Day 8: Ankara







After a long bus ride and only about 4 hours of sleep, we spent our first full day in Ankara by visiting various museums, eating delicious food, and exploring some wonderful stores! 

Our day started with a visit to Ankara University where we visited their Veterinary Science Museum and their anatomy museum. The vet school was founded in 1842 during the Ottoman era and was the first vet school in Turkey. The school was originally located in Istanbul before it was relocated to Ankara. The museum was organized by vet school faculty in 2016 to display and share the history of the school and of veterinary medicine as a whole. The anatomy museum was super interesting as it displayed many different animals’ physical structures at different life stages. There were elephant bones, fetal pigs, a stuffed tiger, an ostrich skeleton, and a wild boar skull, just to name a few. One of the skeletons that I found very interesting was a turkey (bird) that was actually a gift to the Turks from U.S. President Harry Truman.  

For lunch we stopped at a famous restaurant for lamb kebaps. The meat was cooked on a giant skewer on an open flame, then shaved off onto a smaller skewer which is how it was served. It was so delicious and probably my favorite meal so far.  

After lunch, we visited the first parliament building, which is where Ataturk organized the first parliament with representatives from each of the provinces after the Ottoman Empire had fallen. Ataturk chose to have the parliament in Ankara because it was a small and remote location compared to Istanbul.  

Out final museum of the day was the Anatolian Civilization Museum. This museum displayed various artifacts and relics from many different eras of Turkish history. There were many coins, stones, ceramics, jewelry, statues, and basically anything and everything that the people would have used during those times.  

We ended the day with some retail therapy. We visited many small shops that surrounded one of the castles in Ankara. There were so many trinkets, souvenirs, and gifts that were either handmade or made in Turkey that me and my fellow travelers loved. If given the chance I think we all could have stayed there all day just browsing the beautiful items and people watching. While in the castle area, we also enjoyed a delicious meatball supper at a small restaurant that has been frequented by many famous Turks, including the Turkish President.  

Thankfully, we were able to end the night early and have some time to relax at the hotel and get some much needed rest before we have another full day tomorrow with some farm tours that I am extremely excited about! Turkey as a whole has been amazing, and the people are all so kind that I think it will be hard to leave in only 7 days!

Karmen Sperr

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