Although I’ve completed my write-up of my trip to Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, there was quite a lot that I missed out and have meant to come back to. This is one of those posts, but the summary of the trip is at https://www.julianwhite.uk/turkey-georgia-and-armenia-final-thoughts/, with a link to all the blog posts that I wrote up telling the story of that little adventure.
We only had one night in Ankara, so whilst Jonathan opted for a basement room in a nearby hotel, I went for the Ibis Styles.
The rather nice lobby.
The beer selection from which I could choose my welcome drink.
The room, which was clean, cosy and warm. So I promptly opened the window to make it cold.
They made me a coffee during the check-in and there’s the welcome snack and bottled waters.
I went for the welcome beer of the Efes Malt, which was light, malty and really rather good.
The breakfast room in the morning, when I first realised that there was now quite a lot of snow outside.
The breakfast buffet.
Delicious and healthy.
The colourful corridor.
I’m not sure I’ve seen a warning of a fine for not returning the keycard.
Anyway, this was a really rather lovely hotel with friendly staff, fast wifi (this was important), a comfortable environment and clean rooms. The breakfast choice was extensive, the stay was reasonably priced and I’d stay here again.
Although I’ve completed my write-up of my trip to Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, there was quite a lot that I missed out and have meant to come back to. This is one of those posts, but the summary of the trip is at https://www.julianwhite.uk/turkey-georgia-and-armenia-final-thoughts/, with a link to all the blog posts that I wrote up telling the story of that little adventure.
As a random thought when we were walking around the city by Güvenpark, it occurred to me that we wouldn’t struggle getting a taxi if we needed one.
Although I’ve completed my write-up of my trip to Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, there was quite a lot that I missed out and have meant to come back to. This is one of those posts, but the summary of the trip is at https://www.julianwhite.uk/turkey-georgia-and-armenia-final-thoughts/, with a link to all the blog posts that I wrote up telling the story of that little adventure.
There are a number of dioramas at the Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. These ones are about the Çanakkale campaign (better known here as the Gallipoli campaign) which was fought between 1915 and 1916. The allies hoped to seize the Dardanelles, take Istanbul, knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a reliable sea route to Russia.
It began with the allies making a naval attempt in February and March 1915, which ran into mines, mobile artillery and the awkward reality that narrow waters are excellent at turning expensive ships into sinking lessons. After heavy losses on 18 March, the plan shifted to an amphibious landing, but that again had a sub-optimal ending.
The landings on 25 April 1915 brought British and French forces, alongside the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), onto multiple points of the Gallipoli peninsula, only to find the Ottomans dug in, well-led and fighting with a defensive advantage. Months of trench warfare followed, marked by appalling casualties, disease, supply problems and offensives that gained metres at a time and then promptly lost them again. Ottoman resistance, galvanised by capable commanders including Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself, turned the campaign into a defining moment of national memory in Turkey, while in Australia and New Zealand it became a tragic story of identity and loss.
This whole conflict was a real victory not just for the Ottomans, but for their prestige and honour. The Ottomans were ultimately left defeated by the First World War, but from there came the new Turkish nation.
The text of Atatürk’s speech in the 1930s:
“Those heroes that shed their blood in the territory of this country! You are in the soil of a friendly country here. Therefore, rest in peace. You are lying together with the Mehmetçik, side by side, in each other’s arms. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries! Wipe your tears away. Your sons are now lying in the bosom of ours. They are now in peace and will rest in peace here forever. After losing their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.”
After a significant delay, we were off again….. This is the railway station at Bostankaya, which is only a small village but has a nice transportation arrangement. Regardless of whether it was on the timetable, we tended to stop at every station en route before a staff member gave us the go ahead to continue.
The views were beautiful along this stretch of the route, although I was working out that an arrival time of midnight was now too optimistic, it was looking more like 01:30 and that felt sub-optimal. Especially as the initial arrival time was 16:00.
It was something of a surprise that there was actually any rail service in operation, the snow was over two feet deep here.
At 17:10, we rolled into New Kangal railway station which opened in 2012.
And at 17:35, the train arrived into Çetinkaya railway station, the last one of the journey that we would see in daylight.
