Ankara (Turkey) > Reviews > A tale of Two Cities

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Average
Sightseeing	Average
Shopping	Average
Nightlife	Good
Ease of getting around	Excellent

Advantages:	Friendly people, the grandeur of the Anitkabir, cheap accommodation
Disadvantages:	Bad sign - posting, not very tradtional, new areas brash

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Many people mistakenly think that Istanbul is the capital of Turkey; indeed it is probably the best known Turkish city and the one which is most frequently visited by tourists. It contains many of Turkey's most famous attractions and historic sites.

However, Ankara is the capital city of Turkey; it is some 350 kilometres from Istanbul and is situated on the edge of the Anatolian plain. It has been the capital since 1923 when Kemal Mustafa Attaturk declared the first Turkish Republic. At the time Ankara was a small dusty town of some 70,000 inhabitants. It was chosen because Attaturk wanted to distance himself from the legacy of the Sultans and this was not possible in Istanbul - a city of palaces and mosques built for the Ottoman rulers; anyone who has ever been to Istanbul will know that it is hard to escape the Sultans' influence there.

Ankara offered the space to create a new city with the sort of buildings Attaturk wanted to embody the new Republic, a kind of showcase for the rest of the world. Indeed, Attaturk wanted more than just to start anew with the governemnt offices and public buildings, his plan was for the secularisation of Turkey, a plan which still has repercussions today.

While I was in another Turkish city, Edirne, I met a couple who both knew Ankara but had different experinces of it. She was from Glasgow and had taught English as a private tutor to a weathy Turkish family. She had been based in the "new" part of Ankara with its modern stores, international hotels and foreign embassies. Her husband, a Turk, had lived in Ulus, the old part of the city. Her opinion of Ankara was that it was sterile and faceless, his was that it was just a typical Turkish city.

Many visitors never get to Ankara; it isn't one of the places favoured by tour companies as additional tours, preferring instead to focus on Troy, Efes or Istanbul. Those who do will find it an interesting city, curiously split in two, though it is not without some notable drawbacks.

THE OLD

Those on a tight budget will be more likely to spend their time in the old part of Ankara. In Ulus you'll find the cheaper hotels and eating places as well as the more traditional shops and markets. We arrived, as usual, without a reservation but found a cheap and pleasant enough hotel easily. It was in the heart of Ulus on a street that's main function seemed to be to house hardware shops. What is good about Turkey is that businesses tend to open around ten a.m. so you dont get woken up early when the shutters come up and the noise begins.

The main feature of the old part of town is undoubtedly the citadel. The citadel was initiated by the Galatians and completed by the Romans - this cross period architecture is fairly typical of the city. It is a semi-strenuous hike to the top, from where you get terrific views across the city and towards Anatolia proper. On the way up you meander past wooden Ottoman houses, some have been opened as restaurants, some are still private houses. Most notably, one of these old houses has been used as a museum showing an example of an Ottoman interior.

At the bottom of the hill is the Museum of Anatolian Civilisation which I went to initally because I thought I should do something cultural; however I was amazed by this wonderful museum which charts the early history of Anatolia up to classical times. The array of artefacts on display is staggering.

The market is an intriguing mixture of old and new, some is housed in a newer "market hall" and other stalls are in a series of narrow winding streets. The smells are incredible and the displays of fruit, nuts and vegetables are like a work of art. The is really a locals' market or a place to buy picnic supplies. For souvenirs and crafts you should look out for the little workshops in the streets leading up to the citadel - actually, the traders will probably spot you first!

THE NEW

The new part of town consists of several areas - Kizilay - the university area - and Cankaya - where you find the embassies and the major stores - being the ones tourists are most likely to visit.

Kizilay is good for cheap eats and has some good bars - this is important in Turkey where it is often the case that women aren't welcome in bars outside of the coastal resorts. In the ones in Kizilay students like to play games - in particular "okey" a game which I know little about other than that the tiles make a terrible racket and you feel awfully left out if you don't play.

Ankara's most celebrated sight can be accessed from Kizilay, being just a ten minute walk from the metro station of the same name. "Anitkabir" is the name given to the mausoleum built in honour of Attaturk. It is built on a hill that gives it incredible views which take your breath away. The Anitkabir is open daily, mornings and afternoons with a break for lunch. Each day the ceremonial guard, made up from all divisions of Turkey's armed forces, file past the tomb in a solemn ceremony. The various buildings that make up the outer sides of the Anitkabir house an exhibition dedicated to the life and achievements of Attaturk. Many (but not all) captions are in English). The mausoleum stands in impressive gardens that are filled with unusual specimens from around the world. Many were donated by foreign governments keen to contribute to the memorial.

