In Search of the Ottoman Empire

One More Time

2009-07-26T11:23:00.005-07:00

Just a quick note.. we went and saw the Sufi ceremony known as the Whirling Dervishes tonight... wow. Before the ceremony, we got to talk to one of the Sufis,who explained the purpose of the dance -- to recognize the oneness of God, and to seek focus and union and spiritual maturity. And then, to return to regular existence with a sense of service to others. There's more to it of course, but it was moving and solemn and quite, quite beautiful. It started with music.. two stringed instruments and a flute and a drum. Then three singers sang the words that invoked the proper spirit and attitudes. Then the dancers very quietly and with great dignity entered, bowed, greeted one another and then began the dance.

It was awesome.... Sufis are Muslims who seek a mystical experience, but as our Sufi guide told us, "we are all the same, Muslims,Christians, Jews, we all seek the same God."

Then we sought dinner.... one last meal in a Turkish restaurant... much laughter, a bit of sadness at breaking up our happy little group. Five of us board a bus at 3 am to go to the airport, the others follow in waves.

Next time I write it'll be from 10 time zones away..and home.

Yay.

I'm posting a pair of Sufi pictures (hint, look closely at the feet of the single dancer) and one last kedi. By the way, I love my new camera.. the pictures of the Dervishes were taken without any flash in a darkened theater.

2009-07-26T11:23:00.003-07:00

2009-07-26T11:23:00.001-07:00

One Last Day in Istanbul

2009-07-26T02:34:00.000-07:00

It feels very familiar here.. kind of like "my neighborhood." After breakfast and our group morning meeting I went for coffee with a friend --Turkish coffee in a Turkish coffee house, sekerli (sugared) with a tiny little cookie the size of an American nickel. I did the last minute shopping (you know, the things I meant to buy and didn't the first time round!) Then I just walked, said good bye to the familiar kitties, admired the architecture.

I'm pretty much all packed... hopefully no overweight charges, but if there are, there are. I was pretty disciplined about not buying too many books, though I did order some from Amazon and Don says they are all waiting at home. :)

Tonight we are booked to go see a performance of the whirling dervishes... supposedly authentic. Last night some of the crew went to see a belly dance/traditional music performance, and it was highly touristic. Except for sadistic taxi drivers who booted them out blocks from the hotel they had fun, but I'm okay with not having gone.... when we lived here we saw many belly dance performers and it is a neat art form, but I really wanted to get packed and just rest up. The trip home will be grueling.

I still need to process a lot of what I have seen. Compared to 25 years ago there are many changes in Turkey. It is cleaner; the drivers are not quite as terrifying, except taxi drivers. By the way, my advice, should you come to Istanbul.... pick the oldest taxi driver you can find. My theory is that they have learned survival skills, have earned their stripes and thus have less to prove. AND, they are more likely to know where they are going. The driver Lisa and I had yesterday coming home from the bazaar had to stop and ask directions to get us back here and we certainly came a circuitous route. He was a young driver. Back to the old guys!

On this trip we have been in the developing world and in highly developed, modern areas. Turkey has made great strides. Probably the least developed places were Montenegro and Albania. I won't dare tell you what we overheard the Albanian bus driver saying to the Albanian guide about Montenegro, but it was both profane and possibly accurate. Yet people everywhere have been kind to us and hospitable. At no time whatever did we have any experiences that felt anti-American. Quite the opposite in many ways. At times, when we were with educated people, they delicately indicated a distaste for some of our governmental policies over the last decade, but all expressed a feeling that things would now improve.

What stands out though, in the background, is a sense that we're all alike in most important ways. Family matters, friends matter, following dreams matters. Every time we got to know someone we found that our values meshed in most ways. There is great respect here for education and most of the people we met saw education as a necessity and something for which to struggle and be thankful. I worry that many are losing that at home. That may be a societal thing we need to grapple with.

If anything I saw worried me it was the bumps here and there of resurgent nationalistic extremism. Patriotism is one thing,and a good one, but it would appear that everywhere there are those who for their own purposes are fanning the nasty flames of nationalistic passions. One example in the Balkans. The Serbo-Croatian language is mutually intelligible with minor pronunciation differences and some minor vocab substitutions thru Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia. It can be written in both our alphabet and in Cyrillic. In Serbia we saw many signs that were in both; as we moved into Bosnia it was in both but on the borders toward Serbia, the bi-alphabet signs had the Western spellings crossed out with spray paint, etc. As we approached Croatia, the Cyrillic was defaced. Subtle but maybe alarming in the impact.

There was humor everywhere, too... sometimes black humor, sometimes raucous. Sometimes for survival. There were smiles and hospitality but different approaches. In Turkey there is much customer service. Our luggage miraculously appeared in our hotel rooms. That did NOT happen in the Balkan nations! Breakfasts showed a difference.. throughout Turkey the spreads were generous and open but in other countries the selection and quantity were very limited. Yet, I had the sense of being given their best. In one Balkan hotel the first cup of coffee was free.. then you had to pay for additional cups, even though we had paid full board for breakfast. In Turkey it was very laissez faire.. when we came to breakfast it was there, but in the hotels in some of the other countries, it was made clear we all had to be there at a certain time and eat together. No worries... we did as we were told.

And more... but not now. I will put up one more kitty picture...and one last cup of Turkish coffee!

I am homesick and ready to come home. I miss Don, my friends, my colleagues, the swamp, the cats, the dog and my own bed. I feel like I've been gone too long but I wouldn't have missed it for anything and I am grateful for the new friends, the new learning and insights and the incredible memories. I am particularly appreciative that Don so unselfishly urged me to apply and supported this whole project. I do have the world's best husband. I know that! He has even patted the cats for me.

Edirne and the bus dancers!

2009-07-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

One last day on the road

2009-07-24T10:33:00.001-07:00

We're back in Istanbul.... back at the Bristol Hotel, back with internet at a speed higher than 1 Mbps (really, that is what it was in Edirne). It was a good day and a bit nostalgic... we've grown to be a close little group with sharing illnesses, joys, ideas, excitement, new experiences. But we are all old enough to appreciate that the next fifteen hour travel day will be NOT on a bus, not on Albanian roads.... and with home at the end of it.

But enough of that. Let's talk about Edirne. We got up in the caravansary. Some of us were a little sleep deprived from the wedding festivities last night.. but the band and singers did shut off at midnight. After breakfast (olives, bread, cheese, hot hard boiled egg, apricot juice in a box, and nescafe instant) we went off to see two of Edirne's remarkable mosques. The old one dates till 15th century and was incredibly beautiful....among its features are a wide variety of calligraphy styles that decorate the interior... and much beautiful decoration in the domes. Then we went to see the "new" mosque.. designed by Sinan, the famous Ottoman architect who didn't start designing till he began his second career (he started out building military fortifications till he was in his late 40's if I remember right). Edirne's mosque is one of his many masterpieces.. it dominates the skyline and is graceful and symetrical. Under it is a bazaar, on what could be considered its first story, and it rises above that with lovely grounds and plantings.

Then we went to what may be one of my favorite things of the trip.. a museum on the site of an Ottoman hospital/medical madrassah (school) built in the reign of Bayezid II in 1484 after the Ottoman capital had moved on to Istanbul (1453). The rather large complex was remarkably sophisticated for its time. Its centerpiece was a teaching hospital with innovative treatment methods. There were also guest houses for travelers or the families of patients, a soup kitchen and bakery for the poor, a mosque, workshops for artisans, a water mill, and a public bath (hamam)

The hospital existed to help people but also to train medical students. It treated all manners of illness, but was particularly noted for its treatment of psychiatric illnesses such as manias, melancholy, epilepsy (which was seen as a mental affliction) and much more. The hospital had a 10 piece orchestra in residence, for the belief was that music could treat many of these disorders. They also had a significant program of aromatherapy and herbal medicines that were used in a variety of contexts. Today the museum has used mannequins and excellent reconstruction of the rooms to give a very lifelike look at how things were done. The hospital actually continued to function until 1916. Many of the medical books and diagrams of care exist today. Amazing stuff, for its time especially... but cutting edge today in many ways.

After that we headed out to cover the 220 kilometers to Istanbul.. fields of sunflowers, more corn... glimpses of water, but lots of sunshine.

About an hour out of Istanbul, our lovely guide Arzu decided to stir things up. First she sang for us, then she put on a cd of traditional Turkish music.. and danced in the aisle of the bus. Pretty soon there were five orsix others helping learn the dances.... it was very strange and quite wonderful. I kept thinking that in the US someone would have been screaming for everyone to sit down!

Life is good. I am now beset with mental whiplash as I try to organize all that I have learned. Tomorrow we have a morning meeting to talk about lesson plans; then free time for the rest of the weekend, to do last minute stuff, to work on lesson plans, to do this and that. I will no doubt post at least one more of these as my mind jells.

Thrace and Edirne's Caravansaray

2009-07-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

The panoramic city view is of Thessaloniki, taken from the fortifications on the hill above it; the coastline is just as one approaches Thessaloniki from the west.

The rest of the views are of our caravansaray lodgings... the room, the view of the courtyard, and the kitty in the courtyard. We are back to cats, I guess!

Back "Home" to Turkey

2009-07-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today we began in Thessaloniki, quite a big and modern city on the Aegaen coast of Greece. It reminds me very much of Izmir, with a large port for both commercial and tourist traffic, beautiful sea shore residences, hotels, restaurants, and a fortress on the hill above. This particular fortress dates to the Byzantine times, and was co opted by the Ottomans who liked Thessaloniki (Thess-a-loan-ee-key) so well they made it a provincial capital. It bears remnants of the Ottoman presence in some neighborhoods and buildings; and in a mosque now converted to a church. But believe me, this group knows a mosque when we see one!

We then continued out of Thessaloniki on modern superhighway... you cannot imagine how welcome THAT was. We were not bruised and battered from bouncing around the windy twisty up and down narrow roads. Our bus driver is a gifted man, but it was hard.

The landscape gradually flattened out... we were in the outer reaches of Macedonia at first. It is really easy to imagine Alexander or his dad, Philip, traveling those mountains off on conquest. Still rugged, but as we entered Western Thrace and then proceded into Eastern Thrace it became wider, more expansive plains. Still fertile, from the presence of farms, but dry. The fields were filled with corn, sunflowers, various grain and grass crops, and some veggies... hard to tell what some of them were, but some looked like mustard greens or similar things. Since that shows up on a lot of menus, as does chard, chances are good.

We flirted with the Aegean coastline along the way with some lovely vistas... there is no beach along here, but the rocks tumble straight down to water's edge. Occasionally it appears that a beach has been constructed or coaxed out of little bits of level land, but not much. It makes for splendid views, but bad sand castles, I guess. Building in the towns and cities goes right to water's edge.. the high rises on the water front in cities like Thessaloniki and Kavala, where we stopped for lunch, are multi purpose.. cafes and businesses on the ground floor, and then generally apartments on the upper floors. Lovely views.

We stopped in Kavala for lunch. Today it is a large city with modern amenities and a flourishing tourist trade. In Roman days it was the port for Philippi, to whose residents Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians after his visits there. It was a nice surprise for us... we were driving, as I said, on the modern superhighway... but said superhighway is so new it has no rest stops or services at least in this part of Greece. So we left it and drove straight down to the sea. We wandered about, ate at a seaside cafe (the food was all Italian... great canneloni for me!) and then bought kourabiedes, a local cookie specialty that is very similar to Mexican wedding cakes, except made with almonds. Very tasty.

Back on the road. It took over an hour to pass from Greece to Turkey. The border is very heavily fortified and guarded. As our guide said, this is Turkey's cold war. Both Greece and Turkey have large large military installations on their respective sides of the border, and they are taken seriously... many soldiers, all about 19 years old, all carrying machine guns very conspicuously. The road between the two border stations has barbed wire concertina on the top of the fences and there are posters that photography is forbidden. I obeyed the rules, not wanting to spend time in either a Greek or a Turkish prison, natuarlly. The Turkish side is also guarded by some very sleepy dogs and flocks of geese and peacocks. Really. Go figure. But we weren't asking questions. Our Turkish guide from earlier in the trip, Arzu, had met us in Thessaloniki and we were grateful since she speaks Greek fluently as well as her native Turkish. She guided us through the rather intimidating process... of course, it may have not helped that we were on an Albanian bus with an Albanian driver who did not speak Turkish, though he did speak Greek, Italian, and German.
We had to get out of the bus on the Greek side, show our passports, smile, wait till they returned them about 30 minutes later (we amused ourselves in the duty free shop and the FREE toilets). Back on bus, drive to the Turkish checkpoint, where Arzu worked miracles explaining 14 crazy American tourists, most of whom had a weird assortment of stamps in our passports. They did not make us unload luggage, for which we all were grateful since our small suitcases (most of our stuff is in Istanbul waiting for us to arrive tomorrow) have gotten overstuffed with souvenirs and dirty laundry. ((Everyone knows that dirty laundry takes up more room..... but there's been no time to wash things with 6 one-night hotel stays in a row.)

We drove just another 40 minutes or so to find one of the nicest surprises of the trip. We are in the frontier town of Edirne, noted as an early Ottoman capital and for its lovely 16th century mosque (lots of walking tomorrow). Our hotel is a converted 16th century caravansaray.. it is converted in the sense that it has electricity, internet, phones, air conditioning, but the rooms are probably not all that different and the courtyard is probably not all that different from when camels etc. were safely held in it. The only animal down there tonight was a kitty, however. I'llpost that picture, but possibly not tonight since the internet connection is very very very slow....

They carried our bags up the horrendously winding stairway and then led us a few blocks thru the city walking street to a "Balkan Chicken Restaurant" for a very acceptable dinner . Now we are back... unfortunately for us there is a rocking out wedding in the courtyard. Live music. Loud live music. Dancing. We would probably be welcome to join the party but on the other hand, we aren't all that up to it at this point. So... there is heavy traffic in earplugs.

But we get to sleep in till 7:30 tomorrow and then a walking tour of the Ottoman sites and then on to Istanbul.

So much more I want to tell you but my thoughts are jumbled. The two days we have in Istanbul before we leave are unscheduled so I hope to collect those thoughts there in addition to working on lesson plans and doing last minute explorations. I am going to bed! Pictures in the morning or tomorrow, depending on the internet gods.

pictures July 22

2009-07-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

From Albania to Greece

2009-07-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

What a contrast today has brought. We woke up in the developing world and have plunged back into the developed world.

Albania is a lovely place in terms of wild country side and nice people... but it is definitely facing challenges as it attempts to work within a democratic framework. The economy is fragile, the infrastructure is developing but inadequate, and the overall feeling you have is the one you might have had traveling in a southwestern border town (either side of the border) in the 1950's.

We entered Greece at about 11 today. The change was almost instantaneous... it was still exceptionally rural and mountainous, but the roads had shoulders and were smoothly paved. (Incidentally I may have mentioned that Albania was mountainous... apparently Greece decided to just plain omit flat spaces, at least in its northern reaches.) As we got out of the wilderness of the far northwest, we began to see other differences. Even though it was still farming, the individual fields were much larger, there was evidence of farm machinery as opposed to a very unmechanized way of farming, and there was irrigation evident, with big sprayers on all the fields.

The land we were going thru initially was what Greece calls Macedonia, once the powerful kingdom of Philip of Macedonia and then his son, Alexander the Great. The mountains are beautiful beyond measure, just as the ones in Albania were; high, rocky, piney at times, and very sheer. The roads were up and down, round and about.... not good for those of our group who have motion sickness issues, but then we got a -- gasp -- superhighway complete with multiple lanes, limited access, smooth surfaces, and a long series of tunnels that went right through the mountains instead of up, around, and over them. It made travel much faster.

Even so, it took us about 7 hours to get from the border to where we are now....

But that 7 hours included what many of us thought was the best meal of the whole trip. By about 2:30 or so we were all hungry, hit a little Greek village (not really even village, but more like three small cafes and a gas station.) We picked one...oh my..... run by two generations of Greek women with the third generation daughter home from being a lawyer in Athens. It was so good.... started with a homemade liqueur of some sort, kind of like a cherry/apple cordial, very mild, but tasting of sunshine and breeze. (No the driver, didn't have any!). Then there was a big basket of warm bread... just plain real bread. Then plates of freshly made feta cheese in olive oil with fresh herbs. Then plates to share of fresh green beans in olive oil with thyme and other seasonings. That is what green beans should taste like.. they told us they picked them this morning. Then Greek salad... tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, all home grown. Then plates of cold dandelion greens (we think) with a light mustard seed dressing... then braised veal with french fries (also home grown). None of the portions were huge, but there was plenty, served family style, with the sun warming the patio and bees and butterflies flitting about in the flowers. It may sound humble, but it was the perfect meal. We finished up with candied zucchini... an interesting concept, and not bad, but not as spectacular as those green beans!

We left reluctantly and drove on to Thessaloniki, a big city in Greece's northeastern coast. It is quite large and very European. Our hotel is pleasant, small, but the air conditioning works, the bathroom was findable and the only fly in the ointment is a broken elevator. But we can deal with it.

