Voyage Anatolia

Tomb of Rumi at Konya , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com . Inside Rumi's Shrine at Konya.

O son, break all the ties and be free, for how long will you be captive of gold and silver? If you try to pour the sea in a pitcher, the pitcher will take only the need of the day. The pitcher of greedy people's eyes is never filled, but an oyster is not satiated unless it is filled with a pearl!

Shrine of Rumi at Konya , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia .

Come closer, closer, and closer! How long does this separation last? And struggle, and fight. You are me, and I am you.

This collection presents, for the first time in English, a compilation of seven centuries of the mystic hymns of Turkey's rebellious Sufi poets the popular folk counterparts to Rumi whose poems are characterized by a passionate and unorthodox commitment to Truth. At the time Rumi was writing in ancient Anatolia, many other great mystics in the region were also composing wild, ecstatic, and controversial poems that were circulated among the people as spiritual songs and are still played and sung today in sacred dervish ceremonies and gatherings. The poems present a spiritual tradition from the Islamic world that bravely challenged orthodox religion and emphasized universal mystic love and tolerance.

Shrine of Rumi at Konya , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia .

Stay in a cave hotel in Cappadocia , go to hot air ballooning, horseback riding or trekking among fairy chimneys . Go to a sailing trip at Aegean Coast aboard a luxury yacht charter, a traditional Aegean schooner, gulet, which can be cheaper than you think. >>> Travel Istanbul aboard a ferry cruise in Bosphorus Strait between two seas, Marmara and Black Sea, and two continents, Europe and Asia, like argonauts did. Have your dinner at sunset at Kadiköy pier at the end of the day. Order Yakut for red wine or Cankaya for white. >>> Walk around Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul seeing Hagia Sophia , Topkapi Palace, Treasure and Harem of Ottoman Sultans, Blue Mosque , Archaeology Museum , Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar . See the Sufi performance of the Whirling Dervishes of Rumi at Sirkeci Train Station , terminus of the Orient Express in the evening. >>> Go extreme: Go hiking on the old volcanos of Eastern Anatolia! Climb Mount Ararat! Join an expedition...