Konya – the Archeological Museum

January 16, 2015Travel, TurkeyArcheological Museum, Çatalhöyük, Konya, sarcophagikarenfranza

1/14 – Close to Konya is the archeological site of Çatalhöyük, where artifacts as old as 9000 BCE have been salvaged from underground houses that pre-date the concept of a village (buildings with differentiated uses). Excavation has been going on since the 1960s. It’s a little cold to visit the excavation, so we decided to do the next-best thing and visit some of the artifacts at Konya’s Archeological Museum.

We navigated across town thanks to the Google Maps GPS on our phone. I really can’t imagine how we could have gotten this far without it. It’s another cold, grey-slush day. A little girl says Hello! as we pass. When I reply Merhaba! (hello) her face lights up with delight.

We pay 5 lira each admission, and the security guard flips on the light switch and motions us into a dusty room. We are the only visitors.

The first room is filled with Roman sarcophagi from the 3rd century CE.

The detail and preservation here is excellent. The carving is intricate, and depicts scenes from life.

There are also pieces of mosaic floor, undated (not much signage here).

The next room has the artifacts we came to see. Pottery from 1950 to 5000 BCE. Said another way, these pots are up to 7000 years old! This blows my mind.

An incredibly old bathtub.

Here is an Çhatalhöyük artifact with red handprints, dated 7000 BCE. 9000 years old!

The skeleton of a one year old child, buried with bracelets on wrists and ankles. Bodies were buried in baskets, under the floors of the houses.

Here is a lamp, shaped like a bunch of gropes. Although I smile when I see attempts at English translation that fall short of the mark, I am very grateful for all the signs we have encountered that make the attempt. We would be lost without them!

Konya – Today’s Mystery!

January 15, 2015Backpacking, Travel, TurkeyKonyakarenfranza

1/15 – We are staying this week at the Huzur Suites, a very new and modern building with efficiency apartments. It was especially important for us to rent a place with a kitchen, as we are here for a week, Konya is not a tourist town, and there are not a lot of restaurant options here.

This morning after breakfast, the electricity went out. We’ve experienced this frequently in Turkey, so we were not alarmed. The strange thing was that the wifi continued to work as we sat in the semi-dark, which meant that there was still power down in the lobby, just not in our apartment. Curious.

After a while, we heard the shouting of many male voices in the lobby. Of course, we couldn’t understand what was being said, but there was definitely a commotion. We stayed put until it quieted down, not wanting to walk into an unknown situation. When the voices abated, Jim stuck his head out and came back with a report – there were 10 policemen in the lobby!

The manager saw Jim and came to the door to ask if everything was alright. Jim indicated that we had no power, and the manager seemed to be surprised at this. He flipped a few switches in the hall, but nothing happened. The voices rose again and he hurried off.

We were just wondering how we were going to heat up our lunch without electricity, when the manager knocked again. “Pack up 10 minutes”, he said. “New hotel.” Really! Whatever could be going on?

We did a mad scramble to pack up all our stuff, and Jim emptied out the fridge and the freezer. We were staying four more nights in this town, so we had plenty of provisions, including a frozen chicken that was going to be tonight’s supper. In 10 minutes we were ready to go.

Huzur Suites, all locked up.

We hauled our packs and groceries to the lobby, and the manager indicated that we should go with the desk clerk. “Sorry – problem, ” was all the English he had. We walked past the policemen, got into the clerk’s car, and he drove us across town. “Very nice hotel”, he said, trying to make conversation. Jim said, “no hotel, apartment”, several times, as the young man assured us he was taking us to a very nice hotel. He stopped at the entrance to what I’m sure was a very nice old hotel,and surely not an apartment. We insisted again that we needed an apartment – after all, we had prepaid for the week, and refused to get out of the car. The poor clerk dialed on his cellphone, and then, after a hurried conversation, turned the car around. “Apartment,” he said.