And so... I will put in more academic content tomorrow when my brain has acquired some more... Greece is significant in the Ottoman Empire and Thessaloniki (once called Salonika) was a regional capital. We are going to see ruins, etc., tomorrow on the way back to Turkey.

Albania pictures

2009-07-22T01:59:00.001-07:00

Pictures: a melon stand... everywhere. No one ever seemed to be buying melons, however.

The castle/fortifications with the "watchman" I mentioned in the previous post.

Bunkers

The mad sheep.

catching up on Montenegro and Albania

2009-07-22T01:18:00.000-07:00

Hi.. I am writing this from Albania, in an attempt to catch up...lots of adventures over the last two days, and all has turned out well, but it's been challenging.

On Sunday night we were in Montenegro. It had been a very long day on very rough roads, with multiple border crossings. We finally got to our hotel at about 9 or 10 p.m. and hadn't had lunch, so we just ordered pizzas from the desk clerk's suggestion.

The pizza may not have been the reason, but 9 of the 14 of us had rough nights.... all the classic symptoms of food borne illness... luckily my roommate wasn't ill so I didn't have to share the facilities, but for those where both roommates were ill, I guess the picture was not a pretty one.

In any case, the next morning found a dreary crew. One of the healthy young guys was so sick and dehydrated, we decided he needed to stop at a clinic and get checked out. Sigh. Three hours or more.... Montenegro has clinics, but no sense of urgency, for anything. Finally Lisa was reduced to shouting at them that if an American died in their country, it would be their fault and .... they responded by shutting the curtains and taking a break. Finally a doctor saw him, put him on an iv drip, suggested hospitalization and started using the word salmonella. She wanted to move him to another clinic, hospitalize him, etc. (Lisa is scary when angry). Our guide, on the other hand, a delightful man named Lekko, was strongly urging we get him iv'd up, then move on to Albania where he could get better care.

Did you read that last sentence? I never in my life thought I would hear of someone suggesting that a move to Albania might be the key to higher standards of medical care.

Nevertheless we gave the invalid the deciding vote and practically had to race him to the bus. Meanwhile we had spent over 3 hours sitting in front of the clinic.

A command decision was made to truncate the day's educational sightseeing and head for Shkoder, the second largest city in Albania, "just over the border." Our driver drove, we swayed, occasionally the code word for potty stop "bush" was used and we stopped. It took many hours and much fortitude, but we made it. Lots of phone calls to the travel agency had rearranged our accommodations and when we got to Shkoder at about 4 we had hotel rooms, beds.... those of us who were still sick collapsed for a three hour nap before dinner (barf, it did not sound like a good idea). The hotel air conditioning didn't work, but I for one did not care. I was not nearly as sick as some of the crew, but it was not my finest hour. I didn't even take my shoes off before I was asleep.

I did straggle to go to dinner. Our guide took us about 20 minutes out of town to a noted little traditional restaurant where we discovered that the traditional menu of Albania always includes spaghetti. It was very good. Then veal chops, which were a mistake. But then melon, which is wonderful.

A little about Albania to refresh your knowledge. It has been invaded by lots of people... Romans, Ottomans, Nazis, Italians.. to name only a few. It is a mountainous nation (if you ironed it out flat it would be the size of Canada, but no one has thought of doing that) It was very Communist during the cold war years. According to Lekko, it broke away from the USSR in 1967 because the USSR had lost its ideological purity. From 1970-75 it allied itself with China and China pumped in billions of dollars in infrastructure investment, but in '75 they broke with them (you got it, ideological corruption) and pretty much went it alone till 1991 or so. It was desperately poor and isolated. About 1 million of its 5 million population left, most of them becoming illegal immigrants into Greece and Italy... you can see lots of evidence of it.. the country is full of half finished houses.. remittance money sent home from overseas workers comes and allows building by stages.

Student protests began in the 80's and caused the change to a form of democracy. It would appear that they are succeeding in some ways, but it is a poor nation still. Very rural, very dirty, very polluted. Since there was no private property ownership "in the socialist years" (as Lekko would say) and since people were pretty much moved around at governmental whim, when the chains came off, there was chaotic building and settlement and only a few years ago did they get around to some sort of formalization of property rights, etc.

One interesting building custom dates back to earliest times. We passed an old fortress near Shkoder and were told that there were countless disasters when it was built. Finally a wise old sage told the family of princes building it that they needed serious magic, sort of a night watchman to avoid the evil eye. The only way to get it was to bury someone significant on the premises to watch over it. There was discussion and chicanery and when the time came only one of the wives was left to be the burial victim. She consented, as long as her hand could be buried outside of the castle so she could continue to feed her child. Sigh.

Today the buildings under construction also have a way to avoid the evil eye, but it's not a human victim. Instead, almost every building under construction has lashed to it somewhere a baby doll or a large stuffed animal... it stays out on the framework as long as the building is under construction and is there until the building is finished. It can look a little grizzly after a while, kind of like an effigy. So far I've seen dolls, teddy bears, and then stuffed everythings.. monkeys, horses, dogs, cats, etc., etc. Our guide told us it is generally only among the Muslims, but they are a large segment of the population.

We left Shkoder a bit healthier yesterday and had a very long day. Two stops for exploring fortifications, museums, etc. Mostly vertical climbs in high heat. I opted out of one, but did the rest. Our last stop was a beautiful old musem in a church in a little village.... amazing art works from teh 15th century that somehow survived the communist era, when all religious expression was forbidden. Lekko tells us that during that time if you made an idle comment like "Oh, God, I'm tired!" you could be turned in and punished. Among the treasures of this church are some beautiful old icons and altar pieces, and a fifth century codex. Pretty amazing.

We also passed a much more contemporary wonder.. the George W. Bush Bar. Apparently Bush visited here during the last years of his presidency and was taken to a showplace old village and was entertained at said bar. Thus they named it after him.

Among the random observations.... Albania has two basic job fields... car washing and selling watermelons. There is an incredible number of little car washes... most of them a hose and a canopy. Our guide says it is because of the old cars and bad roads....

Another anomaly.. during the depths of the Cold War, Albania's leader became convinced the US was going to attack....so he ordered the construction of something like 700,000 concrete bunkers; they are shaped like short mushrooms and are EVERYWHERE-- they only stand a few feet above the ground and are about 8 feet in diameter. When they were ordered, the order was that they must be indestructible. The military fortifications guy who designed them (many tons of concrete in each) was put to the supreme test by being put in one of them and then attacked by a tank. He survived. One of the guidebooks said that a more modern use was as a place of assignation by young people seeking privacy for interpersonal relations.. love will triumph, I guess.

Many sheep, goats, mountains. I was sitting peacefully on a hillside yesterday when I was inundated by a flock of the sheep.. they paid me no attention. I was glad they weren't a herd of buffalo or something!

Last night at after 11 we arrived in Gjirocastra where we spent the night in an interesting hotel...the elevator only goes to the fifth floor, but the rooms are on the 2nd, 3d and 4th floors. When we hauled our stuff up, one woman came out saying there was no bathroom... turns out half the rooms have located the bathrooms on the former balconies.. interesting concept. The air conditioning worked, but not the internet except in the lobby. And not the hot water. No hair dryer but a tv.. and about 3 square feet of space. Breakfast was a lovely basket of fresh bread, goat cheese, sour cherry jam, and coffee or tea. We can still see hints of authoritarianism.. we were told we all had to have breakfast at the same time...

Albanian is a language related to ancient Illyrian, so not at all similar to the other Balkan languages, though it has a rhythm like Italian and occasional borrowed words from Italian, French, Turkish, etc. I found it was almost possible to follow the museum lectures before they were translated.

While I write this, the rest of the group is doing another vertical hike and my knees are not up to it. I am sitting in the hotel lobby where the internet works and kind of enjoying the down time. They should be back in a little bit.. though it is hard to tell. When Lekko says 10 minutes, it's more like 30; an hour's drive is more like 2 and a half.. so when he told me this morning it was a 2 hour hike, I opted out.

I will probably wait to down load the pictures for this till tonight when we are in Greece. It's going to be another long bus drive, I think. The roads here are one lane but accommodate two lanes of cars. They have ditches on either side where I would have put a shoulder instead, and many of them are on mountain sides. While the mountains are not super high by Rockies standards, they are still very obvious and lie in between everything and everything else. Our driver is steady and cheerful and I am still wearing my blue bead.

I'll no doubt learn more about Albania... it is lovely countryside but clearly there are challenges. But then, it's a welcome refuge after Montenegro. (By the time we got here, our sick young man opted out of more medical care. I can't imagine why!!

Pictures for the long day

2009-07-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

Pictures wouldn't load before I went to sleep last night. Or what passed for it. Say what you will about cats, they do not bark all night under one's hotel window!

Three Countries and Four Border Crossings in 15 hours

2009-07-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Long day, so short post. There was not as much academic content today but we covered lots of miles. We started the day in lovely little Mostar, one of the Bosnian cities damaged so badly in "the last war." I'll post a picture of its rebuilt bridge.. truly a lovely location. One of the reasons the Croats blew it up is to separate the Muslims from the Catholic population (the Croats being the Catholics.) Just to confuse matters, we were in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia. I am told Herzegovina was not ever an independent entity but is kind of the "Texas of Bosnia" -- independent minded and larger than life.

Then the road trip began. It would have been infinitely better to spend 15 or so hours in the bus (minus one sightseeing stop and a couple of potty stops) had the air conditioning been REALLY working! It's a good thing our group all smelled alike...

Border crossings.. we crossed from Bosnia into Croatia.. then from Croatia back into another section of Bosnia; then back into Croatia and finally into Montenegro, or more properly, Crno Gora. (R can be a vowel depending on how it is used. Yahooo.)
Each border crossing was a two part process... leaving the first country required passport inspection, time, etc.. then entering the next. It was slow.

We made it to Dubrovnik in Croatia about 1 and were turned loose for 2 hours of exploring the old walled city, admiring the Adriatic, buying souvenirs, eating lunch, whatever we wanted. I explored mostly.. it's a beautiful place, lost in antiquity at one hand and totally the modern beach resort on the other. You heard a million languages, there were sunburned tourists off of the cruise ships and tons and tons of tour buses. It was a really neat experience, but I'm not sure I'd want to live there.

The Adriatic was our companion much of the day, either skirting the coast on its own level or high above it on GULP roads... or crossing a small part of it on a ferry, or just admiring it from where ever we could. Most the water is bright bright Buena blue, except for the shallowest near the shore, which was turquoise.

We drove. Not much more to say. We did some amazing hair pin roads with steep climbs and 7-9% downgrades. Our driver (new today) drove with elan and a determination to do it all quickly. I mostly prayed they'd had brakes and tires checked out recently.

And so it went. We got in to Podgorica (pod-gore-eet-sa), the capital of Montenegro/Crno Gora about 10 o'clock tonight. We ordered pizza, ate it in the breakfast room of the hotel and I am so ready to go to bed.

Tomorrow at 8 we take off for Albania in a new (bigger) bus with our Albanian tour guide after a brief meeting with the travel agency owner, who is named Elvis. How can we miss?

Tomorrow we have more academic content, so I will be back at work.. today was ---- laughingly -- described as a "rest" day... tomorrow haw a lot more miles and more content.

I shall add some scenic pictures and the kitties of the day.. the sleeping one is sleeping in a shop on top of some sandals. Even after I patted him, he just rolled over and went back to sleep. A good choice on a 90 degree day in Dubrovnik!

Pictures for Day 21

2009-07-18T11:48:00.001-07:00

Sort of from top to bottom:

The bridge blown up by Nazi forces in WWII. There is a museum nearby with tribute to Tito for his bravery and determination to leave no wounded behind.

Just some walls... like most of the walls in this area, there are bullet marks, damage from shrapnel and shelling.This is a land of shattered buildings and cemeteries. I have NEVER seen as many cemeteries as one does here. Not anywhere.

The lunch kitty.. blind in one eye and a bit skittish, but he did like trout. Cooked.

This is where we ate... lovely, huh?

Just random mountains. There were many more where these came from. Horrendous winds as we drove thru, with a storm brewing. Our driver told us that is common.

The map of Sarajevo.. at the Tunel Museum they overlaid a 1984 Winter Olympics map with the outlines of fighting and artillery emplacements during "the last war" (1992-1995) The narrow part is where the tunnel was under the runways of the airport.

More burned out hulks.. they are everywhere, in ever little village, every neighborhood of the towns... a constant reminder.

Edo, our bus driver. I am sure I have left many consonants out of his name. He prefers to be called Ed and is a joy.

Bosnian coffee. The difference, I think, was that sugar was in the cup but not cooked with the coffee. Maybe. It was very very good.

Ottoman fortifications above our lunch place. I took it from my place at the table.

One of the rebuilt bridges, still in Ottoman style. This was reconstructed with the assistance of the Turkish government, and announced with a huge billboard and flags flying.

Bridges and Nailing Jelly to the Wall Day 21

2009-07-18T10:40:00.001-07:00

Today we left Sarajevo after exploring a bit more. The nailing jelly reference is that every time I think I understand the underlying problems in the area, it becomes nebulous and fuzzy again. But I will keep trying.

Background....in 1991, following the breakup of the USSR, Slovenia declared its independence.. quite honestly, no one but the Slovenians cared. They speak a language no one else does, they;re just tucked up there next to Austria, and so there was no big flap. However, when Croatia followed soon after, there was a lot more concern. Serbia, the Bosnians, almost everyone saw it as a major step in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and for various reasons, there were many who did not want that.. fear of becoming a minority in another nation's area, fear of losing power, resources, etc., etc. It's all complex and tied up with power and the powerful. When Croatia resurrected its old checkered flag, it became inextricably tied in many minds with the flags that flew in conjunction with the Nazis in WWII (The Balkans have a long memory and concentration camps make hindsight all the more keen). Best guess is that about 100,000 Serbs died in Nazi concentration camps... so they were particularly revolted and stricken by seeing that flag fly.

Then there's Bosnia in the middle.... look at a map (I'll post one on here) and you can see that Croatia needs its area to avoid being a very indefensible and odd shaped country. Odd shape isn't a matter of vanity, but rather an impediment to governance,to defense, and to development. So, there is more fear that Bosnia will also br4ak away.

Now it's more complicated by the multiple ethnicities.. and that's not all that clear because about 1/3 of all marriages were interethnic..so who the heck is a Muslim? An Orthodox Christian Serb? A Catholic Croat? None of the above, some of the above, all of the above. Argh.

In Serbia, we learned there hasn't been a census taken since 1991 so no one really knows either the population or the ethnic makeup. Who is going to trust any other group to take the census? Who's going to answer the questions?

In the early '90's, the best guess is that there were no majorities in the area... Muslims and Serbs were 35 to 40% each with Catholic Croatians being a smaller number. Maybe.

The Serbs' big interest and the motivation for their actions, was to keep the area intact with them more or less in charge. In April 92 an agreement was worked out with the help of international intervention, to create an independent, multinational Bosnia. However, the Serbs did not want to be a minority in this state, so they started shooting. They literally brought in the heavy artillery, particularly around Sarajevo and all hell broke loose. Every man of a soldier's age was co-opted by some group and the population suffered. Visible among the aggressors were types that hadn't been seen since WWII... double eagle flag, orthodox beards, insignias that resounded from WWII. At first it was Serbs against the Muslims. Sort of. Then, within about a year, the Catholic Croats jumped in and blew up bridges here and there, and started fighting as well. There was a lot of symbolic cultural destruction, such as the library I mentioned yesterday

It became a three way bloody conflict. Those who were controlling the conflict forced others who weren't combatant to become aggressors. For instance they would force them to participate in the slaughter of their erstwhile neighbors at gunpoint... thus spreading the hatred and deepening the fault lines The Serbs set up concentration camps and started to fill them. ALL groups committed atrocities of some sort. Those committing them were a small minority, while people of all groups suffered great loss and devastation.

We are in Mostar now... here the no man's land was dominated by what they call "Snipers' Alley." For a year and a half, the children of Mostar literally lived underground, hiding in horrendous conditions. No school, no life, just survival barely. Lisa says that occasionally people were able to commit random acts of normal living, but the concept of normal during those years was certainly now what you and I would consider normal. The famous bridge of Mostar was blown up (the word Mostar means "Place of the Bridge". ) The old Ottoman bridge that connected the parts of the town has now been rebuilt.

So.... let me share some of the places and stories.

I forgot one of yesterday's stories and it's a light hearted romp compared to some of what I've been writing. Near Sarajevo we followed a happy little one lane road (our new driver is named Ed and he's a delightfully good driver with an optimistic heart!) We found an old Ottoman era bridge (no longer accepting automotive traffic, but it looked as though it could). The story is that the bridge existed during Ottoman times and was the main entry way to the area. Given the ferocity of the mountains, most places only had one entry! The Great Suleiman had sent a new governor, Rustem Pasha, to govern Sarajevo and environs and the local dignitaries all gathered at the bridge to wait and greet him (there was generally a happy acceptance of the relatively humane Ottoman rule during this period, at least here The day was hot, the vizier was very late, and the partying began. Pretty soon, a local loony (exactly the word our guide used for this part) began diving off the bridge at dares, the potent potables flowed freely and many became inebriated. They had reached the jocose state of drunkenness by the time the late pasha appeared with his entourage.. and they were all raucously laughing at the goings on. Rustem Pasha was highly offended at the lack of appropriate ceremony, and being just a bit full of himself, decided they were laughing at him and his appearance. So he rode on by, paying little attention those city dignitaries who were still hoping to greet him.

