MERHABA!

Istanbul Tulips

Istanbul spice market

Philip is in the upper left window of this Trojan horse!

Turkish dancers and musicians at the Asklepion in Bergama

April 29 -
The only English channel we get in most hotels is BBC, so we are aware of one piece of very important news: the royal wedding is TODAY, April 29th. However, we won't be among the throngs of TV watchers as we
will be flying from Izmir (Aegean coast) to Cappadocia (central Turkey).

Today we went in the rain to Meryemana Doga, The House of the Virgin Mary. No way to prove anything, BUT Jesus did ask John to care for his mother as he was dying, so it is assumed that she came with him to Ephesus and was buried here. The shrine is a tiny stone chapel, attended to by an international group of nuns and just below it is what has been known as a sacred spring for over 2000 years. Philip and I threw caution to the wind and drank some!

In Istanbul blogspot was blocked. Google translated the big red block letters as:  "by court decision." However, it works in the rest of Turkey!

ISTANBUL- A gazillion tulips were in bloom in Istanbul!! The Turks are determined to make sure that everyone knows that tulips originated HERE, not in Holland. So now you know.
What an amazing skyline - the Hagia Sophia and all those mosques with their grayish blue domes and narrow minarets. Of course, the imans do not need to climb the narrow steps and chant live anymore - every minaret has loud speakers, so 5 times a day everyone can hear the recording very well. Today a Turkish, man told me he doesn't understand a word because it is always in Arabic. Apparently, there is a movement to change the chanting to Turkish, but he doubts it will happen.
Jesse and Cookie found us an apartment in a very dynamic neighborhood - cafes and restaurants crowded with people morning to night. Lots of young people were out strolling and (unfortunately) most of them smoking all the while. The majority of older men can be found at tea houses sipping from tiny hourglass shaped tea glasses and playing backgammon or cards. Women were dressed in everything from the latest fashion (short hair and skirts) to  salwar pants and headscarves. I just started reading Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk. It takes place in Istanbul in the '70's and through fiction addresses the complexities of the Westernization process on Turks.

CANAKALE - We planned well: got to the ferry landing two hours ahead of time and bought the tickets to get across the Sea of Marmara to visit TROY and GALLIPOLI. After about 30 minutes, a kind woman came up to us and told us the loud announcement we could not understand said our ferry had been canceled!! She helped Philip trade the tickets for the only other ferry which was leaving immediately but headed in a different direction. On our arrival at the other shore, she figured out which bus we needed to get on. Without her altruism we would have waited another 1.5 hrs. only to find out we were stuck for another 6 hrs!  We have learned one very important thing on this trip - there are more good, honest people in this world than any other kind.

We arrived at Troy on a lovely spring day in conjunction with a fleet of buses full of older Germans. Most treasures from Troy are in Berlin today .  We took much longer than they so we had TROY to ourselves from 1 pm on. One needs a strong visual imagination to try to picture all the Troys - there are 9 layers of them! What was clear was its strategic position - in ancient times it was situated on a bay right at the mouth of the Dardanelles. However, over time it silted over and now is several miles from the water.

BERGAMA - Ancient Pergamum was next, the location of one of the seven churches of Asia Minor. There were virtually NO tourists staying in town (except the Jardims and one Canadian from Alberta). To get to the Acropolis (which lives up to its name) one can take a funicular/gondola up.

Our most interesting moments were at the Asklepion. What, you don't know what an asklepion is?? They were the first Greek hospitals catering to both physical and psychological illnesses. They diagnosed illnesses by interpreting dreams, offered oil massage and hydrotherapy and used herbs. They also used leeches to let blood - not too common anymore, luckily! Galen, the father of western medicine was born, raised and trained at the Asklepion in Pergamum before becoming physician to emperors. A troupe of turkish dancers wearing the traditional folk dress (like old style soldiers) - swaggered onto the stage of the ancient amphitheater while we were sitting in the marble bleachers. Then several camera men, directors and musicians arrived. Finally, a suave man with longish hair, dashing scarf and an air of importance joined them. After lengthy mingling, talking, and positioning, the director commanded all the tourists in the ancient amphitheater to be quiet and the dancers began dancing to the clarinet and drum. We left before the singer joined in but it did not matter because we could hear him clear across a field of ruins! Those ancient folks knew a thing or two about acoustics!