The question arose as to where we would go during the two weeks of leave we had accumulated. It was possible to go back by air to the UK. A few people did but even though the forces got concession rates on the normal £75 return fare it was a lot of money. (As a corporal I got £5 a week. ) The idea of seeing more of the world had a much greater appeal. Our first choice was to go to the Holy Land, Jerusalem and Bethlehem would be interesting, but there was a war going on. I don't think the army actually forbade going there but rather assumed that we would have more sense than to get involved in a war that was nothing to do with us. Then we discovered that a small group of RAF people including their O.D. ( Other Denominations ) Chaplain were going to Turkey and our enquiries resulted in an invitation to join them on their trip at the end of March as it would help reduce the costs all round.First thing we needed were passports so we took photos of each other and filled in the paper work and sent it off with the one pound 500 mil fee. Quite soon they came back complete with the visas allowing us to go to Turkey. Next we needed some money to take with us. Barclays had a branch on the camp and we had accounts there. All very formal, air conditioning had not yet arrived but even on the hottest of days the tellers wore ties and the service was excellent. In those days there were strict currency control regulations and the £25 in travelers cheques we bought was entered in the back of our passports by the bank.
Some one had done a bit of homework and discovered that there was a huge black market in currency exchange in Istanbul. The reason so we were told was that consumer goods, cameras, watches and the like were nearly unobtainable legally. Seamen on boats that docked there knew this and would bring such items with them to sell at a profit. However they would only accept sterling in payment so the Turkish black market required English pound notes at any price. We only had Cypriot ones so we urgently sent home for notes to be posted to us which duly arrived. I thought I would be clever and took the full size batteries out of a torch I had , bought small ones, wrapped the pound notes round them and put it back together. It looked and worked like an ordinary torch but was worth an extra £10!
We had 18 days leave all together so we allowed two either end and booked a flight out on Tuesday 26th. March and back 14 days later. We did this at the travel agents on the camp and it cost us £C 15 each for the return flight. For the Monday morning we organized a lift on the regular Army transport run to Kykko Camp in Nicosia and met up with friends we had trained with in England. Having told them what we were doing they had organized a couple of spare beds for the night so that we could turn up early at the airport which was about a mile away.
On Tuesday morning we hitched a lift to the airport and arrived in good time for the two hour flight which left at 10 am. We met up with the other members of the party. As well as the Chaplain there were the RAF Education officer and the Army Education Officer from Episcopi, all of whom we knew, as well as a friend of the Padre. There was good security at the airport since the EOKA attacks had destroyed planes. Our luggage was searched by an RAF corporal, he even switched on my torch to see if it worked! The official money we took, £25 travelers cheques plus £10 in Cypriot notes was entered in the passport though I think this was done when we reached Turkey rather than before we left Cyprus. In those days thirty five pounds was enough for two weeks holiday.
The flight was to Ankara and our plan was to spend a few days there, then go by bus to Istanbul and spend about a week there. At that point we would split up.The two of us would go back via Bursa and Eskeshire to Ankara while the others would take a different route and we would then meet up to fly home. When we arrived it was much colder than Cyprus. We had not really thought about this but we each had a blazer and I had a plastic mac and a pullover which I was glad of. The airline provided a taxi which had an English speaking driver to take us into Ankara. He took us to a couple of hotels that had been suggested by the travel agents but they were full. Through out our stay we found the Turks most friendly and any one who knew a little English more than anxious to practice with us so we asked the driver if he had any suggestions. He took us to an hotel within walking distance of the center of the city and fixed us up with very good rooms before he left. We had two rooms, each with a bathroom, between the six of us for a cost each of 7 lira a day bed but not breakfast. The hotel by any standard was good with a lift, plenty of hot water and central heating. Not providing breakfast turned out to be quite usual. Many Turks did not bother but we went to a nearby cafe for ours.
