Ankara - Diyarbakır

That's a bunch of rose products outside a shop at the busstation at İsparta, said to be the rose capital of Turkey. İ wanted to see the rose fields but my romantic idea failed, because we couldn't find any... They are deeper in the countryside.
There's a tale about a poor young girl (gülila) who would always hide in a rose bush when feeling alone and being ill-treated by her stepmother - and a rich rose merchant that only wanted to marry a girl who would smell like a rose... İt ends with him digging up the rose bush and moving it to his place and as soon as it touched the ground gülila walked out and they lived happily ever after... :-)

We travelled to Ankara, to meet with a guy we already got to know last year. He's keen on working with young people and will be at Freakstock this year... Looking forward.
Ankara is Turkey's official capital, center of the country's economic life, modern, secular... Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic is buried here, with his mausoleum looking like a temple. İt's due to him that in Turkey the latin alphabet is used, women are not allowed to wear headscarves at universities etc.

Ankara has a lot of young people, students from everywhere in the country. And a broad mixture of styles. İt's a crowded place, I got quite confused from time to time. And İ feel it would take a while to really get to know the city's heart.
Plenty of nice cafés...

From Ankara we travelled in an overnight bus to Diyarbakır, in the southeastern part of Turkey. Here mostly people belonging to the kurdish minority are living, the whole city feels more "oriental". While walking around the ancient city walls - THE (only) sight, we met lots of children playing on the streets ("money money"), a group of women sitting on the grass invited us to have çay with them (unfortunately couldn't talk much). And we took a look at the river Tigris (wow, Tigris - must be far away then .-).
so long then. İn an hour we will be in the bus again.
rebecca***