Konya

 10/31: We left the Grand Cappadocia and drove about 3 hours to the city of Konya (roughly halfway to our next destination of Antalya). We had originally planned to stay 5 nights in Cappadocia, but there was not much space in our hotel room, no kitchen, and it was quite noisy at night. There was also a constant, unpleasant smell. Thankfully we had switched to the different room after the first night, or we would’ve been quite cranky at the end of our stay!

Bob had booked a hotel room in Konya prior to Cappadocia in case we wanted to break the 6+ drive up from Cappadocia to Antalya. This was kind of a back up option as we are trying to stay in each place for longer stretches as the quick pace of our travels is getting a bit wearing. However, given that the Grand Cappadocia wasn’t a super experience, we decided to shorten our stay to 4 nights and stop in Konya at the hotel on our way to Antalya. Fortunately the hotel management was kind and allowed us to shorten our reservation by 1 night!

On our way to Konya I researched if there were points of interest for us to see in Konya. What I learned was that that the main attraction is the Mevlana museum, a mausoleum and area dedicated to the Sufi mystic, Rumi. The followers of Mevlana are whirling dervishes, and their dance has significance with the one hand reaching up to God and the other hand bringing his love down to earth. One great quote from Rumi that I read was that he looked for God all over in churches and mosques but that he found him in his heart (Rumi’s teachings were all focused on love). As with so many things, once I learn about the meaning and significance behind certain things/traditions, I can appreciate them more (ie the whirling dervish performance that we attended that I didn’t fully understand at the time). The reviews of this museum were very good, but clearly written by people that were very into Rumi. I educated my family about Rumi while we drove, and decided to just stay put at the hotel when we arrived about 2pm.

In multiple places I saw Konya referred to as ‘conservative Konya.’ I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, as we’ve consistently seen women covering their shoulders/legs throughout Turkey.

At the hotel, we checked in, and settled into our ‘family suite’ for the night. There were SO many employees at the hotel reception, and one of them spoke a tiny bit of English. That’s also interesting for us - Turkish is a completely different language, and we’re able to understand zero (unlike other European languages where you can guess at some words/phrases). One of the ladies at the hotel gym did not even understand us asking her, “do you speak English?”). Another employee was delivering water bottles to our room, and we asked him (while pantomiming) "Can we drink the water out of the sink/faucet?" and he gave us a crazy look and said, "no - you cannot drink the toilet water." Right - we got that. Thanks!

The kids did some schoolwork, and we did some trip planning in addition to checking out the workout facilities and the rooftop restaurant. The gym area and pool area were huge, and we saw only older men in every area. This also aligns with what we’ve seen all over the towns in Turkey - men sitting around drinking tea and smoking. We do not see women doing the same. Also - something I forgot to mention before - we don’t see any nail salons or hair salons for women. In other European countries these shops seem to be very prevalent. I guess this makes sense with most women covering their head, but their hands are always showing…although this culture doesn’t endorse the beautification of women. Interesting for us to see and discuss.

After feeling a bit strange in Ankara at the pool in my bikini, I decided to workout while Bob took the kids to the pool to have some fun. I wanted to use the restroom before my workout, so I walked into the ‘women’s only’ section. Once I entered that area, my jaw literally dropped and I wonder what the 2 women who saw me were thinking. What I saw was a miniature variety of the (apparent) men’s workout area: a small weight room, a small room with a few treadmills/ellipticals, and a small pool. There was 1 woman on a treadmill in a black tshirt and black pants, and a woman in a black swimsuit and black cap swimming. Also - everyone in this country wears black. There is so little color on anyone it’s amazing. It also makes everyone seem very tough!

So I walked into the pool area to find my family and let them know they won’t find me where they thought I’d be - that I’ll be in the women's area - now it was Bob’s turn to have his jaw drop! I spent my time on the elliptical thinking about this segregation and these cultural norms.

We got cleaned up and headed up to the rooftop restaurant - quite a cool scene overlooking the city. We enjoyed some good food and drink and played some Hearts. Once again, no one spoke English and we had to point to the items on the menu that we wanted. The prices seemed more reasonable than our hotel in Ankara, and the whole experience was more enjoyable. 

My ridiculously small sparking water!

We headed back to our room to enjoy Moonraker in our king bed (we’ve now been loving James Bond! Quinn changed his name in Rocket League to Odd Job:-)

Our room had been hot when we arrived, so we turned the temperature down, and we could feel some cool air flowing, but now at bedtime it felt very warm. Bob went down to the front desk and asked, and they told him that the AC is centrally controlled, and it’s turned off in the winter (it’s Oct 31 today), so by turning the temperature down we actually turned the heat on. Hmm. Ok well then how do we cool our room? We need to open the door to the patio - we had thought that door was locked - so they sent someone up to open it. That definitely let cooler air in, but also a lot of smoke. There are a lot of fires at night - we noticed this in Cappadocia as well - that restaurants start in front of their place at night. It’s a mix of wood and other materials in a garbage can/other bin. This creates a lot of smoke in the air - but thankfully the open door did cool the room off. Another interesting difference between these hotel rooms and those in the States that have temp control in each room - you’re hardly ever able to open a door/window in your hotel room at home!

11/1: We started the day with Simone and me heading to the women's section to workout, Bob working out in the male area, and Quinn doing laps in the pool. We reconvened for an amazing hotel breakfast before heading out for our 3ish hour drive to Antalya.

Before we left, we had the opportunity to talk with two different hotel managers that made a point to chat with us about our experience in their hotel. Our main point of improvement was encouraging them to get a water filtration system in the hotel and/or having water filling stations in the lobby/gym for people to refill their bottles. They both seemed very receptive to it, and said that the process was (possibly?) in the works at the hotel chain. He commented that he was part of a team that was going to 'change the world' including how much trash was on the streets of Konya/Turkey in general. We smiled and told him it takes people like him and his team to get the momentum going! He also commented on the general disconnect between the Turkish peoples' feelings regarding water/recycling/the environment (ie that they don't really care). Which is so interesting to me, because one of the pamphlets that I grabbed at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul was titled, "Islam and the Environment", and it was all about how Islam is about protecting all living things and caring for the land/all of God's creation. Hmm. Also, there were so many signs in our hotel room about saving water during your shower, and reusing your towel instead of having it laundered in order to save water. Again - hmm? But yet you have to create piles of plastic bottle trash because you can't drink the water. This truly angers us.

We were excited to get to Antalya and our new place where we would stay put for 9 nights. Previously on our trip, we have only stayed 2 different places in England for 2 weeks each - otherwise our typical length of stays in each place has been about 4-5 nights, which is definitely starting to wear on us.