A Turkish Wedding

Yesterday was my first and only free day in Ankara. Unfortunately, I spent most of the day at a mall buying a blowdryer and Turkish cellphone. But later in the evening we finally went out to dinner. This was my first meal outside the hotel, so I was pretty happy about that. The only thing I'll say about the meal is that I'm glad I started to eat meat, even if I don't like most of it. Still need to work on eating more veggies though. The gluten thing has also not been much of an issue. I just can't have the amazing pita. The amazing thing about last night though was crashing a Turkish wedding. The owner of the restaurant was so pleased to have 5 American girls at his place that he insisted we go see a wedding that was taking place upstairs. Our Turkish friend said that it would be okay so we went. As we walked into the room, EVERYONE looked at us. None of us were dressed for a formal wedding like this. Some were in dresses (I was in a skirt) but nothing like we should have been dressed (formal prom dress attire). A table of men immediately got up to give us their seats right next to the dance floor. It was mostly just kids dancing on the dance floor, but it was really nice live music. Then the cakes came out. Yes, cakes. They were huge. Both at least 4 feet high. We then found out one was fake and that the bride/groom only cut the top portion of the cake, and then the guests get the other cake. It was banana flavored. Yes, we ate the cake... The bride/groom then stood on the dance floor for guests to bring them jewelry and cash. By the end of this, the bride had at least 7 bracelets and 4 necklaces of gold and diamonds. It was amazing. The bride/groom then walked out and we congratulated them in Turkish. They smiled and laughed at us. No one seemed upset that we were and the photographer even took our picture. (If the internet was better here, I would be able to upload these pictures. Sorry). We then decided it was probably time to leave. Crashing that wedding will probably become my favorite memory of Ankara.