Konya, home of Rumi

Back on the road, we stop by a 700 year old caravanserai. This old hotel used to host merchant traders and their horses. Today, it's currently under restoration. We tried to imagine what it must have been like staying here and mused how fun it would be if we could stay at a working caravanserai for the night.

Moving on to Konya, home of Rumi or Mevlana. We had another chance to try pide before having a few hours to explore the centre of town. I think it would've been nice to stay here overnight, but otherwise we had fun exploring the markets and the museum of Rumi. It's a great spot if you want to buy anything with dervishes, prices are great. We also tried Konya candy, which is like a sweet piece of chalk. It wasn't to our liking though so it was nice of the shopkeeper to give us a sample.

Konya is a much bigger city than I imagined as we left it. Neighborhoods just stretched out before our eyes. Perhaps my mind was still on the Konya described in "The 40 Rules of Love" that I'd read, about Rumi, Shams and a host of other characters.Read more