pat loughery

Day 3: October 22, 2008

Today was a travel day. We rode our bus from Istanbul to Urgup in Cappadocia, a distance of around 800km.

We began in our hotel with a time of worship led by Randy White on the topic of pilgrimage using Psalm 84. We discussed the theme of pilgrimage, and then after a few minutes’ reflection we together wrote a psalm of pilgrimage with each of us writing a sentence as prayer to God. We read our sentences one by one, and Randy will compile them together to be our group’s psalm of pilgrimage.

Randy also mentioned reading “the ancient books on pilgrimage”. Because I strongly identify with this theme, I later asked him for suggestions on this topic. He didn’t remember what he was referring to so we both made notes to check again via email when we returned home.

With heavy traffic the entire way out of Istanbul, our progress was slow. We knew we would have a long travel day, but it was clear early into the trip that we were not making good time. Our lunch stop turned into a stop for snacks and restroom break, and we made two of these stops along the journey.

I enjoyed the conversation I had with other members of our trip although it was hard to remain comfortable, so I was less engaged than I wanted to be. I did find that the back seat of the bus was the most comfortable for my leg, so I rode the last portion of the trip there and was able to sleep for a while. The ride was rough in that section of the bus and I felt a bit queasy from our bumpy roads, but it was a worthwhile trade in order to elevate my leg.

After about twelve hours we arrived at our hotel. Much larger and nicer than I expected, we arrived for a late dinner buffet. The food was good but I ate lightly with soup and vegetables, and retired to my room early. I was hoping to find an Internet connection in the room to chat with my wife, but apparently there was only Internet connectivity in the lobby. My ankle was stiff enough that I didn’t want to walk back to the lobby at this hour.

I also wanted to wash some clothes if the hotel has a laundry service, as I only packed a week’s worth of clothing but will be gone for some 17 days. I was not running low on clothes yet, but since this was the last time that we would be in the same location for two nights in a row until the very end of the journey I planned to get caught up.

My takeaway for the day was simple: remain flexible, plan lightly, and use the opportunities at hand to reflect, read, chat and rest.