Turkey Trip—Our travels turn inland towards Konya—1/17/2010

We left early since we have another long road trip today. We drove into the mountains, stopping after about 2 hours at the equivalent of a Turkish 7-11. The price for using the water closet rose from .30 to .50 lira while we stood in line. (I got in for .30 lira.) Bottled water rose from 1 to 2 lira while we were there. Shane found a belly dancing costume for his wife, marked 18, but when he took it to the checkout counter, he was charged 35, so he did not get the costume. The only reasonable explanation is that the prices were really Euro, and when we began pulling out our Turkish lira, the price doubled—because 2 Turkish lira = 1 Euro. It was cold and misting rain at this stop, but as it sits on a lake, the view was beautiful. We drove 2 more hours and stopped again at a place on a lake. This lake is the 3rd largest in Turkey, and Lewie said on one of his trips to Turkey, when they stopped here, the lake was frozen solid enough for the group to walk around on it. I am glad it is not nearly that cold today.


We continued on to Yalvac, where we visited a museum which houses items excavated from the (old) Antioch of Psidia site nearby. It was colder in this museum than in any indoor place we have visited so far. We continued to add layers and/or zip our jackets and fleeces as we walked around inside. Brrrr

Once we finished looking in the museum, we walked to our restaurant for lunch—in the middle of the town. By now it was raining softly, and it was cold outside. Our guide warned us (after eating at the fancy restaurant yesterday) that today’s meal would be modest. That may be true, but it was the perfect lunch for a cold, rainy day. We had carrot/potato soup and white beans in a red sauce. It warmed me up! For lunch we had a dessert which tasted like shredded wheat, soaked in Karo syrup and topped with water buffalo cream. It was good but too sweet to eat very much.



Next we drove to the Antioch of Psidia site. By now it was raining fairly hard.
I donned my rain jacket (over my fleece) and my rain pants. (Thank you, Mary Elizabeth, for telling me to get this rainwear.) While I stayed warm and relatively dry, the rain dampened our enthusiasm for the site.

While items have been excavated (we saw them in the museum earlier today), the site has not been restored or reconstructed.


So, seeing mostly rocks on the ground also dampened our enthusiasm for the site. Too bad because this is where Paul got run out of town for stirring up the folks as he talked about Jesus and he was the Messiah!

After leaving the Antioch site, we drove to Konya, stopping once along the way. It must have been “the last chance to stop” because 3 other buses were there, too. They carried mostly Turkish people, though. We noticed that the women visited the water closet and returned immediately to the buses. The men hung around for hot tea—as we did. I wonder what they think of us American women?

I noticed more women wearing head coverings here than in the coastal cities we have previously stayed. I began to ponder the notion of head coverings: On the one hand, I appreciate, admire, and affirm people choosing ways to show respect and deference to God. (Muslims refer to God as “Allah” and require women to wear head coverings as a sign of respect to Allah.) On the other hand, I disagree with any form of forced subjugation. It is possible to consider requiring women (only) to wear head coverings as a way of subjecting them to (men’s) power, and anyone who knows me very well, knows that does not sit well with me. As a visitor in this country and this culture, I want to be respectful of my hosts’ beliefs and customs. So, I will ruminate in my journal, but I will not raise the question with our hosts.

More pictures from Antioch of Pisidia and our visit to the Yalvac museum are here.