first day in Turkey, but the restaurant was not the same. I remembered that the last dinner was grilled chicken.
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| The place where we had our last dinner in Turkey |
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