As it was getting dark and there was nothing to look at out of the window, Jonathan and I went to the buffet car.
This is Bağıştaş railway station and at some time in the future, it would be nice to visit these locations to explore them. It was now 21:00 and it was evident that we wouldn’t be in before 02:00, but Jonathan and I thought that was reasonable and just hoped for no more delay. In retrospect, that was aspirational.
Another delay.
Excuse the poor quality photo, but at 22:07 we arrive at Kemah, the site of atrocities where thousands of Armenians were murdered during the First World War.
Arriving into Tanyari railway station at midnight, so we had now been on the train for 30 hours. Without Internet.
A cross between a dog and a polar bear.
Into Aşkale railway station for 02:30 and the train decided it would stop here for thirty minutes. This didn’t surprise and delight me.
Ilica railway station at 03:55, but we were getting there….
At 04:25, we arrived, over 12 hours later. We were safely in Erzurum and now just had to hope that we could get into our hotel.
It was a delight to be in Erzurum, as my loyal readers won’t be surprised to hear after these three blog posts….. I did enjoy the railway journey, but would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had worked out data on my phone in advance or got an e-sim. Either way, it had been a proper adventure. Videos and the like will follow…
So, here we are at 07:00 in the morning arriving safely into Sivas and all was on track (I use that pun too many times) with our journey. There was a lot of snow and we were just a little behind schedule, but we still expected to arrive at not much later than 16:00 on a journey that was scheduled to take just over 22 hours.
08:11 and I wondered what was happening….. We had remained in some stations for a while, so this didn’t feel entirely abnormal.
10:19 and I thought I’d get off the train and not much seemed to be happening.
If Jonathan and I had known that we’d be here for hours, we’d have likely gone and explored the town a little. To be fair, I’m not sure that anyone knew what was happening and we just had to assume that the track was snowed up ahead. There weren’t any announcements on board and no track display information boards, so we couldn’t really work out what was happening.
We’d now been here for three hours and I was starting to wonder what time we’d be arriving into Erzurum.
At 11:02 they provided us with a free snack and drink. I’m easily bribed by food and so this made me feel more positive towards the rail network.
Then, there was lots and lots of nothing. I hardly complained about the lack of Internet and I just sat there wondering how much therapy I’d need after this 36 hours without online access. At 14:26 there was some excitement, the train horn sounded and the train went back about two metres. Then, that was that.
Then at 14:53 the train horn was sounded again and staff started blowing whistles, it looked like we were ready to go. And, six minutes later, the train started moving after eight hours sitting on the train at the platform.
Shortly after, the crew arrived with free kebabs and drinks that they had secured at the station. This pleased me.
The snowy weather that the train encountered for most of the journey, but particularly the second half.
Free food and drink secured.
The doner kebab was delicious.
Anyway, we were now set and I worked out that we’d be arriving at around midnight into Erzerum and our hotel. Whether or not they had a 24 hour reception we weren’t entirely sure, but I thought that midnight would be OK. Obviously though the arrangement wasn’t that easy, but more in the next post….
The title of this post is something of a hint about just how long this rail journey took. As a spoiler, it was meant to take 22 hours and it actually took nearly 36 hours. Without Internet. I’m still recovering.
Jonathan was excited about the trip ahead…. As some background, this train from Ankara to Kars (we were getting off in Ezrurum, which isn’t far short of Kars) can be done on a tourist train or a local train. The former has frivolity and fun, the latter doesn’t. Guess which one I wanted.
This is the marketing on the platform for the tourist train, the one that we didn’t take. I like peace and quiet on a train, not dancing.
I don’t want to overwhelm my two loyal blog readers with excitement, but I’ve made quite a few videos of this trip and I’ll get around to uploading them at some point. I did record our train arriving onto the platform, but here it is. Yes, it doesn’t look entirely modern…..
We found our carriage and were excited about the trip ahead.
And off we go. I have better photos of the carriage (I had enough time, without having any Internet, to take them) but more of that later. I was pleased that there was power on the train, but very annoyed about the lack of Internet.
I accept there’s hardly much to look at in the photograph, so readers will have to use their imagination. This is Kırıkkale, which means ‘broken castle’ in Turkish, and which has a population of 190,000.