And his first official act was to outlaw public laughter, making it a whippable offense. Our guide suggested that the Bosnians have been laughing at disaster ever since.

That was yesterday. We had dinner last night at a restaurant called (in translation) the Spiteful House. Long story, but the short version is that it is very old. A number of years ago it stood in the way of developing roads along the river that runs through Sarajevo, and they called for it to be demolished. But this happened in an enlightened period of respect for property rights and the owner refused to sell, no matter how sweet the pot. Finally, after much importuning, he agreed to sell if, and only if, they would have the building moved brick by brick and reassembled at another location. It was done and the food was worth it. We also had a kitty there,much to the annoyance of a party of otherwise very nice Italian tourists.

As we left Sarajevo this morning we first swung by the cemetery where Gavrilo Princip and his co conspirators in the death of Franz Ferdinand are buried. Princip himself was only 19, and thus was not given the death sentence, but he died in prison. Those of adult age were executed. We were told that depending on what regime was in power, there sometimes were statues in town extolling the virtues of Franz Ferdinand, then they'd come down and there'd be tributes to Princip and the Black Hand. Back and forth. Now there is only a mild plaque that is very neutral in nature.

We then went in search of the "Tunel Museum" (that's their spelling, not mine.) During the siege of 92-95, the only route in and out of Sarajevo crossed a no man's land including the runways of the local airport. The UN forces inexplicably held that air field and turned the lights on every night so that snipers and artillery on the highlands could fire on anyone out in the open. As food, water, medicine, oil, weapons, everything, became scarce, there was a desperate need to have people get out and bring back the needed items. Over 500 people were killed in the no man's land till a local group decided to dig a tunnel under the runway and out the other side. For more than four months they worked on it, round the clock, making a tunnel that was about 5 feet high (maybe a little more), a yard wide, and having a little rail track in it so they could bring carts of materials in.... during the time it was used, no one used it to escape.. it was controlled by the Bosnian forces but it as used to bring in survival goods. we saw a film of its employment and one of the items brought in was a live goat.. milk to provide for the children who were under siege. Today the entrance to the tunnel is a museum of sorts, in the home where the tunnel started. It is hard to find... we drove around the neighborhoods of that part of Sarajevo till finally someone gave us the right directions. The man who spearheaded the building is still running the museum with his sons. Fascinating stuff.

Then on to mountain roads. This is glorious country side but it reminds me of a drawing made by a 1st grader, with straight up- and down jagged mountains and narrow valleys in between filled with rivers of bright blue green water rushing through. There are layers upon layers of mountains off as far as the eye can see. It's easy to see the impact of physical geography here. The roads, by the way, are amusing little attempts to allow passage... there is certain amount of road construction going on so our driver decided to take "the old road" to avoid it. That's when I moved to a middle seat from the window. If I can't see it, we won't fall off. So far it is working. The hard part is passing another large bus on the side of a mountain. Ed, the driver, has a favorite line in English (which he actually speaks pretty well): "NO problem!" That an my blue bead and we're fine. I hear tomorrow's mountains down to the coast make the past ones look like foothills. My prayer life is rich.

We also made a visit to WWII. At one juncture as Nazi forces were subduing the Balkans, the partisans, led by Marshall Tito, who is still a great hero here, were trying to rescue a bunch of their wounded men and bring them back across a nasty little river deep in a canyon. The Nazis got a lucky hit and blew up the bridge that they would have to use. Tito announced that they would not dream of leaving any wounded behind, and organized a fast and frantic effort to build a variety of pontoon bridge, rescued every wounded man and brought them to safety, then dismantling their makeshift bridge before the Nazis caught up again. Today the WWII bridge still dangles from the hillside and it is quite spectacular.

One of the things we have noticed is that there is significant investment here by Turkey. At least one of the bridges that has been restored had a huge Turkish flag flying side by side with the Bosnian flag.

We ended the day's explorations about 10 miles from Mostar in a picnic area a lot like Sabino Canyon with more water for those of you familiar with Tucson. Gorgeous, fresh breezes, old Ottoman houses to look at, craggy cliffs, a bunch of caves in the mountains and a rock wall that had our rock climbers aching to go straight up it to the old Pre-Ottoman fortress on the top. (There were rules, however, there are rules about everything here.. the hotel rule card here says we cannot do laundry, dry cleaning or cooking in our room! I understand but have never seriously attempted dry cleaning in a hotel room!) We had a great leisurely lunch that began about 2 and ended close to 5 pm... some of us asked for Turkish coffee afterwards (everywhere else they have called it that to distinguish it from Nescafe instant, the OTHER coffee.) Our very nice waiter informed us that here it is BOSNIAN coffee. Whatever, it was good.

We are one night here, in a very nice small hotel. It has lovely amenities including a jacuzzi, more than one light in the room, internet, and air conditioning that works very well ( our air conditioning worked in Sarajevo, but turned off automatically every time the door was opened or the window opened.) The nicest gesture, too.... when we arrived hot and sweaty from the drive, the hotel management greeted us with wine glasses full of Tang. It never tasted so good!

I'll put pictures up in a minute!

Pictures of Sarajevo and a Sarajevo Cat

2009-07-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Finally a kitty.... lying in the entry way to a mosque. Are cats all Muslim?

The picture of me and the lovely woman in headscarf is on the spot where Gavrilo Princip stood to shoot the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was imprisoned on the top of one of the mountains and said his only regret was acidentally killing FF's wife Sophie (who was pregnant) too.

The pavement.... look closely and you'll see red paint that marks the spot of a massacre.. there were lots of red spots.

You'll see pockmarks from artillery in the building.

The little graveyard is in traditional Muslim style, with turbans to indicate rank and gender. It was surrounded on three sides on the mail tourist/shopping area by cola and coffee stands. Sarajevo is a city of graveyards, with many of the dates of death between 1992 and 1995.

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Sarajevo

2009-07-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

I think this post will be hard to write. Most Americans, when thinking of Sarajevo, have a few stock images that come to mind, and I was no different 12 hours ago. We think of the 1984 Winter Olympics in a place we could barely pronounce. Or, if we paid attention in history class, we think of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the teenaged assassin, Gavrilo Princip, on June 28, 1914, the act that set the match to the powder kegs of Europe and became WWI. (Incidentally it was also the birthdate of my mother, who always more or less took responsibility --or credit-- for the whole war, but that is another set of stories.

Those of us who read newspapers in the 1990's remember Sarajevo as the setting for horrors of warfare that we didn't understand and certainly didn't take personally. We weren't sure who was fighting against whom, or why. Every time it seemed to make sense, the story pixilated itself and disappeared. It was easier not to worry about it.

If I could use an overblown metaphor for Sarajevo after today, it would be of a man with a gaping chest wound erupting in raucous laughter as he tried to tell the world what happened. Let me see if I can give a condensed version. Our guide today kept referring to the "black humor" of Bosnia.... and gave us frequent examples. He is a man in early 40's or late 30's, perhaps, a tour guide and journalist who writes for several regional news magazines and is on the editorial staff of one of them. His English was totally fluent and he was willing to talk about anything. His name is Amir and he is Muslim, blue eyed, just a shade darker than blond hair, and built like a high school basketball coach.

First the facts (well, sort of).... when Bosnians speak of "the last war" they are referring to the years from 1992 to 1995, when Sarajevo came under siege for 3 1/2 years. Amir told us a local radio station took notice of the fact at one point that the siege had now lasted longer than the 2 year siege of Leningrad and began playing "We Are the Champions" by Queen and then the other still functioning radio stations began doing the same thing.

There have been lots of wars of course. The Ottomans came in the 15th century and there has been warfare in these rugged mountains much of the time...and also periods of grace, with multi ethnic populations, religious toleration, great architecture and art and poetry. But the nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries left marks that are hard to eradicate. After the death of Tito, whose magnetism held much together, and after the fall of communism, our guide tells us there were pathological dictators and opportunistic dictators and both did untold damage.

When 1992 rolled round, the mountains that close in 90 percent of the periphery of Sarajevo were heavy with artillery. It is almost impossible to go anywhere in town and not see evidence of shelling, artillery fire, incendiary rounds, and so on A no man's land existed where many died; and in addition to those who died of the actual military attacks, many more died because of lack of food and water, lack of heat in the bitter winters, lack of shelter, lack of medicine, fear, and just plain evil.

Who? That's the hard part and we need definitions for it. Serbs refers to all the Orthodox Christians in the Balkans, wherever they live. Croatians are Catholics. Bosnians are Muslims and a newish term, Bosniacs, is also used to refer to them. There was also a bit of a Jewish community. The people on the mountains with the artillery were hard core Serbian nationalists/terrorists. Their victims were also Serbs, plus Muslim Bosnians, plus... and it goes on. The people under attack helped each other, no matter what their religious conviction or identification, but the shells kept raining down.

For three and one half years. Our guide very matter of factly told us that he was lucky. He ONLY lost his father, his grandmother and his cousin. ONLY. He himself served as a soldier, though he said a very ill prepared one. He learned to improvise molotov cocktails to fight back, but he said it was a long difficult time.

One of the great and intentional destructions of the time was a building that once had been a city center and now was the national library of Bosnia, holding 2 million rare books, documents, and files. It was hit with incendiary rounds and almost everything was destroyed. Today it is under reconstruction and will perhaps one day be an opera/music hall and public space. The books, manuscripts, magazines, and documents are not replaceable, a kind of cultural genocide.

We went there today and there was an exhibition of photographs taken by someone accompanying the forensic scientists who are exhuming those being found in mass graves. Numbers are staggering...more than 4000 mass graves have been found so far; in that time almost 30,000 people were listed as missing. So far the remains of about 20,000 have been found. About 85% were Muslim Boniacs. Sbrenica, a town about 75 miles from here, was established as a "safe zone" by the UN in July 1995, and about 8,373 local residents were listed there as missing during that time. 6000 of those remains have been found, at least in part. The work continues.

It is staggering in its horror. Genocide is a word that was not applied for a long time, but it fits the details now. There were so many atrocities that it is easy to become numb. Three of us wimpy ones were particularly affected by the horrors that we saw and were consoling each other in a dark alcove.. an older man who was manning the exhibit walked over, offered us these words, "This is our reality." He then offered us paper towels to wipe our eyes, told us he'd lost his brother, his father, and his son.

There's not a lot to say. There's maybe a lot to do to assure it won't happen again, but we know it has and will.

Then our guide brought us back with humor... told us that is what keeps them alive.. they sit in the coffee houses, Serbs and Croats and Bosniacs and Jews together and tell stories on each other, insult each other, and drink together. Then they tell stories about Albanians (why are Albanians the most unfortunate people in the world? Because they have Muslims and no oil!)

And he told one more Bosnian proverb.... "We have so much history we can't stand it."

Obviously what is written here is just an overview.. I need to come home and read some more and learn some more. But what is evident is that there is no simple story in the Balkans.

Traveling more than miles

2009-07-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

We woke up in Serbia this morning, in Belgrade. If you read yesterday's entry, you'll remember it was very modern, very young...and very interesting. We saw equally interesting things today but there were some thought provoking sights as well, and some shifts in the norm.

We left the hotel in our new mini bus with a new driver. He's a young guy, but a good driver... he lives in Tuzla, (Bosnia) but is a Serb. His father owns the bus company.

We drove several hours through spectacular mountain scenery -- high, high mountains, a number of rivers, what appeared to be nice farms in the occasional mountain valleys. We saw cows, sheep, goats; crops were potatoes, corn, melons of sorts, and much grass/grain for feeding the livestock. There were haystacks everywhere... and we note that the Serbian haystacks and Bosnian haystacks were just the same.

After those hours going west, we passed out of Serbia and into Bosnia. It was relatively easy, though it took a while. First, at the Serbian border station (one fo the guards looked a lot like a Jay Leno younger brother.. but no one was smiling) they carefully scrutinized our passports and stamped them as we were leaving the nation; Then we drove 100 yards or so and had a little longer wait as the Bosnians scrutinized our passports and let us in.

There are a lot of impressions and some tangled history. First off, this is WILD landscape.. high mountains, sweeping valleys, narrow passes between the valleys, precipitous heights. My pictures are a little unsatisfactory since they were taken from a moving bus and since the day was cloudy and hazy (we had a little rain and a ferocious wind storm). WE probably drove thru 15 or 20 tunnels cut out of the rock... there wasn't enough flat real estate to build roads otherwise. Our driver said many of the tunnels were built by young, patriotic Yugoslavs under Tito (who everyone seems to miss). They are holding up well, just carved out of the granite cliffs. The road was really quite good and there were no real white knuckle moments today.

Our only sightseeing stop was a bridge over the River Drina... built in the 1570's by one of the Mehmet's (or rather at his behest). It still stands but is no longer carrying auto traffic. It is very beautiful. For those of you who have read the book about the Bridge on the Drina, this isn't the original in the book; that one is now gone. But this is its contemporary.

There are beautiful sights, but there are also sad ones... all along the way are burnt out/destroyed hulks of buildings... left over from the various rounds of fighting that have taken place here since, oh, maybe the 1300's... this has never been a peaceful place and it still has its tensions just a pin prick below the surface. The Kosovo War led to NATO bombings in Serbia in 1999, but there were other rounds of fighting throughout the centuries. Kosovo became an Ottoman possession in 1389 and stayed thus until 1912 when Serbia took it back. Now it is engaged in a shaky try at independence. Then there are the issues of ethnicity and religion. It is funny that the Ottomans never particularly tried to force their conquests to adopt Islam, though many did. They merely taxed the people they conquered, brought some of their children into the janissary corps, spread ideas, etc. There was great brutality when people opposed conquest, but in many cases those who were conquered almost volunteered for it, since the taxes under the Ottomans were less than other situations.

Nevertheless, the tide of nationalism that hit Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries also infected the Balkans... and led to the incident that seemed to precipitate WWI. The aftermath was bungled in the Balkans (as well as elsewhere, in the world's efforts to dismantle the empires as quickly as possible. Loose ends are prone to catching fire and exploding, and that is what happened.

So the lull of the Tito state, a Yugoslavia that had never really existed per se before, was fractured again after the fall of communism and once again we are seeing the struggle and frustration of the current situation. I think it's probably exacerbated by the world economic issues right now. I don't have the sense that bullets will be whizzing over our heads as we tour, but I do have the sense that there is unfinished business here and that the solutions may not be arrived at with sweetness and light.

But what most haunts me is those high mountain valleys.. they must have been relatively easy to defend.. so few mountain passes, so few alternate routes to anywhere. no wonder it's been a combative part of the world! In Sarajevo for the first time we are seeing both mosques and orthodox churches/

We got into Sarajevo about 7 tonight. Tomorrow we will have city tours, meet with a professor at the Museum to learn more, and spend another night here. I can live with that.. the room is actually big enough for two people and very pleasant.. I have laundry dripping in the bathroom and a pair of pants hanging out the window to dry (were on the back of the hotel, so no one is in line of sight with it!! There are remnants of Olympic glory here and as I look at the mountains it is easy to see it in winter with snow shoulder deep and the slopes just waiting.

I will put on a couple of pictures... the view of Belgrade this morning from breakfast, a few scenic shots.. no kitty picture today. I didn't see any, so they are missing.

Belgrade -- July 15, Day 18 I think.

2009-07-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

Wow..... Belgrade was a series of surprises and delights. I recommend it highly... I'd never been here and honestly didn't know what to expect. I am sorry we're leaving tomorrow, for I think there's a lot more to explore.

Today was incredibly long....14 hours of exploration, about a million miles walked, two extremely fragrant and packed bus rides, and luckily the end was a taxi ride back to the hotel.

Start with breakfast.. no olives, but a whole lot more.. eggs, both boiled and in fragments of omelets....breads, cheeses, meats, fruit, cole slaw?? french fries with catsup and mustard, unsalted bacon, no tang, but possibly real orange juice, coffee.... milk, cereal.... but you know, it was wonderful but I did miss the olives. The breakfast room is on the 18th floor and tomorrow I will take the camera to breakfast to share the view.

Then out on the street, shoehorned into a big city bus. With half of Belgrade's 2 million population. Never got a seat, but there was no fear of falling since there was no place to fall on that someone wasn't standing on. Did I mention we brought the heat wave with us? It was Phoenix hot at 8 a.m. and humid besides.

