Day 12, Sept. 16: A Day of Rest

Although we woke up at 7am, we had a pretty easy day. That didn't stop us from eating our baklava we bought yesturday on two occasions.

We took the metro to the ferry to get to the train, again crossing into Asia. Unfortunately none of these modes had the special student rate this time as we were in more of a rush.

The six and a half hour train ride was quite fun. It was nice to watch the varied countryside as we rolled by. There were mountains in the background and flatter greenery and prairie lands in the foreground. We passed through some small towns that had apartments instead of houses, topped with adobe roofing. We passed farms and fields of melon and corn. We passed gypsy villages and stretches of nothing. The train was not very full overall. We learned later that buses were the prefered mode of cheaper public transportation. Apparently they are faster and safer but how were we to know....it was a very clean and new train, and we never felt unsafe.

When we arrived in Ankara, we started walking toward the office building of one of Alicia's parents' clients. We were struck by how different Ankara is from Istanbul! Ankara could be any city in the developed world: it has wide streets, a grid plan, large office buildings, etc.

What looked like a mile walk - a piece of cake at this point! - turned into an hour and a half journey. The road we wwre following (Attaturk Blvd, the biggest road in Ankara) had turned without us realizing. So we stopped to regroup, when we were approached by a university student who not only spoke English (well!), but went about 45 minutes out of her way to walk with us to the office. It was above and beyond hospitality!

At the office, we were greeted by Mr. Yalciner and his daughter, Irmak. Irmak took us out to a delicious dinner next door to the office, and introduced us to four of her friends. We had a very fun evening, making all of Irmak's friends practice their English!

At around 10:30 we returned to the office and printed a map of the city, before the Yalciners kindly drove us to the guesthouse. It's by far the nicest place we've stayed - what a change from hostels!

Tomorrow we may meet up again with one of Irmak's friends to go to the Attaturk museum.
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