We headed out of Cappadocia the next day, and headed towards Konya. We made a stop along the way at the Sulthanhani caravanserai, a reminder that my Silk Road journey didn’t really end in the Stans. It is a beautifully preserved caravanserai and we had about 45 minutes exploring, and enjoying a cup of tea at the cafe.
We arrived into Konya around lunchtime. Konya is one of the more conservative areas of Türkiye that we would be visiting, and we were going to the Mevlana Mausoleum, so legs, shoulders and hair (for women) needed to be covered. The Mevlana Mausoleum itself was overrun with tour groups, but there were smaller rooms in the complex explaining the history of dervishes which was pretty interesting, especially having now seen the Whirling Dervishes ceremony in Cappadocia.
After lunch in Konya, we continued towards our next overnight destination, a homestay in the small village of Gunirseyer. On the way we stopped at Çatalhöyük, a neolithic settlement – possibly the first city in the world – dated to around 7500 BC. The houses are basically all joined together with no roads or alleys between them, and it’s believed they moved around on the roofs of the houses. It’s absolutely incredible to think about the age of this settlement and that people were here over 9000 years ago!
We arrived at the homestay in the early evening. One of the things I really like about G Adventures trips is that they really embrace local living and community tourism. We had a delicious dinner (the best food I’d had so far in Türkiye) and then spent the evening with the family. I spent quite a lot of time entertaining their 5 year old grandson playing with toy cars!
We continued heading south towards the coast the next day. A beautiful drive through the Taurus mountains. We arrived in Antalya in the afternoon. A surprisingly (to me) large city. We spent most of the afternoon wandering in the old town, which I really enjoyed. Narrow, higgledy-piggledy streets, little alleyways, lots of bars, restaurants and little shops. We watched the sunset near the harbour and then had dinner at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the water. Bliss.
The next day we had an afternoon boat trip along the Mediterranean coast, with a couple of swimming stops and a delicious lunch of barbecued sea bream. An afternoon aboard a boat with a glass of vino in the (very) late summer is a pretty good way to spend the day.
We ended the day in the small coastal town of Kaş, where we would be staying for 2 nights. We had a free day the next day and I spent the morning wandering the narrow streets of the small town. A baklava lunch before a relaxing afternoon in the hotel – a bit of needed downtime after being on the go for a while. In the evening we watched the sunset (unfortunately covered by cloud) from the amphitheatre before dinner and drinks at a seafood restaurant.
Next, onwards inland to more history…