We rode to the center of old Belgrade (as opposed to New Beograd built in the last years of the communist regime across the river. But it's okay, we went there too. Twice.) The center of "old" Belgrade is very modern... very young, very trendy. Walking streets, the latest western fashions, much art displayed. We walked thru and ended up in Kalemegdan Park, whose centerpiece is the remnants of a fortress built over the centuries. Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers and was for centuries at the northern border of the Ottoman Empire. There is occasional evidence of the Ottomans, but not a lot....the Ottomans devastated the city in 1521 and they clearly hold a grudge. They have done interesting things... took parts of the moats around the fortress and filled them with clay tennis courts and basketball courts. There is no suggestion that the past is sacred, but this is a vital, bouncy city.

One funny thing.. toward the end of the 19th century, a famous sculptor whose name has too many consonants to put here was commissioned to create a statue as a centerpiece of the park. His muse led him to create a beautiful male nude.... the city fathers apparently thought it was a little much to put in the center of the park. but didn't want to waste a great art work, so they had a 17 meter tall pedestal made for it and put it overlooking the River confluence.... with its back view to the city. Modestly prevails. But so does the statue!

After we explored the park and found the only cat I saw all day, we walked another million miles and caught a tourist bus... climbed up on the roof seats and had an hour and a half tour of the cities, old and new... the recorded guide said a few unkind things about the Ottomans (referred scornfully to their "block pavements" -- much better than the current cobblestones, I might suggest! We also toured New Beograd and it was very much similar to East Berlin in shape.. big blocky concrete buildings, but much overlaid by modern art, etc. Both parts of the city are filled with art works and interesting architecture.

Then we walked another million miles and had a lunch that was enough for forty people... one of this, two of those, all very good. It's a little more difficult for our vegetarians here.... though the salads were very good. No one was hungry.

Then we walked a million miles, saw the Ethnographic Museum, walked a million more, caught a bus and went back to New Beograd to visit a school. A friend of Lisa Adeli's arranged for us to visit.. this is where it got surreal and sort of spectacular! School is out here, just like at home, but the headmaster and 6 or 7 teachers were there to greet us. It started slow... we had water and juice, asked and answered questions. It is a public K-8 school and has won all sorts of recognition for excellence. The staff was very proud of it, and glad to show it off.

Then we got the tour.. upstairs, downstairs, classrooms, the music room, the dentist's office (really), the shop, the gymnastics studio, the disco.

Yeah.. the disco. It is the teacher lounge... and when we got there, music was blaring, the bar was WELLLLL stocked with wine, beer, cognac, several other liquors.... also juice, water, goodies to eat. The disco ball was lighted and the lights were flashing.... the headmaster took over as bar tender and the dancing began. My knees were hurting (those millions of miles ) and I'm not real up on Serbian folk dances, but there were many out there stomping and so on... We were there about two more hours and then they invited us to go back for breakfast in the morning, after declaring that we were officially Serbs now... we can't do breakfast, but it was a lovely offer. I cannot imagine how we would repay that type of hospitality in kind if they visited the US...but they seemed to have high morale!

Then we walked two million more miles, rode another packed bus, walked more, had dinner at a delightful restaurant, eating out under the starts (I don't know if people do eat inside here, but it is okay.) We were serenaded by a music combo ... an accordian, a guitar, a clarinet, a base, and a violin.. they played a lot of American standards (Spanish Eyes, Somewhere Over the Rainbow). We tipped them, apparently well, since they came back later, surrounded our table and sang Serbian standards while they played for another hour.

It was a strange and wonderful day.

Overall impression is that Belgrade is a bit like Prague, a bit like Milan, a bit like Hamburg.... very modern with an underlay of history People were splendidly friendly, and there was not a minaret in sight (we were told there is only one small mosque). The city is filled with art works.. I'll post some ... there are busts of everyone who ever did anything here.. musicians, politicians, artists, scientists (they are so proud of Tesla that the main street downtown is named after him). There is also a lot of modern terra cotta type art strewn around the downtown walking area... you'll see one of those too.

There is also a lot of graffiti, some of it very artistic, some of it is politically edgy, and much is the result of several universities here. I will post my favorite stencil seen throughout the city.

As soon as pictures are up, I'm going to bed... tomorrow is a bus day.... off to Visnigrad, then Sarajevo....

Leaving Istanbul on a JAT plane

2009-07-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

That would be Jugoslav Airlines... but we had pretty good full day before we left Istanbul and made our flight to Belgrade.

This was pure teacher stuff, but fascinating. We went to meet with a professor at Bosphorus University and a high school teacher. The University itself is incredible.. started as a US college in Istanbul in the mid 19th century and was well endowed by a number of wealthy Americans. In 1971 it became a Turkish run university but it maintains the tradition of all classes being taught in English. We were also told that all faculty must have their PhD's from foreign universities. Today it has expanded to six campuses and it is a very prestigious university to attend, with programs in engineering, social sciences, education, business, economics, and much more.

It's also gorgeous.. sitting high on hills on the European side of the Bosphorus.. we ate lunch with our hosts in Kennedy Lodge, once the residence of the University president, looking out at the gorgeous views.

But the business of our meeting was to learn about teaching and education and schools in modern Turkey. It was several hours of good discussion and I'll just fill in some bullet points:
-- both of our hosts felt that Turkey has challenges ahead. Currently most education is done by rote memorization and they want to see a movement to teaching more critical thinking skills
-- they are happy that most Turkish parents are respectful of education and teach their children to value it.
-- there is a big gap between private and public schools. Private schools pay better, but can cost around 30,000 Turkish Lira a year in tuition. Given that starting pay for teachers in the public/state schools is about 24,000 Turkish lira, you can see the gap!
-- teachers are respected pretty much, just not necessarily paid well. In comparison to other jobs requiring similar education, their pay is on the low side.
-- all public education in the country is standardized.. same books, same curriculum, same standards, same testing.
--teachers are employees of the Turkish government. Much like military personnel, they go where they are sent.. they do not have a choice of teaching assignments. To a degree their assignments, particularly early in their teaching careers, dependent on test scores.... plum jobs to those who score highest.
-- education sorts kids out... much testing and the tests determine if they will go to vocational schools or college; test scores even determine what one can major in. No appeals.
-- in Turkey it would be almost totally impossible for someone to do a career change and become a teacher later in life. There are age limits beyond which one cannot start a college program, etc..... not much changing!
-- there are beginning to be mild worries about discipline problems wtih students. Our hosts felt that tv and the rural to urban migrations were the causes... no longer were kids surrounded by extended family, they were not as supervised at home, etc.
-- homework starts in early years and is very heavy for all students.. hours per night
-- there are big gaps in between public and private schools in such things as having technology.. our young teacher teaches in a private school and has smart boards, lcd projectors, all kids have laptops, etc.. but it's a very different story in most public schools.
-- we asked how they handle delicate subjects, for instance the claims of the Armenian genocide (which is always referred to as the "so-called Armenian genocide). The young teacher said that it is now a little more openly dealt with but is still sensitive.

We also talked about changes in Turkey. Once again the issue of the headscarf came up and both of them said it was increasing rapidly. It is ILLEGAL for college students to wear the scarves in class.. but we saw many on campus and in the city. It is also illegal for women employees of any level of government to wear the scarf at work. It was suggested that the fundamentalist groups actively recruit on college campuses, make grants and aid available to those who need money, and basically are aggressively converting people to fundamentalism by paying them and making their lives easier. Interesting.

One thing our professor said really resonates with me. She said that as a Turkish woman, she values and appreciates her freedoms and rights.. that Ataturk was responsible for creating a modern state where women got the vote in 1930, as soon as the Republic was stabilized; before many other European women got enfranchised. She worries about losing those rights. Currently in Turkey there are few barriers for women.. there are more women in engineering schools than men; they are a large percentage of doctors, politicians,lawyers, judges, professors... not a majority, but a healthy sized minority.

There was much more, but that's enough for now.

Oh yeah.. we took cabs up and back... Istanbul is built, like Rome, on many hills and we had a plane to catch, so we decided to take cabs. It was exciting. It took 3 cabs to hold us all and apparently all Turkish cab drivers aspire to be NASCAR heroes.. they raced against each other. It was the experience of a lifetime.... up down, around, in lanes where there were no lanes, under buses, (well, maybe not, but it was darned close...) We all were gasping at the end. The taxi drivers were laughing a bit too much!

Then we collected the luggage at the hotel, got on a tour bus and headed for Istanbul Airport. Two security checks.. first, just to get in to the airport, and then again at the gate... both with x-rays, etc. But it was lighter than US security lately.. didn't have to take off shoes or abandon water bottles or anything of that sort. The checkers were very courteous and all was well.

We were on a smallish plane. The flight from Istanbul to Belgrade is about 1 hour and20 minutes... smooth and easy and they even fed us... a cheese and pickle sandwich. The label said cheese and cucumber, but I know a pickle when I bite into it. It was very good, too. No soda, but they had coffee, orange juice, and water as well as wine.

We are now staying two nights in Hotel Srbija.. very nice, 18 stories, with a convention of Swedish Harley riders with tattoos, we are told. They must have been out getting more tattoos, though, since they were nowhere to be seen when we checked in.

And so.. tomorrow we go touring and see the city thoroughly...I hear there are no cats like there are in Turkey, so I will close this with a kedi from Bosphorus University.. there were many.

--

Food pictures in no particular order and the restaurant kedi

2009-07-13T05:28:00.000-07:00

The food of Turkey

2009-07-13T04:44:00.000-07:00

We had a short and relatively unscheduled day today.. a couple of walking tours of the old Ottoman buildings and stuff around our hotel (the bus driver is getting some much needed time off!!) And I've probably given you more history than you anticipated, but it seems like everyone is interested in food. So I shall give you some outlines and some pictures.. and even some cats, of course.

I once read some noted food expert who said there were only three original great cuisines in the world.. the French, the Chinese, and the Turkish. While he'd clearly never had a chimichanga, his viewpoint is interesting and highly controversial. There is much similarity in the foods of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, but it's worth considering that the Turks (and the Ottoman Empire, naturally) spread some of the foundations for those magnificent cuisines.

The food generally is healthy food.. vegetable based meals are very common. The three vegetarians in our group have fared very well and had no significant problem eating well. There is bread at every meal, "ekmek" -- which is really what we call Italian bread at home.. nice long loaves with a light crispy crust. I have seen a more whole wheat version in Istanbul as well. Wheat is eaten in various forms, as well.

To start, take breakfast. I can say it has been EXACTLY the same in every hotel we've been in, except that some of the fancier places have had more choices in the same categories. First, is the ekmek. Baskets and baskets. Sometimes more than one variety, some with sesame seeds, some with a little cheese (that's pretty fancy). We have only had one hotel dining room that offered sweet rolls with breakfast, and that was pretty fancy. The bread comes with a variety of things to spread on it... different jams, particularly cherry. Butter or margarine is omnipresent, as is a Turkish variety of chocolate hazelnut spread something like Nutella. Then there is cheese. There is always "beyaz peynir" which is a fresh goat cheese cut in logs or squares. I love it but it is an acquired taste for some. There is usually at least one more variety, often a cheese similar to provolone or fresh mozzarella, usually cut in triangles. I have seen it in the bakkals in slices like our sandwich cheeses, but it tastes much better than Kraft singles! After the cheese come the olives... usually two or three varieties, sometimes more. Always both black and green. Sometimes seasoned with peppers or garlic or herbs like oregano. They are soooooo good. Then there will often be hot eggs in the shell... one fancier place we were at had both "3 minute" (soft boiled) and "5 minute" (harder boiled) eggs, but the hot hard boiled egg is the standard offering. Then to round out the meal, you get sliced or wedged fresh tomatoes (that taste better than any tomatoes in the world, even the ones we grow ourselves) and sliced peeled cucumbers. On rare occasion there is fresh fruit. And sometimes cereal is offered, though often without milk. To drink there is a choice of "Nescafe" (as distinguished from the wonderful muddy "Turkish Kahve" or strong brewed tea and some sort of juice. In our experience, the two things offered have been cherry juice and Tang. Large dispensers of Tang. Our gift to Turkish cuisine has been Tang and Nescafe.

I am told that a typical home breakfast would be similar. It apparently is not breakfast without bread, cheese, and olives.

Lunch on the town is often more complicated. I think Turkish cities and towns have more eating establishments than anywhere. Even the tiniest villages seemed to have many little lokantas/cafes/kebabcis. Even kind of nice street cafes follow the pattern of point and order. Generally while there may be a printed menu, it is considered much more logical and normal to go trouping in to the serving area and point. Sometimes in fancier restaurants they have brought huge demonstration trays for us to point at. Not just us, even the Turks order this way.

A typical lunch would have several components -- perhaps a cold stuffed pepper, eggplant in any one of a dozen forms, zucchini or spinach or green beans ditto, rice, chips (french fries done up in olive oil, considered a vegetable here!), potato salads, etc. One favorite of the group has been zucchini cooked with a a Bechamel sauce and finished with a nice hint of cheese. The green beans are almost always the broad type cooked with a savory tomato sauce and finished with lots of olive oil. Maybe a fresh soup -- almost always there is a bean or lentil soup plus something else like a yogurt based soup or a tomato soup. Meat is in limited servings... sometimes a "guvec" (pronounced gooo-vetch) which is a meat and vegetable stew. The meat is generally either chicken or beef. If you are in a specific kebab or meatball restaurant you'll have the choice of various kinds of kebabs or grilled meatballs, but they don't necessarily show up in regular lunch type restaurants. Liver and potatoes (cooked and crisped in olive oil, naturally, seems to be a very popular delicacy. I had it once and it was very well done.) An example.. my lunch today, chosen by our guide and the waiter with my acquiescence, had a small borek (pastry made of filo dough) stuffed with a tiny bit of ground meat, a little cheese and spinach. Then I had spinach and rice and cold zucchini with a yogurt dressing. The green salad with it was totally uninspired iceberg, but I needed to see a real salad, so it was okay!

To drink with lunch there is always "su" -- water. No one drinks tap water here... in fact, most of the hotels have had signs in the bathroom warning not to drink it. So bottled water is omnipresent and warm. No ice. Sigh. In the fanciest hotel we were in, they did bring ice.. in a tiny little miniature ice bucket, and ladled out tiny miniature cubes one at a time..... ) They have coke products everywhere.... regular coke, coke light, and coke zero. It is often cold, which is nice. My favorite drink with lunch is ayran... it's a drink made with water and yogurt, about the consistency of skim milk and a little bit salty. Don't gag till you've tried it. It's amazingly refreshing on hot days and quenches thirst very well. I'm told, for those of you in Tucson, that there's a market at Country Club and Glenn that sells several varieties (I'm also told the Palestinian variety is far too salty!) After the meal they offer cay (tea, pronounced chai) or nescafe or Turkish coffee. It is not made on the premises, but delivered from the nearest cay house... I usually have the cay... served in little glasses with sugar cubes, just as I remember it from our years in Izmir

Dinner is more of the same, but usually preceded by a variety of meze, or appetizers. I sometimes think they are the best part.. cheese, olives, eggplant, yogurt based spreads with dill, bread, Russian salad, which is a potato salad of small cubes of potatoes, carrots and peas, moistened with a little mayonnaise type dressing and dill. I rather like it. Some of our group rather like the little hot dog slices in tomato sauce, but I haven't quite got into them. After the meze would come the soup if you wanted soup, then the small main course with same lunch type veggies and rice or potatoes, and then, if you are still able to eat, a little desert. There are a million varieties of baklava like desserts, cakes soaked in honey syrup, and countless puddings that I find rather boring, but some people like them.

Then there's street food..... roasted ears of corn, simit (sesame seed crescents and doughnut shaped breads); ice cream of all sorts, fruit, (watermelon is in season right now and very very good.) There are corner stands for kebabs and meatball sandwiches, and more. There are a couple of kinds of pizza. One is pide... just what it sounds like... boat shaped slices of pita bread baked with toppings of cheese, tomato and meats. There is also Lamacun (lah-ma-june) that is more like our typical pizza but takes a long time to get.

Believe it or not, all of us have lost weight... but that's all the walking plus most of us skip a meal a lot of days since it is hot and it seems like way too much time eating! And portions are relatively small compared to a typical American serving. I must admit I like that. The only exception to small servings has been what I've seen when people ordered pasta..... oh my, those servings are huge. Pasta is quite popular here, sometimes with a meat or vegetable sauce, sometimes just with cheese.

Even fast food isn't. Meals are leisurely, and in a restaurant service is charmingly ??? slow..... and chaotic at times. Two people ordering the same things may get them 10-15 minutes apart. We have acquired the custom of sharing food... just order a bunch of stuff and something will show up to start on!

And there's always ekmek. Always. Life is good.

I have taken a bunch of pictures of meals... hope they look good.

picture identifications for Troy and Gallipoli

2009-07-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Somehow it posted before these got in.

From the top:

Water is as precious here as it is at home....

The Odeon at Troy and the Trojan Kitty

A very worried little guy on the ferry. He never would smile, but he worried cutely.

At Gelibolu.. the trenches have been reconstructed at one point just to show how small they were and how confining.

Lone Pine was replanted at the site of one of the major Australian engagements, supposedly from a seed found on the battlefield. A sister tree to this one was planted in Canberra.

