Konya - a city between tradition and modernity (Day 13 of the world trip)

09/17/2019

The night at the hotel was... mixed in terms of noise. Without an open window, it was stuffy, and besides the loud calls to prayer (there are advantages and disadvantages to living so close to the Mevlana Museum and the adjacent mosque ^^) which almost sound like a "battle", the street was not so quiet. For example, in the middle of the night, the street cleaner drives through here, and some motorcyclists wanted to show off their horsepower ;-) But since we went to bed early (I watched a bit of the Turkish series that always played at Fatma's, but I still can't clearly understand the plot :( :D), it was not a problem.

Something funny about the hotel is the bathroom. It consists of a small room with the shower and a slightly lower area with the toilet and sink. The drain for the shower is cleverly located not in the shower area but in the toilet area. This means that when taking a shower, you have to flood both the shower room AND the toilet room, and the water drains very slowly... But luckily we have slippers^^

The breakfast looked almost the same as in Göreme, but instead of three small rolls per person, there was only one large one for each :O One had to be quite generous with the spread to finish it :D Honey, jam, chocolate cream, cheese, and cucumber all wanted to find their place ;-)

After breakfast, we tried to explain to the receptionist with Google Translate that we would like to check out tomorrow at 5:15 am and would like a taxi to take us to the train station. In the end, he said "Tamam" (= "okay") and now we hope for the best :D We also wanted to clarify how the payment would work because according to booking.com, we would pay at the accommodation. After several attempts with the translation program, we understood that the payment has already been made. All the better :)

At around 10 am, we went to the Mevlana Museum, which is only 2 minutes away, and as so often here in Turkey, we were just lucky with our timing. Apart from a French tour group that almost photobombed a Turkish family, there were hardly any tourists! They arrived by bus afterwards, when we were already done. Perfect :)

The Mevlana Museum is known for housing the grave of Mevlana, a representative of a particular belief. In addition to his grave and that of his students/religious descendants, there are also exhibits about Mevlana - old writings, old musical instruments, old writing utensils, and clothing. To reach a higher rank, the students had to "suffer" for 1001 days, meaning they had to fulfill various, partly charitable tasks first and then stay in a so-called "cell" which they were only allowed to leave in exceptional cases. During this time, they should use to read and pray and thus reach the spiritual degree that makes them a Mevlana successor.

After visiting the museum, we went into the huge mausoleum, where we had to put blue garbage bags over our shoes at the entrance to protect the floor. Women are also supposed to wear a headscarf (which I didn't return in the end because there was no box for it). Some tourists simply stormed into the building and were then sent back to put towels over their hair. Afterwards, these ladies were busy taking selfies of themselves with a headscarf. Okay, if they need that... :p Personally, I don't mind wearing a headscarf for a visit to a religious site like this. I do it out of respect for the religion and see it as a kind of "work clothes" like wearing a helmet at a construction site. It's just the right thing for me, but I don't want to start a debate about it now :D

After visiting the museum, we walked around Konya for almost 4 hours, more or less aimlessly. We had researched a few buildings that we wanted to see but otherwise left everything open to us.

First, we went to the area around the "Gold Street", where it looks like a bazaar and you can buy everything from classics like clothing, spices, and shoes to things like chainsaws, lawnmowers, or living room cabinets. I love the atmosphere in these alleys, and the best thing about Konya is that it is absolutely not touristy. Although I had my camera around my neck and occasionally took some pictures, no one approached us, no one tried to convince us to buy something. We could just stroll around and let it all sink in :)

There is a mosque on almost every second street corner, ranging from small buildings to impressive structures! We accidentally stumbled upon a rally, but unfortunately, we couldn't understand the topic. In any case, there were some security measures and police presence as well as a few press people. Independently of that, there were also posters in the area advertising Konya as a bike-friendly city. That was not so surprising because a few hundred meters further was Aladdin Boulevard, where we arrived yesterday by tram and where modern cafes with American music and shops with English names line up. It's just a stone's throw from the traditional bazaar to the modern district, which is somehow pretty cool. It shows the two faces that Konya has :)

The Aladdin Palace is currently under restoration (just like the castle in Konya... :D), but the park around it was really beautiful. There, you can also find young couples sitting together on a bench, flirting, or even kissing, whereas on the bazaar, they would have received strange looks since almost all women there wear headscarves and definitely must not show any signs of affection or exchange any. From the park, we headed towards Kültürpark, at least that was the plan.

But then we passed a pastry shop and well... those who know us... :D The selection was quite large, and everything looked so delicious <3 The salesman nervously looked at the cashier to make sure he still knew the numbers in English "one, two, three". In the end, we decided on a cookie that looked like it had almonds in it, and a pastry with chocolate lentils - I was in paradise. We paid 15 TYL for everything, and I was somewhat surprised by the relatively high price until I looked into the bag and saw that there were a total of three pieces, namely the chocolate lentil pastry twice. At first, I thought I had expressed myself incorrectly, but then Jonas confessed that he had also ordered one :D :D Although they looked quite small, they were not only delicious but also quite filling. Perfect ;-)

Kültürpark itself didn't have much to offer except for an artificially created pond with fountains (there are countless fountains all over the city anyway!) and black and white swans. For those who know me, I was fascinated :p

Finally, we walked to the train station to take a look there. It's about a 30-40 minute walk from our hotel, and since the train leaves at 6:00 am, as mentioned above, we opted for a taxi. Walking that far with backpacks seems exhausting to me, even though Jonas would probably manage it easily :D Anyway, there wasn't much going on at the train station. There was another fountain with a few benches around it, and we could watch a shoe shiner at work. On the way back to the hotel, we saw once again how there are always long lines in front of ATMs here. In Kayseri, we had already observed how there were up to 10-15 people in front of the various bank branches before the bank opened. I don't know if there is a cash problem in the bigger cities here. But somehow interesting...

By 3 pm, we were back at the hotel in our newly developed routine: breakfast, walking, snack, walking, accommodation, write blog, and then dinner :D It probably won't be much different today, but we're very satisfied with it so far ;-) Tomorrow, as mentioned, we will continue by train - to Istanbul :)