short&fast travelling to the Biggest Village

I decided to stay in Istanbul for this holiday. But first day of holiday, my mother said me, “we’ll go to Konya!” Konya is a city where is my grandmother, uncle and aunt live in there. I asked her “How about Konya? There is no plan to go there.” But she spoke with her sister and they decided to go there with her car. There is no enough seat in car and I was happy when they said this to me. Because I could stay in Istanbul. But my mother said to me, “don’t be sad my son, I bought your bus ticket this morning!” I started to laughing because of angry. But I was forced to go there. Bayrams are very important for our culture so my mother wanted that all family will be together, and also me.

On Monday, my mothers departed from Istanbul at 8 am and my bus was at 22.30. I spent my time with my friend and went to bus station at night. My headway was very fast, because I started to sleep when I sat on my seat and woke up in Konya bus station. Time was 6am. And that day is the first day of Bayram. And I went to my grandma’s house and when she saw me , she was very happy and surprized. Because nobody say anything to her about my travel. Bayrams start with pray so I went to mosque for this, than came back to house. Everybody –grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews- was there and we exchanged our Bayram greetings. Everybody gave gifts to each others. I saw my youngest cousin first time. He is only 1 years old and he has a common thing with me -Our names-.

After celebiration we visited our other relatives. Then I leave from my family. I called Yahya who is from Konya and also my classmate as you know and we met 1 our later. We went to a cafe and played backgammon during drank tea.

I want to tell something about Konya. Mevlana’s Tomb is the symbol of this city and one of the most famous places in Turkey. Millions of domestic and foreign tourists visiting this tomb every year. Every city has famous and traditional foods in Turkey and Konya’s famous food is Etli Ekmek. I can translate it like “meat bread”. It is a deliciosus and unique food. There is an interesting thing in Konya; Turkey is very uneven country, but there is no acclivity in Konya. Only there is a small hill in the city centre which name is Alaaddin Hill.it was made by soldiers about hundreds years ago, it is not natural.

Most of Konya’s peolpe are very interesting and different from Istanbul’s. A family which includes 5 person can get on only a motorbike. They dont think thier healt and security. First 2 days of Bayram, there is no open restaurant in Konya. Second day of Bayram, I wanted to eat Etli Ekmek but I could not find an open restaurant for this. Also the biggest shopping malls closed too in first day. I call Konya to "the biggest village of Turkey". In Bayrams, bread isn’t sold so everybody buy bread before Bayram.

Right now, I am in train and coming back to Istanbul,naturally I am very happy as you guess. I love my city. The most beautiful thing of my travel was to saw my relatives and namesake cousin.

Ali Naci AYDIN (03.10.2007 02.15am)