New Culture, New Experiences

Above Ankara (taken in the Ankara Castle)

Hello everybody! İ am Karolina and İ am a volunteer of IYACA youth organization in Ankara. Exactly 2 weeks passed since İ arrived in the capital city of Turkey for my EVS. I come from a small country Slovakia, which has the same population as Ankara has. After a long day, which İ spent in plane or at the airport in Vienna and İstanbul, İ finally found myself in Ankara. The city welcomed me about midnight with colorful buildings and rainy weather, even though I was prepared for an extremely cold city covered by snow (guys don’t believe to gossips that Ankara is sooooo cold). After a small walk we came to our apartment and my mentor Sinan shared with me very ımportant information, that we don’t have any elevator, so he had to carry my 20+ kg heavy baggage (I am really sorry for it). During my stay in Ankara İ have learnt how to prepare a turkish “çay”, I trıed to learn a turkısh card game called “Pişti”, unfortunately, I haven’t learnt how to use turkish keyboard yet (sorry for mixing the ı/i in this blog).

We live in a very city center where almost every country has their embassies, so I expected that people will be used to foreigners. But when İ walk on the street everybody knows that I am the "yabanci", maybe it is written on my forehead. Anyway, turkısh people are known world-wide for their hospitality and warmth, so is it true? Definitely. People in shops, streets or in restaurants want to help you, even if they don’t speak english. İ try to speak turkish, the reason is that İ thınk ıt ıs nıce if people at least try and İ belıeve it’s a kind of showing respect (also people in Ankara don’t speak English) and when people hear it they are so cute and polite, asking where am İ from and so on, tıll we get to level where my turkish is over (mostly the conversation is very short :D).

A part of awesome people in gorgeous İstanbul

The two weeks passed really fast, İ traveled to İstanbul where İ stayed for 5 days. The reason of my visit was On-Arrıval trainıng organized by Turkish National Agency. During this training, I had a chance to meet so many nice, talented and motivated people. İ have to mention our legendary room 228 (İ can see your smile guys). I am very thankful for this opportunity. No doubt that İstanbul is the biggest city ın Turkey, so you expect that people wıll be less caring, but the truth is the opposite. I went to a patisserie with friends of mine. We ordered 4 “salep”, as İ am a big sweet lover İ was wondering about one sweet which i have never tried (I am really bad wıth names) so İ asked the waıtor. He directly saıd me, don’t order ıt because you wıll not lıke ıt. İt made me even more curious so İ ordered it. Thıs turkısh “tatlı” was different, a bit hard, the chocolate pastry, fruits were covered by peanuts and it made a perfect combination of tastes. İ really liked it, so İ shared my opinion with waiter who was waiting for my reaction. He was so surprised and on the other hand so happy that İ liked the sweet, that he served us different kind of sweets just to try them.

Some tips:

I found the monumental Kocatepe
on the way home (yes, İ was a little bit lost)

If you don’t know the way, always ask 2 or more people. Turkısh people never say I don’t know, so they can show you the wrong way. (happened to me many times)

You can meet here one philosophy, I call it “problem yok”, where everything is okay, never seeing problems, which has of course pros and cons.