Dur Yolcu... Stio, Sojourner, as seen from the ferry...

Graves at ANZAC cove; memorials.

From the Bronze Age to WWI in hours and miles

2009-07-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 11, no matter what Blogspot thinks!

We got out of Assos relatively early, and headed first for the Bronze Age sort of. Troy was our goal. There are at least 9 stages of excavation and they continue... but the beautiful area that was once on the Aegean coast has seen a lot of history, even aside from the Trojan War. Most of the interesting excavation is from Troy VI, but work continues. And just to keep the tourists happy, in addition to the spectacular ruins, they've constructed a giant wooden horse you can climb up in. We spent a couple of hours clambering around the ruins (and in my case, finding a Trojan cat to make friends with.) It was very hot and very very sunny, and we had miles to go, so back on the bus.

We missed the ferry across the Dardanelles at Canakkale, so we got doner from a street vendor and amused ourselves with lunch. The ferry ride took about 30 minutes, across gorgeous smooth blue waters, but we were all perhaps somber as we looked ahead at the Gallipoli (Gelibolu in Turkish) peninsula. High on a hillside here is a large Turkish flag and a poem that proclaims
"Stop, Sojourner.
This Earth you tread thus unawares
is where an age ended
Bow and listen. This quiet mound
is where the heart of a nation throbs"

Up more twisty roads. The Gelibolu Peninsula is one massive graveyard and battlefield... 2 years of miserable trench warfare, entire units wiped out, more than 500,000 casualties combined. Today it is peaceful and serene and much visited. The most popular site may be the ANZAC sites at ANZAC cove -- each year they come and do commemorative ceremonies, though there are few remaining survivors, obviously.

The plaque put there by Ataturk in 1934 reads thus:

Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives
You are now lying int eh soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace4.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears;
Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

Probably not a whole lot of comfort, but stirring nonetheless.

The two years were marred by poor communications, miscommunication, no communications at all, and a tragic series of circumstances that left too many dead to no effect.

Some mild humor from Jack Churchill, Winston's brother, who memorialized the disastrous landing at the beach code named "Y Beach":
Y Beach, the Scottish borderer cried
When panting up the steep hillside.
To call this thing a beach is stiff.
Y Beach!
It's nothing but a bloody cliff!
Why beach?

There were tons of memorials, tons of graves, and many stories of heroism and gallantry at both sides... stirring indeed.

Then back on the road. There were more than 200 miles to Istanbul and Lisa had a plane to catch to go ahead of us to Belgrade. We drove fast. Turkish roads are much improved over the last 25 years, but it is still not a nation of fast road travel. There is heavy traffic and much slow moving traffic. Gas is about $6-7 a gallon, but there is a lot of automotive and truck traffic. We made it to the airport in time, anyhow, and then back to our old Istanbul stomping grounds, the Bristol Hotel. We walked down Istiklal Street -- it's a block or so beyond our hotel and used to be the main thoroughfare of urban Istanbul. Now it is walking mall,full of shops, restaurants, clubs, movies, people out to be seen. We had dinner in a restaurant featuring Circassion food... very very good. Yogurt soup, to start, then a Circassian meat pastry, and so on. No one is starving. We ate out on the alleyway and watched people go by. Then sleep!

We are in Istanbul till Tuesday evening. I took this day off to do laundry, catch up reading and writing, work on lesson plans, baby my knee a little. they were doing a walking tour of places I'd already been, so it was not an issue. I'm kind of enjoying the quiet, though I wish the air conditioning worked better!

More tomorrow.

pictures for Pergamum And Ayvalik

2009-07-12T03:59:00.001-07:00

starting at the top...

some indeterminate place along the Aegean. The water really is that shade of deep turquoise.
From Bergama, looking down....down....
A dondurma stand. Dondurma is ice cream... lots of neat flavors like mulberry and pistachio and cherry
the kedi of the day.. this one asleep on a step in Cunda. One of many
Mr. Ali Onay as we met with him.

Day 12 -- Bergama and Ayvalik and Cunda

2009-07-12T03:12:00.001-07:00

I'm catching up...lots of miles, no internet, but now we're back in Istanbul and the electrons are working. So.....

On Friday morning we somewhat reluctantly left Kusadasi (you pronounce it Coosh-ah-duh-suh with out much stress on any syllable...it means Island of the Birds). We headed north, past the outskirts of Izmir. I took lots of pictures out the window of the bus. Some are okay, some are blurry, but I will sort them out in time.

After a couple of hours of agrarian scenery and occasional glimpses of the Aegean, we reached Bergama, ancient Pergamum. Most of the wonderful marbles, including the altar of Zeus, have been carted off to the Pergamum Museum in Berlin, but there's still plenty to see here, with the foundations of a city that was influential for many reasons for a long time. It was already old when St. Paul referred to it as one of the seven churches in the book of Revelation; its early roots go far back to the time before Alexander the Great. Legend has it that on Alexander's untimely death, one of his generals, Lysimachus, chose Pergamum as a repository of much of his wealth. (lots of gold in the area,including the river that inspired King Midas). At its height, Pergamum was comparable to Antioch and Alexandria. One of its prides was one of the largest known libraries in the world....over 200,000 manuscripts. The King ofEgypt at that time, perhaps motivated by envy, forbade the export of papyrus....so the King of Pergamum ordered his citizens to find a replacement. And so they did.... using goat skin, scraped to fine surface with pumice. Thus was born "parchment" which actually comes from the word for Pergamum. Later, Mark Antony was to give the entire library to Cleopatra as a wedding gift and it was carted off to Alexandria and lost in the destruction of that library. Sad. No back ups, either!!

Pergamum was also the site of a notable medical facility under the famous early physician, Galen.

Like many/most ancient sites in Asia Minor, it was placed on the highest point around, for purposes of defensibility. They were not thinking ahead to modern motor buses. The road was one lane... but it went both ways. It is hairpinny-- and up- and up and up. At one point our driver had to back up thru one of the hair pins to let another bus down.... we were on the inside of the mountain but it didn't make us feel a lot better. We all bought evil eyes at the shop on the top in preparation for the trip down. It worked, since we got safely down. I contemplated walking, but it was too narrow for pedestrians and buses too.

After Bergama we headed north again for a change of centuries. Our next stop, several hours away, was Ayvalik, or rather its suburb of Cunda. Ayvalik is a small beach town of great simple charm, across from the island of Lesbos. Cunda is tiny, connected to the mainland by a causeway.

The reason we went there is that Harvard, in conjunction with Turkey's Koc (pronounced "coach") University, runs a summer program to teach Ottoman Turkey and Turkish language. We had an appointment to meet with their students (mostly doctoral and post doctoral students from all over the place) and discuss the Greek/Turkish population exchange of 1924. They were lovely, let us use their modern bathroom facilities and gave us tea to drink.

Let me do the short version of the population exchange. Following the turn of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire began to lose its lands. Islands like Crete were taken by Greece;the Bulgarians got independence, the Balkan Wars nibbled away at the Empire. This left many ethnic, Greek speaking Moslems in what now was Greece; many Turkish speaking Christians had also settled in what is now mainland Turkey over the years. Under the Ottomans, there was religious freedom as long as taxes were paid, so it wasn't much problem all in all.

When WWI came, the most powerful people surrounding the emperor favored throwing in their lot with Germany... with the hope of reclaiming lands lost, with the thought of taking the Turkic speaking peoples then in Russia and adding them to the empire. However the general Turkish population felt more of a pull to England and France. It looked as though they would ally themselves with England and even ordered two warships to be built in English shipyards. However, just as they were finished, and the Turkish naval crews were in England to bring the ships home, the British government rescinded the sale. There was great fury in Turkey (the ships had been financed by popular donations, even school children contributing in the schools). Germany stepped in with replacement ships, and the die was cast.

Of course, Germany and its allies lost the war. Among the results were the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Its Arab possessions were made into mandates given to France and England. The mainland was occupied by England,France, Italy, Russia, and Greece. Mostly Greece, whose armies immediately started pushing toward the center of the Anatolian plains.

Here is where Turkey's great hero (Washington, Lincoln,and anyone else you admire all rolled into one) came to the forefront. A mere lieutenant colonel under the old Ottoman regime, he'd been in disfavor since he spoke out against allying with Germany. Now he rallied a combination of the remnants of the Turkish armies, mountain bandits, provincial fighters, etc., and began to push the Greeks out. Most of the other occupiers left wtihout much fight, but it was not till 1923 that the Greeks were pushed out of Smyrna (modern Izmir), wtih half of the city burning in the process.

So Europe, mostly Lord Curzon of England, got back in the act, pushing the Treaty of Lausanne... this was intended to prevent violence and anarchy and unrest.. according to Curzon, people of differing groups could not live together in the same nation state so his dividing characteristic was religion. Hence, all Muslims in Greece would be relocated to Turkey; all Christians in Turkey would move on, mostly to Greece. Language or willingness to be relocated were not considered.
Over a million were moved out of Turkey; unfortunately for Turkey,many of them were wealthy, educated and skilled. With them went much of the middle class, the entrepreneurial classes.... from Greece they got half a million peasant farmers. They were assigned new homes and occupations at pretty much random, so it was not terribly successful. But it served as a pattern for similar relocations in India and Pakistan, Palestine, even the Balkans.

We asked our hosts at the school about primary source materials, so they trooped us down the street to MEET a primary source, a Mr. Ali Onay. He is 91 years old, so he was just a child when his family was relocated to Turkey from Crete. He has lived in the same house ever since. He was very happy to see us, found us all seats (we refrained from bad puns when two of us got to sit on Ottomans) and fed us chocolates. He was in possession of a remarkably sharp intellect and good memory... and a sad story. He showed us the picture of his very lovely wife, who died 7 years ago. He had the interpreter explain that he became deaf at the shock of losing her, that once he could no longer hear her voice, he could hear nothing at all. There were moist eyes.

We had our translators write down our questions. He'd put on his reading glasses, then launch into answers, changing back to distance glasses, answering sometimes in Turkish, sometimes in Greek. Luckily our guide speaks both. It was fascinating to hear his story. He was not bitter, but felt it was not fair and that everyone lost in the process. But he said his life was good. He has many children, all of whom live nearby (though he continues to live alone in his lovely old house) and they run his various businesses and restaurants. He pressed us to stay for dinner as his guests, but we had many miles. It was a highpoint. He seemed sad to see us go, and gravely shook our hands, insisting that we take more chocolates.....

One other oddity of Cunda was the cats.... seems that the family that owns the building that Harvard rents, is interested in the local cats. They regularly round them up, have them vaccinated and neutered and turn them back loose. I have never seen so many cats in the streets, on shady steps, under cars, etc. They were not like feral cats at home, though; very friendly and amicable. You will see at least one picture.

Back on the road... now to Assos, just about 60 km up the shore. Hah. It took forever... and was all straight up and straight down. One of the harsh moments was when we were going straight up and our guide told us the driver had missed the turn to our hotel (no GPS here) and was looking for a place to make a U turn. Ay. He drove on a ways, we turned, went back, unloaded onto the beach, and found a very quaint seaside hotel. Lovely, but no internet. So I slept!

more pictures.. Izmir

2009-07-09T12:16:00.001-07:00

From top to bottom: urban sprawl.. this is one of the waves of hillsides outside of Izmir that are now covered with densely packed buildings.

Then we have two from the bazaar.. the olive cart and the smoothie booth. I had the super duper multi fruit one.. cost about 65 cents... of course we had to drink them on the spot and return the glasses!

Then the giant sculpture of Ataturk being carved in one of the unoccupied hillsides... it's pretty big. One member of our group thought it looked like LBJ (I think maybe a little, but fewer jowls!

Then what I managed to get of our apartment building, possibly even the right floor... recognize the front balcony, Jeff?

And we must have a kedi. This one was in the bazaar in Izmir....

Going "Home" Again... Day 12

2009-07-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today was our "free day" but six of us plus our intrepid bus driver made an optional trip to Izmir, about 60 miles away. This is where our family lived from May 1983 to May of 1985 == it was a great adventure then and I was eager to see it again and see what changes there have been. Additionally, Dr. Linda Darling, our Turkey expert, has a UA student who is from here and home for summer holidays. He agreed to meet with us and bring his sister, who is an elementary teacher of English here in Izmir. We lazied about in the morning and got to Izmir a bit after noon.

In Izmir, the meeting place is the Konak, the clock tower in the middle of downtown, by the water front. It is much more elaborate young Turkelegant than it was... a common observation for pretty much everything I saw today. The city has about 2.6 million residents -- it was probably around a million when we were here. It has grown rapidly and is surrounded for miles by densely packed houses and apartment blocks. I wish I'd invested in Turkish cement, for I'd be a very wealthy woman by now.

We had interesting conversations. While we waited for our friends to come, we met a young Turkish woman who now lives in Chicago and is a post grad student there. She was showing a US friend around and stopped and chatted with us for quite a while. She made a comment that was later repeated by our hosts.... that there is a fear among many young and modern Turks that they are being led in a fundamentalist way by their government and there is general mistrust. This young woman said,(paraphrasing_ that she didn't care whether other women chose to wear the scarves and dress traditionally, but that she feared that they would beoome "another Iran" (her words) if the government began to mandate such things. Turkey's constitution is adamant that this is a secular nation... but they feel the trend is going toward more conservatism and fundamentalism. It is currently illegal for government workers or students to wear the head scarf... it is seen as a provocative act in public office, I guess.. but we saw many scarves...though not nearly as many as in Istanbul and nowhere near what we saw in the small cities and towns we have been in . Ever since 1923 when it was "liberated" (and burned), Izmir has been known as Turkey's most liberal enclave.. it was obvious just from the few people we spoke with that this may still be true.

When we met our hosts, we hiked thru town to the restaurant a friend of his had recently opened. Lovely, but a few glitches in service.. lunch was leisurely even by Turkish standards.. about 2 1/2 hours for salads and sandwiches.....but we were in good conversation. Our teacher friend teaches in a private school.. 1st graders. She has about 13 kids in a class.. but she says the state (public) schools have as many as 40 in a class at that age. It appears that in Izmir at least, most parents who can afford to do so send their kids to private schools, leaving the public schools to flounder.

After lunch we wandered thru the bazaar.. it has also cleaned up a great deal since I remember it, though it is just as noisy! Our after lunch treat was fresh fruit smoothies made in the bazaar.. very very good...

Then we went in search of synagogues and found them. Starting in 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella kicked the Jews out of Spain there has been a large, stable, and prosperous Jewish community in Izmir... we knew that when we were here before, because my Turkish tutor, Ester, was of that group. We were told the population at one time was close to 45,000 and there were 18 or 19 mosques. We learned much of this from an antique dealer who told us the story in Turkish,Spanish, Hebrew, a bit of English and a little German. We still didn't catch it all, but we then follwed him at a trot to see a few of the facades of the old synagogues.

By now we were almost late to meet our bus driver, so we literally trotted thru the rest of the bazaar to meet him...

Then I got my treat.. he drove us along the waterfront to see where we used to live.. found the exact address.... the building was familiar, but I only got a halfway picture since I did it out the bus window and the heavy traffic precluded stopping. They have moved the sea wall however, which must have been a huge undertaking....for now there is a grassy park area between the road and the water that never was there before... beautiful.

Much looked familiar in that part of the city.... just cleaner and newer and more prosperous... but as we drove away the areas became less familiar since the "suburbs" went out so far. There is also a giant carving of Ataturk in a mountain, a la Mt. Rushmore, that is new.....

It was a great day. We got back in time to eat dinner, now I must pack because we move out early tomorrow morning on a two day trek back to Istanbul... we'll see the ancient city of Pergamom (Bergama) and an Ottoman institute tomorrow, then the next day Troy and Gallipoli.. more as we go.

Pictures of Ephesus and elsewhere Day 11

2009-07-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

From top to bottom...the public potties at Ephesus.... about a 20 seater. Significantly preferable to some of the present day public facilities we've run across. Next, Mary's House shrine... no picture does it justice to convey the serenity and peace; after that a look at the marble way that runs from end to end of Ephesus... over 2 kilometers of marble street...at times as wide as a four lane road, narrower much of the rest of the time. And they're not even close to being done with excavation. Next is the view from our hotel room. Finally, the kedi of the day.. we had many accompany us today... . one greeted us as we entered Ephesus, and we ran across them all day. They are seemingly well fed and very friendly always.... this little guy had cay (tea) with us this afternoon, along with 7 or 8 others that were in and out of the garden. I may have a whole album of kitties by the time we come home.

