Yes I'm flabbergasted: what a lovely surprise!

February 22, 2014

I had to wait until Monday to apply for my final 'Stan' visa and so it was another weekend in sunny Ankara for me. As I didn't want to outstay my welcome with Merve and her weird cat I moved again, this time to stay in an apartment with three erasumus students; Szymon from Poland, Agnes from Lithuania, and Roberta from Italy. With the latter I ended up walking around half of Ankara on Saturday and once again I found my way to a bicycle shop and stood before the bikes trying to decide which one would be best to accompany me. Even though, as I mentioned previously, I have a ~~perfectly~~ relatively good bike already, I nevertheless came to an agreement with the man in the shop about a new one and promised to return the following day to collect. Such apparently bizarre behaviour on my part will be explained in due course, I promise, if only you can find the strength to see this blog post through to the end (or at least the next paragraph.)

These are the cats of my new hosts. They weren't as ridiculous as Lola Lupeck, but they were as mischiefous - here I found them inside the cupboard where their food is kept

On Sunday morning I went for another walk, alone this time, and for some reason I found myself wandering aimlessly around Ankara's main bus station. And I think perhaps because the movies are more interesting than real life, I will now describe how what happened next will play out on the big screen.

Ryan Gosling is wandering aimlessly around Ankara's main bus station. The reason for this is not made clear to the viewer. He is looking devilishly handsome though. After several minutes wandering aimlessly around, Gosling takes a seat on some steps. As he is waiting, looking all handsome and that, his eye is suddenly caught by a blonde girl, played by Kirsten Dunst, running towards him. It is Hanna, the girl he first met in Belarus, and with whom he then adopted a dog in Ukraine. He is amazed that she has turned up here, completely out of the blue. He stands to meet her.

"Hanna! What are you doing here?!" he says, handsomely.

"What do you mean? We agreed to meet here. I'm coming cycling with you, remember?" replies the girl.

"Oh how romantic, what a wonderful surprise!"

"Surprise? We arranged all this. Thats why we met here."

"Yes I'm flabbergasted, what a lovely surprise!"

"But we arranged all this. I told you I was coming."

"Shhh Hanna, that's not in the script. Its a romantic surprise, okay! Its better, in the movies, when its a surprise."

Okay, so that conversation didn't really happen. I just want life to be more like the movies. What really happened was I met Hanna at the bus station, we said hello and hugged and then we walked to the bike shop to buy the bike for her.

The guys at the bike shop were really great. The bike I had picked out turned out to be too big for Hanna and so they found a better one for her with awesome electric green stripes on it. As one of the guys was fitting a rack to it and changing the tires another ran and brought me and Hanna some complimentary tea. The three guys that helped us were really funny and they did a fine job - the bike looked really good when it was all set up with Hanna's gear on it. She was all set.

Hanna with her new bike and the guys who helped her get set up

On Sunday evening Hanna and I went with Szymon and his Italian girlfriend Silvia to the old town of Ankara and up to the castle. The views from here were absolutely incredible, with most of Ankara visible.

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