Every once in a blue moon, a true hero is born who embodies all virtue and goodness. As far as I can see, in the past fifty years the world has had only one hero, but the contributions he has given to all mankind are beyond description. His name is Barış Manço, and he is a Turkish pop singer. You might think I'm speaking in hyperbole, but open your ears and your heart and listen:
I first discovered Barış Manço as a result of being in the right place at the right time. At some point last week during a break or two, I was hanging with Funda's class, and they were bringing the Barış Manço to the party. "Hal hal" was the first Manço tune I heard, and with its infectious rhythm, organ fills, and general air of awesome it's hard not to love it.
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Tuesday we went on a trip to Beypazarı, and though I did not get to hear any Manço, I did greatly enjoy borrowing Eli's iPod on the bus for a bit. Beypazarı is a town not far outside of Ankara. It's filled with restored old houses and the like. And carrots.
At Beypazarı, we ate, hit up three (not that great) museums, and then walked around town for a while. It's a pretty place. It has restored Ottoman houses, and some excellent lokum. Beypazarı, in addition to being famous for its carrots, is also famous for its maden suyu and lokum and baklava and such. And also some bread things that I ate far too many of.
Also, like everywhere else in Turkey, there's a castle.
It was a cool place, but after my weekends in Eğirdir, İstanbul, and Amasra, it may have been... just a little underwhelming.
On the bus ride back, Rebecca succeeded where all others thus far have failed. She beat level 16 in Luxor Quest, a game on our CLS-provided cellphones where you shoot balls at stuff and when you get three of the same color they disappeared. It was a moment worth celebrating, and so celebrate we did by hitting u hitting up Yedinci Caddesi for a waffle when we got back to Ankara.
At waffle ab'bas, they roll 'em like burritos.
The toppings were good, but below them the waffle itself... not the best. The best was yet to come.
---Wednesdays are surprisingly fantastic days for me these days, and this Wednesday was no exception. Class consisted partially of movie watching and game playing, for the unfortunate reason of Duygu hanım's illness. But, after class I hit up office hours for some help, and gezzed around the book store for a bit, before following Rebecca, Cody, Eli, and Rana Hanım to some location without fully knowing what was going on besides that it would be awesome. It was awesome.
A long low time ago, Eli made a bet with Rana Hanım. Whoever lost a round of tavla (backgammon) would buy the other person a waffle. Eli won. Where they were going, I knew not, but it turned out to be in Tunalı, in a restaurant called Lox, where undoubtedly the best waffles in Ankara can be found..
Kuğlu Park actually has Kuğlus!
Eli's waffle. See. That is a legit waffle.
That is what happiness looks like.
In the foreground, the watermelon lemonade I did order.
It's important that your restaurant has "acessible power outlets"
Unfortunately, I didn't opt for my own waffle at the time, but because we were invited out to iftar at a restaurant later that night, Eli happily shared about half of his with me. This generosity is hard to even conceive of, because the waffle was fantastic. Afterwards, we hit up the bookstore a bit, before returning to Kızılay to meet for iftar.
A giraffe at D&R books.
From Kızılay we walked through gençlik park on the way to iftar, fearlessly led by Mutehşem, Jack's conversation partner who had invited us all out.
The iftar place was pretty nice. There was a guy playing the guitar, and even though he only seemed to know three songs he was cool. We sat at this traditional table thing which I will describe as basically fancy carpets on the ground. It was nice also because the majority of my classmates were there enjoying themselves. I had some iskender kebap, which is pretty much the best kind of kebap.
After eating, it was dance time, and I definitely hit the floor with my best feet forwards. I guess I did a lot of dancing. I guess some Turks were impressed by my dancing, because they totally pulled me into the center of this circle thing for a bit. It was good. I have no pictures, thankfully.
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Thursday. Barış Manço zamanı.
One of Barış's most popular tunes is Domates, Biber, Patlıcan. Tomato, Pepper, Eggplant.
There are plenty of cool clothes owned by my classmates. But this has to be top of the tower of coolness. There is simply no way to beat this:
Fierceness has just been redefined by Sherri and Zabe.
Thursday was also, finally, the day when we hit up Ankara's premiere Chinese restaurant, fittingly staffed only by Turks.
At Wok & Walk, I was completely impressed with my Kung Pao Tavuk (Kung Pao Chicken.) It was fantastically tasty stuff, with excellent amounts of garlic and onions and stuff, and a good portion size. Wok & Walk was the place. Thursday was a good hang out day. I even enjoyed briefly going into a female clothing chain called Koton, if only because everything for sale was completely ridiculous.
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Barış Manço didn't just make music aimed at adults. He was a man for everyone, children too, and it goes without saying that these works are of an extremely high caliber. This song is called Ayı, or "Bear."
Check out the fantastic music video!
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Friday came, and I definitely got down. Class with a substitute teacher (Duygu unfortunately is still sick. :( ) was interesting, but I ultimately prefer Duygu.
After class, I nommed some Gözleme, and bought a ticket for the high speed train to Eskişehir.
Friday was not lacking in the künafe department, so I will allow you to gaze at this tasty, tasty desert which I ate this afternoon:
More to come!
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