Is This the End of My Love Affair with Türkiye?
It has been a while since my last post. And by “a while,” I mean long enough that my blog probably started wondering if I had ghosted it. Expat life in Ankara is not what I thought it would be.
The truth is, the past several months have been a bit of a rough patch. Not the dramatic movie kind of rough patch—no violins playing in the background—but the quiet kind. The kind where life piles up in small, exhausting ways until you realize you need to step back, take a breath, and just be for a little while.
So I did.
Winter in Ankara has a way of encouraging that sort of reflection anyway. The days get short, the skies turn a permanent shade of gray, and suddenly your biggest ambition is to stay wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea and convince yourself that spring will eventually return.
But just when I was starting to feel like myself again, life threw in a plot twist.
And not a subtle one.
More of a wrecking ball kind of plot twist.
The Apartment That Was Supposed to Last
In January, I received the news that the building where I live—my lovely, perfect little apartment in my perfect neighborhood in Tunalı—is being torn down.
Not eventually.
Not sometime in the distant future.
Soon.
Very soon.
This apartment was supposed to be the stable one. The one where I could finally exhale and stay put for a while. After all, it’s already the third apartment I’ve lived in since moving to Ankara, and I had just started to feel settled.
The location was perfect. The neighborhood had started to feel like home. I could walk to my favorite cafes, wander through familiar streets, and feel that comforting sense of belonging that only comes after time.
My lease runs until July.
Or at least, it was supposed to.
Instead, I was informed that I would need to move out three and a half months early—by the end of March.
Because, you know… demolition schedules wait for no one.
Moving in Türkiye: Bureaucracy Level Expert
Moving is stressful anywhere in the world.
But moving as a foreigner comes with a few extra “features.”
When you move apartments here, it isn’t just a matter of packing boxes and calling it a day. There’s a whole checklist of bureaucratic adventures waiting for you:
- Notarizing a new lease
- Registering your new address with immigration
- Updating residence records
- Switching utility bills into your name
- And hoping that every document you submit is exactly the one they had in mind
It’s a bit like a scavenger hunt… except instead of clues, you collect paperwork.
And instead of a prize, you receive the satisfaction of knowing you are still legally living where you say you are.
Thrilling stuff.
The Apartment Hunt: Ankara Edition
Apartment hunting has become my latest adventure in expat life in Ankara, and let’s just say it has been an experience. Finding an apartment has been quite a challenge.
If you’ve ever searched for housing, you know the emotional roller coaster.
You see a listing.
You get excited.
You imagine where you will put all of your possessions.
Then reality appears.
In my case, it has looked something like this:
- The perfect apartment… but the tenant isn’t leaving anytime soon.
- Another great apartment… but the owner plans to sell within the year.
- Yet another promising option… but the agent never responds to messages.
Apartment hunting, it turns out, is a lot like dating.
You meet a lot of possibilities, many of them disappear mysteriously, and most of the time, you wonder if the whole process is just a test of your patience.
The Moment I Felt Defeated
At one point, the stress of it all started piling up.
There was the apartment situation.
There was the thesis waiting patiently (and by patiently I mean not patiently at all).
There was the packing.
The paperwork.
The uncertainty of not knowing where I—and more importantly, Stormy and Smokey—would land next.
For a moment, I felt completely defeated.
And that little voice in the back of my mind whispered a question I didn’t expect to hear.
Is this it?
Is this the moment my love affair with Türkiye finally comes to an end?
Turning the Corner
But something funny happens when you sit with a problem long enough.
Eventually, you realize the only way forward is… forward.
So in the last few weeks, I did what any determined expat would do.
I packed most of my belongings.
I started working on my thesis again.
I began tackling a few of the projects I had been putting off for months.
And slowly, something shifted.
The situation hadn’t changed.
But my perspective had.
Trusting the Next Chapter
The truth is, I still don’t have a new apartment yet.
But for the first time in a while, that doesn’t feel terrifying.
Instead, it feels like the middle of a story.
And the middle of a story is where the most growth takes place.
Somewhere out there is an apartment that will be just right for me—and for two cats who have very strong opinions about living arrangements.
Maybe it will even be better than the one I have now.
Sometimes life clears space for something new before we’re ready to let go of the old.
Moments like this are part of expat life in Ankara—the unexpected challenges, the bureaucracy, and the strange ability to laugh about it all later.
So… Is This the End?
So let’s return to the question.
Is this the end of my love affair with Türkiye?
Nah.
Not even close.
Love stories—whether with people or places—aren’t always smooth sailing. There are moments of frustration, exhaustion, and the occasional urge to run away and hide under a blanket.
But the good parts?
The friendships, the experiences, the unexpected moments of growth?
Those are still here.
And so am I.
So no, this isn’t the end of my love affair with Türkiye.
It’s just another chapter.
For now, I’ll keep packing boxes, filling out forms, refreshing apartment listings, and trusting that the right place for me—and two very opinionated feline roommates—is waiting somewhere in Ankara.
Because sometimes life clears a path forward in ways we don’t expect. And sometimes the only thing we can do is take the next step, keep our sense of humor, and have faith that the next chapter will be even better than the last.
Wishing you resilient spirits when life throws a few unexpected plot twists your way, hopeful hearts that trust the story isn’t finished yet, and curious minds that stay open to the adventure wherever it leads.
With love from Ankara,
Tiffles, Stormy, and Smokey 🐾
(Currently accepting apartment applications from buildings that have no demolition plans whatsoever.)
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