goosebumps in Ankara
I've been to Turkey before, though admittedly only to Istanbul. Tonight was an incredible evening - we went to visit the Citadel, a ~2000 year old fortress above Ankara. It was beyond spectacular, in the true sense of the word.
I'm too tired to type much tonight, but wanted to post this video. It's the view, panorama, from the Citadel. Ankara is in a valley of sorts, surrounded by mountains. It was a village until Kamil Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, led the country through battle to become Turkey. In so doing, he moved the capitol to Ankara, which happened to be roughly in the middle of the country. This village didn't intend to become a massive city - but now holds around 4M people. It is a cacophony, beautiful, crazy, and more. It is also, of course, Muslim. The video below shows, as mentioned above, the panoramic view from the Citadel, with the sounds of Muslims being called to prayer echoing off the mountain walls surrounding the city. The calls to prayer come from the innumerable mosques scattered across the city, but the incredible thing of being at the top of this building, in the middle of the city, was hearing the echoes (if you're having a hard time imagining it, picture a bundt cake pan). Hopefully this video will give some idea of this phenomenon; I have never experienced anything like it.
