Hello everyone!
I'm in London right now...last stop before heading home! For those of you who thought it would never happen and have written to me expressing this concern, I will thank you by coming and spending a week sleeping on your couch and complaining about how expensive everything is. Seriously, I am very excited to be coming home and will be back in Los Angeles on September 12th. I will definitely send out contact info when I figure it out myself and would love to see most of you.
But back to Turkey...from Cappadocia, I made my way to Olympos...on the Mediterranean Coast, which is famous for the "treehouses" you can stay in. From everything I read, it was a place to chill out and spend a day (or week) relaxing in the serenity of nature. When I arrived on my overnight bus, what I found was somewhat different than I expected.
First of all, I found out that at the time of my check-in, Kadir's (the oldest and most famous of the treehouse places) was housing over 300 people! Secondly, the "treehouses" looked more like the Saddle Ranch in Hollywood (think Old West flophouse) than Swiss Family Robinson. Lastly, as opposed to being a "chill" place, just about every person was under 30, in good shape (like I used to be), and showing it off...it was like hanging out in a nightclub. I spent the nighttalking to a girl from the Ukraine who planned power systems (what?) and a Turkish girl who had just completed her law studies (but unfortunately...not her English studies). Oh well. To top things off,I visited the Chimerae...a natural fire that burns on a hillside that reputedly ancient mariners could navigate by in ancient times. Unfortunately, after a 3 hour hike from Olympos, it looked to me like someone left a very, very small campfire burning...not impressed. Overall, Olympos was actually quite fun, but I got tired of the "scene"(thumping music at 3am and sleeping in a room with ten people) and left in the morning.
From Olympus, I made a few more stops along the coast...Kas, Oludeniz,Dalaman, and the infamous Bodrum. Interestingly enough, costs skyrocketed as I headed to tourist central and the "scene" changed from completely Italian to completely northern English...I've never spoken to so many people that speak English that I cannot understand.
The highlight of Kas was trying to get to the neighboring town of Ucagiz to visit a family that took care of a (most likely at the time) stoned friend of mine a long time ago. What this friend didn't tell me is that there isn't a bus from the highway drop-off...so you can walk the 19km or hitch a ride. After waiting for 30 minutes for the bus, I tried to hitch with all the nice looking cars and/or families...to no avail. Finally, I did catch a ride with a guy wearing a tank-top and inappropriately short pants towing a trailer behind a 15-year old car. Luckily he just drove and I didn't have to use my training to jump out of the car and roll to safety. The family in Ucagiz was really, really great and even offered me a job helping out on a charter boat if I wanted to earn some money and get a great Mediterranean coast cruise at the same time.
Bodrum was very cool as I was reunited with Deanna and we spent three days completely ignoring the budget and eating great dinners and going to nightclubs that had no business charging a 27 dollar cover...but hey...we paid so I guess the joke was on us. Here's a rule for the future: Never get lured by the "free wine and vodka until 1am" offer. It's a good bet you can't stomach what they give you.
From the coast, we made a quick stop in Ephesus...the old Roman capital of Asia Minor...and then on to Istanbul. Istanbul is absolutely wonderful for sites and has a very "alive" feeling. We were very lucky to be hosted by Deanna's b-school friend - who was very concerned that I see everything and that we meet many of his wonderful friends and family members. It happens that his uncle owns a hotel that happens to be located directly between Topkapi Palace (where the Ottoman Empire ruled the world) and Aya Sofia (the world's largest church for 1000 years) and a 30-second walk from the Blue Mosque, with its 6 minarets and incredible tiled interior. Istanbul is a wonderful city to see the mix of East and West, Old and New, Christianity and Islam...and as I wandered the streets on my last day in Istanbul I thought an appropriate "last stop" for my trip and re-entry to the West. My last "sight-see" was a cruise along the Bosphorus that literally finished with a crossing of the river from Asia to Europe. Wonderful symbolism but as I sat and tried to think profound thoughts, all that ran through my mind was "that's two hours of my life I'll never have back." In the end, perhaps I haven't changed at all.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
08/10/2005: Into Turkey!
Hello everyone -
Since I last wrote, we've been enjoying the Beirut nightlife and generally not doing a whole lot in terms of sightseeing. BUT...eventually the 15-day visa ran out and it was time to go back to Syria. So, we spent three days in Aleppo wandering the medieval souqs. Deanna decided to head back to Beirut to meet up with friends, so I was now ready to put my extremely poor sense of direction and generally inadequate language skills to the test.