So now we are at a new place, Es Güven, not too far from our old place, with a very nice kitchen and not a clue as to what happened. But we’ll have chicken for supper tonight!

Our new home.

Konya – the Mevlana Museum

January 14, 2015Travel, Turkeycemetery, Konya, Mevlana Museum, Porcelain plates, Rumi, tombkarenfranza

1/12 – Happy to say that the temperature rose to the 30s today, so the ice melted off the streets, and turned the sidewalks to dirty icy slush. Reminds me of growing up in New York…

Today we set out from our apartment in the opposite direction, and it turns out we are only a few blocks from the city. Our street is very quiet, as we are on the far side of the city cemetery.

We haven’t seen headstones like these before.

We’re on our way to see Rumi’s tomb, at the Mevlana Museum. Mevlana means Master, and refers to Rumi. You can see the green spire (tower?) of the museum in the distance. The spire is the same color green as the decoration on the headstones. I looked online, but was unable to discover any info about this.

Here’s a funny thing. At the entrance to the museum is a ticket booth and a sophisticated electronic turnstile. We stand a moment, trying to puzzle out the price of admission, which seems to be 50 lira ($22) plus some sort of museum card. We are mentally figuring what the total cost might be, and that this is the most expensive museum we’ve encountered, when the person in the ticket booth smiles and says the entrance is free. Free? Yes, and hands us two fancy tickets, which we scan to get through the turnstile. Most curious!

Once inside, the first thing we saw was an invitation to visit Rumi’s mom. What a nice thought!

The museum consists of several mausoleums. We headed to the main building, where Rumi’s tomb is located.

Inside we found the sarcophagi of some of Rumi’s relatives and close followers from the thirteenth century. Sufi turbans decorate each one.

Some look like Sufis seated at prayer.

Rumi’s sarcophagus is covered in golden brocade and the area is beautifully decorated.

The museum contains a mosque, and a collection of illuminated Qur’ans, ranging in size from very large to a little octagonal one the size of a silver dollar.

We saw the Mevlana’s Sufi robe and turban.

As always, I was attracted to the intricate designs on the walls and ceilings.

The rest of the museum showed us Sufi artifacts, including the instruments played during the whirling dance, and some seriously heavy prayer beads.

The cane-like thing is a chin rest, so Sufis in training could take short naps without laying down!

There were dioramas that showed how Sufis were trained for 1001 days.

As we left the museum, we were invited in for tea at a ceramic shop with gorgeous handpainted plates (my favorite!) unlike those we have seen anywhere in Turkey. The proprietor, Issa, was very knowledgeable and shared much about the Mevlana, Islam, and porcelain.

One of the down sides of backpacking is that we have to resist the urge to buy pretty things, as we can’t carry them around, and shipping cost back to the states is prohibitive. We’ll have to be satisfied with the memory of these beautiful plates…

All streams flow to the sea

January 13, 2015Travel, TurkeyKonya, Mevlevi, Rumi, Whirling Dervisheskarenfranza

From Jim – whirling looks better on video!

Beinghere

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, known in the West as Rumi, was a 13th century, poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic. He inspired the Mevlevi, a Sufi sect known as the whirling dervishes. Sufism is practiced within the context of Islamic culture.

Rumi’s poems have attracted international attention — inspiring many to follow the inner path.

We walk to the Kulturmerkesi (Konya, Turkey), where the dervishes whirl every Saturday night. It is snowing heavily and very cold.

The dervishes file in wearing black cloaks. They bow, are seated, meditate during a vocal recitation and a flute performance.

After ritual bows, they remove their black cloaks, symbolizing casting off the ego.

The Sufi master leads a series of greeting bows, involving about ten dervishes in a circle. The dervishes cross their arms, grasping their shoulders — symbolizing the oneness of God. They then began whirling, in turn, in a ritualized manner.

