I rather liked Ankara - or at least the little of it I saw.It was a very last minute type of journey. My client was unable to get UK visas from our Foreign Office and so we offered to come to him, as Brits can get into Turkey by simply paying £10.
I was hoping to see more of the country but unfortunately the flight from Expedia turned out to be one of those no changes what so ever under any circumstances, tough, that's how it is, sort of tickets.
So moon-like Cappodocia will have to wait.
However my client did take me to a fantastically good sea food restaurant called Trilye, where palettes were cleansed between starter and main by lemon sorbet, produced at the table with a steaming bowel of liquid nitrogen, and we ended with a lemon tree brought to the table to waft its pungent scent over us.
The owner came over to say hello and when he heard I was a Brit he got one of the waiters to bring out a photo of him and someone I recognised - our Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Someone should have taken the opportunity to take him to task about our visa policy!
The professionalism and high quality of the restaurant was a good example of how Turkey has shown how a modern, secular, market based, democratic and Islamic country can work and thrive.
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