The highlight of Aleppo was definitely a visit to nearby Qa'laat Samaan or San Simeon. Although the name is familiar from Hearst Castle, this San Simeon (which may or may not be the same) has a very, very interesting past. It turns out that in the early days of Christianity,there were a lot of ascetics and desert wanderers who thought they could get closer to God by living in the worst conditions (better discomfort now than hell later) they could think of. Some would live in a cave, others in a cage suspended by a tree. One actually stood for "the rest of his life" wearing thick coverings to increase his suffering. St. Simeon was a stylite...who achieved his connection to God via sitting on a pillar. Apparently he started 3 meters above the ground, but as his disenchantment with other humans grew, he ended up10 meters high. Other stylites followed his example and according to a book I'm reading, it seems that all the hills in the area were covered with imitators. Very bizarre, but these early Christian visionaries were supposedly the celebrities of the Byzantine Era. Anyway, after Simeon's death, they built an amazing church around the pillar and you can still see most of the walls of the four Basilicas and the octagonal chamber surrounding the pillar. Very cool. Not so cool were fierce negotiations with the small-town drivers that ended with both parties feeling ripped off.
After the least efficient border crossing to date (waiting for an hour for a sheet of paper that allows me to buy a visa on the other side of the compound before returing to the original window to get stamped)...I arrived in Antakya, Turkey (ancient Antioch). Having a guidebook with no map of the city, I wandered for quite some time practicing my Turkish pronunciation asking random passers-by trying to find a specific hotel...only to find out that it had been sold, renovated, and was now three times the price it used to be. By this time, I had walked about a mile with my backpack so I caved in and stayed. I am hoping that I am not broke (or addicted to the luxury of AC) when I meet back up with Deanna.
From Antakya, I took a very long bus ride to Sanilurfa (Urfa or Edessain past times). Urfa is famous for being on the front of the Persian (Muslim) and Byzantine (Christian) empires and also for reputedly being the first city to convert to Christianity outside of Palestine. There's a fish pond here (beneath a citadel and next to a mosque) where they have considered the fish holy for over 2000 years...starting witha Syrian pagan cult of fertility (worshipping water and life), being translated into a Christian origin (Nimrod the Hunter tried to kill Abraham's son by slingshotting the baby into a fire only to have the fire transform into a pond and the fish served as a cradle), and finally being respected by Muslims as well. It's very interesting to see this tradition transcend specific religion.
At the park, I met a policeman, Sezai, who has been independently studying English for about 10 years. I had dinner at his house where we talked about all sorts of topics such as: the teachings of Mohammed, why English is a difficult language, how all the Turkish people love each other (notwithstanding the Armenian genocide and mass suppression of the Kurds - as a policeman, he really didn't want to discuss any "dissidents"), and finally...how if the man is "stronger" than the women, there is no reason that he shouldn't take another lover to spare his wife from the strain. As we were discussing this matter,he actually called his "girlfriend" and I got to have a conversation with Sezai translating. What exactly does one say in this situation? "Hi...have you met the kids?"
From Urfa, I paid a visit to Mt. Nemrut...a fantastic sight where an ancient king built his memorial as a massive set of statues of all the gods sitting next to one another (and surprise, surprise - the king himself is included as a god with Zeus and Hercules!). It's a wonderful sight at sunset but the highlight for me was riding in a van with four Kurdish and two Taiwanese (real ones) tourists. The busdriver encouraged the Taiwanese to sing (which they did), and then the Kurds thought a cultural display would be nice and they sang folksongs (beautifully...I think we had picked up a choirgroup) for the next hour and we had a discussion about how they wanted an autonomous state so the Turkish would stop suppressing their culture. About ten years ago, all Kurdish language, music, and television was banned in Turkey as the government is deathly afraid of separating the country. It turns out that the Kurds are the largest ethnic population in the world (25million) that do not have their own country. However, the Kurds I met do not want full independance as they don't trust the Iraqi Kurds one bit...I guess the lesson is there will be divisions in any group...human nature?
From Mt. Nemrut, I made my way to famous and fabulous Cappadocia. Everywhere in this area are "fairy chimneys" or huge rock formations rising 100 to 200 feet...and are soft enough that houses, hotels, and churches have been carved into the interiors. You look out over the horizon and there hundreds of these stuctures in any direction - it's an amazing effect. I walked around the "open air museum" in Goreme today which is a group of 10 or so churches carved into stone with amazing frescos painted within in the Byzantine style.
The downside of Cappadocia however is that it's tourist central...I think I've lost my ability to deal with them in any large number. This being August, I think there are more Italians in Turkey than in Italy right now. Everywhere I go, it seems that there are at least five large tour buses right along with me. It's maddening and I find myself thinking what would happen if I took a large rock and killed a tourguide...tempting. I think it's time to come home soon.
I hope everyone is well and not too hot. It got to 50 Celsius in Urfa while I was there! (120 degrees for my Farenheit friends). And of course everyone I met tells me..."you know this is the hottest place in Turkey?"...great.
Since I last wrote, we've been enjoying the Beirut nightlife and generally not doing a whole lot in terms of sightseeing. BUT...eventually the 15-day visa ran out and it was time to go back to Syria. So, we spent three days in Aleppo wandering the medieval souqs. Deanna decided to head back to Beirut to meet up with friends, so I was now ready to put my extremely poor sense of direction and generally inadequate language skills to the test.
