Dedeman Konya Convention Cente

Well, Konya is the home of the Turkish Dervish, which is a religious dance performed by men in white full skirts, twirling around in a ritual dance. So, to be able to watch this dance in its real environment prompted our trip to Konya. We arrived on the bus from Cappadocia and caught the tram to the downtown area, a distance of about 14 km.

We found in the tourist ...

... Turkish guys rounding the corner, we thought they worked for the hotel, but as it turned out, one of them was our “hot imam.” Totally good looking and wearing a polo shirt with jeans and sneakers. He’s 28, married with a son. His wife is at home but if she wants or has to go back to work, he’s totally fine with that. We were all dying. We thought he’d be a gray haired guy in a robe.

We all asked our questions but had been warned not ask any political ...

... east, grapes for wine etc. We drove past/through Laodicea (new testament gospel of Luke, luke warm...spit you out) an Colassia (Paul's letter to the Colassians) Also, travertine & marble quarries. Lunch in the town of Dinar, famous for yogurt, honey and poppy. (opýum and regular version) Mix the honey and poppy seed into the yogurt for delicious snack. The yogurt here is thicker than in USA. Even thicker than sour cream for example. Takes ...

... planned to see Kapadokya but after some financial difficulty, I thought I would head for, via Denzili, Antalya, then hitch down the coast towards Syria. Things change and plans get made. I headed for Kapadokya via Konya. Konya on a whole, personally, was bland. There are a few things to see there but my book of lies 'Lonely Planet' reckons there is some awesome architecture well, on my train ride into the newly developing place with road works everywhe, I saw ...

... and head out. As Amy tipped her masseur before leaving, he said, "very nice, very nice," and pointed to her red hair. Amy stole her hamam towel!! The next morning, the two of us repeated the walking adventure to the museum, albeit a little more directly since we had our Lonely Planet guidebook with us. It was also more scenic in the daylight. We got to see lots of interesting buildings and an amazing little ...

... soccer). It was the Eastmound versus the Westmound. Everyone was really psyched up for it and there was a bunch of friendly rivalry that preceded the match. When the bus turned up and everyone loaded up, I watched from the side just happy to see so many people LEAVE the dig house all at the same time. I would have liked to have watched the game and supported the Eastmounders but I was more content just to have a bit of piece and quiet. A few hours later they ...

Ipod blues Last year I erased John's ipod and this year I erased mine. And for the record, I HATE Itunes. Hate loathe despise. I attached my ipod (like normal), I opened itunes (like normal) and for some reason the damn program decided to do an "automatic update", which I did not ask it to do but it did it anyway. This update matched the music on my laptop with the music on my ipod, which was not the same and ...

Woes on Sievers Row My section of the labs has now been dubbed "sievers row", which is in descending order with me at the very end. At one end is Slobo and his giant sieves, going through the heavy residue from flotation (30 liters of all excavated units are processed through flotation and heavy residue is what is left when all the dirt is washed away). In the middle is Nikki with her medium-sized sieves, sorting the botanical remains recovered from flotation (charred ...

... by excitement of going to visit something new. This site is Alahan, which is a cluster of Byzantine churches, with hints of Roman foundations. Alahan is being nominated for the World Heritage list so, in my book, it must be worth visiting. I'm looking forward to it (although still lamenting the loss of my traditional Friday bath. Ho hum). I rarely visit anything in Turkey so I am looking forward to seeing more of this culturally rich country. I hope all is well. In lovingkindness, Serena