In Cankaya, the obvious attraction is the television tower which holds no less than three restaurants - we went to ||Sevilla- the revolving restaurant where we made a coffee last an hour, long enough to enjoy one full rotation. The Atakule Tower measures 125 metres high and, again, gives terrific views across to the Anatolian plain. It also provides a jaw-dropping view of the Kocatepe Camii - a huge mosque completed in 1989 in the Neo-ottoman style. Alas, when you get close to it, it's quite a disappointment. It may be impressive in its place as Turkey's largest mosque but it is soulless and not quite so grand when you find out it has an underground carpark and shopping mall.

From the Atakule Tower it's fun to walk back to town down the main road, past all the foreign embassies. Some of the houses are amazing, those you are permitted to see of course - the usual suspects have walls that you'll need a helicopter to se over. Our favourite game in capital cities is to try to name the country from the flag before you get to the plaque at the gates...and Ankara is a great place to do that. Along the way are seriously expensive boutiques and jewellery shops.

Walking straight on and past the little park, you come to the busiest, brashest part of Ankara. The part of Ankara that makes you think "Of course they should join Turkey, they're just like us".
Well, yes, if you base things on having branches of Marks and Spencer and Morgan.....The shops here bear testimony to the fact that things haven't quite panned out as Attaturk envisaged. Most women's clothes shops sell headscarves, evenif they give the impression of being the Turkish equivalent of Top Shop. And even in the bars and cafes you'll see very stylish and fashionable women wearing brightly coloured headscarves; no-one gives it a second glance. Even when its a shop assistant in the brashest, trashiest clothes store.

This is another area where you mixed couples can enjoy a drink without feeling uncomfortable; if anything the bars and cafes are geared more towards younger people but this is not across the board. One recommendation I must make if the Chilli Cafe - a funky little basement where live music is played each evening.

Cankaya is another good place to eat but is a bit more expensive than Ulus. It's also a better prospect for vegetarians who will be able to find a selection of dishes in a "meyhane" which are not available in the more meaty establishments of the northern area. My top tip for eating, though, is a delicious fish sandiwch from a stand-up joint in the main shopping street. The queues at the hatch are long but you do get served quickly. You get a crusty stick, filled with grilled sardines and a good serving of crispy salad for about 50 pence.

WHAT I THOUGHT

My visit to Ankara came at the beginning of my trip. I had arrived in Istanbul the day before and spent only ine night there befre taking a bus to Ankara. It was my first visit to Turkey so I couldn't really say at the time whether I thought that it was a typically Turkish city. At the time I found it quite exotic and different but having seen much smaller Turkish cities I now think that Ankara is quite dull. It may be that insufficent tourists visit the old town to keep it attractive to tourists and that the newer part can survive nicely with students and diplomats without having to offer anything especially touristy. However, Ankara seemed to me the type of place that doesn't care much for it's tourists at all. Sign-posting of the main attractions was terrible and we managed to walk two miles the wrong direction looking for Anitkabir when it should have been clearly marked from the Metro Station (turn left as you exit, by the way).

Anyone hoping for something along the lines of Istanbul will be severely disappointed. Ankara is not an exotic city; Ulus is a working suburb which is run down rather than quaint and Cankaya is brash and loud without much substance. That said, one group of people who might reall enjoy Ankara could be history buffs. Besides the places I have mentioned, the city teems with museums and ancient remains although everything seems to be done on a purely academic basis making the musuems quite stuffy.

When the Scots girl told me she thought Ankara sterile and soulless I could only partly agree; I have to agree with the allegation of sterility - new Ankara is designed to be safe and easy to use, wide roads, bridges to cross by. Buildings are functional and modern, without being stylish. But soulless I cannot agree with; both north and south are lively in their own way and the people are very charming and friendly be it an old lady selling olives in Ulus market or a young waiter in a Cankaya bar. Ankara has a certain vitality and feels more like a place where people live than Istanbul does.

It's not all bad news; transport is cheap, efficient and a cinch to use and the underground in particular is a shining example to European cities. A word of warning - if you arrive by coach be preapred for the heaving mass that is the coach station - if you can handle this the rest of Turkey will be a doddle.

I do not regret having stopped off in Ankara and I would certainly recommend it to anyone with plenty of time in Turkey. I would not sggest that anyone go out of the way to go there however. Ankara is excatly what Attaturk wanted it to be - a modern seat of government and business without any interference from the Sultans. For that reason I can't recomend it to the casual tourist though anyone visiting on business will surely find some positives.