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Urfa, Turkey
Wednesday, Aug 31, 2005

Home of Abraham

David Murray
2007-02-21 19:48:20

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Taking Sarah's advice, we caught the day bus and arrived in Urfa. Supposedly Abraham/Ibraham, Ibraham being his Muslim name, was born in a cave their and died after being thrown onto a fire. What a way to go !!!!!

We arrived quite late and a guy was there to meet us. He said he had a room for 30 Lira with air conditioning, so we went with him He was Kurdish and all of our dealings with Kurds so far had been good. He showed us the room and the only air conditioning that there was, was the windows were left open !!!!! He the offered us the roof !!!!! He said we could have an air conditioned room tomorrow. Fuck that. He would not lower his price, so we walked out and found our own hotel.

Advice number 2. Do not go to Harran

We got up early and found a dolmus that was going to Harran. Another town that had something to do with Abraham/Ibraham. Now it was hot in Urfa, but Urfa was like living in a fridge compared to Harran. Our dolmus had not even stopped before a boy had jumped on and was flashing his offical tourism card at us. I told him I did not need a guide. End of story.

We got off and walked. He followed. He kept saying that he was an official guide. I ignored him. Lucy spoke to him. He started to get shitty. He would not shut up, and then he asked why I would not talk to him, so calmly, I told him that I lýke peace and quiet so that I could take it in. With this, he abused me and turned and walked away. Peace and quiet for a few minutes. First stop was the mosque that was not there anymore, except the old tower. We were mobbed by kids trying to sell us stuff. A quick fend and they were gone. In a couple of minutes, we were moving ourselves as there was nothing to see. We walked down to the old castle and had a look. It was falling down as well so it was over as soon as it had begun. Next stop was the old houses which look like bee hives. I suppose they were ok looking, but it was over pretty quickly as well. And that was Harran. Sarah was right. Bitch. But I had to see to make sure she was right !!!

Once back, we explored around the bazaar area. It was very Middle Eastern as Urfa is very near to Syria. As Lucy had broken her sandal up at Nemrut, we went looking for sandals for her. A child decided to follow us. Then more came along until around 8 were following us !!! We then found a shoe repaır man. He fixed Lucy's sandals, then us and our pack left again. We then cam along circumcision alley, the kids screamed and then we were on our own. Once finished with the bazaar, we came across a couple of pools with carp in them. The parks around them were nice but don't understand the carp thing. Above it was another old castle. It was pretty crappy, so we were not in there very long. We had one last site to see and that was the cave that Abraham/Ibraham had been born in. There was one problem though, this Western Infidel was underdressed and the Muslim Fanatics were not going to let me in. Lucy had a look and said I had not missed much, so I hope she was telling me the truth !!!

That was Urfa. It was nice and small, we are now seeing less and less of the Western Infidels that plagued Western Turkey, but we are taking another night bus. Suckers for punishment I say !!!