Ankara - Day 25 - Sunday 21st September 2025 - Balkan-Georgia Trip - Day 25/34 - City 18/22 - country 9/11
- eusts6
- Nov 15, 2025
- 3 min read
Our usual hotel routine: turn up for breakfast—bread, cheese, olives, salad, eggs, and Turkish tea—and write the diary. Satisfied with breakfast, except for the lack of coffee, we went to the metro station and bought metro cards. I actually put too much money on them.
It was just one stop by metro, and we exited, passing by lots of armed soldiers on the street. The city seemed highly militarized. We climbed upwards, following the instructions from Google Maps towards the old town.
The old town had a Sarajevo vibe going on, with shops selling copper coffee pots and the typical architecture too. I ordered two cappuccinos, which were definitely overpriced but lacking in taste. We at least had a good view of the castle.
After the disappointing cappuccinos, we entered the castle and wandered around all of the nearby shops where I bought myself a nice bracelet.
While on the hilltop exploring the castle area, two mosques in the city made the call to prayer with eerie echoes; it was surreal and calming at the same time.
The whole castle area was very crowded with tourists, most of whom were domestic, from other parts of Turkey.
We returned to the metro and got off after a few stops and walked 1 km to Ataturk's mausoleum. It was hot, and I thought Stanislav might collapse from the heat; he needed to drink some water soon. We finally found it, and there was an enormous queue. At first, I thought it was for paying, but it was actually a high-security checkpoint where bags were temporarily confiscated, and you got a key to retrieve them on return.
The monument itself was very oppressive, a huge brutalist structure adorned with tall stone columns. Inside the building, tourists clambered over one another to try to get selfies of the grave, smiling as if this was the Eiffel Tower, quite bizarre to me.
Outside in the grounds, Stanislav waited while I walked for a bit, taking photos and saw an older woman sitting on the ground clutching her arm. It was obvious to me she was having a heart attack. Security stood by with walkie-talkies, and tourists were taking selfies, oblivious to the fact that this woman might actually die here and now in front of us. I felt helpless and just walked back.
We needed to go home, hot and tired, so we caught a bus. It was overfull and it was speeding, so we were thrown to the left, then the right, then on braking we all jerked forward. We all hung onto the poles for our lives!
We got off at our stop and went to the supermarket. Then I found a nice pub where I ordered a couple of wines and a Turkish tea before walking home, and we rested for a bit.
In the evening, we walked in search of a restaurant and stumbled upon an Iranian place. We started with Iranian tea and Ayran, and for food, we both had Gormeh Sabzi. It was passed off as vegetarian. I had accidentally eaten meat, but it was not too bad as there were a lot of vegetables too.
Stanislav returned to the hotel, but he dropped me off at the bar we discovered the first night, as my sense of direction is terrible. I had some Belfast beer there before heading back to the hotel.
In a word #Ataturk
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