Merhaba
Shalom and Happy Passover too
There were 24 of us on the bus trip plus Taṣ our guide and Kohan (sp) our driver. It was a great group with about a dozen variations of English being spoken! Our pals Mary and Rick were there too which made it more fun for us. We didn’t have to plan or make decisions…other than when to go to dinner or be ready for the bus. The group voted and everyone good accepted the decisions. Occasionally someone was “last” onboard, but not by more than a few minutes. There’s something to be said for letting someone else make the plans and just having to show up!
Ru
Eḡirdir Morning
I love Eḡrdir more for its mountains than the lake, unusual for me as used to not be a “mountain person.” It’s one of those places that if you hit it just right your first visit, and Randal and I did, you always love it. http://www.mydoramac.com/wordpress/?p=7322 is the story of our first visit with lots of photos and information about the area. This time Eḡirdir was a quick overnight stop on our way to Cappadocia.
I have two Eḡirdir stories from this visit. I’d decided to bring my laptop on this trip rather than our travel computer so I could download photos and begin to work on these emails. That meant I was in charge of the computer, electrical cords and adaptors needed for it to work in the hotel electrical outlets. I brought the wrong adaptor! That meant we couldn’t recharge the computer or my lithium camera batteries. Not a good thing. Randal didn’t kill me. He just went with me for a walk around town looking for adaptors. We knew the town from our prior visit and we borrowed an adaptor from the hotel desk clerk to show what we needed which helped a lot. It was about 6 PM and getting dark and cold. Many shops were already closed or closing. We did find one shop that sold a variety of things and went inside. A young boy about 10 was there and shook his head no when we showed him what we needed. But then he motioned for us to wait and went to get his father. His dad immediately started calling around and found a shop that sold adaptors and then told his son to take us there. It was a few streets over, not far. But the young boy was not familiar with it so he stopped in a bakery and asked then doubled back to the correct street where the shop was located. Once we were inside and being helped he quickly left the shop heading home. I had to call after him as we wanted to give him a few liras to thank him. He smile and thanked me for them but there was every indication that he had not expected it at all. He was polite and helpful and we weren’t the least bit surprised as we’d come to expect this type of behavior in the Turkish interior towns.
My second story is that the next morning I got myself up and out of the hotel by 6 am to take a walk through Eḡirdir. It was cold and windy. The sun was struggling to get itself up. There were even snow flurries. But I knew my way around so it was easy to get up and go and not worry about finding my way. Breakfast didn’t begin until 7 am and we weren’t boarding the bus until 9 am, so I had time for my walk.
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The fortress |
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The peninsular where we’d had dinner and where Randal and I had stayed at Ali’s Pension in 2011. |
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I love the old wood and stone buildings…some abandoned Greek homes. |
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I especially love the mountain behind the town. We motorbiked up part way last visit. |
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Modern rugs and lamps with designs tied to tradition. |
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Looking back towards Eḡirdir as we traveled towards Beyṣehir and Konya. |
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Eḡirdir is famous for its apples so Taṣ stopped and bought us some local apples. These were last year’s crop, but still good! |
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http://www.mydoramac.com/wordpress/?m=201107 is the story of our amazing motorbike ride to Beysehir from Eḡrdir and our visit to Konya and the Whirling Dervishes in 2011. The plan this trip was to go directly to Konya and visit the Mevlana Museum and the Selimiye Mosque. But the mosque was closed for renovation so we stopped in Beyṣehir and visited the Esrefoglu Mosque instead. |
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Beyṣehir Esrefoglu Mosque…a wonderful spur of the moment stop. Randal and I had stayed overnight in Beyṣehir in 2011 and had visited this mosque in the old Ottoman part of the city and I’d found it quite lovely. http://www.turkishculture.org/architecture/mosques/seljuk-mosques/esrefoglu-mosque-855.htm describes the mosque and tells its history. http://www.mydoramac.com/wordpress/?p=7419 is our earlier visit to Beyṣehir. http://www.mydoramac.com/wordpress/?m=201107 is our visit to Konya |
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Taṣ had located and called the mosque’s cleric who graciously agreed to give us a tour. We learned that the entrance way to the side He also later sang some of the prayers for us and his voice was really sweet. “Near the front of the worship space is a structure called the Minbar, the raised steps from which the imam delivers the sermon at the Friday prayer. Near the Minbar stands a roofed niche called the Mihrab. This nook indicates the direction of the Ka’aba, the cube-shaped building in Mecca that is the most sacred site in Islam. All mosques are built facing the Ka’aba, and Muslims should always face in this direction while praying. The words of the Quran, the holy book that Muslims hold to be the words of Allah (God) revealed to the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, are everywhere in the prayer hall, often in flowing Arabic script. The hall may also be decorated with intricate patterns running the length of the walls, pillars, ceilings and floors. Pictures or statues are absent, in observation of the warning in the Hadith (the sayings, actions or traditions of Muhammad and his companions that are not part of the Quran) that depictions of living things can lead to idolatry.” http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/791-inside-mosque-muslim-worship-allah.html |
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We learned that in the design were the Arabic letters for the word Allah. And the entrance way to the Minbar is quite narrow so that anyone entering must not have over-indulged in food. If you can see them, Taṣ is wearing some knitted gloves he bought from the local women selling their crafts just outside the mosque. |
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The design represented the earth with the stars and solar system surrounding it. |
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The beautiful blue ceramic tiles |
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From the Beyṣehir we drove on to Konya for lunch and to visit the home of the Whirling Dervishes |
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Where locals go for pide. |
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Pide is Turkish pizza! |
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I ate it all! The crust is thin and crisp and dripping with thinly melted cheese and olive oil. Or bits of grilled meat. It was after 2 pm so we were actually quite hungry and dinner was a long way off in Avanos, Cappadocia. |
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The turquoise tomb of M. J. Rumi founder of the Dervish order. |
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Waiting in line |
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Headscarves are rare in Marmaris but quite common inland. |
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Shops selling dervish memories. |
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It was a quick stop in Konya. Soon we were on the buses and off to Avanos our base from which we’d visit what we know as Cappadocia but what is called in Turkish Kapadokya. |
