Beysehir, Konya... 17-19 May '08

Hi, I just got back from trip to Beysehir, a town of Konya. There was a photographers marathon held in Beysehir. We went there with Koksal by bus. It was a funny trip, Konya had the funniest signs: "A city, friend of babies", "Remember (!) the traffic rules" :) We had a lot of fun.
We got to Beysehir at 8 pm and Faruk took as from the bus station. The Photopraphers Marathon was begining. Faruk was one of the juries. They rented a restaurant's park; people had their tent in the park, could eat in the restaurant and use the bathroom.

The openning was great, around 300 photographer had joined to the marathon. They had slayt show of the Turkey's famous photographer; people ate and chatted with each other. And later that night, a bus picked us up and took us to the Kosk Thermal Spring. That's where the most annoying part of the trip had started. It was 35 km's far from the city, that was OK, we knew that. We got there around midnight, checked in and went to our rooms. I had never seen such a hotel room, there was no bed, you could slide the couch and put the bed sheet on yourself and go to sleep. And the bed sheets smelled disgusting. I had no choice but to sleep here. I put on my raincoat, covered my head and face a little, and tried to sleep on the uncomfortable couch. In the morning I realized we had no water!! I asked Koksal, who was staying in the room next to mine, he didnt have water either. I went to the information desk and approach the men how I felt! (You know what I mean right?) OK, we stay at bad places; because villages, and towns dont have a lot of tourists and I dont expect them to have 5 star hotel service but at least I expect them to be clean. And this place was nowhere close to clean! Anyways he showed us an apart house and said we could stay in there. Koksal and I check the bed sheet to see if it smelled! It was defenitely better than the ones we stayed last night. Anyways, we'll come back to the hotel later...
Beysehir, is a small town by the Beysehir lake which gives the town a specialty. There was a lot to see around; Hittite ruins, old streets and houses, villages etc. The organization had busses to take people where they want to take photo of. We had a car, so didnt need to hang with them. First we went to Fasillar Village then Eflatunpinar Village. Both places had Hittites works. In Eflatunpinar, you can see Hittites pool; and in Fasillar there isn't much left but there are two big piaces; one shows a door and a horse relief and the other one was a statue which lays on the earth.
After that we took the road to Karaman. On the way to Karaman and Mut, we had great nature photographs. Thanks to our luck, we saw two kids biking. We asked them to be in our picture; they loved it and biked on the road as we photographed the nature with them. Because of the season, nature was all green and all kind of flowers had bloomed.
We got back to our hotel, tired. Next day when Faruk and other juries got together to eleminate and choose the winning photos, I and Koksal, took a tour in Beysehir.

One of the places that we visited was Esrefoglu Mosque. It had the best interior made of wood. Nothing was used in there except for wood. And the paintings in there was great. We walked by the lake, down the streets and got back to the place to hear who won. For more information about the marathon you can visit www.fotosel.org.
Beysehir is a kind of place that you don't expect much, is never on your mind but once you get there you feel like you missed this place before. So, if you get a chance please do visit Beysehir.
Photos: Koksal Kayhan