September 9 Sanliurfa
Finally a hotel that meets all of
my criteria! Ok, they don't have Kleenex but I can live without
that for a day or so. lol This is reportedly the hottest place in
the country and I can certainly attest to the fact that it felt
like it today. It was the hottest place I have ever been with the
temperature around 40 C. Absolutely brutal. I gave up about 2:30,
came back and napped and then went out later (6:00) when it had
cooled off a touch. More on tonight later.
When I sat down for breakfast this
morning I was the only guest but from the spread placed in front
of me you would have thought I was a party of four at least. It
took up the space of half of a normal kitchen table. As best I
can remember there was: museli, granola, raisins, bread, cheese,
cucumbers, tomatoes, two kinds of honey, two kinds of biscuits,
olives. I think there was more.... I could get to enjoy breakfast
at this rate.
Our first visit after a two and a
half hour drive was in Harran where we saw the
"beehive" houses (see the photos). These houses are
supposedly cool in summer and warm in winter but I must admit
that I didn't find them all that cool today. When I said to Omer
that in North America the owners of the cafes/attractions would
never come and sit and talk with you his response was that it is
considered rude here for the owner not to do so. A great
tradition I think. We sat awhile and Omer had tea and then we
took a brief walk through one of the houses looking at fancy
clothing and decorations used for weddings. Very ornate and
interesting. There are also ruins of a 3,000 year old university
there.
On the way to Sanliurfa we crossed
the Euphrates River of biblical fame. As soon as we had checked
into the hotel we headed out for lunch. Because of Ramadan we had
to eat inside because they did not want to serve outside in front
of people who were fasting. I had a good dish of fried chicken,
tomatoes and onions. It was supposed to be chicken and mushrooms
but they had no mushrooms today. Of course it was the mushrooms
that tempted me to order it in the first place. For the first
time the bread was a flat tortilla type (but much much thinner
than tortillas) but that did not deter Omer and Mehmet from
digging in with gusto along with their shiskabaps. After a big
breakfast and in the heat I didn't eat much of my meal but at
less than $6.00 CDN that was ok.
After lunch they tried to convince
me to go to visit the fish lake (fish farm) which was associated
with Abraham but when I looked at how far it was and how affected
I was by the heat I decided I didn't need to see it. Once you
have seen fish feeding frenzies when you toss food in you have
pretty much seen it all. I wanted to walk through the bazaar but
it was just too hot and my back and legs wouldn't let me do it.
At 5:00 Omer called me and asked
if I wanted to go out to the bazaar. I said I would meet him in
an hour. After I hung up I debated calling him back and canceling
but decided I would give it a try and see how far I could get.
Glad I did because I had a very enjoyable time tonight. We walked
a bit, then sat and rested before walking some more. I found the
many shops very interesting. We stopped at a couple of spice
shops and I bought the two spices (sumac and isot - bbq spice)
that I had been looking for on the recommendation of my travel
agent. I tried another spice that Omer said was mild but I could
feel it on my tongue for an hour afterward. Didn't buy any of
that one. We stopped at a cafe in the bazaar and Omer and Mehmet
had dinner. I was not hungry. Still I received tea and a
yoghurt/water drink which was really refreshing. They had
barbecued lamb liver with sumac in the same bread we had had at
lunch. If I had been hungry I would have liked to have some too
as the piece I tasted was very good.
From there we proceeded to a
Nargile (hookah water pipe) cafe where Omer and I shared a pipe
with apple flavoured tobacco. It was very tasty but so mild that
I received no satisfaction from it. One pipe lasts about two
hours but we left after an hour or so and made our way back to
the hotel. I might just have to buy one of the pipes to take home
as a souvenir if I can think of a way to carry it. But then I
would also have to buy tobacco and charcoal coals to use it unles
sit was just going to sit around and gather dust.
There have been torrential rains
and floods in Istanbul and I can only hope that my hotel and
plans for there are not too badly affected. They received more
than six months amount of rain in just two days. Scary.
I hear that kissing has been
banned in some places (Paris) because of swine flu... Some men
here do the kissing on the cheek greeting with both men and women
but i have not encountered that personally yet. Many people ask
questions about me to Omer - where i am from, why I am not
fasting, if I am married, how many children I have, etc. Curious
people.