I remember Konya as a sleepy little provincial town when I passed through in the 1970’s. As we drove there to pay my speeding fine, my heart sank when I saw the sign “Konya Nufus 1,300,000”. I don’t like driving in big cities, especially those with 1.3 million people. A very helpful man at a post office gave me the address of the Council office and I paid the fine. It was actually 176 lira, not 120, and the officials laughed when I tried to explain that the policemen had told me 120. “They don’t do maths” I was told. Its hard to get steamed up with such courteous people.
We passed through Sultanhani and stopped to admire the largest caravanserai on the Turkish section of the Silk Road, built in 1229. It had an open section for summer when temperatures on the Anatolian Plateau and a closed section for winter when it is freezing.
We arrived in Goreme which I never saw in the 1970’s and I am kicking myself. It is now infested with Chinese tour groups with selfie sticks and miles of shops selling tourist tat. Some of it is actually rather nice and Jennifer tried her hand at haggling to buy some attractive little plates for friends.
We had a delicious meal at a restaurant. I had a “potery kofte” which is like a beef cassarole cooked in a closed pot which is then broken open and the contents poured out to eat. A member of a Chinese tour group took a picture of my meal before I had time to eat it!!! We also had a sweet: Jennifer had baklava and I had kunfe, a sort of pudding with cream.