Day Trip from Ankara: BeypazarI

BeypazarI is talked about and listed in any of your comprehensive travel guides such as Lonely Planet or Let's Go.  It is a small town outside of Ankara that is well known for its market (with a specialty in silver) and for its well restored Ottoman buildings in the city center and market area.  The city is pretty, set up in the mountains and spilling into a ravine.  If you want a nice day of wandering through pretty streets, shopping, enjoying great Turkish food and exploring then BeypazarI is a nice place. 

To get there, it will take you 2 hours on a Dolmus.  BeypazarI Dolmus' leave from various places within the city but a common and convenient place to catch one is across from the AkkrOprU Metro Station  (AnkaMall).  They leave every half and hour and cost 5TL per person.   They leave until 8 at night from BeypazarI, again every half hour. 

Ankara Citadel: Shopping and Culture

The Ankara citadel is an interesting mix of many different sights and activities.  To begin with, the citadel looms over Ulus and Ankara with its Roman towers atop.  Although the northern tower is not enterable and difficult to find, the eastern tower is flanked with small cafes hotels and tourist boutiques, as well as one of the oldest mosques in Ankara: Alaettin Cami (dating to 1100).  The northern tower is best enjoyed from below the citadel looking up.  On the way up the hill to the citadel, you can glimpse the remains of Ankara's Roman theatre. 

Alonside the historical architecture, the citadel boasts the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which has won awards in the past.  The citadel is also home to the Ankara Industrial Museum. 

The shopping on the citadel can be divided into three parts:  art, tourist and spice.  Behind the archaeology museum you will see a medium sized spice market where you can shop for dry goods of all kinds.  Continuing up the hill, through the tower gates, you will find small tourist shops and cafes.  Continuing down the hill from the spice market you will find tourist shops, including shops that specialize in basket making.  One shop imparticular that is recommended is "Yore".  If you continue past the spice market and down the otherside of the hill, you will find yourself in a more upscale, albeit small, area of the citadel that has art galleries of sculpture, bronze and painting.  This is good area to go if you are looking for high quality traditional crafts or artifact reproductions.

To get to the citadel:
The Metro can be taken to the Ulus stop, and by sight one can walk towards the citadel's high peak.  This walk can prove long and tedious if the weather is hot or walkers are not in strong health. 
A bus or dolmus can be taken towards "Altindag" (meaning "under the mountain") and you will be dropped closer to the peak than with the metro. 
Taxis' are the most convenient way to get to the citadel's peak; allowing vistors to amble back down towards the subway stop.  To ask for the citadel, use the word "kale". 

Ankara: The Oran Forest

The Oran Forest is a great spot to quickly get out of the city and breathe some fresh air and enjoy some trees and hiking.  The forest is owned by METU (Middle East Technical University) but half of the park is open to the public. The forest is extensive.  When you first enter, you will be immersed in a managed pine tree forest and as you walk furthur in you will find yourself on a ridge overlooking a lake and a natural landscape. 

To get to the forest, take a dolmus from Kizilay to Oran.  The ride will take you approximately 30 minutes.  If you ask the driver where the forest is, he will drop you in the right place  (Nerede orman?).  If trying your Turkish is too intimidating, watch for the trees to appear on your left hand side---do not get off until about 5 mintues of trees have passed you by.  Most handy is the sign for Panora on your right hand side (a large mall in the area).  When you see the sign for Panora and the dolmus subsquently turns right, get off and walk towards the trees.  There are multiple entrances to the forest and plenty of room for exploration.  Enjoy!

Demirtepe Mosque

The Demirtepe Mosque is a beautiful mosque that towers over Mustafa Kemal Blvd. at the Demirtepe metro stop.   Built around the mosque is a man made waterfall that is surrounded by benches and trees at both the top and bottom.  It is a nice spot to sit and people watch, as well as enjoy the beauty of the mosque in the midst of Ankara's bleak cement buildings. 

Roman Baths in Ankara

The roman baths in Ankara are worth a half hour of your time. It is only a 3TL entrance fee and is not far north of the Ulus traffic circle on Ataturk Blvd (10 minute walk north of the circle).

The baths are somewhat impressive, although can not be enjoyed up close because of a protective fence around the main areas of the complex. The most interesting part of this site is the hundred or so roman gravestones that have been placed around the field leading up to the baths. Also, there are hundreds of broken pillars, headstones and bricks lying around that can be explored up close.

There is a distinct lack of people up on this hill, with a nice view. An interesting spot to go to on a nice afternoon. Enjoy!

Ankara's Art Museum and Ethnography Museum

On a hill south of Ulus, overlooking the city, stand two Ottoman period buildings that respectively house the Ethnography Museum and the Art Museum. These two museums are side by side, with an impressive statue of Ataturk riding a horse out front. The Ethnography Museum costs 3TL to enter and the Art Gallery is free of charge; both are closed between the hours of 12 and 1. The address is: Talat Pasa Bulvari, Samanpazari. It is easy to walk to from Ataturk Blvd--it is on the east side of the blvd and slightly south of Ulus. You can see the Luna Park ferris wheel from the front of the museums.

If you are newly living in Ankara, it is of course a must that you check out the culture that Ankara has to offer. The Ethnography Museum is worth the 30 minutes it will take you to walk around the window displays of cultural events past and present. The displays are colourful, lively and well displayed. The Art Gallery next door is free, but can be a dismal experience in some ways. It is not well frequented and the art work is not well cleaned. Currently there is a marbling exhibit on the first floor that is quite nice, albeit too small to be the sole reason for visiting.

The grand buildings that house these two museums are beautiful and architecturally interesting. Ataturk's body was temporarily enshrined in the current Ethnography Museum while the mausoleum was being constructed. In both buildings there are many interesting old photographs of Ataturk and modern Ankara history.