This is a quick run through the other cities I visted over the last week. I didn’t get to spend much time in any of these but they’re worth mentioning.
Konya:
This is refered to as Turkey’s Bible Belt; a more traditional Islamic city for Western Turkey. This is the only city I visited where the majority of women wear headscarves. It’s also where the poet Rumi is buried. He started a sect of Sufism called Mevlani, the same practice that the whirling dervishes follow. I expected to see a very different side of Turkey here, but there were lots of college students and besides the dress it didn’t seem much more conservative than other towns.
Ankara:
I spent less than 24 hours in Turkey’s capital. As I started added more cities to my trip I ended up cutting down the time I planned to spend here. My Turkish friends didn’t encourage me to visit Ankara. I can understand that the large concrete buildings and overpasses don’t offer much for tourists. It reminded me a bit of Shanghai though. I imagine this would be an exciting city if you got to know its ins and outs, but I definitely prefer Istanbul. I just walked around the main street and visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.
Safranbolu:
I was excited to add a short stop in Safranbolu to my tour. It’s mainly a weekend getaway for Turkish tourists, but it has some of the best examples of preserved Ottoman homes in the country. I paid a bit extra to stay a night in one of these. It was nice to see the interiors of these homes that had been catching my attention in Istanbul. They have incredible woodwork and lots of quirky designs. They have long, low couches like you saw in Topkapi palace. The walls are either large windows or covered in cabinets to hide things when they’re not being used. That’s something similar to modernist design, but the wood makes it feel warmer than steel and glass. There was even a cabinet with a bathtub in it!
Tomorrow I’ll be packing my bags to return home. But that’s something I’m trying not to think about too much.
