Konya

The Rumi museum

From Antalya we drove northeast to Konya, known as one of the more conservative Muslim cities in Turkey, especially for the central region. We visited the Rumi Museum, with all sorts of beautiful examples of calligraphy, the sarcophogus of Rumi and several other early Sufis, and a room full of ancient Korans done all by hand with gold inlay - gorgeous enough to make you want to learn to read Arabic. Almost.

Ali of the Otel Ulusan. He was "first class"!

Once again we had an adventure finding our Otel in Konya. After over an hour we just got out and walked because it really did seem to be one of those places "you cant get to from here."

Before dinner in a classically Turkish room overlooking the Rumi Museum and gardens

We tried to go see a whirling dervish show, but that fell through so following the advice of Ali, our helpful and enthusiastic Konya guide, we decided to go eat.

Somewhere around course 3 ½ of our "mixed" meal

We found the restaurant he recommended, and since we couldn´t make up our minds what to get, Hakan just ordered us a "mix." The mix ended up being several courses of scrumptious Turkish food - lavash, dolmas, etliekmek, pide, börek, yoğurt, salatı, and kebaps.

After the "mix," several hours later

We did a pretty good number on the meal, but it gave Thanksgiving a run for its money. We almost had to roll home after finishing the homemade baklava, çay and Türçe kahve (turkish coffee).