Photos from Sicily: Etna

more catching up…

Our plans to see Stromboli foiled by weather, and knowing our nephew Jaden would be severely disappointed in us if we neglected to visit a volcano, we set off to hike on the slopes of Mt Etna.

Etna seemed more like a pile of smaller volcanoes heaped on each other rather than a single peak and crater.  The last eruption was in 2003.

those of us in sandals hobbled a little slower through the rough igneus pebbles. Greg unfortunately discovered that the green, soft-looking shrubs above have cactus-like spines underneath. 3 weeks later he still has a few embedded in his palm.

 

Ephesus

We’re in Kusadasi. Greg has been working much, trying to get caught up. The day before yesterday I headed out on my own to go see the ruins of Ephesus. The dolmus let me off at the turn off from the main road, and I had a pleasant walk alongside fig orchards before getting to the main entrance. The day was breezy, not overly hot, and there were small puffy clouds that sailed across the blue sky.

I was amazed to see how far the sea has receded. Ephesus was once a port and declined between ~300-600 when its harbor silted up. The picture below is from the theater and shows “Harbor” street going down to where the water once was. Now the Aegean is kilometers away and the valley is filled with farms and orchards. It was startling to think of how much the physical world, which I think of a solid and constant, has changed.

 

After walking through the ruins, I went home and read the stories in Acts related to the city. I could picture the merchants in the agora talking discontentedly about the Christians, raising a riot and moving  just down the street, through the gate and up into the theater. I imagined how the chanting from the theater would have echoed off the opposite ridge and would likely have been heard throughout the valley where the town is located. Could Paul hear it where he was hiding?

Anyhow, here a a few more pics:

 

my first glimpse of the library

 

a small street/sidewalk? done entirely in mosaic

Photos from Sicily: Trabia and Petralia Soprano

Catching up on photos at least if not impressions…

In Sicily the first week we rented an apartment by the northern coast in the town of Trabia. Between daytrips we enjoyed the rhythm of vacation in Trabia: a swim, some hour of reading, getting acquainted with the local espresso guy and the butcher, barbecues on the terrace…

view from the terrace

Kari got caught between a wave and rock

 

A day trip of driving through the Madonie mountains and the Sicilian countryside: the town is Petralia Soprano, which we stumbled upon by accident.

Istanbul

Istanbul. After Clay and Kari left, we stayed in Istanbul a while to work, regroup, and decide what next. We bounced around to 4 hostels over the 5 nights since its high tourist season now and rooms were a little harder to find. In that time I became well known to the candy man in Sultanahmet park, and he would smile to see me coming. (Sorry Clay and Kari that we never found him when you were here!)

Kari, Clay, and we had two days together in Istanbul before going to Diyarbakir and Mardin. I was excited to show them bits of what we’d been exploring over the past month and also to explore further with them. We stayed in the heart of the old Constantinople, which this time of year is full of tourists. We visited the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and the edge of the Spice Market.

The Hagia Sophia was built on a grand scale. So many layers of design and art-- some layers were being peeled away to unveil older mosaics, some layers were being built up to restore relatively recent art, and other places you could see the melding where old mosaics waere faintly showing through the newer painting (new as in mideval) like a shadow even as both aged. 

The blue mosque we saw the next day. From the outside the Blue Mosque is stunning, so many domes of various sizes with the 6 minarets setting off the domes differently from every angle. we went through courtyards to reach the entrance and a man checked each of us foreigners for appropriate attire as we entered, passing out shalls and material for wraparound skirts as needed. Insided the walls and ceiling were so many blue-designed tiles and rings and circles of unending calligraphy.

 

(a later image of the mosque at twilight)

After seeing the Blue Mosque, we raced across town taking a tramvae, two ferries (between which we sprinted from one station to the next barely slipping through the gate as it was closing boarding of the second) in order to eat waffles by the Bosphorus. The waffles were amazing (filled with various kinds of chocolate, fruit, nuts, whipped cream). The Bosphorus was pretty nice too.

Laying Low

We’ve both been feeling wiped out these last few days. Still battling intestinal problems, we haven’t much appetite or energy. Greg spiked a fever the other night, but seems to be getting better now with antibiotics. Maybe its good or at least needed to just lay low for a while. Greg has been getting some work done. I have been reading, napping, and journaling. Our thoughts start to drift forward to what will happen and be when we get back. Thus starts our last week of travelling.

Aegean Coast

We left Istanbul several days ago, flew through Izmir then caught a series of 4 dolmushes (minibuses) to make our way to Guzelchamli, a village on the Aegean Coast. We arrived hot and a bit dazed, so we crashed at the first reasonably priced pension we found, which promised wireless and “manual” AC (which turned out to be a fan). Greg was too hot to work, so after trying to rest a bit, we hopped yet another dolmush to take us into the adjacent national park and a beach. Low hills turned to steeper mountains and vacation homes gave way to dense forest. We caught glimpses of the Aegean sparkling intensely in the afternoon sun.

It was supposed to be an easy 1 kilometer walk from where the dolmush dropped us to the beach. And it was uneventful until we were startled by loud a loud snorting and huffing and sound. There was a boar just off the road on the left and it seemed to be aiming his snorting at us and eyeing us menacingly. We found ourselves woefully without appropriate instincts for boar encounters… should run for our lives, stand our ground and “look big”, avoid eye contact and try to slip by?  after doing a little of each half-heartedly we retreated back up the road. Only 40-50’ up the road we were further alarmed to see a mother boar and three ugly little boars cross the road, effectively hemming us in.

Trapped!!

We stood there dumb and anxious, wondering what to do. A car appeared around the bend and we jumped on the opportunity to hitchhike down to the beach. We gushed our relief and gratitude to the driver though he didn’t seem to understand what we were saying.

The water of the Aegean was cool and refreshing. There were smallish swells and waves and we bobbed away the heat and stresses of the day.

Pictures: from Mardin and the Southeast

We’re again in Istanbul now. Kari and Clay have both left for the States. We saw Tanya and her mom again briefly before they too left and headed back to Vladivostok.

Exhausted, we’ve been mostly keeping to the hotel the last day or so and spending much time sleeping and working.

Anyhow, here are some more pictures from the time in the Southeast:

eating a turkish breakfast in a Karvanserai in Diyarbakir

along Diyarbakir’s old city walls

Mardin…

an old mansion that has been turned into a post office

the guys trying ayran Mardin-style

wandering back alleys of Mardin

the view over towards Syria and the Mesopotamian plains

the madressesi (sp?) with castle behind

we also day-tripped to the Byzantine ruins of Dara

the roman cistern at Dara

old and new—note the large roman-era sized bricks and construction on the bottom with newer on top. Throughout this town we saw a patchwork of Roman/Byzantine “ruins” incorporated or just moved into current village buildings, fences, gates, etc.

stopping for a drink after touring the ruins