Day 11 Efes... Ephesus

2009-07-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

It was a long hot day, but beautiful. We were up and at 'em relatively early to beat the heat. It's Phoenix type heat and we had a long hard walk ahead in ancient Ephesus, about 15 miles or so from our hotel. They have been excavating and restoring the ancient city of Ephesus for more than 100 years, with teams of German and Austrian archaelogists working pretty much non stop. It is incredible.. the greatest glories date to the centuries before the time of Christ up thru the early Christian era. Most of you will recognize the city name as the name of the town to which St. Paul wrote his famous letter to the Ephesians. It was a city of perhaps a couple hundred thousand, perhaps one of the biggest cities of the day. Back then it was also a harbor, though time has silted in miles of land and now it sits well away from the harbors. It also is on its third location, between two sizable mountains that gave it good defences, kept it away from the mosquitoes that spread disease, and provided places to build after the devastation of earthquakes and invaders, both of which were perhaps common.

Legend says that the ruler who selected this third site did so after consulting a local oracle. The oracle did whatever oracles do, and muttered things about fish and wild boar (our guide was only semi amused that I called that surf and turf, but the native English speakers at least thought it was funny. In any case, said ruler was apparently barbecuing a fish when it caught fire and popped off the grill, into a bush, where it was devoured by a passing boar. Voila, urban planning.

Whatever, it is magnificent. What is there is more than a mile of marble road, flanked all along the way by buildings and public spaces in great restoration. There is an amphitheater that could have seated 24,000... and still seats nearly that many; a smaller lecture area, public baths and potties (that had running water all the time); a library that held 12,000 manuscripts before an earthquake wiped it out; a brothel; homes, shops, worship spaces, and much more. We started at one end, walked to the other. There were pretty big crowds, from all over... I heard 8 or 10 languages at least... but the crowds and foreign visitors would have been there at the heyday of Ephesus, too, so it wasn't a distraction really. It was an amazing three hours or so that we spent there.

Then we hopped on the bus, had lunch at a roadside restaurant ( I have had more eggplant in the last 11 days than in my whole life and it's all been good... no one does veggies better than the Turkish cooks.)

Next, straight up one of the two mountains flanking Efes... and I do mean straight up. More hairpins than a hair salon..... up, up, up. We were on the way to Mary's house. The Virgin Mary,that is. Legend and increasing religious belief says that after the crucifixion, John brought her here to Ephesus. We know he was here since he wrote the book of Revelation on the island of Patmos, just off the coast here. There is much local legend as well that she was here and died here. The beautiful shrine on top of the mountain is truly lovely --- set in a piny wood, very modest and serene. Muslims, of course, revere Mary as a good woman and as the mother of a major prophet, so the little chapel is as often visited by Muslims as by Christians... very lovely and the way things ought to be,I think. Don and I visited here years ago, but the site is much more preserved now, part of a lovely park with a walkway to the baptismal pool that was found at the site as well as the shrine.

I said a prayer for peace, just as I have in all the mosques we've visited.

Speaking of mosques.... just one more. It is so hard to quit! This was the pre-Ottoman mosque of Isa Bey in the town of Efes itself. In the process of renovation. The shopkeeper in the shadows of the mosque whipped out photos of the mosque over the year, and then cut his prices in half when he found out we were teachers. My big splurge was a cd of ottoman miltary music. Just wait till you hear it!

We then hung out a while in a tea garden, having a relaxation break before we came back to the hotel to do more laundry and catch up on chores. Tomorrow we sleep in, with a half day off. Then most of us are going to Izmir to see ancient Smyrna, meet with a Turkish teacher, and tackle the bazaar if we have time. I hope to see where we used to live .... I still remember the address!

2009-07-08T12:08:00.001-07:00

day 10

2009-07-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

pictures for today... first, a view of the gymnasium facade and columns at Sardis; then an Ottoman mansion from Birgi; then our kedi of the day, obligingly held by a little girl who'd been playing with it in the courtyard of the Ottoman mansion. The non mansion is a house in Tire.. the sign on it indicates it is for sale "Bu Ev Satilik" .. so if you're in the market for real estate, I bet it would be a real deal. Then another little girl in Tire who really wanted her picture taken, and finally a long way down.. one of the few pictures I managed to take on the road over the mountains.

As I write this I am looking out at the Aegean from our hotel room. The sea is about 20 or 30 yards across the street. We're three floors up and the view is spectacular. We ate dinner on the terrace as the sun went down. It's nice. On the other hand, our view is a bit more prosaic, since our balcony is totally festooned with our clean laundry..... we were desperate to get clean clothes again (it's hot and sweaty here, believe me!

We will be here in Kusadasi for three nights, so we can get out of our suitcases. We're about 15 miles or so from the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. It's not Ottoman, but it's not something anyone should miss, so we are here. Yay.

We began the day in Sardis and visited the ruins of the gymnasium. It is well restored and spectacular. We saw the huge facade, plus it's surrounding ring of shops and warehouses. There are also surviving mosaics, the remnants of an early synagogue, and a swimming pool as well as baths, bathrooms, and a swimming pool. Some of it was Greek, and it was then used by the Byzantines, the Ottomans, anyone who came along.....

Then came the excitement. We went up and over some rather high mountains to visit two ancient Ottoman villages that are now bustling small provincial market towns. The first was Birgi, about 2-3 hours of curly, small intestine shaped road. I really intended to take pictures of the view to the bottom, but apparently my camera closed its eyes every time I did. I'll post the best picture, but it is a weak and wimpy representation of the real thing. The highway, once again, was purportedly two lanes, but I think that was mostly imagination on the part of the mapmakers. We learned new gestures of disapproval from our driver, may Allah bless his house. At one point we were patiently following an overloaded large large truck up a particularly steep and curvy stretch. Every curve was a blind curve, of course. Then, in a particularly curvy curve, another truck, also overloaded to the point of being near toppling over, came roaring around us and the truck ahead of us all at once... blind curves and all. Only great good fortune kept there from being an oncoming truck/car/goatherd. Our driver had taught us some phrases of disapproval already..now we learned the gestures to go with them.

Our first mountain village was Birgi, once Aydinoglu. Our scholarly guide told us that these villages were initially built on the mountains for two reasons... first, because it preserved the limited flat land for farming; and second, because the highlands were more defensible against whoever was attacking. As waves of attackers came thru, they often occupied the plains, but not always the towns. The Ottoman practice was interesting, however; if a town or city would surrender, they were not attacked further, were allowed to keep lands and properties as long as they agreed to pay tribute. However, if they continued to resist, they were then destroyed...... most towns surrendered. Under Ottoman rule, they continued as they had been; often the tribute was less than they'd been paying to previous semi=feudal controllers... it makes sense that the Ottoman empire lasted a long time.

Birge had a number of old homes, a mosque, and other remnants of earlier Ottoman times. We explored a lot, then had lunch under the trees in the Turkish village equivalent of a fast food place. I could get used to most Turkish food.

Back on the road, now to Tire. Luckily the road was a little more civilized (heck, we were already up among the birds). It looked a little like the terrain inland from San Diego as you climb into the mountains. Lots of olive and fig trees, fields of corn and veggies, riots of wildflowers.. wild hollyhocks, tons of things I didn't recognize. Turkey is colorful, but not orderly in its landscape.

Tire had more old houses, a market, mosquito (the littlest minaret I've seen yet, even our Turkish guide whipped out her camera and took a picture of it! It was very very hot by now, but we explored quite a bit.

Then we finished the drive to Kusadasi. It means Island of the Birds and is not an island. It is, however,a major tourist destination. Huge cruise ships are in the harbor, and it is clearly a seaside destination. I hope to go hang out on the beach a little tomorrow afternoon after we come back from Ephesus.. or I could do more laundry!

Short post tonight, and a few pictures..... more tomorrow..

Confession

2009-07-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

Pictures:

market scenes in Kula.

The narrow streets of old Kula... the part of the houses overhanging the street belonged to the women of the household, so they could watch the world go by.

A watch puppy from the archaeological dig at Sardis. He may be fierce some day, but he was a sweetie today.

The kedi of the day, on the street in Kula. Wanted patting desperately

Isn't this the sweetest baby? Her mom was very pleased to let us take her picture and rave about her!

A very bored young lady who watched the Americans intently.

Off to town, a couple in their motorcycle.

Our wonderful driver on top of the bus checking on the fan. It wasn't his day... when we came upstairs from dinner, he was sitting in the hallway as the hotel staff tried to fix his door on his room. Sigh.

A confession.. we didn't go to a single mosque today. Not once did I have to put on a headscarf. It feels sort of weird.

Not that we didn't do a lot. After we loaded up the bus in Kutahya, we headed up the mountain to see the fortress at the top.. it dates to Hittite times, long before the Ottomans, the Turks, the Romans or anybody else. But it was occupied over the centuries and held pretty much by everyone up to and including the Ottomans. It is rugged and crenelated and huge... and we couldn't figure out what road to take. Turkish people are hospitable and helpful to a fault. One problem (and fault) is that if you ask for directions, they will give you directions even if they are making them up. We had more than a couple false starts and our bus driver made a couple of nearly vertical U-turns.... and a 29 passenger bus is not easy to turn around on a street with one lane. Finally we got up there, admired it, and drove back down much more quickly.

Then began the road trip. We were relatively high up in rolling mountain meadows.. .lots of fields of grain, some corn, still some trees, some evergreens, occasional cows. At first it was pretty dry looking but it became lusher as we headed south.

This is the country of the fight for independence (actually the whole country was, but this bore much of the brunt of the battles that took place between 1919 and 1924 or so.) To refresh your history... the Ottoman Emopire, in its dying years, allied itself with Germany in WWI. They lost. The Anatolian peninsula had never been a country per se but rather the seat of empire and now that empire was gone and smashed. Kemal Mustafa Ataturk began to try to unite the regions that were occupied by five countries.... Britain, Italy, France, Russia, and most of all in the west, Greece. At first the attempts to push the occupiers out were sporadic but Ataturk formed the Turkish army from the ragged regional militias, and formed the plan to liberate and create a new republic. Generally speaking, the fighting went on for several years until the last hold outs of Greek soldiers were pushed off the land and off into the Aegean. It was hard fighting and there are still bullet holes here and there. Nevertheless, some Greeks stayed and became citizens of the new Turkey. Some intermarried. There is still a different flavor of this post-Ottoman society.

The next stop was the small town of Kula. Kula is about 25,000 and still has many of the old Ottoman style houses I mentioned yesterday. It also had a market day. Because it is summer and hot and sunny, many of the stands in the marketplace were covered by canopies that were suspended from ropes tied to the nearby buildings... which would have been just dandy had our bus not caught one of the ropes in the fan assembly at the top of the bus. Broke the fan, made horrendous noise, got a bit of attention. We were cowards... offloaded and took a long walk around the village while our poor driver dealt with the issue. He decided, after climbinb up on top, that we were okay for the moment, two of the three fans were fine.... meanwhile we went off to see the old houses, the market, an old Greek elementary school from pre-independence times, tobacco drying places, and more of the market. People were very nice and I got some nice pictures that I'll add to this. One phenomenon was that since the streets are very narrow, the two primary methods of personal transport were motorcycles (some with sidecars) and tractors, some with small wagons for the family to ride in. It worked.

After Kula, we headed south again for Sardis. This ancient site was a bustling city for centuries.. from about 600 BC to about 600 AD. Excavations are ongoing, with a splendid gymnasium and a temple to Artemis and city walls and dwellings and much more. Two very interesting professors,one from Wisconsin, one from Berkeley, met with us. They were generous with their time and gave us much more insight than we would hav ehad from just wandering around.

Then, sweating and sunburnt, we headed for our hotel. We hit the jackpot.... a resort with thermal baths, etc., etc. We were greeted in the lobby with champagne flutes of freshly squeezed fruit juices (with glasses rimmed with red and blue sugars). We ate the best food --mostly Turkish -- that I've had in a long time... very very plush. One of our group has already announced he's not ever leaving. I don't quite know how that is going to work out for him, but....

I am going to add a few pictures, mostly people.. and then sleep. I hope, though I may regret the cup of Turkish coffee after dinner....

Tomorrow we finish the ruins here and then head for Kusadasi, on the Aegean coast, where we will stay for 3 days.....

Sunday, July 5

2009-07-05T13:05:00.001-07:00

Today was a different sort of day. We left Bursa about nine, stopping only for two mosques and then out on the road. Not just any roads but mountain roads. We began to go south across the mountains that form a ring around much of the interior plateau. Just for scale, Turkey stretches about 1000 miles from west to east and about 400 from north to south. There is not a huge amount of coastal plain around much of it, but beyond whatever coastal plain there is, it rises with mountains that are pretty rugged. Those mountains made it sort of hard to conquer the area, though many tried and damaged it, from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan to the waves of Mongols and Seljuk Turks and those who formed the Ottoman Empire... that's random, by the way, not totally chronologically correct. To defend, one just had to be aware there were only so many passes that would allow entry to the interior. But the land is/was rich, so it was worth the attempt.

At one set of royal tombs, our scholar told us something pretty interesting. The last time she was there they were selling all sorts of scholarly books about the Ottomans, etc. Now the only books for sale were rather ra ra nationalistic/patriotic things about how everyone was always picking on Turkey. I am including a picture of one exhibit... you'll see shutters with bullet holes in them.... and a sign attributing this to Greek attacks in 1923. There does seem to be a nascent resurgence of nationalism. Our Turkish guide tells us this is driven by very conservative elements of the nation. Interestingly enough she says Turkey has become geographically politicized, with people living in the interior more conservative and those on the edges more liberal. It is a country where there is palpable difference in the lives of those who have and those who have not; between the urban and the rural;and between the religiously fervent and the secularly fervent. It is a wider set of extremes than it used to be

The earliest part of the drive was through areas that you might compare to Washington's Yakima Valley... orchards, fruits of all sorts, berries, nut trees, mistiness. As we climbed, our first stop was an old Ottoman Village that is still much like it was a hundred years ago (remember the Ottoman Empire didn't end till after WWI, even if it was a bit tired the last few decades. The village is a bit of a tourist attraction now, even for Turks.... think of it as Tombstone or Williamsburg or Rothenburg ab der Tauber.... except with fewer modern conveniences. Many of the villagers display foods for sale or handicrafts.... I shopped a tiny bit. One lady who was selling knitted stockings and beautiful lace insisted on giving us little miniature gloves she had made, even to those who bought nothing. The bread was wonderful and the raspberries were the best I've ever tasted.... the blackberries were way tart, however.

After our village we climbed some more. Or the bus did. Our driver is tremendous.... and very nice, too. He takes our 29 passenger buses in places no bus has any right to go...the roads we were on were two lane only by virtue of having a white line painted down the middle. Somehow Allah provided a second lane when it became imperative.. since apparently many Turkish drivers are wildly inspired to pass when they see a no passing sign, particularly if it is on a blind curve on a mountain side. One pass degenerated into dirt and that was when I decided an impromptu nap and prayer would be the best thing going. It worked.

It was a weekend for wedding. I think I mentioned a wedding in our hotel last night. Today we had two weddings to see and they were very different from the very expensive and western style party we saw and heard last night. (Heard very late, too, I might mention!) The first happened as we were going thru a village and there were people clogging the street. We stopped (somewhat surprisingly.... pedestrians or anyone in the street for long don't seem to have much chance to survive even though we have not yet witnessed someone being run over. I think it's just a matter of time. Anyhow, the driver went to see what was going on and came running back to tell us to come with him. There was a military band.. about 10 or so men in old traditional costumes, playing rather stirring military music. We were told they were there to help the groom's family escort the bride away from her home for the wedding. An imam was there to bless her and her life with her husband and any future children. Our guide was a bit impressed that he did the blessing very fully and in Turkish, rather than in Arabic, since that is more customary. Then the bride emerged to quickly get in a car with ribbons and flowers all over it. She was in a long frou frou white gown and veil with a red lace veil over the top of the rest. I presume the red was in honor of Turkey since that is its color for everything.

By the way, some trivia... Mozart, when he wrote his military music, took inspiration from the Ottoman army (he lived in Vienna, just across the street so to speak,from the Ottomans.) We were told by our scholar that the Ottomans regarded a band with drum and trumpet like instruments as absolutely necessary for any military endeavor. As a matter of fact, when a new military commander was chosen, he was notified of his selection by being given a drum and a flag. (Eddie Izzard got the flag part right!

The second wedding was at our last stop in a little town called Sogut. Imagine dots over the o and u and an inverted hat over the g and you'll pronounce that "sao-oot" Of course you'll still sound like a foreigner, but a foreigner who's trying hard.
It was an early early Ottoman center and we went to see the tomb of the father of the first real Ottoman emporer, Osman I. It was on the top of a hill above a little mosque with more stuff. As we were leaving, the wedding party arrived.... with a whole group of friends, family, etc. The bride's gown was a western style white one, her groom was worriedly wearing a shiny sort of suit in the style of some misguided high school prom goers and all the other women were wearing their formal salvar (the salvar are country dress... long divided skirt that is tight again at the ankles. Great for working in the fields, except these were made of velvet and shiny satins and had much sparkly decor. Very chic. They let us take pictures and then began the trek up the hill to pay their respects to Osman's papa, apparently a local custom.

We were told that weddings are civil matters in Turkey. Only a civil official can marry couples. Those who are religiously inclined may add a religious ceremony but it is not necessary and it is not a legally recognized marriage if the civil ceremony does not take place.