That afternoon we wandered into the town centre. To us Ankara was a strange city, most of it built since the 1920's and so quite modern with fine buildings and the sort of shops we would see at home. Then you looked down a side street into an old part with tumble down buildings sprawled every where. We went into a bank with our passports and changed some money. The official exchange rate was about 8 lira to the pound but to encourage foreign currency tourists got 14 lira to the pound. ( Later on the black market we got 25 lira to the pound sterling ) so you can see how cheap every thing was to us. We were wondering what to do that evening when we passed a building with posters advertising The National School of Ballet performing excerpts to show off their skills at the State Opera House. They didn't speak English in the booking office but elementary French got us the seats we wanted.
For our first meal we went to a restaurant that had been recommended and had an excellent meal of soup, chicken and caramel cream. It was an easy walk to the theater and the show was quite entertaining. The thing that did amaze us was in the interval. We went up to the "bar" and there was a real scrum to get served so we hung back for a while. When we got to being served we discovered that they were fighting over which brand of bottled water they wanted and the most exciting drink on offer was soda water. It had escaped us that of course the Turks were Moslems and, at least in public, they did not drink alcohol. So it was soda water all round for us.
The next morning after a breakfast of chicken rolls and fresh squeezed orange juice we went to the Embassy, which was a bus ride out of town, to "book in" as in those days they liked to keep tabs on people. From the Embassy there was a fine view of the town and especially the two hills that were the main part of the old town. The staff told us that visitors were allowed into the nearby Presidential Palace and suggested we look at it as well as the house in the grounds where Kemal Atatürk the founder of modern Turkey had lived. We went up to the gate and a soldier of the presidential guard was detailed to walk round with us. My picture shows how scruffy by our standards he was. The Attaturk Mausoleum is the most outstanding building in Ankara and his statue and portraits watched over you where ever you went. He was a dictator but one of the few good ones.
That afternoon we climbed one of the hills, that form old Ankara, to the walls of the fortress at the top. There was a museum of Hittite remains and also a street market. We had expected there to be a lot of bargaining going on but in fact virtually everything had a marked price, presumably part of the westernisation brought in by Attaturk. Next we found a Dolmus stand and went to the main long distance bus park on the edge of town. A Dolmus ( from the Turkish word for stuffed ) was a large American car which stood at a recognised stand with its destination displayed. It sold individual seats and waited till it was stuffed full of people before it set off. If time was not too important and you could stand the squash it was cheaper than either a bus or a taxi. Our dolmus had the six of us plus several Turks stuffed in it before it set off. The wag in our party made a mooing noise like a cow to indicate he thought it was like a cattle waggon and we laughed a bit. Then one of the Turks piped up and asked " Why your friend make animal noise?" and there was much more laughter as he tried to explain our point of view.
The bus park was an area of fairly rough ground with busses coming and going. There was not one State run company but a number of private competing firms and you had to work out which one provided the service you needed. We booked seats in a crowded office with a harrased clerk shouting and arguing with the passengers. Eventually with the aid of a phrase book we got seats on a bus to Istanbul leaving at 7am the next morning. We decided on this time when we discovered it was a ten hour journey and we had to find an hotel when we got there. In the morning it was up early, no waiting for a dolmus, we took a taxi to the bus park. The bus was a modern Mercedes and in lieu of a loudspeaker system there was a chap walking up and down shouting "Stambul , Stambul, Stambul". The roads were good and it was powerful and fast but inside it was packed tight. Each row had three seats one side and two on the other but when they were full seats were let down into the aisle so it was six accross all the way down the bus. In the end it held 50 people in a space where there would have been 32 at home.
The final stage of the journey into Istanbul was completed by the bus crossing the Bosphorous on a ferry ( there was no bridge then ) and then getting to the centre of the city near to the Galata bridge over the Golden Horn. The Bosphorous divides Turkey so there is an Asian and European part while the Golden Horn divides Istanbul into two parts joined by very busy bridges.We found a hotel near the bus station. Possibly trading on its location, being the first to be found by a stranger arriving by bus, it charged sixteen lire a night. When we went and booked in at the Embassy next day they recomended another which was only six and just as good.
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