Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Mardin Mardin On the slope of a mountain rising up from the Mesopotamian plains rests the city of Mardin, a city rich with history dating back to the Hittites, if not before, fascinating flat-roofed buildings carved from limestone, and a menagerie of minarets and bell towers. Though we were staying in a modest guest house, even that building was at least 300 years old and beautifully set in stone. Looking out over the plains you could see even as far as Syria. Just outside of the city is Deyrul Zarafan Monastery, home to Syrian Orthodox Christians since the fifth century, and still offering prayers services daily. Fifteen minutes or so from there is Dara, the location of Persian King Darius’ summer palace. Within the city there is a military fortress, museums, and a number of ancient religious schools, mosques, and churches, but we think that the best thing about Mardin was meeting the people who live there. From the guest house owner, who was a wealth of knowledge on the history of t

Felsefe Philosophy One of the places that we passed through was Konya, a city in central Turkey most commonly known for being the resting place of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, a philosopher and mystic who founded the Whirling Dervish sect. In looking through some of his illustrious quotes, we came across this: “If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?” So we ponder, 1. What “rubs” are we experiencing that are really making us better? 2. When we are irritated by a “rub,” but know that it is developing us personally, how do we look at it with a better attitude and cope with it? 3. What wisdom can we take from the ancient philosophers and what should we leave in the dust? from the Wanderings (summer 2010) slideshow at Biraz Daha : The mausoleum of Mevlana from a distance.

Kaynak Suyu Spring Water Turkey abounds with natural spring water. Because of this there are fountains dotting the country, often built by the one who discovered the spring as a service to the community and act of merit to God. We came to realize that for our Turkish friends, visiting the local springs to wash your face and drink the soothingly cool water is a favorite activity. While hanging out with Turkish friends, both lounging at the spring-side tea garden in Balıkesir and during several spontaneous stops at a road-side springs in the Ankara region, we witnessed fountains bustling with men and women, young and old, filling water bottles to take home, washing fruit, and just cooling off from the summer heat. We have to admit that we are a little unaccustomed to getting our water from the ground (and, truthfully, a little skeptical of some of the rusty pipes we saw sticking out of the fountains), but we appreciate our friends’ enthusiasm for the springs. Maybe in becoming such mode

Yolda On the Road Last summer a few of our friends, practiced foreigners living in Turkey (with, not to mention, impeccable Turkish) invited us to explore a few different regions of the country with them. Traveling to the various provinces allowed us to see the cultural idiosyncrasies of the different areas, taste traditional regional foods, grasp the rich history of the land, and make a few new Turkish friends. With language school and other imminent responsibilities awaiting us this fall, we decided to take a couple weeks of our “summer break” to thus broaden our perspective on Turkey as a whole as well as make use of our burgeoning Turkish vocabularies. Our final destination was Mardin, as city in south-east Turkey that we can now confirm is one of the most interesting places in the country. But, as our Turkish friends say, geze geze gidiyorduk —we wandered as we went, visiting friends, sampling famous foods, and taking lots of pictures! See our Wanderings (summer 2010) slideshow a