Turkey 2015

The view of Istabul from my Turkish Airline flight. I was starting a 10 day study tour of archaeological sites relevant to the New Testament and Greek and Roman culture of the first century CE. We visited 27 museums and archaeological sites and I can now tell the difference between Corinth and Doric columns and Greek and Roman theaters in Turkey.

Ephesus, one of the most famous cities associated with the disciple St. Paul. The name Ephesus is probably a Hellenized (Greek) form of Apasa, which is a name from the Hittites around the late 14th century BCE. The city is amazing because of it's size and the number and type of excavations that have occured over time. Ephesus is the most developed site in Turkey with 3.5 million visitors a year. The facade is from the library built in 110 CE by a son to honor his father and held a library of 12,000 scrolls. There are interesting details throughout the city including the common toilets complete with marble seats and running water underneath.

This is a 6th century fresco that is believed to be of St. Paul and St. Thecla (a female disciple of Paul) and is the earliest known depiction of Paul in Ephesus. It was a 15 minute walk through an apple orchard and grazing sheep up a steep hill to reach the cave.

This is a typical Turkish breakfast of feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and lots of bread. At the hotel there was also greens and bowls of dill, parsley and fennel. For foreigners they add hard boiled eggs and cereal. The yogurt is wonderful and one possible adddition is a paste from sesame seeds. I did not acquire a taste for the strong Turkish coffee with one inch of fine coffee grounds in the bottom of the cup. I was always happy for a regular cup of coffee or Nescafe.

Christmas Season - Roma!

A brief adventure into Roman life.

Before I traveled to Germany for Christmas this year, I decided to make a stop in Rome for a couple of days. My sister and her son were also going to meet me. So the day of their arrival, I went to the flat that we rented for a few days to meet the owner and get the key.

Mariegrazie was a delightful woman and before we walked to the flat, she showed me how to turn the breaker switch back on. She explained if we turned on too many appliances in the flat that the power would go off. Good information. Once inside, things seemed straight forward. There was a wall heater in the bedroom and the living room. We could only turn on one at a time or the breaker would shut off. Oh, and one more thing, the internet wasn't working. She hoped that someone would come in the next 4 days to fix it.

As I told my sister, welcome to Italy. We are now living like every day Italians. The neighborhood was great because it was where real people lived. Three doors from our flat was a small store that sold cheese, meat, bread and wine. The wine was in large stainless steel vats with a spigot and for about $4.00, the woman would fill a plastic liter bottle like a soda bottle. No tourists means no tourist prices.

A block away was the coffee bar where Italians went for their morning breakfast. A cornetto (croissant) and capuccino were around $2.50. Breakfast was taken standing at the granite bar, shoulder-to-shoulder with complete strangers. While I speak no Italian it was fun to watch the banter and gestures that were part of the free show called breakfast.

Three blocks away was a 7 day a week market. A friend told me it was called the Sicilian market and that the vendors were from Sicily or source the products there. My favorite was the fish mongers. They had beautiful whole fish, some very large that were sliced to order based on the needs of the customer. They looked so fresh I almost thought they would jump out of the case. Also the fresh fruit and vegetables were amazing. I had a hard time believing that it was December. 

Most of the businesses on our street were local with a retail space smaller than a one car garage, more like a size that might fit a medium size American car. There was a dry cleaners, a furniture repair shop, bike rental and of course our wine by the plastic liter bottle store.
So one night, my sister and I put our electricity to the test...the heater was running, her son was taking a hot shower (on-demand water heating) and then she turned on the hot water kettle. In an instant we were in darkness. But true to Mariegrazie's word, with a flip of the switch, the power was back on.

One of our day trips was to the American cemetery in Nettuno and from there we walked for an hour to Anzio. My sister said that we can come this far to see Anzio and we were going to see it. We got there at 6:00 p.m. famished as we had only had a sandwich on the train. We went to 3 different restaurants trying to find one that was open. Finally, the last one said that nothing opens in town until 7:30 p.m. which is when people eat dinner. Of course, what was I thinking?

So we found a pizza-by-the-slice-place that was about the size of a walk-in closet. There were plastic chairs and tables outside in what looked like the alley. I think it was one of our best meals in Italy because we were so hungry. Then we walked around the corner and I think truly found the best gelato in Italy.

I know why there are so many pizza-by-the-slices places in Italy, for all the people who can't wait until 7:30 p.m. to eat dinner.

