It’s always a good idea to count your blessings. Even during difficult times. Remaining positive is a positive. Leaving no room for the negative. Contemplation and meditation help to balance soul, mind and spirit.
Today’s frenetic start is borne out of not knowing what to do. Our bus-bound city trip almost ends before it gets off the ground. A little info can take you far. As in 24 stops down the road. So, the bus stop is 100 meters from Beastie. We arrive, according to MAPS brilliant journeying system, two minutes before the number 41A. It sails past in the centre lane. Driver doesn’t give us a seconds glance. OK, we’ll get the 42A. Here it comes. We can see it stopping at the previous stop, a couple of hundred meters up the road. Then, likewise, it sails by. Did it miss Mrs S’s outstretched arm? Confused? Are we at the right stop? There is absolutely no info on it. Is MAPS’ GPS slightly out of kilter? We leg it up the road. MAPS turns us into twisted twisters. Indicates bus stop one is definitely correct. We do the return leg with rubber necks. After bus number three blind-sides us, a warrior-like state is developing on the pavement. The Turks are getting a verbal pasting. Mr S does the sensible. A diplomatic thing. Goes back to camp and asks the park security guard “Why?” He smiles. Then impersonates a one winged baby gosling attempting his first earth-bound flight. We flap down the next bus. Just how big is the Hokey Cokey in Türkiye?
Once in town we head for the free entry Mevlana Museum. The world famous Whirling Dervishes (no similarity) perform their weekly Sufi dance here. Today is not their day. Or ours. We make do. There’s plenty to see.
It’s the final resting place of Rumi, a Persian mystic and poet, from the 13thC. Now a place of pilgrimage. The grounds contain a mosque and a number of tombs – a lot like visiting a church and it’s cemetery, but a bit posher.
To become a dedicated follower of Rumi you had to undergo a time of suffering and isolation. Prove you were ready and capable of renouncing all worldly cravings. A bit like becoming a nun, but with a beard. Not for everyone – unless you’re ex-circus.
Although 99% of the information we read never sticks, it does help to give a feel of the times and people. Like the good little museum morons we are, we methodically read, enter, gawp, comment, forget, move on. A group of teenagers are visiting too. Like a sewn long-stitch they snake in, raise phones, snap, snap, snap, snake out. Facebook and X ready themselves. Far flung friends connect. Envious of screen shots. A constant ADHD life blog, perpetuates and infiltrates the airwaves. Just how much can the atmosphere take? Will it explode, or implode . . . ?
We add our pennyworth.
But – then there are the patterns. They’re like mesmerising optical illusions.
We finish our Konya visit with a leg stretch. Get a feel for the place. Like most inner cities, it’s two faced. Designer facades front the old and dilapidated inner back streets. Yet, here there are fewer. There’s a more prosperous feel.
