Tried to stay at Sarikoy, but flamed out there, so I’m staying at Ali Bilir Tesisleri up the road in Ucpinar. By the way, Sarikoy = yellow village, Ali Bilir = Ali knows, Tesisleri = facilities (rest stop when the context is right), Ucpinar = three...
A shredded wire-pastry (think Shredded Wheat cereal — I suspect there’s a more culinarily-correct word for it) surrounding a disk of cheese, saturated with diluted honey and baked until the cheese is warm and melty. Kunefe is not a quickly-delivered...
A few days before I entered Konya province some people mentioned to me that I had to try a local specialty called etli ekmek while I was there. Thin, crisped flatbread topped with ground red meat (beef or lamb, I don’t know) mixed with ground onions and mild...
Last week I dedicated a day of the walk to William Ury. A number of people asked me, “Who is William Ury?” William Ury is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Negotiation Project. In October, 2010, he gave a speech where he mentioned Abraham’s Path, a...
Next week is Kurban bayrami (Feast of the Sacrifice), perhaps the holiest of the religious holidays here in Turkey. The holiday will run for four days, Thursday through Sunday. In Arabic Kurban bayrami is known as “Eid al-Adha.” The traditional way to...
Hi all, A handful of people noticed the lack of posts yesterday and contacted me to ask if everything was okay. Yes, I’m fine, thanks. I am still in Beysehir. I was sick yesterday, so I did not walk. I am fine now, but I am taking today (Friday) off also, just...
To while away the time on the road I play the license plate game. In Turkey almost all of the license plates look the same, but the first number on the plate signals which province the car is from. The numbers are in alphabetical order by province name. For example,...
Last night, after a full day walking 40 kilometers (25 miles), double my usual, I rolled into the town of Beysehir, population 40,000. My back and hips were cramping up bad from all that walking. God only knows what possessed me to try to cram two days of walking into...
Near Lake Beysehir – Mustafa and his grandsons Selcuk (in arms) and Mustafa. They were taking a break from the harvest as I walked by. We shared three cups of tea, then they went back to work and I continued walking.