One of our last nights we went to a restaurant to watch A.S. Roma (one of the local football teams) and A.C. Milan, one of their biggest rivals. It was a good match which ended 0-0. My nephew is a big football fan and watching him watch the game and provide commentary was priceless.

We had a great trip. Rome is a fascinating place with so many sites to see and things to experience and then there are the museums, churches and Roman ruins.

Viva la Roma!

Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene in 1223 having been inspired by his recent visit to the Holy Land where he had been shown Jesus's traditional birthplace. In 1982, Pope John Paul II inaugurated the annual tradition of placing a nativity scene on display in the Vatican City in the Piazza San Pietro before the Christmas Tree. This year's manger is called 'The Opera's Nativity Scene' a gift from the Italian city of Verona, very well known for its opera tradition.

The Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, Italy where 7,861 American military war dead are buried and the names of 3,100 Missing In Action are listed. There are 23 sets of brothers buried side-by-side in the cemetery.

The beach at Anzio where on January 22, 1944, 36,000 Allied soldiers landed. It is hard to believe that this peaceful setting was the site of a ferocious 4 month battle.

On the Roman road in Ostia Antica, the harbor city of ancient Rome. It was founded in 620 B.C. and it grew to a city of 60,000 inhabitants.

On the main street is a large theater (teatro) which is one of the oldest brick theaters in the world and is still used for concerts today. The three rows of marble steps near the orchestra were for the important people - some things never change.

Holiday in Greece

ATHENS, GREECE - I arrive this morning in Athens, Greece to join a friend who teaches in Liverpool for a university trip in Athens, Delphi and Corinth. I have to pretend to be an academic again by reading a couple of articles and making a presentation on a topic but the rest of the time it is soaking up Greek food and culture!

As I write this, I sit on the balcony of our room looking at the Acropolis and Pantheon bathed in soft yellow light. The moon is a sliver that periodically peaks through the clouds. The glow of Athens stretches to the mountains and there are two other well-lite rock formations as high as the Acropolis that seem to stand guard over the city.

Athens is an interesting city and nothing like Paris, Vienna or Rome. Some of the architecture in the city center is well maintained and the transit system is good due to hosting the Summer Olympics in 2004. But after the city center, the architectural interest drops off. It is a city that has been lived in for 7000 years so it is bound to have some wear and tear.

In some ways it is a dumpy city filled with smells, exhaust, graffiti, squat, non-descript buildings with flat or red tiled roofs and metal pull down shades or angled awnings. But there is also a vibrancy in the chaos and once I looked beyond the disrepair of streets and buildings, it was clear the city is a living organism with people rushing around, the mandatory Mediterranean scooters and men and women surfacing after dark and hanging out at cafes with a beer or a coffee.

I took the bus one hour from the airport to the city center and then a taxi for the short ride to my hotel. Of course, it is an old city with very narrow one-way streets (forget US SUV's) which are twisted into an almost indecipherable maze. At one point, my driver had to ask for directions and then a helpful fellow on a  motorcycle led us out of the neighborhood but after driving in a circle, we ended up in the same neighborhood where we started. Finally, the driver figured out the hotel was at the top of a hill, pointed up and dropped me off. After approximately 30 steps, I was at our hotel.

But with a second floor room and a small balcony, I have my view of the Acropolis and Pantheon.

Bus Trip to the End of the Road

SOUNIO, GREECE - We took a two hour bus trip from Athens along the coast to Sounio which has been a sacred site since very ancient times. The "sanctuary of Sounion" is first mentioned in Homer's The Odyssey and the Temple of Poseidon that now stands at Sounio was built in 444 BC atop of older temple ruins. 

After we visited the ruins we walked down to a Fish Taverna by the beach and had dinner. A good Greek salad (onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and a block of feta cheese) and atherina (sand smelts) which are considered a humbler, perennial local fish which is lightly dipped in batter and eaten head and tail. They are only a couple of inches long so it is just like throwing popcorn in your mouth and they are delicious. Very little fishing is done here from the end of May until mid-October so sand smelts and sardines it is!

We found a short cut along the beach and walked up the hill back to the Temple where we could watch the sunset and had a spectacular view of the Aegean Sea. During the day the water was turquoise but as the sun reflected back on the clouds, there was a mirrored reflection of pink on the clouds and the water.

All was calm and quiet with the world.