The seating was comfortable, it’s 2+1, so that was spacious enough and there was plenty of leg room. Although Jonathan and I had seats next to each other, the train was rarely that full that we couldn’t spread out elsewhere in the carriage.
Jonathan’s decadent slippers.
This is the small town of Şefaatli, with a population of just under 10,000.
I have quite a lot of photos like this….. This was still on the same day we boarded the train, just before midnight, so we’d been on for fewer than six hours at this point.
This passenger had a lovely time, but I was taking a photo as we had arrived in the large city of Kayseri at 02:00.
At this point we decided to have a walk about the train. There are four carriages and a buffet car on the service, with the carriages being somewhat of a mish-mash of different designs, temperatures and lighting arrangements. The carriage we were in seemed a reasonable compromise between them all, primarily it wasn’t too hot.
On this first visit, I resisted the temptation, although I can’t say that I managed that throughout the entire journey. I do have some snack reviews of food that I took on board, but there’s plenty of time to write about those…
The buffet car menu.
Jonathan got a tea and I enjoyed watching the country go by in the dark in different surroundings for a while…
And at 07:00 we arrived into Sivas. I’m going to leave this post here as I have a lot to say about this, as we were still at Sivas nearly eight hours later…..
That enormous building at the back is Ankara railway station, which certainly surprised Jonathan as this wasn’t there last time he visited the city. Jonathan is more sceptical of buildings like this than I am, I’m all for shiny new shopping malls, craft beer bars and restaurants, but he’s perhaps more traditional. The building was opened in 2016 and it’s where the high speed rail services depart and arrive from.
As with most large public buildings in Turkey, there’s a security process before entering. Indeed, part of the sad history of this city is the bombing that took place here in 2015 which killed 109 people.
They even have a Popeyes…. It was a delight of a building internally, part shopping centre and part railway station, it’s certainly a modern arrangement. It also had a convenience store where we purchased snacks for our long train journey that lay ahead.
This new building is on the left and the original railway station, which is still in use, is on the right hand side.
The main concourse of the older station.
The board was most useful than this, it’s just that the photo has given the text a rather less useful feel.
There’s us, the 18:00 service.
The frontage of the older station which was opened in 1937 in the art deco style, replacing the previous 1892 railway station.
Back in the fancy new building, there’s a viewing terrace that has extensive views.
This post is mainly photos, but it’s what I felt was a proper clothing market that we walked by in Ankara. It had all the hustle and bustle of a truly vibrant traditional market, with traders usually standing in the centre of their displays haggling with customers around them. I wonder whether markets like this can survive the perhaps inevitability of something like Primark…..
Before we boarded what was to become our epic rail journey, we opted for a Turkish meal in Ankara.
It all looked rather agreeable and we were given a table by the window, with the team members seeming friendly and helpful. Note the jar of biber turşusu, or pickled peppers. More UK restaurants should perhaps do this….
The drink of Gods….
Other than the salad which I ordered and paid for, all of this was provided free of charge. More UK restaurants should do this as well….
I ordered a chicken kebab and this absolutely surprised and delighted me. The chicken was tender and had a depth of flavour, the salad element was fresh and the bread mopped up the juices nicely. A very agreeable little arrangement.
We were made to feel very welcome and the atmosphere was inviting and relaxed. The food was all well presented, it had taste and flavour to it, with the pricing being relatively low. This was a decent meal to have before what we thought would be a 22 hour rail journey, but that’s for another post.
The whole set-up of the mausoleum has moved a little towards hero worship towards the Atatürk, but perhaps that’s fair enough for the effective founder of the modern republic.
In that vein, here’s Foks who was the Atatürk’s loyal dog, a brown-and-white terrier-like mix. Foks became a permanent fixture at the Presidential Residence, famously waiting outside meeting rooms and even accompanying Atatürk during the high-stakes 1925 hat reform tour. The dog’s transition from pet to museum exhibit was a somewhat macabre comedy of errors as after Foks passed away, well-meaning staff had him stuffed to surprise the grieving leader, only for Atatürk to be visibly disturbed by the sight of his preserved friend. Despite Atatürk’s request for a burial, Foks was kept in storage for decades and eventually found his way into a glass display case.
