Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
On our way to the Turkish capital, we get to know our guide Tarik a little better, and each other as we do the awkward ice breaker introductions over the bus PA. We've got a nice bunch of people on tour again - we've been pretty lucky with this!
Tarik was born and raised in Istanbul, and knows this country and it's history inside and out. He towers over the rest of us, has a goofy grin and laughs like a big kid. He's good fun. He insists we all play 'the game of the bus' for the entire trip, which you may know as the game of life - a basic game that I completely suck at, whereby every time you say "mine", you have to do ten pushups there and then. Tarik's a gun at slipping us up, and can't be fooled.
Whenever he wants to speak he plays the 20th Century Fox theme song over the PA, and never fails to delight himself - his giggling is completely contagious. We nickname him the Turkinator, he doesn't seem to mind and has a chuckle when he unthinkingly says something like "I'll be back". He does sound a little like Arnie, with a clipped accent but extremely good English. It's only the occasional slip that gives us a bit of a laugh. For example when explaining the dinner options - "we also have some vegetarian crap" (crepes, but many would concur with his version), or when he tells us the Hippodrome was an important mating point. Oh meeting, you mean meeting!
English is not a compulsory language in Turkey, and Tarik explains that most Turks learn on the street, selling their wares - and move up this chain as their skills improve. From geometric sets, they graduate to postcards, then water, right up to the carpet salesmen who often know several languages.
At our first service stop we pull up next to the "best coach 2002", which has obviously gotten a little slack in its old age. Three young boys about 10 years old hang around our coach and haggle for smokes. When they have no luck they try to convince Paddy to give them his necklace. No luck, but they are happy to chat and show off their tattoos (!!) and give high fives as we leave.
Moving on, we get our first glimpses of rural Turkey. We drive past families piled into the back of utes and tractor trailers, melon farms, and unfinished houses. Tarik tells us that even rich men often leave their homes unfinished, to avoid the tax.
We arrive in the capital, Ankara, which is much smaller than Istanbul but still a large city. It's more functional than cultural, and it doesn't look like there's a whole lot to do here (think Canberra!) But we do make an interesting stop at Atatürk's Mausoleum, a memorial and museum dedicated to the late Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The name Ataturk was granted to him (and by law, only him) in the 30's, and means 'Father of the Turks'. Ataturk is the national hero, a general who led victories during WW1, then led Turkey to independence before he served as their first president. As president, he brought Turkey into the modern world and greater prosperity. The museum detailed many successful social, political and economic reforms, but it's his attitudes and actions toward achieving better and more accessible education and equal rights that have me thinking he was a pretty cool guy. A random, interesting fact that caught my eye was that his adopted daughter was the world's first female combat pilot, with his blessing.
The mausoleum is guarded by the military - army, air force and navy - and we watch them marching. It's an impressive sight and their footsteps echo across the monument like gunfire. It's also interesting to see the different uniforms - one of them looks straight out of a Bond movie. In Turkey military service is compulsory for all young men. They must do 15 months of basic service, or if they are university graduates the military will assign either 6 months of basic service, or 15 months as a paid officer. Tarik tells us that he served on the Syrian and Iraqi borders, which have been dangerous for a lot longer than our media coverage have shown, and his unit came under attack numerous times.
In fact right now, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees are flooding into Turkey and there are frequent attacks on the Turkish border. You only have to flick the news on briefly to realise that it's a terrible situation in neighbouring Syria. We are travelling far enough from the border that you would not even know these things are happening - it doesn't seem to have affected the tourism industry here at all.
So we are perfectly safe. Actually, more than that - we are living it up. After months in hostels, we are pleasantly surprised to have high quality hotel accommodation the entire trip. Bliss! Our first day on the road has us excited for things to come. Tomorrow - Cappadocia!
- comments