Turkısh Delıghts

Who loves Turkey? I do! I do!


A Short Lıst of the Many Reasons to Love Turkey:

1. Whırlıng Dervıshes--We attended a Sufı Concert and Sema Rıtual tonıght. A-MA-zıng.

2. Turks are really nıce--We took a ferry to Marmarıs yesterday evenıng and then jumped on a nıght bus to Istanbul. Once we got ınto the cıty (cannot fınd the comma key) we realızed we had gotten off at the wrong shuttle stop but a nıce Englısh-speakıng Turkısh man took us ınto the bus statıon and explaıned where we needed to go to the Turkısh-speakıng workers and one of them took us ın her very own car to the door of our hotel and then refused to let us pay her for ıt.

3. Street markets full of gıant pıles of spıces and delıcıous lookıng foods.

4. The boys who come dancıng and sıngıng through the streets wıth theır drums early ın the mornıng to remınd people to eat before sunrıse (there was a boısterous group of them outsıde our bus as we were waıtıng to drıve onto a ferry thıs mornıng).

5. Mosques are pretty.

The Best of Greece

The view from above the theater in Delphi. The ruins below the theater (including the pillars) are the remains of the Temple of Apollo where the oracle actually did her thing. Apparently, she was high all the time and the priests interpreted her crazy-talk for the masses.

Meteora is a series of monasteries built on these amazing cliff tops. There are still 6 monasteries in operation. You can see one on top of the rock to the right.

Monastery on Meteora. The monasteries have chapels decorated floor to ceiling in Byzantine-style paintings. I like the cherubim.

Ruin from the museum at Olympia (?). Sometimes centaurs bite.

Love these guys. Also griffins. When I become a supervillain, I'm going to decorate my evil lair with them.

Snake sarcophagus.

Gyros with french fries as a topping. These people are geniuses.

Ezvones. Pretty sure that's the right spelling. These are the guards that stand vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. On Sunday there's a big ceremony with a band that parades down the street in front of parliament for the changing of the guard. My grandparents lived in Greece and they had dolls of the guards. I liked the guards then. I like the guards now.

Periodically the guards march across the square.

Our hotel is just around the corner from the Acropolis. If I stand on the balcony, I can see the wall.

Delphi

We're in Delphi, having wended our way around the Peloponnese yesterday. Greece requires a great deal of imagination to appreciate. This is how it goes:

1. We visit an archaeological site.
2. We view 2,500-year-old ruins.
3. A guide explains how the site was used and what the buildings were.
4. I think to myself, "Lots of rocks."

It IS impressive and some places, like Olympia, still have pillars and arches and Agamemnon's Tomb is VERY well-preserved and striking. It's hard for me to envision the civilization that was, though.

First Cemetery of Athens

I am a great lover of cemeteries, so AJ and I tracked down (with some difficulty) First Cemetery of Athens.

I thought the carvings of individuals and couples were fantastic, especially the men with their giant mustaches.

This section of the cemetery was reserved for the burial of Catholic bishops.

Check out the knives tucked into this guy's sash.

Two of these angels flank the entrance to the cemetery. They're entirely made from metal, not glass. You can only see that they're angels when you look at the right angle with the light backing them correctly.

Athens

Edinburgh=17 degrees
Athens=34 degrees
MBC=glad she brought her water bottle to Europe

The Coordinatrix is back in North Carolina and I am in Athens with AJ. And my face is melting off. The food in Athens is an improvement over British fare. Yesterday we ate at a place where we sampled five different main dishes. A drink was included and we seriously distressed the waiter by requesting water for our drink. He came back to explain that we could have any drink at all more than once.

Because yesterday was a national holiday, our entrance to the Acropolis was free. The Greek gods smile on us.

Super Castle Party Day

We have seen many, many castles. The famous intact ones like Eilean Donan and Inverary and Cawdor and the famous castle ruins like Urquhart, but I think my favorites were the ones we saw on Super Castle Party Day. It's hard to take good pictures of castle ruins. They're much more impressive in person. We saw four castles on this particular day. AND we ate dinner on the beach with a view of the island that was the inspiration for Treasure Island.

This is the Coordinatrix at Dirleton Castle, where her people once lived. We tried to visit on Holy Island day, but it was closed and we couldn't manage to breach the fortifications (though we tried). Fortunately, SAZ was willing to come back and drive us around the next day. The most notable thing in this picture (to me) is that you can see the Coordinatrix's growing warm weather gear collection. She's purchased three jackets, a scarf, and a blanket since entering Great Britain. All solely for warmth, not as souvenirs. Dirleton Castle was my favorite.

This is Tantallon Castle, which has an amazing view out to Bass Rock. It's built right on the coast and is six stories high.

We visited 3 cemeteries on Super Castle Party Day. I can't get enough of the relief work on some of them. Last night I visited a cemetery in Edinburgh (where Adam Smith is buried) and there was a great marker that noted that the dead man had been a bassoonist and adventurer.

Don't the skulls on these look sort of alien-like?

Argh, matey.

Meta came too. EVERYBODY loves the metadog. She got loved up everywhere we went.

The Most Beautiful Place We've Seen

These are pictures from Stoer Lighthouse north of Lochinver. Our B&B owner (a Dutch man fascinated by motorcycles and Texas) sent us up here in search of whales and other sea creatures. We drove through fields of sheep and stone houses and ruins to get here and the pictures do no justice at all to the experience. We just kept turning to one another and exclaiming over how beautiful it was. The sky was so huge and the grass was so green and the light was amazing.