Çankaya, Ankara: Fog, Castles, and the Never-Ending Search for a Decent Espresso
okay so i'm in çankaya, ankara, and my lens is already fogging up. it's... 6.6 degrees celsius outside right now with humidity that feels like a damp blanket, perfect for the kind of day where my camera strap gets wet and my hands go numb. i just checked and it's basically a soup of cold and wet, hope you like that kind of thing. i came here chasing the light around ankara castle, which is this massive hill of roman-byzantine-ottoman rubble that totally dominates the skyline. got up there, and the whole city was just a grey wash. fantastic.
if you get bored, eskişehir's cobblestone streets or bolu's misty forests are just a short drive away. but honestly, i'm trapped in this district trying to find an angle that doesn't include a million satellite dishes on apartment blocks. someone told me that the museum of anatolian civilizations is worth the hype, that the hittite collection will make you forget the cold, but the line is apparently a nightmare. i heard that from a guy at a simit cart, so take that with a grain of salt. check out the reviews on tripadvisor for it before you commit, though the building itself is this cool 15th century bedesten.
food-wise, it's all about the döner and the ankaratava, that lamb stew. i'm on a mission to find a place that serves beyran soup before 2pm because my stomach operates on tourist time and it's already 4. finding good coffee here is a专业 sport - most spots are thick, gritty, and strong enough to peel paint. i need a flat white, not a tar test. the district is this weird mix of super diplomatic, with huge walls around embassy compounds, and then just normal neighborhoods where the call to prayer echoes off the hills.
traffic is a beast, and the air? don't get me started. everyone here is either a student from hacettepe or middle east technical university, a government bureaucrat, or someone who's been here forever and judges you for not knowing the back routes to avoid the ring road. i tried to get a shot of the presidential complex from a distance but security dude was not having it. no surprises there.
i'm sitting in this cafe near kızılay trying to warm up, watching the light fail. it's that blue hour that should be magical but here it's just cold and quick. my hands are shaking. if you come, pack everything. layers, gloves, a hat. the wind coming off those ak mountains is no joke.
oh and some local gossip: apparently the best lahmacun spot is a tiny place that only takes cash, closes at 8, and the owner gets mad if you ask for extra onions. found it on a blog called "ankara eats," worth a look. also, the metro is efficient but crushed during rush hour. just saying.
bottom line: çankaya isn't the postcard. it's the bureaucratic, green, hilly, cold heart of turkey trying to be modern while its ancient bones show through the cracks. i'm gonna go search for that soup. maybe tomorrow the sun decides to show. i doubt it.
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