The vegetation also changed from the Mediterranean types of agriculture we had been seeing. Now there were fields of sunflowers, fields of various grains, still some fruit trees, but mostly the other things. THey follow a European style of land allocation... all the farmers in an area live in the village and work plots at varying distances away. The plots seemed very small, but well tended and fruitful. Everything was growing. Where it wasn't farm fields it was tangles of wildflowers and vines. At lower elevations there were seeming acres of hydrangea and hollyhocks. As we climbed we saw bright red poppies and Queen Anne's lace and other things I can't identify.

Tonight we are in Kutahya... it's a bit larger than the villages,the hotel is nice, the internet works. Life is good.

More tomorrow if the internet works wherever we are landing!

Saturday's Pictures... a few random shots

2009-07-05T12:46:00.001-07:00

Didn't get these posted last night.... so here we go.....There were olive groves everywhere today..... and stores that sold nothing but olives... 30 varieties or more.... when we had lunch at a little hole in the wall, just ordering fast food, this came before our food.. free. They were quite possibly the best olives I've had in 25 years.

Another kitty...kedi, that is. I haven't seen a single mosque without one or more.. and there are tons everywhere. Some are a bit scruffy, but they must not be mistreated, because they all come to be patted and have their ears scritched. This particular one has good taste in dishes.... she is eating from a dish with a traditional Iznik pattern.....

Iznik was the center of the art world in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century (for a couple hundred years before that) making the wonderful glazed tiles and other pottery and porcelain. Here are samples of vases and tankards. BIG tankards.

Ataturk thought of Bursa as home and his image is everywhere. He was and is highly revered as the father of Turkey.... and his vision helped shape a remarkably functional society. He was the first non-Ottoman in over 1000 years to lead the area when he led the fight for independent status (mostly against Greece) in the nasty years following WWI.

The gentleman looking at the pictures on the sidewalk is actually a Turkish biology teacher who paints as a sideline. I bought two of his little pictures and he proudly signed them. I guess all teachers have to do something to supplement the income. He was pleased since several of our group bought his work.

From Bursa

2009-07-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Long day, but a good one. For some reason the hotel webmaster had blogspot blocked, but I finally managed to get in... it is, however, morning and I have to repack and going soon so this will be short.

Besides... more mosques! We saw older ones yesterday in Iznik (the former Nicaea) and in Bursa, where we spent the night.

To start we drove east from Istanbul almost to the far end of the Sea of Marmara. There we loaded the bus on the ferry for a 30 minute trip south to Yalova. Then we drove through miles of olive groves and small (really small) flower farms And villages and so on.. much more the rural Turkey of my memories with women working in the fields and men sitting in the cay (tea) houses.....

I rather liked the small scale of the mosques we saw today. They dated mostly to the 14th and 15th centuries, before the Golden Age. However the ornamentation was exquisite anyhow. We saw a splendid mausoleum for the earlier sultans... they were interred in these lovely round bupolas....it was interesting that they were always open to the rain coming in from above to bless their sleeping spaces..kind of neat in a way.

More tonight...... if teh internet gods are smiling. We'll be in Kutahya

2009-07-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

The Galata Tower, and a display in a pottery shop in the spice bazaar. Note the hand lettered sign, sigh
Rumeli Hisar.... fortress built Sultan Mehmet II in the early 1450's to guard the Bosporus against Byzantine fleets Seen from the Bosporus
The kid isn't really paying much attention at prayers!
And the daily kitty. this one in the restaurant. Jessica, who you see by the kitty is, of course, allergic, but the cat left almost immediately.

more mosques, more ramblings, another splendid day

2009-07-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this at 10:45 at night... the call to prayer is sounding out in the street, as are car horns and the occasional siren. Istanbul does not sleep. It's been another very full day and the wake up call is for 5:30; breakfast at 6, luggage in the hall at 7, on the bus and rolling at 7:30. If that's Turkish time it may be JUST a little later, but we are 12 school teachers, so we'll be on time.

Today we started with a mosque.. this one the Queen Mother's Mosque just above the Spice Bazaar. The mosque was similar to most of those we've seen..it is a very active community center, and was just pulsing with people at prayer, people chatting, people hurrying thru..... I don't think even the small neighborhood mosques are ever empty or idle... ... kind of nice in a way.

Then we did a bit of exploring in the Spice Bazaar. It is not just spices by any means, but it smelled wonderfully of things like saffron and cumin and cinnamon and all sorts of other mystical things. But there were touristy things too and many practical household items. I bought a few little things and will probably finish up any last minute stuff I don't find elsewhere there in our last couple of free days back in Istanbul at the end of the month.

By 10 they herded us under the busy highway to the boat docks and we boarded our people ferry for an hour and a half trip up the Bosporus. The views were breathtaking, there was a splendid breeze, and it was wonderful to just sit and enjoy it all. We were told the Bosporus has some challenges for boats and swimmers because of two competing and non compatible currents, from the Black Sea at one end and the Sea of Marmara at the other.... but the ride was smooth enough that even our more seasick prone members seemed to be okay. Or else they put on a very brave front.

We landed, walked around the little resort seaside down of something I didn't write down. Some of us found the local specialty for lunch: borek.... basically a meat or cheese filled pastry surrounded by filo dough. Others went and had fish and we were all happy.

Our bus met us and took us to .... a mosque. This one at Uskudar (imagine umlauts over the U's). It was also built by Sinan who I mentioned before. This was commissioned by Suleiman to mourn and honor the death of his favorite daughter(he outlived several of his kids, clearly). It has an extensive community complex, with hospital, soup kitchen, etc. What made it relatively challenging to design was the fact that it is on a hillside directly by the Bosporus, leaving no spare land for courtyards, etc. It's pretty much a vertical complex. My screaming knees were glad we didn't climb to all of the parts, but it was good to see them from the bus window!

Today was the first day we touched on Asia. For a few of our party it was a whole new continent... we crossed one of hte massive bridges and drove back on the Asia side and saw a different side of the urban sprawl that is Istanbul. Much of this was massively built new European style suburb and business quarters that could have been in the edges of Frankfurt or London... except for the omnipresent minarets.
We passed a huge soccer stadium where the local team just won some important international championship...banners are flying everywhere.

On a side note, I must observe that of all the countries we've visited, I've never seen another country that flies its flag as much as the US till I came back to Turkey. I don't remember it being flown as constantly when we were here before. Both of our local guides have alluded to a growing (and uncomfortable) nationalism that they are observing and feel this is a part of it. Of course, there are all those soccer banners, too!

After the drive we got back to hotel, had an hour or so to do this and that (like pack... we're leaving for a week, so we're leaving some stuff in storage here since we'll come back to this hotel. Then our whole group walked the length of a very trendy walking mall, about half an hour walk, and had dinner at a highly recommended restaurant called Haci Baba (In Turkish the "c" is pronounced like "j" in English. Haci/H aji, by the way, is a term of respect reserved for those devout Muslims who have made the hag, the trip to Mecca that is expected of all Muslims.. and baba simply means "papa" so Haci Baba turns out to be a term of affectionate respect. We had a sumptuous dinner.. started with meze of eggplant, fresh and beaut filly arrayed veggies, yogurt with dill, bread, more eggplant in different forms, etc. Then a variety of kebabs, kofte (ground meat in kebab form) and lamb stews, etc. There was a lot of sharing. We ended uo with two different forms of baklava (one with shredded yufka (file) and the other the form most of us are more familiar woth. And Turkish coffee.

From my place next to a large open window I got to watch a pair of very self assured geese stroll back and forth/ Then, when the meat and otehr foods arrives, do did the neighborhood cats. Tehy serenaded us from the ground below the window and a couple of them made the four foot jump to teeter on the sill before we shooed them off.American health inspectors would have had a fit, but we rather considered it to be a part of the floor show. One of our waiters entertained us too... he loudly announced(in English) that he didn't like Turkey. We were aghast till he explained he preferred chicken. We laughed....

I'll try to upload a few random pictures.... if you've stayed awake this long, so have I but bed is looking like a good place to be!

Tomorrow we head for Iznik, a former capital of the Ottomans (for those 0f you up on church history, it was the ancient city of Nicaea, which gave us the Nicene creed. It is also widely noted for its exquisite 15th and 16th century pottery and tiles. We'll see a few more old Ottoman sites and a couple or dozen mosques and spend tomorrow night in Bursa.

2009-07-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

The picture of the little boy in the white costume is cute.. he was visiting the mosque and then was going to be guest of honor at his own circumcision.... occasion for a grand party.

The two men on the porch of the mosque are a study session in Koran... kind of neat, I thought.

Mosques, mosques, mosques, mosquitos......

2009-07-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of days there have been many, many mosques. Our local scholar for this portion is actually a grad student at the University of Chicago, but also a local (Istanbul) boy made good. He knows a great deal about architecture, design, post modernism, nationalism (he does not approve of the latter two, it would appear!!) and mosques.

I will not bore you with descriptions of each one, but will make some general observations. First off, the mosques we are seeing, are magnificent works of architecture and engineering. They are massive, impressive, Impossible, and complex. A mosque in this sense is not just a building or even a place of worship. Instead, it is a community. Most of these mosques had, in addition to the worship area such things as elementary schools, madrasas (places to train religious leaders, hospitals, hospices, soup kitchens for the poor, and much more. Some of them even had medical schools.

The ones we saw today were the mosques of Suleiman the Magnificent, of the early to mid 16th century. He was contemporary with Charles V, Holy Roman Emporer and Henry VIII of England, and Pope Clement VII and Martin Luther and Francis I of France and Barbarossa the Pirate (incidentally, he hired the latter and his brother to run the Ottoman navies). His aim was to become the next Solomon (that's what his name is equivalent to. His self image was to be ruler of the known world; to be known for creating a world ruled by justice, and so on. Among his greatest legacies are the mosques and public areas he had built. In some ways the most famous is the Blue Mosque.. not know that way here..... it's an accidental name. Weather and other depradations had made a blue wash on the tiles and westerners thought it was how it was supposed to be. The name stuck for the west, even if it was debunked! The Blue Mosque is one of the most famous among tourists as well. We went in tonight just after 5 o'clock prayer and there were swarms of tourists, many of them badly behaved. Though women were required to wear head coverings, many did not have them. The mosque officials provided them, but the rule was pretty widely broken by a large group of sunburned blonde tourists who I think may have been from somewhere in Northern Europe. However, the most magnificent part was the windows, so I'm attaching one of those pictures. The Blue Mosque is one of the newer mosques of Suleiman, built by a student of his best architect, Sinan, and our guide tells us there is nothing new in it. Sniffff.

But we did see a couple of gems. The Hasiki Sultan Cami is small but moving. It was built for Suleiman's wife, known at times as Hasiki and sometimes as Roxelana. (which simply means the Russian woman, since she was booty of war who became his wife.. he wrote her soppy love sonnets throughout their life and she exercised much power, even being legitimately married to him.... she didn't have many admirers in certain circles. Her mosque is small, but beautifully desingned. It is also surrounded by kitchen, madrasa, elementary school, and a soup kitchen. A school for young boys to learn Koran is still operational and we got to watch for a few minutes as the little boys recited their lessons. I think the imam was glad when we left. we certainly disrupted the school day. THings are ever the same, however... I'm attaching a picture of a parent-teacher conference.....

My favorite was the Cerzade Mosque (there should be a little tail on the bottom of the C and the pronunciation is Share-zah-dee. This was commissioned by a heartbroken Suleiman on the untimely early death of his favorite son. He commissioned Sinan to design it and see to its construction. Sinan started life in slvery, becme an officer of the janissaries. His military role was to be a military engineer, figuring out defensive structures and such He was 49 when Suleiman put him in charge of this mosque and he had lots of detractors who tried to get him fired. However, Suleiman trusted him with it and he created a beautiful struture. Our expert said he was influenced by the Italian architect Bramonte, ad by some of the sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci as well as some elements of St. Peter's in Rome. It is lovely --- finished in only 4 years (there's that slavery element again) and is exceptional in symmetry and moving in its concept.

Then on to the great Sulimaniye, which many think is Sinan's master work. Simple commission from his boss: Make it better than the ancient temple of Solomon. And maybe he did. It has amazing mathematical elements in the arches; it supports huge domes far above the floor. It is a perfect cube with the dome a perfect hemisphere. Gorgeous mosaic work, ornamentation, use of marble and granite.

On a lighter note, there were the omnipresent kedis... kitties in and around every mosque. They are gentle cats, eager to be patted and talked to. Though we did have to rescue one tiny kitten who got caught in a bit of fence. He wasn't all that grateful, either!

2009-07-01T13:47:00.001-07:00

Given that it's been 24 years since we left Turkey, I'd expected changes and I have seen a few. The most striking to me is the large increase in the number of women wearing headscarves. In the late 1920's/early 30's, Ataturk outlawed both the fez for men and the scarf for women in his quest to modernize and westernize Turkey and move it away from Arab and religious influence. When we were here before we certainly saw women wearing the scarf, but it was generally in less urban areas and women of lower socio economic standing. What I observe now is many young and middle class appearing women wearing the scarf, and even in the current summer swelter, long sleeves, and frequently a coat that goes to the ankle. When I asked our guide, she agreed that it is something increasing, and her view is that it is a way that women give visual sign to their virtue and values. I saw a young couple with a small child today. The man was maybe 30, wearing a NY Yankees jersey, the child was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap. The woman was covered head to toe in scarf, a long tan coat with only her flip flops showing.

On the other hand, I have not seen any response to the call to prayer which we hear multiple times a day from loudspeakers on every side.

The unemployment rate is approaching 15% but I haven't yet seen evidence of massive change. There are very few beggars on the street, but massive numbers of street vendors... cold water bottles are a popular vending item and the cost is generally one Turkish Lira, about 65-70 cents in American. It may be significant that many touristy shops and kiosks are setting their prices in Euros rather than either TL or dollars.

There are still lots of places to get food. We loved doner kebab and it is omnipresent, as are cimit (bagel/pretzel like breads) and roasted corn.

Horrendous traffic...but it's a city of 15 million plus.... and old narrow streets. THere is now a modern tram/subway system and buses everywhere. And new taxis. I haven't seen dolmuses, the old mini vans and sedans who were used for shared taxi rides... I am told they still exist in the provincial areas.

One of the areas of the city we toured was Fatih. It is said to be a very conservative and traditional area..... very fundamentalist. It's also the heart of their version of the garment district. The second story show windows of almost every building were used to showcase wedding gowns and formal attire. Some were the height of Italian and French fashion, very stylish, very bare.... and then the next shop would have the most covered up gowns you could imagine for those with more conservative life styles. Fascinating. Pictures didn't come out well give that we were in a moving bus, but it was memorable.

I've tried posting this more than once without luck... if it doesn't work this time, no matter... bed calls!

Pictures of Chora

2009-07-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

St. Savior ....Chora

2009-07-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is not totally Ottoman, but it was rather breathtaking... I think I mentioned that our local guide, Arzu, is earning her PhD in Byzantine art, and she suggested we should see the mosaics at Chora. The small church was built in the third century outside the walls that had been built to enclose Constantinople...though a century later when Theodosius extended the walls, it was included. The mosaics date back to about 1320...... wow. I felt, please forgive me, that I was in a chapel shared by devout Christians with heavy influence by the Catholic and Mormon branches of Christianity. Catholic because of the heavy emphasis on Mary's role. Her whole life story from the anguish of her childless parents, to her assumption into heaven, is portrayed in the mosaics. By the way, much of the story line is derived from the apocryphal books of the Bible, so some of the stories were new to me. The Mormon reference is because there is heavy emphasis on genealogy. One gorgeous set of mosaics in a dome is a complete genealogy of Jesus, back to Adam.

There is also a lot of reference to the nativity of Christ, with a series of mosaics showing Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, their census/taxation, bringing forth the infant in the stable, the arrival of the magi....

During the Ottoman period most of the mosaics were covered with plaster, as in Aya Sofia, and some were damaged, but the remaining ones are breathtaking. There were also cats, one very pregnant one who seemed to feel her place was on the floor directly under the mosaic of the nativity. Very beautiful, all of it.

The Hippodrome

2009-07-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

The remnants of the ancient Roman Hippodrome now make a long central plaza near Aya Sofia....at one end there is a Byzantine column that was scavenged for its bronze covering plaques in the Ottoman Empire, so now it is mostly broken brick. At the other end is a fountain donated by Wilhelm II of Germany in the 19th century.... it has the symbol of the Ottomans sharing pride of place with the personal symbol of Wilhelm. In between the two ends are a magnificent column from ancient Egypt and a bronze "serpent" column. The Egyptian column was in Karnak, built around 1500 BC The top third or so was brought to Constantinople in the fifth century AD.. it is huge... and only the top third of the original.

One amusement of the day was that our group was enlisted by a local TV station to dance a Turkish dance on the grounds of the Hippodrome. It was apparently a very slow news day... but much fun was had! There was vigorous rehearsal and then the money performance. There is talk about the group trying out for America's Got Talent, but I'm not super hopeful!

