Hmm so I was sitting here trying to think of a witty way to start this post, but I got nothing. Brains cease to function after a certain point. Though I did get a surprisingly good amount of sleep – like 7 hours total (including all the naps).

So we got to sleep in an extra hour today (yay!) before taking off for Konya. Over breakfast, we were greeted with the unfortunate news of the Israeli attack on the supply ship sent to bring aid to the Gaza Strip. At least nine Turks were killed, and Turkey is up in arms (understandably). For more info about the attack and response: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Turkey+likens+Israeli+raid+ship+attacks/3096529/story.html.

Our entire group was sad as we left Cappadocia and its beautiful hotel. I mean now we’re going to have to go back to flimsy plastic cards as room keys rather than the huge, “I can be used to bash in an attacker’s skull” metal keys. Once on the bus, Mezut made the unfortunate mistake of beginning a schpeel with “So the Turks were from Central Asia…” For some strange reason, that phrase seems to spark temporary narcolepsy in me.

On our trip to Konya, home of Rumi’s shrine, we make a brief stop at a caravansaray named Sultanhan. It was a large stone building used as an inn for merchants (who got to stay there three days for free!) and was now being utilized by local children to peddle their artwork to unsuspecting tourists. After wandering I arrive at two conclusions:

We arrive in Konya about mid afternoon and I admit that I cannot recall much (or really any) of the trip over here. You know the expression “dead to the world”? It wasn’t so figurative in this sense. (Weirdly enough, I even had a dream about being shot. Strange.). We arrive at our hotel and notice that Rumi’s Shrine just happens to be RIGHT NEXT DOOR. Whoa.

After dropping off the stuff in the room, Omid, Teshar, and I head over to Rumi’s shrine for a bit of a preview of the official visit there tomorrow. First thing I noticed about Konya was the fact that I was maybe the one of two women in this city not wearing a head scarf. It was quite strange after being cities where the public use of the hijab wasn’t as common. However, I will say that Konya is quite a great city in that it isn’t touristy and is very family oriented. People were out having picnics in the park! How lovely.

I’m not going to go into too much detail here about Rumi’s shrine since we’re going there again tomorrow. It is of an interesting design though – a U-shape. And Rumi’s grave is kinda off to the side rather than centered in a shrine-like fashion (*cough* Ataturk *cough*). Since Ataturk turned the place into a museum (and excavated many of the graves of people buried around the shrine), people aren’t allowed to pray there. So it was really interesting watching the people trying to sneek in prayer when the guards weren’t looking. Also the people-watching is amazing here - it was quite funny the contrast between the snap-pic-and-leave Japanese tourist group and the herd of pious village women making a pilgrimage to this site. Also: Muhammad’s beard smells like roses.

We rejoin the group and all head to visit a small mosque that contains the grave of Shams, Rumi’s beloved and source of all his great love poetry (though let it be said that they were not lovers – think of it more like a very intense bromance). It was very interesting hearing the story of the two of them – it reminded me a lot of Mercedes Lackey’s The Last Herald-Mage series. What was even more interesting was the gawking by the locals. I don’t they had ever seen a large group of Americans tramping around a non-Rumi’s Shrine region of Konya. Yeah, so my goal of assimilating into the local culture? Fail. Miserably.

Dinner is absolutely wonderful. Delicious food, good conversation with Henry and Linda, one of the three married couples on this trip, and it was concluded with interestingly amusing Rumi stories. Afterwards, we hung out on the rooftop terrace and watched a whirling dervishes performance in the distance.  The night ended in a sublime manner as Omid and I once again partook in great conversation about life and whatnot. On the way back, we bumped into Stephen and Erin talking with one of the hotel workers name Sarkin. It morphed into quite an interesting conversation about Sarkin’s desire to fulfill the American Dream.

Now this presented an interesting situation. Sarkin is convinced that once he gets to America, everything is going to be better (and cheaper). Unfortunately, this is still a prevailing attitude in many regions across the world as many fall victim to glitz and glamour presented on TV. Not to bash our country, but being in America doesn’t necessarily mean all problems are solved, especially in this day and age. Omid did his best to try and talk him out of it, but Sarkin didn’t seem convinced. Hmm, I hope for his sake that he listens to the advice, partly because his reasoning seemed to center around the fact that he could get an iPhone for $100 (in Turkey they are about 1000 lira [$650]).

Still, nice guy, very hospitable. I don’t know how he’s functioning though because he works the night shift (11 pm to 8 am) 6 nights a week while also attending the local university during the day. Hmm and I thought I was sleep deprived. Well that’s all I got for you all today!

Over and out.