Love Journey - Courting (a present for Ira) part 1

Before I presented my stitch work for Ira, I want to share a story about my friendship with her (Warning: lots of pictures!)

I have been knowing her in early 2009, sometimes before her wedding through Multiply, a blogging/social media website. I didn't like her much in the beginning because she mostly posted her blog in Sundanese, a traditional language from West Java. I didn' speak the language even though I could understand some. I thought she was limiting her friends to Sundanese people only. When she moved to Turkey and I was there too, gradually we become close friend through facebook. It turned out we have so many things in common particularly for crazy and evil things *big grin*

She and her family visited me in May 2010 when I was pregnant to Ali. It was a crazy surprise visit since they live miles away from Konya (they live in eastern part of Turkey). She climbed the gate and knocked my bedroom's window in the middle of the night! I really appreciated her visit, I was so lonely and miserable at that time with my husband gone to military for 6 months. At the same time another friend (an Indonesian bride who live in Izmir) also visited me with her daughter. We had a blast, stayed late almost every night, cooked Indonesian food and also visited several places in Konya.

a fun shopping trip near around the neighbourhood

visited Mevlana (Rumi - the sufi poet's tomb)

In June 2011 we arranged to meet in Sanlıurfa. This city is called as 'the City of Prophets' by many people. We visited several places together:

crazy ladies in Urfa

Balıkgöl (Fish lake) at night. 
The legendary Pool of Sacred Fish (Balıklıgöl) where Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod. The pool is in the courtyard of the mosque of Halil-ur-Rahman, built by the Ayyubids in 1211 and now surrounded by attractive gardens designed by architect Merih Karaaslan. The courtyard is where the fishes thrive. A local legend says seeing a white fish will open the door to the heavens. ( from Wikipedia)

It is believed that prophet Abraham was thrown from between these two pillars into the flames over the Castle of Urfa. At that moment, God ordered that “All the flames! Be cool and safe for Abraham.” As he was thrown the flames turned into water and the logs into fish. Prophet Abraham fell into a rose garden alive.

Urfa Kale (castle) and Nimrod pillars at the day time.
Built in antiquity, the current walls of the castle were constructed by the Abbasids in 814 AD

Inside the cave where is believed as the birth place of Prophet Abraham, inside the Mevlid-i Halil Mosque near to the streams of Balıkgöl

King Nimrod had a dream, in which he loses his kingdom, “This year a child will be born and he will destroy your heathen religion and kingdom...” Upon this dream he decided to kill every child born within that year. Nuna, pregnant to Prophet Abraham, hid her pregnancy and gave birth to Abraham in a cave secretly.

the Eyyub Peygamber. This is a cave where God tested Prophet Job's patience

the Well whose sacred water washed and restored Prophet Job

Visited Harran, which is famous for its traditional 'beehive' adobe houses, constructed entirely without wood.

the crazy ladies tried out some Urfa clothes

The design of these makes them cool inside (essential in this part of the world) and is thought to have been unchanged for at least 3,000 years (Wikipedia)

the Ruins of Islam's first university

Despite the heat we all enjoyed Harran :)

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا