Ankara; the Election

Assalamualaikum.

Wish I could finish these hutang-posts-yang-sudah-dari-kapan-tahu before the school starts! (This is posted after the school started actually but yea, the post was already finished before)

These stories is going to be connected one another as the events itself were also happened in sequence. 2019 Indonesia Presidential Election was the reason I traveled to Ankara on the first hand. Actually, Indonesian people living in Turkey should be able to do the election from their own cities by sending the election paper via post. But my name was not in the registered list of Indonesian living in Samsun. Seems like I missed the registration process. Thus, I needed to go by myself all the way to Ankara and do the election in the Indonesia Embassy Office.

Then I remembered that Ankara and Konya is connected by a speed train. The travel fare for Samsun-Konya by bus happened to be more expensive than Samsun-Ankara (bus) + Ankara-Konya (train).

Well, the plan settled already!

I took a 7-hours-night-bus from Samsun to Ankara. Since I am not Ankara citizen, I needed to wait until the end of the day (around 5 pm) to fulfill my rights and choose the next president. Luckily I met friends from Rize that happened to experience the same thing, so after the registration was completed, we agreed to travel a bit in this capital city of Turkey.

First, we headed to Kizilay, a shopping area and one of the city center in Ankara. We ate lunch and continued to go to Anit Kabir by bus. Anit Kabir is a national monument where the very first president of Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was buried.

We didn’t spend much time there since the election time was coming. As we were on the way back to Kizilay, the sky turned dark.

And guess what? A freezing rain was falling!

"Freezing rain is the name given to rain maintained at temperatures below freezing by the ambient of air mass that causes freezing on the contact with surfaces. Unlike a mixture of rain and snow, ice pellets, or hail, freezing rain is made entirely of liquid droplets" (sc: Wikipedia).

We immediately ran away to the nearest security and took a shelter. Lets call it an ice rain. It was a real droplets of ice falling from the sky. Whoa. *norak* *baru pertama kali*

I didnt expect that it would be raining at all.. so we went back to the Embassy with soaked clothes and shoes.

It was really a short trip though, but at least it was better than sitting in the waiting room doing nothing.

It reminded me how easy it was to do the election back in Indonesia. The election in my neighborhood takes place 5-house-away from mine, and all the announcement can be listened clearly as it is always broadcasted from the nearest mosque. Dont forget to mention all the promos and discounts offered nearly everywhere for those who already do the election.

Experiencing a 7 hours bus trip, 8 hours of waiting, the heat in the beginning of summer, and a sudden hit by ice rain, is definitely not a normal election day in my life. Alhamdulillah, I was so grateful I could fulfill both my right and responsibility to contribute for the sake of Indonesia’s future. Since our new president is already elected, lets pray for them and our better home.