Up at 8:30am. Stella spoiled Michael Scott's return on the finale of The Office (which had just aired in LA). Candice won American Idol. Damn, Kree picked the wrong year to be the fat chick in the finals. A girl who weighs less than a man will never will American Idol again. Angie had no chance.
I forget when we left the hotel. At 10:30am we descended to the underground city at Saratlı.
This underground city went down 80 m, if I recall correctly.
This place was awesome. Carved out of rock. People lived down here.
Passageway.
Another stop 12:10pm-12:40pm at a caravanserai (stopover for caravans).
Entrance.
Informational placard.
Mosque in the courtyard.
Outside there was a dog with huge milk-laden teats, and I assume these belonged to her.
Covered section.
Lunch at another rest stop. Spicy beef kebab.
Stopped at the Mevlana Museum in Konya, where we learned everything about the whirling dervishes. None of it was interesting.
Then we visited Eşrefoğlu Mosque in Beyşehir, which was pretty cool. We met the imam, who was younger than expected and wore a suit. He sang for us.
Wooden mosque.
Wooden mosque.
Reconstruction. Originally this was all tiles but some asshole destroyed it.
This pit was used to store snow throughout the year, to keep the mosque cool and to maintain an adequate humidity level to keep the wood healthy. Would be nice if j2 would maintain an adequate level of humidity! I filed a Cal OSHA complaint once about the aridness, after HR by omission told me to fuck off. Nothing came of it.
At 7pm we arrived at the home of Ibrahim (a different one) and Muray. Their house was our resting place for the night. The single room I paid for didn't apply tonight, so I shared a room with Andy and Dave. We each had 2 mattresses on the floor, and they were comfortable.
Muray cooked an excellent dinner. Afterward most of us played the longest Uno game ever. Bed 10:52pm.