Crawling up on the old cobbled street in the old town of Ankara, I can't stop fantasizing about the views I am gonna get from up there...
There is not too much to see in Ankara in my opinion. Of course, like everywhere you can surely visit some museums and few historical places. But there aren't many in here. This makes the castle on the hill being an obvious target. The whole city is somewhat hilly. Nothing too bad, after all Turkey is not Himalayas. Even though it surely has some hard mountains to climb.
I have accommodated myself on the other side of the center, with quite nice view of the castle, but damn it looked far away. That sort of distance when it is about the same time to catch a metro, tram or walk. A local can be faster with public transport than me, but I will lose about two hours just figuring out where to buy a ticket.
So I decided to walk. Seeing all the layers of the city, from the residential to commercial and historical everything seemed to click together. The city is really busy, but with a little courage and short sprint, you will get around occasional highways and red lights. So, I jump across few streets, underways and bridges and I find myself on the final "climb", those little streets luckily too steep for cars to drive through them.
Alright well some cars do get up here, but those are the residents and not some crazy drifters, so we can continue on our walk with ease.
Local vendors are selling typical old town tourist souvenirs and products. Sometimes tea and herbs, but mostly useless things.
As you can see the homes and houses are really old and one wonders if people still live there or it serves only as a coulisse. At this point we arrive to the gated area. No cars after this point I guess. Or at least not unauthorized. Here is where restaurants and cafes are located. But that is not my reason for visit today. I am in a rush for a golden hour up at the castle.
At the end of summer it is quite a desert like place. Or at least I was feeling like that. For a European many places which are not desert per say, looks like that. There are great views of the whole city from this centraly located place. Also lot of locals and visitor know it and come to enjoy sunsets here. Even photographers are taking their customers and models up here to show them in the best light.
As the sun sets down, call for prayer resonates from minaret to minaret and the whole moment turns into magical experience worthy describing, but I am lacking words for that.
In the moment of a golden hour I am speeding up and trying to get the shots from every possible angle, getting to narrow paths under the tribune where remains of small windows are.
After the sunset, I merge myself into the shadows of the night and disappear between many of quite weird bars present in Ankara. But that would be for another story.
All the best,
Global Local