The Urfa Bazaar consists of inns and bazzars dating back to the Ottoman period. Concentrated around Gunruk Inn/Han built over 700 years ago for cavalry soldiers who lodged at the inn, this was the most fascinating section in the bazaar. The Han courtyard was filled with tables of men playing a game called “okey,” backgammon, cards, dominos, checkers/draughts, chess while others sat around drinking tea and talking. Men wearing purple scarfs I might add… …View image.

Whenever Oz mentioned “a stop for tea or coffee,” a suggestion our English comrades were always ready for (“a nice cuppa”), I would usually snort, let out a long exhalation, and roll eyes in exasperation. Neither ex-Marine nor I are coffee/tea drinkers other than for breakfast. But this stop was a hit.

Whether Gumruk was called a Han, caravanserai or Customs Depot is immaterial. All I know is it was a large, noisy courtyard with a few small restaurants along the periphery, stands selling lighters, worry beads, other miscellany and fascinating. The group plopped down, if a person could “plop” on very low stools…View image…(think carefully lowering oneself into a “V”-shaped seat about two-feet off the ground) to drink coffee while I walked around for the next 30 minutes.

Filled with men only except for our group, you’ll never see women sitting around in public. Several young men tried their best to instruct me in the intricacies of okey (pronounced “okay”) that resembled a mah jong game with no luck. They continued slapping down the tiles while I watched. From what I could find out, it is a Turkish rummy game. Chess, lots of card players kibitzing around tables with my favorites being four men happily swathed in their blue/purple head scarfs…View image…, cigarettes dangling from lips.

One table of men waved me over when they heard me talking English. A native-born Urfa who has lived in New York City for 26 years, back for the first time visiting his family.

Who knows what time it was by now but with a goodbye to the Urfa Bazaar, Oz walked the group out and pointed the way back to our hotel, a long walk straight down the main street. Sidetracked when loud music blared out of a store selling c.d.’s, the first time we’d seen anyplace selling them in Turkey. Checked with Oz one more time that the hotel was indeed straight down the street and went into the store along with Colin and Alison to shop for music. Not easy since the young men selling didn’t speak much (if any) English. On a hunt for Kurdish music, they’d show me a c.d.; I’d gesture to open and play since almost all the c.d.’s in Turkey are counterfeit and it’s easy to get burned buying a dud. Settled on two, Allison bought one and off once again towards the hotel.

It seemed like a very long walk past shops, dried vegetables hanging for sale…View image, little restaurants lining the street.

We were exhausted, the streets were crowded and, by this time, we could have cared less what we ate and where we ate it. Near the hotel, we walked one block to a doner place, bought chicken doners, a large bottle of Coca Cola from another store and returned to our hotel room to snarf down dinner, totally wiped out. Touring is so exhausting…