Hey all--haven't had time to do much on the blog. Quick recap: trouble sleeping has brought me down, coupled with continued stalled negotiations between me and my digestive tract. Relations seem to be improving, but I haven't been the happiest camper in terms of my corporal state. We were up at 4:15 for ballooning yesterday in Cappadocia. Man, if you're going to lay out $210 for a 75 minute experience, it might as well be for this. Sheer glory in the meeting of earth and sky, with you hanging right there in the twain (in the 'tween?). Then a sad goodbye to Cappadocia and a few hours on the bus. We stopped at a 13th or 14th century Seljuk Turk Caravanseray with a crumbling mosque inside. Gorgeous. More on that when I have time to post. Caravanserays were placed at places with water about one day's camel ride apart along the old Silk Road, done so for safety. Anyway, from there to Konya, the place where Mevlana (Rumi) is buried. The mosque, now a museum, in which he is "buried" (Muslim tradition says the body must be interred, so his coffin is symbolic) is gorgeous. Its walls are filled with geometric Seljuk-era designs, calligraphy from the Qur'an written in Farsi (the language of the time) and the ceilings are bursting with color. There were many other coffins, relics, ancient pieces of clothing and priceless Qur'ans, many 8 or 9 centuries old. I was in the 6-7% of women not wearing headscarves. More on that later too. My luggage is getting picked up in 8 minutes and I am not packed, so I have to be quick. Konya is a city of 2 million, not very charming to the eye, and highly conservative. There is a military base here where American, Israeli and other international pilots come to train with their Turkish counterparts. A bunch of them were staying in this hotel last night. It is Konya's only 5 star and somehow I got a suite: Sweet! My room in Antalya, where we're heading today, will suffer by comparison!
Great photos!
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