More From Istanbul

2009-07-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Wow... what a city. Today we began with Haggia Sophia or Aya Sofia, depending on how you prefer to spell it. There is a certain political or cultural overtone to it, given that the first primarily honors the Byzantine while the latter touches more on the Ottoman. No matter now... it is a magnificent reminder of the glory that was Constantinople and Istanbul.

Some data first... it is the fourth largest ancient building in the world... the dimensions are staggering. When it was built, the first two versions, made of wood, were burned (4th century, 5th century). The first burning was in response to the exiling of Christians to Anatolia, the second followed the horrendous Nika revolt in 532 AD where 30,000 died in the Roman Hippodrome. Issues were complex, but Justinian made an unpopular call in deciding a chariot race in the Hippodrome, and teh ensuing riots were massive and deadly. It burned again. By the way, those were the last serious horseraces in the Hippodrome -- I'll tell you about that in a bit.

Justinian decided the church must be rebuilt. The Empress Theodora goaded him to do it on the grandest scale possible to dazzle the restless people and intimidate the rest of the world. He did it smart. He hired the best Jewish mathematicians, architects and designers in the world. The simple orders were that the structure must surpass the Temple of Solomon. The designed and built the massive structure in 2 years, spent a third year ornamenting it. That would be fast today. Of course, there were 1000 slaves working round the clock for that time, which may have sped up the process.

The church reopened in 535 AD and that is the present structure. I won't use too many statistics, but the central dome is over 65 meters high; it is more than 35 meters in diameter.... considering it is made of marble, that means inconceivable weight that is supported by the walls... and yet it is open and airy. Perfect engineering. The picture above is the best I could do of the exterior, given that it is so huge.

Over the years, there was conflict between the Catholic Church and what became the Orthodox Church, and everyone worked on calling everyone else pagans. There was conflict over ornamentation and iconography, but there is a bit of everything. When the Ottomans took over in 1453, they added a few odd minarets and other elements of mosques. They used fresh white plaster to paint over the mosaics and paintings of saints, which was the salvation of those artworks which have since been uncovered. After Turkey arose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, Kemal Ataturk was inspired to have the building and its treasures preserved as a museum and much attention was paid to its preservation and restoration. It is truly breathtaking. I will add a few pictures of the interior... one fun part was the small cat in the midst of the crowd, lying just below the Muslim "pulpit", accepting pats from the passersby and quite undismayed by the crowds. There were huge crowds of great diversity...omnipresent Japanese tours, western Europeans, Americans, many more. (I sat a bit in the garden after we toured and talked to people from India and Norway in the space of about 10 minutes.

Above you'll see various views.. the early marble pillars, various interior views. I am including one of the marble panels in the walls. .... you'll note it looks like a mirror image...teh craftsmen devised a golden saw that could thinly "slice" the marble and then put the two panels together to "reflect" each other. Pretty cool. I will include the kedi (cat) as well, and other stuff. More after I get home.. it takes forever to download the pictures!

Illustrations of Day One

2009-06-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

For some reason I couldn't get pictures into the last post, so I shall try again. This is the crew at JFK.

next...lunch at The Pudding Cafe Lale

the entrance to the harem

iron bars do not a prison make......looking out of the harem...

Day One

2009-06-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

I am writing this a day late. Absolute fatigue got me after the trip and I chose sleep over writing. Now to catch up!

The flights went fine.... on time out of Phoenix at 6 a.m. Sunday, into NYC/JFK a little early. About 3 hours to wait for the next flight. We gradually accumulated our entire group (with our two experts we are 14, though 2 had flown early.) We are now 15 with our local guide, a lovely young PhD candidate in art history, named Arzu.

The NYC to Istanbul flight was about 10 hours... in tiny toy seats that might have fit 8 year olds, but not adult mortals. My seat mate was a very nice Turkish American business man going back to a family reunion... he was so muscularly big that I looked petite. Suffice it to say it was not comfy. They fed us dinner, breakfast, many beverages, and showed a boodle of movies. I read, took my melatonin and tried to sleep the trip away. I was successful in 30 minute increments.in both reading and sleeping.

We got into Istanbul about an hour late, at about 10:45 a.m.; found our guide, found most of our luggage (all of mine, thankfully), loaded our minibusu and came to our hotel. We are in the nice older section of Central Istanbul, in the Hotel Bristol. Rooms are comfy but small for two (manageable of both of us don't want to do something extreme like walk around simultaneously......) But we have a bath, hot water, the air conditioning works, and the little teensy beds are comfy. I slept the sleep of the innocent last night.

After half an hour or so we met the bus again and headed for Topkapi.... wow. Saying Topkapi was the sultan's palace is sort of like saying that the White House is the President's condo in DC. Generally close to 4000-5000 people were in residence at any time... staff, slaves, servants, advisors, guards, janissaries, wives, concubines, children, etc. We toured the harem first..... it generally was the most densely settled. Though some sultans were more libidinous than others, for the most part the harem was hardly the Playboy Mansion... the ruler was the Queen Mother and she frequently ran a tight ship. The wives and concubines were often foreigners....sometimes captured in war, sometimes sent to seal alliances or business deals, sometimes the daughters of poor families seeking upward mobility. They got a little job security if they bore a son, but they also had the tenuous circumstance of waiting to see if that son of primogeniture, so it was every little guy for himself when papa sultan went on to the next world.

Topkapi is built on one of Istanbul's 7 high hills, so it catches delightful breezes and views of the Bosporus. It is surrounded by lovely gardens and nooks and crannies out in those gardens.

Then we went on to see the jewels and artifacts and relics of the Prophets. The jewels were breathtaking and sumptuous. In addition to the things you may remember from the movie Topkapi (the daggers, jewels for the turban, pendants, rings, etc., etc.) there were jewel encrusted stirrups; gold and diamond coffee cups, much more. We were not allowed to photograph in there, but no one kept us from drooling.

The last part was the reliquary. Remember that Islam, Judiasm and Christianity all share reverece for the Old Testament prophets... Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David. In fact Muslims believe Jesus was among those prophets. Mohammed is seen to be most significant (and the LAST) prophet. There, in a very solemn display area of several rooms, underscored by someone reading the Koran (live, duty shared by two rotating imams), we saw King David's sword, Abraham's stew pan, various teeth and body parts and several hairs of Mohammed's beard. It was a very interesting display.. I am still a little partial to Abraham's pan.

Our guides had mercy at this point and we came back to the hotel, walkled a few blocks to a very good dinner and then collapsed. A wonderful day.

Trip Itinerary

2009-06-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Date
Day Activities:
Night in:
June
29 M
Arrive in Istanbul on Delta Airlines Flight 72, arriving at 9:55 am. Topkapi Palace (including Imperial Treasury and Harem), the Hippodrome, and the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Camii).
Scholar/guide: Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “The Ottoman Empire at Its Height.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
30 Tu
Istanbul.
Santa Sophia (Aya Sofia), underground cistern, Aqueduct of Valens, Mosque of Zeyrek, the Sacred Water of Blachernia, Ivaz Efendi Camii, Prison of Anemas (from outside), Tekfur Palace, and Byzantine walls and gates.
Scholar/guide: Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “The Byzantine Background.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
July
1 W
Istanbul.
Theme: Ottoman capture of the city by Mehmed the Conqueror.
Mosque of Mehmed II, Mahmut Pasha Mosque, Beyazit Mosque, Nuru Osmaniye Mosque, and the Covered Bazaar.
Scholar/speaker: Cigdem Kafescioglu of Bogazici University: “Mehmed the Conqueror and the Transition from Constantinople to Istanbul.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
2 Th
Istanbul. Mosque of Mihrimah Sultan, Haeki complex, Shezade complex, , Suleymaniye complex, Rustem Pasha Mosque, Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Mosque, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (palace of Suleyman’s grand vezir).
Scholar/Speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “The Ottoman Empire under Suleyman the Magnificent.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
3 F
Istanbul. The Queen Mother’s Mosque, Spice Bazaar. Boat trip up the Bosphorus, visiting the Fortress of Remelihisari and crossing to the Asian side. Tour in the Uskudar district.
Scholar/speaker: Lucienne Thys-Senocak of Koc University: “The Late Ottoman Empire.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
4 Sa
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Early departure for Bursa. En route: İznik, the site of famous Ottoman tiles and crafts. Then on to Bursa, the early capital of the Ottoman Empire: the Green Mausoleum, the Green Mosque, the Grand Mosque, the Muradiye Mosque Complex with its cemetery, and the Ottoman House Museum. Short tour of the silk bazaar. Overnight in Bursa.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “Ottoman Origins 1.”

Bursa, Turkey
Kgönlüferah City Hotel
5 Su
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Travel to several former-Ottoman towns to visit: Ottoman houses in Mudanya, Kumyaka and Zeytinbağı Churches, then the İshak Pasha Complex in İnegöl, Kasım Pasha Complex in Bozüyük, Ertuğrul Gazi Tomb in Söğüt, Grand Mosque and Ottoman Houses and the Porcelain Museum in Kütahya. Overnight in Kütahya.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “Ottoman Life and Culture 1.”

Kütahya, Turkey
Aizanoi Hotel
6 M
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Travel to Aizonai, Ottoman houses in Kula and the ancient city of Sardes. Overnight in Sardes.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “Ottoman Life and Culture 2.”

Sardes, Turkey
Lidya Thermal Hotel
7 Tu
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Travel in former-Ottoman towns to visit: the Çakırağa Mansion in Birgi, old houses in Tire, a wooden mosque, and finally the ancient city of Nyssa. Overnight in Kuşadası.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “Ottoman Origins 2.”

Kuşadası, Turkey
Sözer Hotel
8 W
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Day trip to Ephesus. Return to hotel in Kuşadası.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “Greek Pre-Ottoman Civilization in Anatolia.”

Kuşadası, Turkey
Sözer Hotel
9 Th
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Rest day in Kuşadası with the option to visit Izmir.

Kuşadası, Turkey
Sözer Hotel

10 F
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Travel to ancient Greek city of Pergamon to see the Asclepion, the sanctuary that was dedicated to the God of Medicine and which was the first complete health spa in history; the Acropolis, where the ruins of a library and sanctuary Athena, Altar of Zeus, and a theater are located; the church at
the site of ancient Serapium; the Red Court (Kızıl Avlu), dedicated to St. John; and the Archeological Museum. Visit Cunda in Ayvalık to see the Ottoman Summer Program and also the Greek-Turkish population exchange museum. Overnight in Assos.
Local guide and scholar/speaker: Greg Key. Subjects: “Greek Influence on Anatolia and the Greek Expulsion from the Area.” “The Ottoman Language.”

Assos, Turkey
Eden Beach Hotel

11 Sa
Bus tour of western Anatolia. Brief stop in Troy. Cross by ferry to Gallipoli to visit the Kabatepe Museum and the Gallipoli peninsula (scene of a famous Ottoman battle in World War I). Return to Istanbul.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “The Ottoman Empire in World War I.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
12 Su
Istanbul. Theme: the “European city.” Dolmabahce Palace, the shopping area of Beyoglu, the old tramway, Taksim area, several churches.
Scholar/speaker Onur Inal of the University of Arizona: “Ottoman Institutions.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
13 M
Istanbul. Rest day. (Also, a chance to meet with Turkish teachers.)
Educator: Nalan Babur of Bogazici University.

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
14 Tu
Istanbul. Theme: the mosaics of Istanbul. Tophane, several churches and mosques, old Turkish houses, Galata area. Fly to Belgrade that evening. See below for flight details.
Scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona: “Ottoman Life.”

Belgrade, Serbia
Hotel Srbija
15 W
Belgrade, Serbia . Fortress of Kalemegdan, Knez Mihajlova shopping district, meet with Serbian teachers.
Local teacher/contact: Stojanka Surbanovski.
Scholar/speaker Lisa Adeli of the University of Arizona. “Serbia under the Ottoman Empire.”

Belgrade, Serbia
Hotel Srbija
16 Th
Balkan Trip. Travel to Višegrad, Bosnia (site of the Bridge on the Drina) and on to Sarajevo. Late afternoon and evening time for shopping and attending the cultural festival.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Lisa Adeli of the University of Arizona. “The Ottoman Legacy in Bosnia.”

Sarajevo, Bosnia
Hotel Hecco

17 F
Balkan trip. Sarajevo city tour, Orijentalni Institut. (Optional: attending the evening cultural festival)
Local guide and scholar/speaker Aladin Husic of the Orientalni Institut in Sarajevo. “Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire.”

Sarajevo, Bosnia
Hotel Hecco

18 Sa
Balkan trip. Travel to Mostar, Bosnia. Overnight in Mostar.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Lisa Adeli of the University of Arizona. “The Ottoman Cultural Impact on Bosnia.”

Mostar, Bosnia Hotel Kriva Cuprija

19 Su
Balkan trip. Travel to Dubrovnik, Croatia, then on to Montenegro. Overnight in Podgorica, Montenegro. A travel/“rest“ day. (Dubrovnik provides an interesting contrast by showing a Balkan city that was not under Ottoman rule for a significant length of time.)

Podgorica, Montenegro
Hotel Holiday
20 M
Balkan trip. Travel to Ottoman sites in Albania: Shkodra, Kruja – castle, ethnographic museum, Skenderbeg Museum. Overnight in Berat.
Local Albanian guides to Ottoman sites. “Cultural Impact of the Ottoman Empire on Albania.”

Berat, Albania
Tomorri Hotel
21 Tu
Balkan trip. Tour Ottoman sites in Albania: the Ethnographic Museum and Unufri Iconography Museum in Berat; the castle and Army Museum in Gjirokastra. Overnight in Gjirokastra.
Scholar/speaker: Moikom Zeqo, director of the National Museum of History, Tirana. “Ottoman Albania.”

Gjirokastra, Albania
Hotel Parku/Mjelmave
22 W
Balkan trip. Travel accross northern Greece to Thessaloniki, Greece.
Scholar/speaker: John Alexander “The Ottoman Rule in Greece.”

Thessaloniki, Greece
Aegeon Hotel

23 Th
Balkan trip. Travel to Edirne, Turkey. (arrive at 5:00 pm)

Edirne, Turkey
Rustempaşa Kervansarayi

24 F
Balkan trip. Tour Edirne, an earlier capital of the Ottoman Empire. Visit the castle, the mosque of Yildirim Bayazit, the Old Mosque, the Mosque of Murad (Muradiye), the Mosque with three Balconies (Üç Serefeli Camii), the Mosque complex of Bayezid II (with its nearly 100 domes, scattered on a very large plain covering a mosque, a hospital, a public kitchen, a faculty for doctors, the baths and living quarters), the Mosque of Selim II (Selimiye Camiisi), the baths of Sokullu and Tahtakale, the Caravanserail of Rüstem Pasha, the Eski Camii, and the Archaeological Museum. Later depart for İstanbul en route visit The Bridge of Çobançesme; Sokullu Mehmed Pasha Complex in Lüleburgaz. Overnight in Istanbul.
Local guide and scholar/speaker Linda Darling of the University of Arizona. “Turkish Institutions in the Eastern Balkans.”

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
25 Sa
Istanbul. Planning lessons together, last-minute shopping for curricular materials and chance to re-visit sites individually.
Facilitator: Lisa Adeli of the University of Arizona (who is also a certified teacher).

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
26 Su
Istanbul. Planning lessons together, last-minute shopping for curricular materials and chance to re-visit sites individually.
Facilitator: Lisa Adeli of the University of Arizona (who is also a certified teacher).

Istanbul
Bristol Hotel
27 M
End of the trip/return home.

Before I get started

2009-06-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

This will start in late June/early July to trace a trip with 11 other teachers and our guides as we travel the lands of the Ottoman Empire. The trip is through the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona and funded through the Fulbright Foundation. I am immensely grateful to be part of the trip. The itinerary is intense and I am hoping to try to keep it in order through this whenever and wherever we have adequate internet access. Meanwhile I'll post other things like the itinerary and parameters of the program.

I am "going back" in some senses -- between 1983 and 1985 I lived in Izmir, Turkey, with my family. It was a grand place to live -- perched on Izmir Bay, looking out toward the Aegean. Above us on Kadifekale was the ruin of the "Velvet Fortress." built centuries ago by Alexander the Great as he began HIS march to empire. The city is large and bustling, known to antiquity as Smyrna. Surrounding it are the 7 churches mentioned in the book of Revelation, with the pre-eminent one being about 50 miles away at Ephesus. We traveled as much as we could in Turkey. Our sons, Jeff and Andy, were small then and little boys are a wonderful ice breaker. We saw much of the western parts of Turkey, but only Don was able to travel into the East. Turkey was a friendly and hospitable host for all of our adventures. During that time it was under martial law following a coup in 1980, but restrictions were lifted during our time there, and people were friendly, kind, and dignified.

Now going back as a teacher will be different, and I hope to be able to understand the complex history and human geography of the area. We will travel not only in Turkey, but in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, and a bit in Greece. In some senses the issues of empire anywhere are similar, but the centuries of the Ottoman rule were very different from many other empires. Stay tuned.