Hammamistan - ("Hamam land")

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Right. What have I been up to lately in Ankara?
Answer: Fantastic things.


Monday I had a day of class not fully recovered from İstanbul, and after class we had one of our cultural activities... an Ebru course. Ebru is a form of traditional paper marbelling, where one puts paint in water and swirls it around and stuff. It's pretty easy, but that doesn't mean I didn't display my limitless ability to screw up when following basic directions.

Before Ebru we were advised to make sure we were wearing clothes where we wouldn't care if we got paint on them. Unfortunately, I forgot, and wore my Galata Saray T-Shirt, which is probably one of the most exxpensive shirts I have with me. As a result, Eli and I went looking for cheap shirts in  Kızılay and successfully found some amazing shirts in one of the classy stores in the Metro station. You wouldn't have believed they were 5 TL!

Define "Fresh"

Yeah, those shirts were awful.

Meanwhile: outside - putting a car onto the back of a truck... Turkish style!

But right. Ebru. How is it done? You drop colors in and then swirl them and then pretty stuff comes out. I'll show you two steps of the process.

Shake the brush and paint drips off!

Then you stir it and stuff.

Also you can comb it.

An example of a good end result:

Allison's own Galata Saray ebru

As I said I was less successful.

Photos courtesy Kendra & Rebecca.

Other fantastic fashion availible in the Kızılay Metro, this time from a store called "Trendy"

Yeah. After that, I went home, ate dinner, met with my conversation partner, and hung out with some of my classmates later, successfully proving that Ebru isn't the only art that I can fail at. 

It also rained a lot.

Tuesday was cool because I ate a fajita (pronounced [faʒita])

Only the most authentic tortillas have this cut.

Only the most authentic fajitas contain carrots and zucchini.

Tuned out Hyundai Accent reminds one of Dan McFadden

Wednesday was also a fantastic day for it contained much meandering, and much in the way of wildlife. Observe a bird in it's natural habitat: the balcony of a cafe.

 Very interesting stalker photo of riot police comforting an accordion street musician's baby who was crying

I also went on a nice walk around Baçhelievler. Note some of the unique animal life on display. Above, a Chihuahua and goat share a pen at the pet store. Below, there is the world's fattest cat.

What a great statue

I also succeeded at buying a book on how Turkmenistan and Turkey should be best buds published in the late '90s. It's quadrilingual in Turkish, Turkmen, English, and Russian. The owner of the book wanted to sell it to me for 10 TL, but stopped himself and asked for 5. Who else would want it?

Then I met up with Sherri and her conversation partner, and we went to Hamamonu, a small market near Kurtuluş with restored old buildings, live music and a puppet show, and all sorts of stuff.

 Ataturk, kedi, Ataturk, Ataturk, Ataturk, Ataturk, Ataturk, Ataturk. Sums up Turkey.

These were some people with an ice cream stand. We had a conversaton in Turkish, and they thought we were interesting, so the next thing I knew it was free lemonade time! Oh yeah.

Thursday was another winner. Class flew by and then it was time to go to the hamam, or a Turkish bath. And let me tell you, getting scrubbed down by a fat, old, shirtless Turkish man is one of the best things you can possibly do in your life. Seriously.

The hamam experience begins with changing rooms. Off go your clothes, besides whatever you're keeping on your bottom (or top also, if you are not male.) Then you get to splash yourself with water, sit in a sauna, relax, and eventually get scrubbed down for maximum exfoliation. Then a bit of soap, a little shampoo, some rubbing, some more saunaing, though perhaps cold water, a drink in the lounge, getting toweled down, and more or less feeling amazingly clean and having baby smooth skin. Killer? Evet!