A word of advice to prospective hotel builders - please ensure that there are sufficient lifts.
We didn't really like Konya. Not that we saw much of it, but the hotel was enough to put us off. I actually felt like I was in some blingy place like Dubai. The worst frustrations came when we tried to go downstairs for breakfast. We waited for 15 minutes to get a lift, and eventually had to catch one going up, just so we could at least be in it on the way down. It also did not stop on our floor on the downward trip.
Today we travel to Cappadocia. This is not the kind of place that I was aware of before our decision to go to Turkiye, but I very quickly knew that it would be one of the highlights of our trip. But first, we had to get there. Fortunately, it was not a very long trip, and with the regular stops, the traveling never feels that long.
Our first stop was at a Kervansaray. An Inn where travelers could rest, and also feed their camels, donkeys or horses. So for all those people that would be traveling between Asia and Europe, these inns would provide safe shelter and food for the night. The distance between these inns would never be more than 40km, because that is all that a donkey could handle in one day. In the good old days, the owners of these inns would also provide a sort on insurance. So if your donkey would kill over while you are staying over, they would provide you with a new one.
Our next stop was an underground city. Yes, a city. It is said that there are about 36 underground cities in this region, and that one of them alone was thought to house about 20 000 people. The city consists of a series of underground chambers on various levels linked by passages that, at times, are so narrow and low that you have to bend over double to get through them. Safety seemed to be one of the biggest reason for these cities, although the fact that you could simply carve yourself a place to stay under the ground, and not have to pay for the piece of ground you were then living in, was probably also a good motivation.
After lunch we were told that we would be visiting an open-air museum. The word "museum" made us all cringe a little. Until we arrived at the Goreme Open-Air museum. It is home to the greatest concentration of rock-cut chapels and monasteries in Cappadocia. These chapels mostly date back to the 9th century, and are all carved out of the soft volcanic rock. Inside the churches are frescoes depicting scenes from the Bible. And the landscape around this museum is unlike anything you can ever imagine. It's almost like being on another planet.
The last stop of the day was to see the Whirling Dervishes in action. I quite like the philosophies of these dervishes, and enjoyed seeing their whirling ritual. The ritual involves some praying, and continuous whirling with their hands raised upward, one hand facing up to receive the blessings from the gods, the other facing downwards to pass it on to the land and the people. Their whirling clearly had a calming effect on most of the people watching, as I could see many of them dosing off.
Tonight needs to be an early night. Tomorrow will be a very special day!
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