We started off the morning doing a quick tour of the area in Konya we were staying in and walked to the nearby mosque. As with the others we have visited, it ws gorgeous.
Beside this mosque was a museum, dedicated to Rumi, a very important person in Sufism- an individual who lived in konya centuries ago and preached the importance of religion and tolerance. The museum was a Dervish lounge prior to 1930s, but was converted to a museum to maintain intact during the "rule" of atatuk, the president at the time. The history is far too complicated for me to type here, but this museum is considered a very holy place and many people were there to pay their respects to his tomb within the museum.
The grounds of this museum were beautiful and there were dozens of women tending to the gardens...
As with all religious places, there was an area for indivudals to ritually cleanse themselves before prayer...
Since this was a very religious place, we used headscarves as a sign of respect for their religion and culture. Although, there were still a few tactless chinese and european individuals who did not respect this tradition and went in without one. Im not sure how they even felt comfortable going in there. Over the course of the tour, i saw several oriental tours. Why does it always have to have to be the chinese tours where you hear people screaming across court yards, talking loudly and making those nasty horcking noises? Gross.
At about noon, we made our way back to the konya bus station and headed to our final destination of our turkish journey...to cappadocia, one of the most beautiful places in turkey.
To avoid feeling completely nauseus on the bus ride, i took two gravol and passed out the whole three and a half hours to our destination. I was woken up by sarah just in time to see the beautiful rock formations of the area. Unfortunately i wasn't quick enough to take out my camera.
After whats felt like several days on the road, we had a relaxing afternoon of lazying around and exploring the village of Gureme. They seem to love thier dogs in this village saw so many puppies!
Adorrrable.
While sarah and i were sitting down and having a drink and eating some turkish pancakes (gozleme)..i saw a lady with a backpack that had a canadian flag sewn on soooo... I said hello - she was travelling with her husband and two daughters across turkey, using her lonely planet book to guide her. The most note worthy thing we talked about was that her backpack with the canadian flag was actually borrowed from her AMERICAN friend because that friend is convinced that you are treated better as a canadian traveller than an american, lol. Hilarious, but true. Canadians are clearly more loveable. Lol.
Finally, when the sun was setting, we headed to the home of Fatma, a very sweet friendly local lady for a home cooked meal. Her lentil soup was incredible, best in all of turkey. We sat in the traditional way in the small area outside of her rock house on turkish rugs. Fatma spoke minimal english, but was sooooo kind, friendly and such a wonderful hostess. In th pic she is second from the right.
Once we left Fatma's a few of us headed back to the hotel to call it an early night. Balloon riding tomorow! But before turning in, sarah and i headed to the roof for some night pics of the town. You can see the rock formations and the houses carved into them. They are pretty old, but have been transformed by new residents to be modern homes or hotels.
Up next? 4 am morning call for balloon riding :)
Location:Konya and Cappadocia turkey
I have another business ideas (sorry, I'm reading your blog backwards), we can sell Canadian flags to backpackers. =P - Lucy
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