Not sure what I think yet. It's pretty cold and although its been snowing none of it settles in the city. Ankara seems to be hills and ravines with blocks of flats having been built in and on all of them. I felt very overwhelmed this morning and wondered what I had let myself in for. Whatsapp messages from home and warm and friendly hosts have greatly helped. I have previously only been to two other places in Turkey, Istanbul in the far West and Ezerum in the far East of the country. Ankara is mid-way between the two geographically, in terms of size and also, I guess, in its culture. Istanbul has a population of about 15 million (depending on how you count it), Ezerum about 440,000 and Ankara 5 million. I suspect that Ankara has aspects of the big city of Istanbul and eastern culture of Ezerum. We went into the centre of the city which is not too far away and I think we are going to be able to get around on public transport fairly easily. I was reminded of Pakistan and the slow process of getting things done in Asia. We eventually managed to get new sim cards for our phones only to find they were the wrong ones! Perhaps it is as much that we don't know what we are doing as things being more complicated. We are like babies in the new culture....we don't know how to do anything and we don't know what anything means. We are going to have to learn, hopefully not too slowly....I don't think anything is going to happen quickly. Babies, I suppose, take lots of time to grow and you can't rush growth...unfortunately.
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