This would all maybe have been ok, except for that fact that it was Bayran, a major holiday in Turkey that lasts multiple days, something that we did not know ahead of time. We thought it was only one day, but it was really like four or something. Anyways, because of this, everything was closed, including restaurants, small stores, and even most of the buses and pretty much all of the tour guide services. So we were essentially stuck there and hungry. Furthermore, the only person at our hotel who spoke English knew nothing about tours and was of no help. Although we should have probably planned a bit better, it was really frustrating.
Furthermore, we soon realized we picked the most conservative Muslim city in Turkey to stay at during a major religious holiday. Not the best plan. Although we felt safe the entire time, the amount of stares we received was rather unnerving. Most women in the city were covered, but we did see various uncovered Turkish women that were indeed wearing quite revealing clothes, and they did not receive any stares, yet my roommate and I, who were fully covered just short of wearing a head scarf, were constantly stared at by both men and women. All we could find to eat the entire two days was doner sandwich. Therefore we ate mainly cookies and crackers, something we quite regretted, especially with the added painful combination of a liter of limonata. We finally found a restaurant that was open in the evening in the second night, and it was pretty good and authentic, but our diet during that trip was truly atrocious. I felt so unhealthy by the end of that trip.
We also wanted to go to a nearby city, so we settled upon Sille, a nearby town with cave dwellings (essentially fairy chimneys) in the middle of nowhere. After riding a bus apprehensively for a good 30 minutes, we got off in what looked like an uninhabited shanty town in the desert. We walked up a hill for a bit, and it looked sketchy, so we decided to turn back. As we walked down the hill, it sounded as though a shotgun fired from the hill above us where there were a bunch of chickens walking around. It scared the crap out of me. I wasn't sure if people were target practicing, bird hunting, or what, but I knew I didn't want to be in someone's cross fire. We quickly walked back. Then we heard more shots, but these sounded more like fireworks. For some reason in this town, Konya as well, everyone gives the kids toy guns and light off some sort of loud fireworks for the holiday--I guess to scare the tourists crazy enough to go out there for the holidays? This old man from the bus saw that we were scared shitless, and he wished us a happy bayram, and gave us candy. Yes, I know what you're thinking, strangers with candy, but in Turkey everyone hands out candy for bayram, so it was ok. The candy was good. There was a nice covered woman who asked us where we were from and spoke to us in Turkish. I think the people there were so intrigued as to why we would come to that city. At least people in Sille were nicer than Konya.
Everywhere in Konya were large groups of boys ranging from 3-7 ages 5-25. All of them looked like they were up to some mischief or another. We had some really creepy guys stare at my roommate a lot, and then we left the park and went back to the hotel for the rest of the night. As time past over the following few days the city got slightly more alive, and we felt less weird, and we also discovered a more lively part of the city that was more enjoyable to be in. The park was quite nice though--very green.
We went to some "museum" that was jam packed with tourists, except it really just seemed like a garden with a mosque. It was full of Japanese tourists though. It was pretty, but it seemed a bit overrated.
By the way--McDonalds and Burger King in Turkey have really good and cheap dondurmas! :P Way better than the US! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment