KONYA, TURKEY'S MOST CONSERVATIVE CITY? TR

Hey what's up? I'm now here in Konya in central Turkey. I took a bus yesterday from Cappadocia. Took around three hours from the town of Goreme where I was staying in my cave hotel if you saw those previous videos. I'm here for one more night tonight. Staying in the center of this city with a population of 1.2 million and well known for being Turkey's perhaps most conservative city. If you are Turkish and you happen to know why then let me know in the comments below. Based on my first impressions I would say it definitely has that feel. There's a lot of mosques around the city center and there's some very old connections with this city. The most famous being its whirling dervishes. There is a performance and dance which I'll get on to and explain a bit more later on. I'm here on the perfect day. It's a Saturday and so this time of week is when the free performance or dance of the whirling dervishes is on so hopefully I'll be able to include it in the video tonight. People washing themselves outside in the cold before entering into the mosque. Right here is the main attraction of the city, the Mevlana Museum. It's the home of the whirling dervishes. It's their original lodge and famous for its turquoise tiled roof. Not just a museum and former lodge it's also the tomb of Mevlana who is responsible for giving the world the whirling dervishes. The performance I'm going to see tonight that I mentioned earlier. It's also one of the biggest pilgrimage sites in the whole of Turkey. It's free to enter so I'm about to go inside now and check it out. Before going inside you need to put plastic around your shoes as is everybody. Just come out of the main building there behind me. Inside you'll find old Ottoman editions of the Quran, dervish clothes and various other artifacts. If you're a Muslim visiting Turkey then I guess it's not really to be missed. Right now I'm about to head out of this site and show you a bit more of Konya's street life. It's Bazaar's markets. Lots of souvenir shops not too far away from Mevlana and the great big mosque beside it. You can see what I mean when I said Konya is actually quite a charming place with lots of nice shops selling Turkish delight, spices and sweets, nuts, souvenirs, jewelry, Turkish rugs and carpets. This street is one of the most interesting I think based on when I explored a little this way last night. There's quite a well-known mosque at the end of it which I'm about to go inside and show you. Having made my way to the end of that street you can see the mosque I was referring to. Aziziye is its name. An old Ottoman Baroque style of architecture. I'm going to head inside now and see how old and authentic it looks. Fascinating to see these smaller lanes between the main bazaar and the different things on sale. Another mosque at the end here. Not very hard to find one if you're in Konya. So many different avenues to go down. Lots of things on sale and I'm getting a lot of stares around here which tells me that maybe foreigners don't wander around here too often. I feel like Konya has transported me back in time somewhat with these cobbled streets, old style shops, rubbing shoulders with mosques. Hi. Sorry. Getting a lot of people giving me attention and staring at me. Had a few photos today asking what my YouTube channel is. A little bit more than usual so I can tell the travelers or foreigners don't tend to come here especially not drawing attention themselves like I'm doing now with my camera as I can't really help. Hi. Hello. I'm now back here in my hotel room in Konya having a little bit of a break before I head out and watch the Whirling Dervishes this evening. I managed to pick up a snack. Tulumba which is the Turkish donut. It's deep-fried dough coated in sugar syrup. Mmm. Crunchy, sweet, syrupy and juicy. Mmm. Really good. Hey what's up? It's now dark here in Konya. I'm back in the same square I was in earlier with the mosque and Mevlana which looks stunning and nighttime lit up. As I focus my camera there you can see it much better. And back onto me. I'm working my way to the culture center here in Konya on this Saturday night for the once-in-a-week event which is so famous and draws so many people to the city for the Mevlevi worship ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes. A ritual and religious sort of dance performance. I can't wait to see it completely free and about 20 minutes walk from here to reach the culture center. So just working my way there now. I just had my dinner around 10 minutes ago and I had something called manti, a relatively famous Turkish dish. Mine was a vegetarian version with mushrooms with melted cheese. Didn't really like it to be honest. Way too much cheese. Still working my way towards the culture center and the Dervish orders all around the world perform this Sema is what it's called, the ritual, the name of it. But here in Konya specifically within Turkey it's the most original and I'm told the smoothest and purest version of it. I'm now here at the Mevlana Culture Merkezi. Still about 25 minutes before it starts so hopefully I'll get a nice seat. There's another performance area just here which I imagine is used during the summer for the same ritual, the Sema. Inside the waiting area of the culture center there is a lot of places to get souvenirs related to the Sema and also some food over here. Lots of locals hanging out. Pretty nice. I think it's a good choice to sit on this side because I can see the band as well. I've chosen my seat and I'm quite happy with it. Take a look at my view. I can't remember how clear I made it earlier on in the video so one more time just to be sure every Saturday 7 p.m. here at the culture center in Konya all year round you can watch this performance. So don't miss it if you're in the city. One of the best things to see. The Sema has finished. That was mesmerizing. I'm not sure how well those short clips came across in this video but to be there in person was something else. To witness the discipline and elegance you know not falling over or bumping into each other and being able to keep spinning for such a long period of time is astonishing. The music and the singing really touching everyone's hearts who's watching Muslim or non-Muslim. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So that's it for this Konya video. I hope you enjoyed it. Tomorrow I'm heading to another city quite a big one here in Turkey. Let's see in the comments if you can guess it correctly below. So I'll see you on the next Turkey vlog. Peace.