Saturday was sightseeing day. Mehmet and me went for a stroll downtown. Sivas has a nice big central square that is dominated by the Çifte Minare Medresesi (double minaret) and the old college, where 1919 Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) held the congress that led four years later to the republic of Turkey. Today the college contains a museeum about the different ethnies of the region and of course about Atatürk.
We also visited the Ulu Cami, the big mosque, which is also the oldest of the town.
Sunday was Hammam-day. We spent and entire afternoon there, going from the fitness studio, which was included, to the swimming pool and finally to the hammam.
In the fitness studio I always feel a bit awkward, but running on the rolling carpet was kind of fun. In, the pool I, tried to do some lanes, but gave up after a couple zigzagging and diving between the, other visitors doing everything but swimming along straight lines. I settled for watching the fun instead. Aslan told me that a lot of people do not get swimming training in school, but I, had no clue how a pool full of non-swimmers would look like. Sure most of the people managed to keep their head above the water surface, but rarely with any of the techniques I know. After the hammam I was like cooked in the proper sense of the term. I waited a bit too long before the scrubbing so the skin was a bit irritated afterwards. Once we left in the eavening, I felt very tired and very clean.
Ah yes, and it was snowing most of the weekend...
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