Eventually…

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Konya – Rumi and the Mevlevi

January 12, 2015Travel, TurkeyKonya, Konya Kultur Merkezi, Mevlevi, Rumi, Whirling Dervisheskarenfranza

1/10 – Our friends are asking why we chose to travel to this cold and snowy spot, when we have been trying so hard to avoid winter weather. The answer is Rumi.

For those who do not live with Jim, and may be forgiven for not knowing, Rumi was an Islamic theologian, Sufi mystic, saint and poet who lived in the 1200s and was the inspiration for the Mevlevi, or Order of the Whirling Dervishes. He believed that music, poetry and dance were pathways to God. He embraced all religions. His poetry has been translated into many languages, and is still read, performed and enjoyed today all over the world. His words have graced a thousand posters. His tomb is here in Konya.

Every Saturday evening, the Konya Kultur Merkezi opens their doors to anyone who wants to experience the Sema, or ritual dance of the Mevlevi. There is no charge. We trudged through the snow and bitter cold to join a hundred others who came to share the experience.

We had witnessed an abbreviated Sema in Istanbul, with three dancers and three instrumentalists. Here there were a dozen instrumentalists and singers, and 25 dancers. The Mevlevi train for 1001 days. During the westernization of Turkey in the early 20th century, the Mevlevi were forbidden to practice. It’s only since the 1990s that they have been permitted to share the Sema in public again.

The Sema starts with a period of prayer and reflection, while music plays softly on flute, strings and drum.

The dancers start with their hands clasped tight on their shoulders, forming the numeral 1 for the One God.

After bowing and receiving a blessing, the dancers begin to spin, unfurling their arms slowly. Their left foot remains in contact with the earth, as they propel themselves around with their right. Their arms reach up toward the heavens. Their eyes remain open. They each whirl at their own rate, not in time with the music or with one another. No one falters. They range in age from smooth-skinned teenage boys to grey-bearded older men. They whirl for a long time, resting briefly between four passages of music.

Everything in nature revolves, from the motions of the earth to the particles of the atom. By consciously revolving, the Mevlevi seek to ascend spiritually toward the perfect love of the divine.

At the end of the dance, passages from the Qur’an are read, a prayer is recited for all the departed, and the dancers silently file out of the auditorium.

A peaceful and joyful evening.

Antalya to Konya

January 11, 2015Backpacking, Travel, TurkeyKonya, mountains, snowkarenfranza

1/9 – Well, Friday turned out to be our lucky day. We caught the shuttle to the otogar, and got on the bus to Konya with no problems. This time, the bus kept going north, and soon we were in the mountains.

The temperature display on the bus read -11C / 12F.

We arrived in Konya by 4pm, and took a taxi to our new apartment at the Huzur Suites. The online photos showed a new, upscale building, and we were looking forward modern conveniences like hot water on tap. What the picture didn’t show was that the hotel is on an empty street, not near downtown. We’re not near ANYTHING, and the streets are still covered with ice from the blizzard, so walking any distance will be a challenge. This is going to be interesting!

The young desk clerk looked very nice, but had not a word of English, and no map to give us. We needed to find a market and get some provisions for our nice, modern kitchen, as supper time was fast approaching, and it was getting dark. When the words market and supermarket didn’t register with him, I tried naming Turkish supermarket chains. Carrefour? Sok? Bim? Ah yes, recognition! Bim – he pointed down the street.

We bundled up and set off in the direction indicated, taking baby steps on the ice so we wouldn’t fall. Did I mention that it was COLD? I tried to talk to Jim, but my lips were frozen. Neither of us has gloves. About a third of a mile down the road, we came to a sad little market, with no produce, meat or dairy. We bought 10 eggs in a bag (yes, a plastic bag of eggs), a liter of water, a packet of Knorr chicken soup and a loaf of bread. That will get us through supper and breakfast, and will have to do until we get better directions.

We went back to the hotel and I showed the clerk our bag. “Not Bim”, I said. He indicated that no, the Bim was farther down the road. Sigh. We’ll try again tomorrow.

Antalya to….

