Konya

We decided to couch surf in Konya, the final resting place of the Sufi, Rumi, and home to the whirling dervishes. We found George, new to couchsurfing, and we were his first guests. OMG - he was great, generous and eager to show us his town. We arrived around 6pm and from that moment until about 1am we were non stop. We went for dinner, coffee, tea, downtown, uptown, the river, if there was a sight to be seen, he showed us. He played photographer with my camera and the results are priceless.

One thing he didn't mention was that he lives with his family, who just happened to be on vacation...except for dad whom we had breakfast with the following morning :)

Konya is the first city that I've been to (so far) where I really felt a religious presence. Women cover their heads, there wasn't a drop of beer to be found, and the city pretty much shuts down around 11pm. Ok, you're right, where there is beer to be had, we will find it. We just happened to spy an Efes sign (local turkish beer) down an alley, so we walk towards it, only to find 3 guys kind of lurking in front of a small shop that has one cooler full of Efes in a can or bottle. I mean I thought that some shit was going down! All this to buy beer. The guy almost wrapped it in newspaper but then gave it to us in a dark plastic bag. I thought for sure the beer police would hear the bottles clanking away in my bag, but we made it back to the hotel and couldn't help but laugh at yet another adventure in Konya.