ankara, konya, çatalhöyük

after completing 9/10 'things not to miss in istanbul' in the lonely planet istanbul guide my mother got me, i decided it was time to take my first trip away from what might just be my favorite city in the world (not that i've been to many of the western european great cities...).

first, a quick mention of things i did in istanbul before i left. saturday, nicole and i went to a show at a club called 'ghetto' and saw 'el plumo band.' it was latin-cubano-jazz and it was awesome. the singer/percussionist had an incredible stage presence. yet another fun activity with nicole.
i also went to the süleymaniye camii (mosque), considered by some to be the finest mosque. commissioned by sultan süleyman the magnificent, it was built by his architect mimar sinan, famous in his own right. the interior was cut off due to renovations, but the outside is magnificent. finally, the other renter showed up monday night before i left- a frenchman nicoloai (i can't spell french crap) who is working a phd in history and studies the turbulent '70s and '80s in turkish history. cool guy, looking forward to getting to know him better.

okay. phew. i ran from the kadıköy ferry stop to the haydarpasha train station on the asian side of istanbul, stubbed my toe, and sat down 2 minutes before the train started moving. typical chris start to my first time leaving istanbul. turkish trains=nice. seats are more comfy than amtrak, and the meals in the kitchen car are not only good, they're reasonable priced. thumbs up to tcdd.

i decided to head to ankara, the capitol. first, i figured i would find more english speakers here than in other random parts of the country i will visit later. as my turkish is progressing very very slowly, i thought this made sense. secondly, i was just about done (finished now!) with the biography of atatürk, founder of the republic who moved the capitol to ankara and whose massive mausoleum is there. so, ankara.
honestly, while i had a great time here, i found ankara to be mostly just an equally fast-paced istanbul with a fraction of the character. that being said, the four museum visits in two days were great: the museum of anatolian civilizations, housing plenty of urartian artifacts (urartu being an empire centered on lake van occupying much of what becomes 'armenia' and therefore very important in armenian history), as well as artifacts from çatalhöyük (more on this site later); a small art museum which i enjoyed very much (call me orientalist, but i love paintings of village life with people in 'traditional' dress); the ankara ethnography museum (lots of cool reconstructions of mostly late ottoman life, and a decent sampling of those beautiful isnik tiles); and atatürk's mausoleum with accompanying museum. of these, i'll comment more only on the mausoleum and museum.
first, the complex is huge. a long, long walkway with lion statues, buildings around a courtyard with a huge turkish flag, and the imposing mausoleum/tomb area itself (done is a semi-classical-ish style with lots of columns). ismet inönü, atatürk's supporter, prime minister, and the republic's second president is also buried there. the tomb area was rather bland inside (its not like lenin's or mao's where you can see them perfectly preserved), but the museum deserves mention. we're talking full-size reconstructions of the three famous battles from the end of the war to the defeat of the greek's and the security of the republic including whisting shell and machine gun noises. all the captions are blatantly nationalist- as someone who spends his time thinking about this topic i was struck by how well the turks inculcate visitors into the collective of the nation. maybe its been awhile since i've been to, say, the jefferson monument, but i don't remember it quite like that.
additional cool things about ankara: staying with burcu's mom (burcu being the turkish woman i made my film with, remember?)! how fun! she made me feel so welcome, i had pide (turkish pizza, like lamajoun) and a homecooked meal of meatball soup (köfte sulu, meatballs with water). yum! also, her... partner? and his bridge partner came over and we watched the big fenerbaçe-chelsea football match. as promised, i've been getting into turkish (and thus in general) football (soccer, for us americans)- and this was a huge game. fenerbaçe is currently the first-placed team in the turkish 'super league' and if they hold the british club chelsea to at a least a tie in the UK they will have gone further than any turkish team in the 'european cup.' good stuff, although i'm rooting against them tonight when they play kayserispor, the team from kayseri (near chomaklou) that i've decided to support.

phew, this is long. too many details, perhaps? oh well, that's what line breaks are for, come back to it if you're bored or tired.

so i decided i had seen most of the things i wanted to see in ankara, and that instead of going to see smaller museums, my interest in çatalhöyük was enough to warrant a trip. to get there, i had to take a bus to konya, an interesting place in its own right for the mevlana museum. i spent thursday night in konya after a meal of their signature dish fırın kebap (basically greasy mutton on pida bread-mmmmm it was good), woke up, and made my way to çatalhöyük.
çatalhöyük is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, and is considered to be one of the oldest village settlements. there was no sign of governmental structure, just perhaps as many as 8000 people crammed in close-knit houses (no governmental structure, really? an anarchist's dream...). i first encountered çatalhöyük when i drew a picture of the village on a crumpled-up paper bag in mrs. carless's 6th grade class, so going there was pretty exciting. the museum at the site is pretty basic, with many more artifacts at the museum of anatolian civilizations in ankara and the archeology museum in konya (which i went to later). the highlights were instead the 'experimental house,' a reconstructed mud-brick house used to do experiments to shed light on how people at çatalhöyük lived. also, one part of the extensive excavations were visible. waaaay cool for me.
after taking the taxi back to the çumra and the bus back from çumra to konya, i set about konya. first, the mevlana museum. the mevlana is first a person (namely rumi, mevlana means 'our guide')- a sufi muslim mystic of the 13th century and then a mystic order- the mevlevi. these are the famous whirling dervishes. i would have liked to have seen a ceremony, but it would have meant not getting back to istanbul until this time monday, and i just don't think i could have entertained myself in konya that long without buying a rug (which i almost did anyways- but big purchases need to come at the END of the trip). the museum is housed in a very iconic building is istanbul with a turquoise-blue dome (again with the whole, 'i'll post pictures soon...'). also in konya, i went to the allaadın mosque from the 13th century and the konya archeology museum, which once i found, was great. in addition to artifacts from çatalhöyük, there was a great number of classical artifacts (konya is the iconium of the Bible visited by paul and barnabas) including really cool roman sarcophagus(es, aii whaaatever).
after that, i walked to the train station where i was lucky to have one ticket left on the train to istanbul. although it was a sleeper seat, which turned out to be pretty cool- another new experience.
so, now i'm back in istanbul, happy to have a home base at which to rest for a few days before i head out again. go kayserispor!
i'll end this long post from rumi mevlana's most famous quote:

come, whoever you may be,
even if you may be
an infidel, a pagan, or a fire-worshipper, come.
ours is not a brotherhood of despair.
even if you have broken
your vows of repentance a hundred times,
come.