Travel and Ankara

We rode to Ankara the next morning, and had lunch just outside the city. We were only scheduled to see Anit Kabir (Atatürk’s mausoleum), but our guide decided to move the museum visit up one day so we could get an early start to Istanbul. We got the first rain of the trip while at the mausoleum, but it was just a light rain that didn’t get you very wet. It was fairly cold, though, so we hurried into the building where Atatürk’s cenotaph stands. He’s actually buried several feet below the marker, but that’s not immediately obvious because it’s shaped sort of like a sarcophagus. We waited a few minutes for the rain to end, and by the time we got outside it was sunny again. There are two other exhibits at the site; the one showcasing his personal effects was crowded but nobody seemed interested in the cars he used. Turkey’s second president, Ismet Inönü, is buried across the courtyard from the building housing Atatürk’s marker, and the next thing you see is, of course, the gift shop. They had what looked like interesting books, but the titles were all in Turkish and the cashiers were already busy so I didn’t bother asking. We went to the Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations) next, which at the time I found boring, but looking back on it I liked seeing pretty much all of what was there. I had hoped the gift shop would have jewelry replicating the ancient pieces, but all they had was the same stuff we saw just about everywhere else at about twice the price. We finally made it to our hotel, where we had a served dinner rather than buffet-style. They already planned for the possibility of vegetarians, so my girlfriend and I ordered omelets. They weren’t expecting anyone to be allergic to chocolate, though, so I declined the dessert they offered everyone. I was very surprised when a waiter brought out a plate with an orange and an apple! We tried to go to the hotel’s art gallery after dinner, but it was closed. Instead we realized that we needed to visit an ATM, so I asked at the front desk where to find one. We tried to follow the directions, but it was dark and vaguely scary (I thought) so we turned back. I tried asking at the desk again, and they actually sent a bellhop to show us the way. He walked us about one long city block, and sure enough there was the Yapi Kredi building. I tried to withdraw 300 million lira, but the machine refused. I tried 100 million, and again no luck. I tried 10 million to see if I could get any money - and it gave me that. It even gave me 50 million all at once, so I slowly coaxed 210 million lira out of the machine. my girlfriend warned me that my card might not work by the time we got home, because they might notice two failed attempts for a lot of money followed by several successful small transactions.