The highlight of Aleppo was definitely a visit to nearby Qa'laat Samaan or San Simeon. Although the name is familiar from Hearst Castle, this San Simeon (which may or may not be the same) has a very, very interesting past. It turns out that in the early days of Christianity,there were a lot of ascetics and desert wanderers who thought they could get closer to God by living in the worst conditions (better discomfort now than hell later) they could think of. Some would live in a cave, others in a cage suspended by a tree. One actually stood for "the rest of his life" wearing thick coverings to increase his suffering. St. Simeon was a stylite...who achieved his connection to God via sitting on a pillar. Apparently he started 3 meters above the ground, but as his disenchantment with other humans grew, he ended up10 meters high. Other stylites followed his example and according to a book I'm reading, it seems that all the hills in the area were covered with imitators. Very bizarre, but these early Christian visionaries were supposedly the celebrities of the Byzantine Era. Anyway, after Simeon's death, they built an amazing church around the pillar and you can still see most of the walls of the four Basilicas and the octagonal chamber surrounding the pillar. Very cool. Not so cool were fierce negotiations with the small-town drivers that ended with both parties feeling ripped off.
After the least efficient border crossing to date (waiting for an hour for a sheet of paper that allows me to buy a visa on the other side of the compound before returing to the original window to get stamped)...I arrived in Antakya, Turkey (ancient Antioch). Having a guidebook with no map of the city, I wandered for quite some time practicing my Turkish pronunciation asking random passers-by trying to find a specific hotel...only to find out that it had been sold, renovated, and was now three times the price it used to be. By this time, I had walked about a mile with my backpack so I caved in and stayed. I am hoping that I am not broke (or addicted to the luxury of AC) when I meet back up with Deanna.
From Antakya, I took a very long bus ride to Sanilurfa (Urfa or Edessain past times). Urfa is famous for being on the front of the Persian (Muslim) and Byzantine (Christian) empires and also for reputedly being the first city to convert to Christianity outside of Palestine. There's a fish pond here (beneath a citadel and next to a mosque) where they have considered the fish holy for over 2000 years...starting witha Syrian pagan cult of fertility (worshipping water and life), being translated into a Christian origin (Nimrod the Hunter tried to kill Abraham's son by slingshotting the baby into a fire only to have the fire transform into a pond and the fish served as a cradle), and finally being respected by Muslims as well. It's very interesting to see this tradition transcend specific religion.
At the park, I met a policeman, Sezai, who has been independently studying English for about 10 years. I had dinner at his house where we talked about all sorts of topics such as: the teachings of Mohammed, why English is a difficult language, how all the Turkish people love each other (notwithstanding the Armenian genocide and mass suppression of the Kurds - as a policeman, he really didn't want to discuss any "dissidents"), and finally...how if the man is "stronger" than the women, there is no reason that he shouldn't take another lover to spare his wife from the strain. As we were discussing this matter,he actually called his "girlfriend" and I got to have a conversation with Sezai translating. What exactly does one say in this situation? "Hi...have you met the kids?"
From Urfa, I paid a visit to Mt. Nemrut...a fantastic sight where an ancient king built his memorial as a massive set of statues of all the gods sitting next to one another (and surprise, surprise - the king himself is included as a god with Zeus and Hercules!). It's a wonderful sight at sunset but the highlight for me was riding in a van with four Kurdish and two Taiwanese (real ones) tourists. The busdriver encouraged the Taiwanese to sing (which they did), and then the Kurds thought a cultural display would be nice and they sang folksongs (beautifully...I think we had picked up a choirgroup) for the next hour and we had a discussion about how they wanted an autonomous state so the Turkish would stop suppressing their culture. About ten years ago, all Kurdish language, music, and television was banned in Turkey as the government is deathly afraid of separating the country. It turns out that the Kurds are the largest ethnic population in the world (25million) that do not have their own country. However, the Kurds I met do not want full independance as they don't trust the Iraqi Kurds one bit...I guess the lesson is there will be divisions in any group...human nature?
From Mt. Nemrut, I made my way to famous and fabulous Cappadocia. Everywhere in this area are "fairy chimneys" or huge rock formations rising 100 to 200 feet...and are soft enough that houses, hotels, and churches have been carved into the interiors. You look out over the horizon and there hundreds of these stuctures in any direction - it's an amazing effect. I walked around the "open air museum" in Goreme today which is a group of 10 or so churches carved into stone with amazing frescos painted within in the Byzantine style.
The downside of Cappadocia however is that it's tourist central...I think I've lost my ability to deal with them in any large number. This being August, I think there are more Italians in Turkey than in Italy right now. Everywhere I go, it seems that there are at least five large tour buses right along with me. It's maddening and I find myself thinking what would happen if I took a large rock and killed a tourguide...tempting. I think it's time to come home soon.
I hope everyone is well and not too hot. It got to 50 Celsius in Urfa while I was there! (120 degrees for my Farenheit friends). And of course everyone I met tells me..."you know this is the hottest place in Turkey?"...great.
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