Sadly, I didn’t get those kickass sunset photos/selfies from Camlica Tower. The dirty glass + crowd made getting a sunset photo a real chore. Got photos about 30 minutes prior to it instead. Will post them here once my phone is recharged.
A side benefit of getting out before sunset is that the road to Camlica Tower is not for pedestrians. It would be very dangerous to walk down that hill at night due to the lack of sidewalks for most of the way. Cars care very little about pedestrians or really any life in general in Istanbul.
And boy was it night and day between the Europe and Asian sides of the city. When I got back to the former, it was absolutely jam-packed. Since public transport is free and on a reduced schedule, buses and trams are stuffed to the gills with people. Like people would see the bus and shrug their shoulders hoping that they can fit on the next one packed. Reminded me a lot of public transport in China.
So glad that starting 8 AM tomorrow morning, I won’t be staying within earshot of a mosque.
The muezzin is a real diva with his fancy adhans. Guess it’s his moment to shine during Islamic holidays since they’re different from your normal “Allah is great. Time to pray” kinds of calls. Word of advice for anybody visiting Turkey: don’t be within a few blocks of a mosque or kiss your sleep goodbye.
Anyway, the 15th is a holiday as well. It celebrates the suppression of a coup in 2016. So it’s a very recent holiday. Given how much the economy sucks here, I’m sure that most probably wish the coup was successful. I think cities all throughout the country are gonna be nuts with protests. Wouldn’t be surprised if some terrorism goes down given Turkey’s history of dealing with it.
My Ankara housing situation is quite different. Unlike Istanbul, I don’t have a flat to myself. The host lives here and rents out her empty bedrooms to others.
I wish it was mentioned in the ad that this would be the arrangement. Like I knew I’d be sharing living space with the host just not with 4 other AirBnB guests. Might as well have stayed in a hostel.
The guests don’t seem like they want to be bothered with knowing that other guests exist. Just bad vibes all around. The fact that a Ukrainian and Russian man live under the same roof and haven’t come to blows is surprising though.
I’m here for two full days. So I won’t be dealing with it for too long.
It’s a very different place. Ankara is a planned capital city that was created because it is in the center of the country and thus would be harder to invade. There’s more urban sprawl but simultaneously fewer people and a lower population density. Despite the physical size of the city, the center of it is fairly small. It’s much cleaner than Istanbul. But given that it’s a recent creation, it doesn’t have the extensive history of Istanbul.
That lack of history results in having fewer tourist attractions. There are a lot of universities in Ankara and many government buildings are located here. So, there are a lot of public officials and students. There are only a few places I want to go to and that will be easy to knock out during the couple of days I’m here.
I read an analogy on Quora that the difference between Ankara and Istanbul is like the difference between cats and dogs. Cats need a routine, need time to themselves, and kind of want to be alone when overwhelmed. Dogs are energetic, sociable, and don’t mind of their routine is broken up or if things don’t go the way they want it to. I’ve only been in Ankara for 6 hours but the analogy seems fairly accurate to me.
Kinda sounds like Islamabad. Planned city, nice place to live, kinda sterile and boring for tourists. It’s nice telling taxis I’m going to G9 or F11 or whatever, but how lame is that!?
Just like to update this. Tijuana/Rosarito area has become more dangerous. Though it’s probably temporary. US consulate has changed advisory level or w/e
A high up cartel guy had an attempt on his life that ended in his 5yo being shot and taken to hospital. He survived but bodyguard was killed.
Good local reporting says this guy was supposed to stay in mexicali (border city a few hours away) so maybe an attempted hit on him doesn’t have to be answered. But it happened midday at a barbershop near the biggest mall here in Rosarito, and a 5 yo was seriously injured. Stuff like this happens off and on, depending on cartel power struggles. Buts it’s almost always late night at sports bar or strip club type places. And not crazy attacks that risk lots of collateral injury.
Since my last post I spent a week in Eugene, OR and 4 days in LA. And had my bag stolen out of my brother’s vehicle in OR and saw that the LA homeless problem isn’t just a right-wing talking point. I in general feel safer in baja mexico than a do in where i go in US.
Not to mention it’s super hard and expensive to get guns here. I still feel like baja California is a great and safe place. Though less so if you have or could have daughters. Can expand if necessary but disappearance on young women and girls is a problem, and one that the government doesn’t want to or doesn’t have the resources to investigate and prevent.
I just want edit my original post. I’ve been here over 10 years and this event was pretty shocking to me.
Are you in Baja for the proximity to SoCal? That’s about the only advantage I can see, otherwise I’d probably choose 50 cities in Mexico over TJ/Rosarito.
I think if people had discovered CDMX back in the travel forum heyday when there were poker communities in Mexico, Medellin, Buenos Aires, etc. that it would have absolutely exploded and there would still be tons of poker players there today.
I started my CDMX thread in early 2018 and had tons of 2p2ers visiting, and that was when the travel forum was already kinda dead.
Do you already have permanent residency in Mexico? I’ve heard they’re cracking down pretty hard on the tourists living permanently on the 180-day visas (which were super easy to renew). I’m thinking about getting temporary residency and building towards permanent soon. My girlfriend is Mexican and we’ll probably marry, so it should be fairly easy. She hasn’t even been able to visit my family in the USA b/c it would be super unlikely for her to be approved even for a short term tourist visa.
Waiting for the first flight of our long journey back from South Africa. I have nothing but rave reviews for the country, the people, the hospitality, and the sites here. Over two weeks we covered Cape Town, Cape Peninsula, Winelands, Kruger, and a private reserve outside Kruger.
Incredible trip. I laugh a bit because it was booked a little bit on spec during COVID times as a “well let’s see what happens and if we’ll be allowed to travel” and because you get great bang for the buck using miles. Not really because SA was ever super high on the list.
It was also oddly simultaneously a trip 2 years in the making (canceled last year due to an ill cat) and one with some lack of planning lack (because we thought we’d have to cancel last-minute again this year due to an ill cat). So it was fun to figure some things out while we were here.
Well, Ankara wasn’t all that great. But then again, I didn’t expect it to be. Just felt weird using a capital city of 5 million people as a transit hub to Cappadocia. So, I figured there’d be enough here for a couple of days. Most of the foreigners I came across are either university students or waiting to get visas from one of the 135 embassies located here. Not a whole lot of tourists to be seen.
I’m doing some laundry and then want to see Ataturk’s Mausoleum around the changing of the guard at 3:30 pm. Tomorrow, it’s off to Cappadocia, the highlight of the trip.
Might be interesting getting around. Today is the commemoration of the defeat of 2016’s attempted coup (yes it was turned into a national holiday). Tons of pro-government stuff out there and Turkish flags are out everywhere you go. Wonder if there’ll be any anti-Erdogan protests due to the economic conditions.
