Ozkaymak Konya

The 23:50 train from Istanbul was quite a pleasant experience, with sweet buffet car, and very comfortable compartments. It also offers a physical challenge to while away the 12 hours journey in the form of trying to direct flow over a moving "Turkish" toilet!

We arrived in Konya ready to do our sightseeing in just a few precious hours! After a little bartering we got a taxi into town, unfortunately the gentleman didn't ...

... br>We left Guzelyurt too soon for me. I would have liked an afternoon in the pool, but we had to head to Konya.

Konya is the city in which you’ll find the shrine to Rumi. If you’re into Deepak Chopra or Dr. Wayne Dyer, they quote Rumi a lot. Out guide read some Rumi one-liners to us but I don’t think they translated well to English. I have no time to look any up to post, but let’s just say the guy was thoughtful. We had to wear scarves all throughout the ...

... through a good portion of the city. There are large factories near the train station and a few skyscrapers in the city center. One of the towers is the Dedeman Hotel; the second one used to belong to the Kombassan holding company and the last one is a mall and office space called Kulesite. Kulesite's interior is similar to the less expensive half of the Istinye Park mall in Istanbul. Kulesite has 42 floors (because of ...

... your mobile or talking to a shopkeeper. I was prepared for many different things but, traveling alone and hardcore language barriers was something I could only experience to be prepared. Being alone with only you to keep you company and make decisions, in your own silence, brings a form of inner peace. A wave of tranquility is constantly caressing my busy mind! Ok, fair enough, when I enter a new place I freak out a bit and get very nervous of what to do and where to ...

... went for a walk after tea and i bought some dervish dancing men then we walked all the way to the other end of town in the hope of visiting the Aladdin mosque up on the hill. We were very lucky as the mosque man was still there and he let us in and showed us around. He explained the different things about the mosque which EG then translated into English for us... There was beautiful tiling on the dome inside ...

... with 1 or 2 people, rather than 30 all at the same time. I've also habitually gone on an evening walk after dinner and Dan usually accompanies me. We've found a new trail to take which takes twice as long as our normal route. We usually begin to walk slower once the dig house is in sight: typically that is when Dan begins to whine and wants to find somewhere else to go. It has gotten to that time of the season- 8 weeks is just a little too long. The ...

... new mound. The archaeology is very different because it dates to a later period so it is exciting to have the excavation resumed in this area. But it also means we have an additional 20 people! The Westmounders, as they are now called, are mostly students from Berlin, Cambridge and Istanbul directed by a German archaeologist now based at the MacDonald Institute in Cambridge. We have begun a friendly rivalry, between the Eastmounders and Westmounders along the lines ...

... to bed, moping. I was really upset by this. All my music has been replaced with audio books and a few CD's I borrowed from Mitch. Since most of my books are about Buddhism and spirituality, I decided that the best way to deal with the situation was to practice non-attachment and embrace the loss as a sign to move on from my past. But I REALLY like trance music- it is still the only thing I listen to. So the ...

... I need to wait until all the water evaporates before I can weigh it, bag it and put it away. This drying time is about 3-4 days per sample and I process about 3 samples per day. So right now I have about 12 buckets outside drying but now I'm out. I've asked the kitchen staff to save them for me but some how, magically, there never are any but I see them walking home with leftover food in them. I've gone in and asked but they always say no. So one day I sneaked into ...

... with movable eyes, which just added a fantastic flare of humor. Maria eventually came dressed as a Hellenistic statue, inspired by a pot we've been using in the dig house as a door stopper. Half the fun at these parties is the pure imagination one must employ just to make these costumes. A bit of paint, staples, tape, glue, scrap clothing and cardboard go a long way around here.