Conservative Konya and on to Egirdir...

Hello again!

We are now in Egirdir, a city situated along a beautiful lake here in Turkey. We left Goreme so early on Tuesday morning and did a 4 hour bus ride to Konya. We even rode by a massive volcano, I am still trying to figure out which one it is and if it is active, so cool!! It is supposed to be a very conservative city but it was not so much that way, in our experience.

Konya is home to the Whirling Dervishes. We are still learning about this special religious group but we were able to go to the museum about them and the mosque nearby. It was my first mosque experience and I can say I was very nervous, though now I do not know why I was. I am very curious about this religion and their traditions. We entered and were required to take our shoes off and cover our heads with scarves to show respect. We were able to see the burial site of the man who´s teachings and writings were the beginning of the Dervishes.

Still on the streets most girls were covering their heads, though some were not so we only felt moderatly out of place. This morning we caught the mini bus to the otogar (bus station) and hoped on a really nice bus to Egirdir. We were having some troubles finding the right mini bus and the nicest old man helped us. With our combination of broken German and barely Turkish language experience we made it well before our bus left!

The bus ride was awesome. We rode through the country to our destination and were met along the way by many a tractor on the road or families heading out on their donkeys. I was surprised to see that amide such poverty and homely living many houses are equipped with solar panels that provide their heating and maybe for some their electricity.

So we made it to Egirdir and walked what seemed like forever to a place we had read about but did not have a reservation at just yet. We met the nicest lady who spoke no English and we negotiated a price for a room and breakfast tomorrow. We are hoping to do a fishing trip on the lake tomorrow, we will see how that goes!

Tonight we are just relaxing by taking a long walk by the lakeside and catching up on some reading out on their terrace. We are hoping desperately that we can find a cash exchange. Because Ramadan (the Islamic holy month) ended last week alot of places are closed for festival thıs week.

I am adding some pictures from Konya and a few of the lake that I just took outside. Tomorrow afternoon\evening we will depart for Selcuk, a city near the ruins of Ephesus. I apologize for any weird characters you find in this post. I am using a Turkish keyboard and it is not agreeing with me mostly! Teşekkur ederim (teh-sheh-KOOR eh-DEH-rim), thank you, for reading up with my experiences on this journey!

Love you all!!

LuLu