January 8, 2015Travel, TurkeyAntalya, bus, Nice People of Turkeykarenfranza

1/7 – the weather has gotten very cold all of a sudden! It’s time to move on, but, unfortunately for us, our next adventure is north of here, in the mountains, where it is bound to be even colder. Glad I got my winter jacket! Today we planned to take a six hour bus ride north to Konya, leaving at 11am. We arrived at the travel agent to catch the shuttle to the bus terminal at 9:45, but were told that the usual 6 buses to Konya had been reduced to 2 because of snow in the mountains. The bus we were supposed to be on had been canceled. The only morning bus would leave at 10, and the terminal was 30 minutes away. I wondered why only 4 of the buses were canceled. The snow mustn’t be too bad if some buses were still moving through.

When we expressed dismay (the travel agent had no English, and our Turkish really sucks, so all communication takes place by facial expressions, waving our hands about, pointing at clocks, and Google Translate) she indicated that we could take a taxi to a place on the outskirts of town where we could flag down the bus as it drove by at 10:15. Deal!

She sprinted with us to the taxi stand and hurriedly explained the situation to the driver. He jumped behind the wheel and peeled out into traffic, beeping his horn at every intersection to make the other cars go faster. He got us to the designated place and showed us where to stand. Jim tried to tip him for his outstanding service, but he refused extra money.

We flagged down the next bus that came by, which was not our bus. This caused a young man to emerge from the cafe and ask what we were trying to do. He waited with us until the right bus came by, and flagged it down. Now, that’s THREE Nice People of Turkey in 30 minutes – a new record!

We were happy to be out of the cold on a nice warm bus, and congratulated ourselves on our success. We were happier still when the bus assistant brought us hot coffee and a selection of snacks. We were on our way!

It was hard to believe that buses had been canceled due to snow on such a bright sunny day. Here’s what we saw out our window:

After 3 hours, the bus pulled in at a gas station / restaurant. This was an expected rest stop, where we could grab a snack and use the rest room. Usually, the driver announces how long the bus will be stopped – 10 or 15 minutes. This driver did not. As we got off the bus, we asked ‘how long?’ He just shrugged and replied, “Traffic problem”. Uh oh.

The temp had been dropping, and now registered at 0 / 32 degrees. As we trotted back to the WC, I slipped and recovered on the marble walkway covered with invisible ice. “Be careful…” I started to say, but too late. Down Jim went, smashing his knee. He limped back to the bus. Most of the passengers remained in their seats, so we sat back down too.

When the driver hadn’t returned in 20 minutes, we went into the restaurant and found him drinking tea and checking his cellphone. How long? we asked again. Another shrug. We sat inside for a while (the restaurant food did not look appetizing), bought some peanuts and a chocolate bar, and got back on the bus. I read for a while, then took a nap. After 2 and a half hours, the driver climbed back into the bus and started it up. The assistant gave everyone a cup of tea. Back in business!

After an hour’s ride, I began to get a sinking feeling. The thermometer display in the bus indicated that it was getting warmer, and things were starting to look familiar. Before too long, my suspicions were confirmed. There just could not be two identical roadside buildings called HOUSE OF LAMP. We were no longer heading north. The bus was returning to Antalya!

It was 6:30pm and pitch dark when we pulled into the otogar. Jim and I had discussed our options for the last hour, and decided to try returning to the same hotel we had checked out of this morning, even though that would entail another expensive taxi ride. We asked the bus assistant about getting a voucher or a refund on our tickets, and he said we could just use the ticket over again on another day. This didn’t sound right, but what could we do?

So, here we are back in our little room, exhausted after a long day of doing very little and getting nowhere. Our hotel proprietor said he thought we’d be returning, as he followed the weather report on the news. He was happy to see us. Although we had a non-refundable reservation in Konya, he called the Konya hotel and had them change the date on our reservation so there won’t be a penalty. Ah, the tribulations of travel! We’ll have to try again tomorrow.

