Beypazari

On Saturday, a group of 9 international students from all over the world went to Beypazari, Turkey, accompanied by 3 Turkish students from Bilkent. They are the three that we met up with last week that showed us around Ankara a bit. It is so nice to travel with people who speak the language! They also figured out all the logistics of getting to and from Beypazari using public transportation.

Side note: There is some sort of amusement park in Ankara. I have no idea if I'll be able to go to it, but at least I can take pictures of it for a certain cousin of mine!

We woke up early and met at the bus station at 7:30am. Turkey has large buses for long distance travel and small buses, called dolmus, for short distances. Beypazari is only 1 1/2 hours west of Ankara, so we took the metro to the dolmus stop (which we, the international students, would not have found on our own) and boarded the dolmus for Beypazari. Of course, on the way and throughout the trip, there were many selfies taken and somehow, 12 people can be in one selfie together!

Beypazari is famous for producing carrots, mineral water, and fine silver products. In the main square there is a statue of carrots. They sell carrot juice, carrot turkish delight, carrots by they bag full.

We went to lunch upon arrival, as we were all hungry from traveling. We tried dolmus. It is rice and meat rolled up in a grape leaf. The Turkish girls were drooling over them. One of them said "It is like heaven." I'm not sure if it was like heaven, but it was very yummy! The girls said they take a long time to make, but they are gone in a matter of seconds because they are so good. And Beypazari is one place where they are especially good.

Beypazari also has traditional Ottoman houses. We toured one that was set up as a living museum. The presenters, or workers, were speaking with a different dialect of Turkish (though I could not tell that they had a different accent) and were demonstrating the traditional ways to make different things, like patterns on clothes and traditional weaving of carpets (pictured below). This house was huge! It was 3 stories with each room serving a specific purpose. There was one room that was called the winter room as it was easy to heat. The family would spend most of their time there during the winter. There was also a room for the eldest son and his bride on their wedding night and it served as their room that they would continue to live in after marriage (pictured below). In traditional Ottoman houses, the family all lived together under one roof, as a multi-generational community.

We then went to another museum, this one being a museum on the traditional Turkish baths. I believe that this is the only museum in Turkey that is specifically for Turkish baths. Of course it had the marble everywhere - on the floors and walls. Interesting fact about Turkish Baths: the ceilings in well-designed bath houses are always dome shaped so that the condensation rises to the top of the ceiling, and, instead of collecting there, will just slide down the ceiling. This prevents the ceiling from constantly needing a re-plaster.

After touring the two museums, we went and had Cay (Turkish tea, which the locals have 3-4 times a day) and Turkish Coffee. While the Turkish students read the international students' fortunes from their coffee, the international students tried to read the Turkish fortunes. It was quite fun listening to 3 guys from Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong try to tell the future through collaboration. We also tried Baklava, which is a traditional Turkish desserts. It has over 40 layers.

Afterwards, we had time to shop for souvenirs, including tablecloths and Carrot Turkish Delight.

We took the dolmus mini bus back to Ankara, then decided to check out the largest mall in Ankara, called AnkaMall. It is 4 stories. The bottom level is basically all for children, the middle two floors are clothing, and the top floor is entertainment, including a movie theater. I will definitely go to a movie as I heard they are very cheap in Turkey.

We then took the metro back to close to Bilkent and boarded the bus and arrived at Bilkent at 9:30pm. It was a very long day, but it was definitely worth it. We had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and a lot of selfies!