26 April 2005 Guzelyurt

 We stayed at the Hotel Karballa.  Claire and Elaine stayed at a bed and breakfast few blocks away.  They had the better stay.  The room we had was ok.  It had the Naptha balls we are now getting used to.  Went down to breakfast and met Melli and she suggested eating with Elaine and Claire so we took a couple of bites and left the table and then Hussein took us to the bed and breakfast. A much better breakfast.  Hot breads, etc.  terrific.  The bed and breakfast is a place that Meli encouraged the family to build and the sold some of their cows to do that.  There is about three very nice rooms that are being built.  Meli explained to us how tea had replaced coffee.  The Turkish people love their tea and their Nescafe. 

After breakfast we all went down a hill to the old part of Guzelyurt that is now being abandoned because the home are in stone are beginning to be dangerous to live.  It was once a thriving community.  Saw the old areas from a great vantage point where we had a panoramic view of the old city.  A mosque in the background made for a very nice setting.  Behind use we could the high mountains. I forget the name of them.  We then walked further down the hill and came of an old abandoned church called Sivisel Church.  It had wonderful acoustics and several of the group, not me, led by Gloria Frazer did some great singing.  The light in this church was wonderful and I got a pretty good shot of the inside with Meli standing in the church looking at some of the pillars. 

We later saw women washing clothes outside.  There several women tilling their gardens.  Lots of kids.  One set of brothers with huge eyes came running to greet us.  A few girls  in blue school dresses also took interest in visiting us.  Jerry Frazer was late for the bus and it was figured he could find out how to find us so we left for the Monastery Valley.  These were churches built into the mountains.  There were a lot of them in this very quiet valley.  People go there to mediatate,  There were no sellers hawking their wares.  Jerry became “unlost” and joined us.  The cave churchs were beautiful with very good light in them for photography. 

As we joined the bus we saw a man on his donkey and we all ran for our cameras to take a picture.  Hussein did a great job in maneuvering the bus to get back into town.  We stoped athe Kllise Camill.  Another very old church that was still being used to worship.  The two brothers agained joined us.  I took a bunch of pictures of them. 

From Guzelyurt we headed toward Konya.  Before we got there, Meli took us to a very special place off the beaten path.  If my spelling is correct, it was Obrukhan.  It was a place were the caravans would stop and building was falling apart but still there were wonderful remains of this old building.  In the back was an amazing body of water.  It was emerald blue and still in a lot of places.  A gorgeous body of water.  Right in the middle of nowhere.

We proceeded on to Konya and had a great dinner a on of the best restaurants for Turkish food in the area.  The sunset from there was grand.  After dinner we visited a large mosque. Unfortunately we did not have the right stuff like tripods to do justice to the pictures.  From there we headed to the hotel for a good night sleep. 

Home