Konya's people

Konya was interesting to walk around as it wasn't a tourist town. In two days we met no native English speakers.

The city appeared to be completely "dry". We were not able to buy our usual nightly beer.  :-( We were told alcohol was available in hotels, but we did not find one.

Shopping was also organized in districts. We found a narrow road that was all fabric shops and another , pictured, that was all shoes. We also found a street vendor with an enormous cart that was everything imaginable electrical.

Wi Fi was also hard to find. We ended up searching using our phones as scanners. We were in a third floor cafe frequented by under 21's when a police swoop of the district happened. A man rushed up the stairs shouting and instantly all the staff collected the ashtrays and the nargiles ( water smoking pipes) that had been in use. They left the empty ones on the shelves. Some customers were also wisked out the back somewhere. Then we waited.  We could see many police cars below in the street, but none ventured up our stairs. The staff were amused not worried.

I assume we were in an illicit, under age smoking venue. The teenagers seemed very mainstream,  even affluent.

The clothing worn around town was very varied. We saw a very few full burka but mostly western dress with the women in scarves about half the time and men wearing jackets almost always. 

I was the only man in town showing knees.

Whirling Dervishes - photo

Konya - Whirling Dervishes

We have spent a day in Konya, a city in central Turkey famous for the Whirling Dervishes,  a dance group/style that was integral to particular Muslim teachings at their peak in the 13th century. They are now only cultural performances and mostly on Saturdays ( we missed out)

The religious, dance and personal disciplines training took 3 years and they have turned the mosque/ashram (pictured) into a museum. Most of the visitors were Turkish women in quite traditional dress.  They were clearly happy and excited to be visiting.

The second photo is an exhibit. One of many many throughout the huge complex.

Driving in Turkey and up-sold by champions

We have decided to hire a car and head across country to Konya and then to Goreme (Cappodoccia). This decision took a week as the road rules are ignored here, and they drive on the wrong side, but don't know it.

Clare and I agreed not to shout at each other and to help whoever is driving as much as possible. 

All has gone well so far!

We have arrived in Konya, about a four hour drive. Neither of us were allowed to sleep during the drive so we exhausted our driving songs and stopped just short of Ten Green Bottles.

On the way we stopped for lunch at a tiny village and went to the food house ( cafe is to grand). We ordered 2 of the cheese Pide for 3 lire each.

As soon as we sat down they brought two  bottles of water and opened them. When the Pide arrived they also brought a diced tomato and cucumber salad, which accompanies most meals.

After we had finished the mother of the "Pide chef" brought out a desert. It was four squares of a sweet that had honey and nuts in the flavor but was very tiny granules in texture. She was obviously proud of it so how could we refuse. It was delicous!!!

We stood to leave and whilst the son used a calculator to work out and show us the price, the father insisted that we take two pieces of the sons specialty. A spinach and egg pide.

When we saw the price we realized that we had been up-sold by experts.

Antalya

We have spent two very relaxing days in this lovely seaside city. We stayed in the old town, which is surrounded by a wall (in parts) and has limited traffic.

It is mostly, hotels, pensions, cafes and rug shops. Just below old town is the harbour and narrow alleys selling everything a tourist might think that they want at the time. The seaside is partly beaches and partly cliffs, much like Sydney, the difference being that the beaches are rocky.

The shopkeepers and waiters have to work hard enticing people into their shops and cafes, they firstly need to guess your language and they are very good at this, though we have been mistaken for german a few times. A waiter we chatted with in a kebab shop knew various greetings in eight languages.

A couple of more memorable lines touts have used have been 

"Hello, would you like to see how I can make your money mine" and

Hello, first time in Antalya,  we have two must see attractions, the harbour and my rug shop.

All good fun!

Mistaken journey to "paradise"

Today we did our last full day trekking, from Cirali  to Tekirova the day was picturesque and moderately strenuous as we walked up and over about six ridges and down into peaceful coves.

We only saw about six people all day.

The walk took an interesting turn after we saw a large mosque?? On the next hill and assumed we had reached Tekirova.

Following the trail markers we walked through an old gate into a barbed wire enclosure and onto a cobbled path.

We met chickens and goats - someone's backyard???

We met geese and horse

We met lamas and a security guard - a zoo???

We met a twenty court tennis complex - an Academy???

We met luxury apartments  - a gated community???

The penny dropped when we met the first of four olympic+ sized swimming pools and passed the dining room pictured.

The whole time we had been walking through a luxury resort (acres and acres of it). There was no mosque, no tennis academy or zoo, just an enormous hotel.

Man eating cats or cats on our menu

The Turks love their cats.

At a travel agent in Istanbul the main customer chair was taken up by a cat.