Another sensibly late breakfast this morning - 8.15 am again :-) After breakfast we headed off in the minibus for the relatively short 3 hour drive to our next destination, Mardin. En route we stopped at a Gulen funded school, Atak College, where we had tea and conversation before presenting ourselves before an English language class of primary school aged children. This was heaps of fun with us giving out prizes of small stuffed koalas to children who correctly answered questions about Australia. Then on to Mardin where our first stop was at the very old former Syrian Christian church and monastery - Deyrulzafaran Monastery. The monastery built in the 5th century AD was first built as a small underground temple possible by sun worshipers based on the alignment of the small vertical windows in this part of the building. Later theists completed the monastery which now contains 365 rooms - one for each day of the year. Following our monastery visit we then went to the Yay Grand Hotel to check in where I left Sue to recover as she is still not completely well. She started a course of antibiotics and went to bed. I joined the rest of our group and we headed off to visit the offices of the local Chamber of Commerce where we met and had the usual tea and refreshments with the head of this organisation. Following this we then went for a walk from one end of Mardin to the other it seemed via the main street which was in a state of disrepair due to roadworks and a beautification project. En route we visited a beautiful old christian church, Kirklar Kilisesi. Eventually we headed back to our hotel and later this evening we had dinner on the terrace of the Yay Grand overlooking the lights of Mardin in the near distance.
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