Ankara stork nesting

  • Published
  • By Mehmet Birbiri
  • 39th Air Base Wing Host Nation Adviser
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Question:  Mehmet, I read your article about visiting Ankara a few weeks ago. I had already heard many good things about Ankara. I understand that Ankara is a good place to visit, but my question is totally different. My wife is pregnant and she is due in a few months. Some friends recommend Ankara for stork nesting. We are thinking about it. Do you recommend Ankara for stork nesting?

Response:  I highly recommend Ankara for any medical issue. Ankara has many high caliber private hospitals as well as several university hospitals. As well as being the capital of the country, Ankara has been the capital of medical services for decades. Presidents and high ranking officials of middle-eastern and Asian countries' leadership come to Ankara for medical treatments and check-up from time to time. 

As a matter of fact, Capt Leon Essig, Wing Protocol Officer, and his wife stork nested in Ankara couple months ago. Upon your question, I've talked to him and asked about their stork nesting experience in Ankara. 

"My wife Gianina and I recently stork nested in Ankara. Both of us enjoyed the experience immensely. We found the Mesa Hospital staff from the doctors to the nurses to be extremely helpful and polite. Most all of the staff spoke good English which we both had some reservations about how our interaction with them would be. But to our surprise, all of our experiences at the hospital and Dr. Sesa's office were very good. The Mesa Hospital was very modernized and very clean. I have personally always found hospital food to be very average at best, but the Mesa Hospital food was outstanding better than most restaurants we ate at in Ankara. 

We stayed at the King Hotel near the US Embassy and Consulate. The hotel was perfect for our stork nesting experience. We were in walking distance to numerous restaurants and markets. Our room had a small kitchen which was perfect for cooking our own food. The hotel offered free wireless internet service which was very convenient. They also had laundry service at a low rate. Breakfast was complimentary every morning from 0630 to 1000. If you wanted to order food from any of the restaurants in the area, the hotel staff would order for you and deliver to your room. 

Chaplain Brad Green sponsored us when we arrived in Ankara. We toured the city, he took us to the Mesa Hospital, showed us the US compound in Ankara and various malls and entertainment. Gianina and I felt very fortunate to have a fellow American show us around Ankara as well as the hospital. Chaplain Green and his wife were expecting at the same time as us and were very considerate and aware of our concerns and needs. The sponsorship we received from Chaplain Green and Lt Col Murray, 425 ABG/Det 1/CC was top notch. 

The only problem area we had the first day or two in Ankara was driving in the city, but after some trial and error we were able to learn the streets and find our way around without any difficulty. Ankara as a city is very modern, there are several malls that are similar to the ones in the States.