9 September, Boğazkale
to Ankara by hitching
Sevecen Otel 84TL
The Turks are a generous lot. Two lifts
brought us to Ankara, about 220km from Boğazkale, the first dropping us in Sungurlu,
the second within the capital’s limits. We had no clear idea then of where exactly
we were or how to get to the reconstructed old city centre of Hamamönϋ where we
had booked a hotel. We popped into a vehicle dealership to make enquiries and
while “discussing”* where to find a dolmuş, the boss stuck his head out of an
upper office window and proposed one of the salesmen drive us to our
destination, which proved to be 20 minutes away through horrible traffic. The
salesman did so perfectly cheerfully, dropping us near our hotel. This morning
before hitching out of town we paid a visit to Boğazkale’s charming little
museum where we fell in love with the cuneiform tablets. The Hittites had a
hieroglyph script of their own, but mainly communicated in cuneiform. On clay
tablets, in the tiniest, neatest script, are ceremonial texts, documents
relating to historical events, and letters. Most of what is known of the
Hittites came to light with the discovery of the state archives, literally
thousands of clay tablets, at Hattuşa.
*Surprisingly little English is spoken in
Turkey. A “discussion” involves one- or two-word queries from us, in this case
“Hamamönϋ dolmuş?” and sign-language or show-n-tell responses from the Turks. Our small
Turkish vocabulary is often of use, as are the few words of German we
understand.
Hamamönϋ, Ankara
Hamamönϋ, Ankara