2025-2026 Central Asia Adventure – Ankara Turkey
Today’s Huntington’s Disease report reminds me that HD is a worldwide problem. In fact the faulty gene was first isolated from a high concentration of HD families on Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela. Up to 40% of some families there carry the mutated gene, tracing back to a single 18th-century ancestor, possibly a Spanish sailor. This high concentration made the region a pivotal site for HD research, leading to a landmark genetic breakthrough in 1993. Dr. Nancy Wexler, whose mother had HD, led expeditions from Columbia University and the Hereditary Disease Foundation. They collected DNA from ~18,000 descendants, creating a massive pedigree – the largest ever for a genetic study. This “reverse genetics” approach, starting from families to find the gene, was revolutionary. The project pinpointed the HD mutation on chromosome 4p16.3: an expanded CAG trinucleotide repeat in the huntingtin (HTT) gene, causing toxic protein buildup in the brain. This was the first trinucleotide repeat disorder discovered, paving the way for understanding ~40 similar conditions (e.g., fragile X, myotonic dystrophy). The discovery enabled simple genetic testing for HD since 1994, which opened the door to prenatal screening and IVF that guarantee non-HD babies. Even though the test is available and definitive, many at-risk HD people choose not to test, and have decided to live their lives with the uncertainty, similar to the uncertainty the rest of us have about our future health issues.
Hello from Ankara, the fifth stop on the trip. Ankara is the capital of Turkey since 1923 and is the country’s second-largest city after Istanbul. Inhabited since the Stone Age, Ankara (formerly Angora) was a key center under the Hittites, Phrygians, Romans (as Ancyra), Byzantines, Seljuks, and Ottomans. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 BC and later incorporated into the Roman Empire by Augustus, it gained modern significance during World War I. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established his resistance headquarters here in 1919 against Ottoman and Greek forces, leading to its designation as the Republic of Turkey’s capital in 1923 to symbolize a break from Istanbul’s imperial past. It is a major industrial center along with the governmental and military hub. The city has been tagged as “administrative grayness”, which I concur with after being there for a few days.
This is a new city to me, my first stop as I head east through Turkey to the central Asian countries at the heart of my trip. This and the next stop are very normal, but things get *very weird* after, so hold onto your shorts for those posts.
I checked out of my Istanbul hotel room, rolled uphill to the Taksim metro station, M2 to Yenikapı, then B1 towards Pendik. 4 stops later I exited at SöÄütlüçeÅme and rolled into the train station run by TCCD – Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları or Turkish State Railways.
I watched my train pull in and everyone got off. Turks have no sense of an orderly line to get through the single gate into the platform – I had to use my bag to block two old ladies who were trying to push ahead of me. Very nice business class seat on a high-speed line, train built by Siemens. The snack bar is through a small door, after getting settled in my area I tried to order a sandwich and orange juice but the staff lady told me with translate on her phone that she wasn’t open yet, wait for 15 minutes. Later I got my food and just as I finished, other staff comes through the car with a trolley – everybody gets a box lunch with a cheese sandwich, cake, fruit juice and water. Ugh, bad timing on my part. A mother and quiet 2 year old have the seat across from me, we share a table, a very nice experience with them. Free Wifi, login with reservation and seat number, it works but is a bit slow. And every time we go though a tunnel I have to re-login. The countryside is… barren. Rocks and dirt and hills and brown grass. For hours. After about 5 hours the train arrived about 30 minutes late, no problem.
I got directions on my phone to the nearby hotel, walked through a scenic park with an empty reflecting pool to the hotel. I’m right next to a large mosque with highly effective loudspeakers… I asked the front desk kid for directions to food, he pointed me down a road. It was late and almost noting was open, but I got the ever-present chicken doner wrap and a Coke Zero. I know the guy overcharged me – 150 instead of 105 because he didn’t want to show me the display on the card machine. OK buddy, keep the $1 and now you have a story to tell about how you triumphed over the infidel.
In the morning I noticed that my window looks over a scruffy industrial shop area with two destroyed buildings and I wonder if they came down during an earthquake. Wifi SUCKS this morning, can’t do any travel research. I asked the kid and he pointed me 20 minutes down the road to a cafe, which was called New Jersey Coffee House, which had a very large indoor area with no smokers!!! It’s decorated with lots of Native American statues and art, for some reason… Ordered iced chocolate and a croissant sandwich. The girl at the counter couldn’t tell me what’s inside, so it will be a mystery. Turned out to be cheese. Lucky me!
Using the ultra-strong Wifi I started planning my research on where to go from here. I settled on trains to Kayseri then Kars and then across the border into Georgia. I tried to book the first train online but kept getting errors, so I got directions and walked 30 minutes to the train station. Bright sun but not hot. The ticket agent had no English but with Turkish translation on my phone and charades I ended up with a ticket at the right time on the right day in the right sleeper cabin.
With my near-term future settled, I walked through the city. It’s too hard to get to the castle so I walked about 30 minutes in the sun, mostly uphill to Hamamonu. It was houses back in the day but today it’s been turned into rabbit warrens of cafes and souvenir shops. I spotted a cafe with 12 empty tables, sat in the corner and had ice cream and fizzy water. I walked home through a street of hardware stores and card tables of bric-a-brac.
I went into the room and napped for about 2 hours. I’m doing a lot of afternoon napping. I wonder if I’m slowing down and getting near the end of my capability for world travel by anything less than business-class jets. That day will arrive but I’m enjoying the chaos of slow travel to boldly go where I’ve never gone before,for now.
The next morning I booked a hotel in Kayseri, quite near the train station. I prepped and walked to the top of the hill to the castle. I’s a short walk from the hotel but uphill. Really uphill. I’m glad I’m not a peasant hauling stones up that hill to build the castle in the first place. I stopped for emergency chocolate muffin – to maintain my strength I swear! I plotted a path to the Parliament Buildings, passed by multiple military buildings where photos, videos and drones are banned. Took one picture of the Parliament and walked back to he hotel. This city is not … anything. Not inspiring, not picturesque, not good architecture, nothing. Sad really. It’s on the path of my overall goal but I had hoped for more. Should you go here? No, unless you’re on the train and want to stay in a hotel overnight.
Next stop: The train to Kayseri.
