Do you know the feeling when you want a certain trip so bad that you fantasize about it every day and it finally happens to you? Firstly you’re surprised, but without any expectations because it seems kinda unrealistic. Then, as the date of it gets closer, you get more excited, the planning starts, but you still can’t believe that it’s finally happening. Suddenly, you are in the plane to your favorite foreign country. The adrenaline. The happiness. The gratitude. Well, that pretty much summarizes the way I felt about my first time coming to Turkey. First time coming to Asia, first time flying by a plane, first time doing and Erasmus Plus youth exchange program!
Even though my first choice would be Istanbul or even southern coastline like Antalya, I certainly had nothing against of coming to the capital city: Ankara. As the second largest city in Turkey with around 7 million inhabitants, Ankara is placed in the central part of Anatolia, on the crossroads of the country. As I never put much energy into searching the info about the city, I didn’t know what to expect. However, with my first step on the Ankara’s ground, I was really surprised by the look of the city: of course it has everything one country’s capital needs to have, but I certainly didn’t plan on seeing castles right next to the street! The roads are amazing, pretty-much-new buildings are everywhere, shopping malls, huge mosques that light green or blue during the night…just wow.
As a very old city, dating back to Ancient times and having lots of civilizations inhabiting it throughout the history, Ankara has always been a place of great interest, but the modern-day look and importance has got thanks to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, known as the establisher of the Republic of Turkey who lead the War of Independence and in 1923. gave Ankara the status of the capital city, taking over one from Istanbul.
Make the World Green Erasmus Plus exchange program
The main focus of the Make the World Green program was ecology, dealing with waste and taking care of the surroundings. It gathered young people and their youth leaders from even 7 countries: Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia. Beside me, the Serbian team collected 3 more youth activists and one youth worker from Youth office Cacak (Kancelarija za mlade Čačak).
We flew with Turkish Airlines (Türk Hava Yolları) and my first flying experience was beyond beautiful! Clear and sunny weather, next-to-the-window seat and cute (male) flight attendants bringing me food and coffee. What else can a girl want, right? P.S. Yes, I know it is a normal thing nobody pays attention to, but hey, it was my first flight, so let me be excited about it! 😀
Our hotel was placed close to the very city center, though we later realized it was one of the “not so popular” neighborhoods which totally made sense because the police was patrolling all the time during the night and also you couldn’t spot a female walking down the streets as soon as the moon replaced the sun. Nevertheless, we felt safe and the service was great, but it didn’t matter much, since our days were filled with activities of all kinds!
Activities
To sum it up at the start: we were so busy our days seemed they lasted forever, but at the same time, they went by so fast we didn’t know what just happened. Yes, we were tired (because some of us are used to taking naps every day), but never so exhausted that we couldn’t participate with our full commitment and also, have the most fun.
During our 6-days stay we visited 3 schools, where we were welcomed like kings and queens. Honestly, Turkish hospitality in general is something definitely worth mentioning about this country and we truly felt very comfortable and safe wherever we went. These kids expressed their huge excitement towards us as foreigners and wanted to exchange very little English words they knew. Also, we all felt like celebrities while they were asking us for instagram accounts and selfies *so cute*.
During these visits we also had lectures about ecological principles all of these schools apply and they taught us the art of origami (at least they tried, but some of us were really lost cases). I must say that private schools look VERY classy, while the state ones are super colorful thanks to the creative students. In the pauses we played volleyball and basketball or had lunch and also, in every of these schools we had some musical/cultural program performed for us which was adorable and also heartwarming to see these kids giving the best of themselves for us. In one high school we painted the walls with our flags, names and some words in our national language which was one of my favorite activities.
Beside these activities we spent lots of our time in parks and picnic sites where we saw that these people really try taking care about greenery. Even though you can’t spot many trees in the pedestrian areas near the street (which is bad), they have lots of parks where people find their getaway from the concrete. Here we had our walks, energizers, picnics and it was pretty cool to chill out for a bit.
Now, the real deal. We were guests of Ministry of Ecology and Urbanization and during the visit we felt like real professionals. Really important people talked to us about concept called “Zero Waste” which basically means that most of the waste from institutions and homes is getting recycled and the number of landfills is being brought down to the minimum. After the presentation about it, we took a walk through the ministry and saw how the people who work here give the right example of how the waste should be managed.
One of the highlights of this trip was afforestation of one region in the municipality and with no other than His Exellency Ambassador of Rwanda! It’s true. Fun activity with a great cause and we got to meet some both important and interesting people. Pretty cool 🙂 We even got a call to visit them in their Embassy in Ankara for a commemoration of a genocide that happened in their country. It was an honor.
The end of the “official part” of the program was making of flash mob in front of the municipality’s building. Every team had the task to make some famous object from their country. Our team chose to make a backboard and a basket mainly because Serbia doesn’t have worldwide famous objects that also can be made easily and of course, because we are the country known for its sport players, especially basketball ones (not to mention our guys play in Turkish leagues and it was a great way to present the Serbo-Turkish friendship regarding sport). With lots of struggling on a very hot day and thanks to students from one high school from Ankara we managed to finish something that turned out to be a main attraction of the final show. All of the participants got to meet the mayor of Keçiören and all in all we had a great time finishing the day with yet another cultural night and a party. 🙂
Cultural nights are always amazing and every country was unique in its own way. We saw different traditional dances, tried out delicious food and found out useful things. We brought bunch of snacks that are produced in Serbia and won over the rest of the people with it 🙂 Also, our friend Ema sang one of old, traditional songs which was a truly heartwarming experience.
For the end of this post, I would like to say that the cultural visit to the city we had prepared for the last day was definitely a memorable thing to do. Learning about Atatürk while visiting Anıtkabir or climbing up the old town of Ankara is something that even pictures cannot explain. What is going to get stuck in my head for a while is my first time in a mosque, that also turned out to be the oldest one in this city. Amazing!
What makes this country my absolute favorite is not just amazing food we had tons of here, but the warmth of people who rather consider you a family than a foreign exchange student. I will definitely keep coming back to Turkey until I explore every part of it, but next time with the ability to speak Turkish and not only understand it (it’s a tough position for someone who likes speaking as much as I do). Big thanks to the organizers and the rest who helped!
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