1/8 – It turns out that the ongoing blizzard up north has stopped all traffic and canceled school in practically all of northern Turkey. All buses have been canceled, and even the trains got stuck on the tracks. It’s down in the 30s here in Antalya – extremely unusual. Most of the restaurants have only outdoor seating, and can’t be doing much business in this weather. The ice cream store was closed today.

We walked back to the travel agent to confirm that our tickets would still be usable. The buses are scheduled (right now) to run tomorrow, so we will try again.

On our way home we saw a display of winter hats outside a shop: I hope well-meaning Turkish parents don’t buy these hats for their children! (We’ve seen many tee shirts sporting English words that make no sense – evidently the cachet of a foreign word is enough to sell the items, no matter the meaning!)

We understand that it’s cold back home too – bundle up and stay warm!

Antalya – the Museum and the Beach

January 7, 2015Travel, TurkeyAntalya, Antalya Museum, beach, Nice People of Turkeykarenfranza

1/5 – more errands to run today. We went back to the hikers shop to check out the boots that were special ordered for Jim. No luck – they were not wide enough, and hurt his feet. Plan B – Jim will try ordering boots online in the U.S. and ask son Peter to ship them to our next address here in Turkey.

We walked another mile downtown to a street that showed several audiologist offices, according to Google Maps. Jim’s hearing aids haven’t worked in a while, and this is a good opportunity to get them fixed. This task was a resounding success, and in twenty minutes, Jim’s ears were back in business.

Now we were close to the Antalya Muze, and walked over to check it out. Unfortunately, it is closed on Monday, but the security guard let us walk through to the outdoor displays in the garden. Another Nice Person of Turkey!

Lots of cool old stuff stored here.

Where did the heads of these statues go?

The museum was across the street from Antalya’s famous long, sandy beach, which is packed during the summer months, and almost deserted today. We’ve actually seen several swimmers in the water here in January – cold is a relative concept!

I love to see the mountains and the ocean at the same time.

We went back to the tailor shop to get a rip in my backpack repaired, which gave us a second opportunity to eat lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall family eatery with excellent eggplant casserole. The owner was so happy to see us again, he embraced Jim with the head-bump of respect and kissed him on both cheeks! Because it was cold today, he encouraged us to also try some of his wife’s delicious yogurt and rice soup with lemon. Hit the spot – we wish we could get recipes for all these dishes!

I’ll take this opportunity to share how much I admire the work ethic of the people of Turkey. The shops and businesses stay open from early until 10 or 11 at night. Next door to our hotel is a barbershop with one barber and one chair. He is working first thing in the morning, and still on his feet when we return from supper at 9pm. I know the country is poor, which drives the long hours, but the people are so NICE! They remember you and call you by name. They go out of their way to be pleasant, and always try to give you more than you asked for. We haven’t encountered any of the surliness here that we found in parts of Europe (I’m taking about you, Spain and especially you, Rome). Here’s to you, Türkiye! We love you!

January 7 Special Post

January 7, 2015Travelkarenfranza

Happy birthday Mom! Love you!

Antalya – the Kaleiçi and the Harbor

January 5, 2015Travel, TurkeyAntalya, Hadrian's Gat, Harbor, Kaleiçi, Old Townkarenfranza

1/3 – Today we walked around the Old Town, known as the Kaleiçi, (the letter ç is pronounced ch) with buildings dating from the second century BCE.

Our hotel is right near the old Clock Tower, where horse-drawn carriages are waiting for tourists.

The old men of the town congregate here.

A gate in honor of Emperor Hadrian’s visit to Antalya in the year 130 was reconstructed here.

There’s an old Roman temple that became a Greek Orthodox church and then a mosque, which was destroyed and not rebuilt. It’s known as the mosque with a broken minaret.

Lots of statues on the streets – some serious, some quirky.

Lots of shops with men sincerely encouraging us to buy their stuff. The default tourist language here is German. There is an old bazaar, a tiny version of the one in Istanbul.