At 22.00 on 12 June 2009 I took a train from Hyderpasa train station in Istanbul to Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was a very modern train and it was split into compartments of 4 beds. I shared it with three Turks. One passenger wanted to make conversation with me, but couldn't really speak English. I told him I was Irish and he said something about an Irish movie he saw that lasted 3 hours. He made loads of gestures as if to say it was a war movie he saw. Don't know, maybe Michael Collins or something like that? Anyway the train ticket only cost 32.50 Turkish Lira, which is about €15.00, but I shouldn't really have bothered. The city was a disappointment. WHY??
The city has a new (very new!) part and an old part (very old!). The new part consists of lots of modern (1950's & 60's) straight streets and ugly buildings. The old part includes the citadel and lots of really shabby houses beside it. This area around the citadel is depressingly sad, very poor, but having said that, when I was there a stage was set up for some community event or other and some of the local kids were singing their hearts out - a bit of hope in a sad place.
It's a big city of about 4 million people, but I didn't find anything there that I liked. It had history, sure but nothing massive and significant to say WOW, look at this, it's unique, or it's so amazing etc,. Maybe it's because I had come from Istanbul where you've got lots of history and it's pretty unique in its own right that I found Ankara disappointing?
I went to the central bus station (AŞTİ) and asked about buses to Syria, but decided against it. Eventually I decided I'd go to Capadocia...
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