Remembering that we were on this cruise to relax, we decided not to go ashore at Aghios Nikolaos in Crete, which appears to be a nice but unremarkable Mediterranean port city. Most of the attractions here are in museums - not our favorite when there's so much to see outdoors in situ around the Aegean - or involve long bus rides. Prof. Sussman, the guest lecturer onboard, characterized the largely reconstructed Minoan palace of Knossos as "Disneyland," which we took as a license to pass it up. And just sitting in the harbor, almost completely surrounded by Greek isles and trying to finish Ted Sorenson's book "Counselor," is pleasant enough. We'll next go ashore at Mykonos tomorrow.
Odds and ends from the last several days:
*The well-trained Turkish tour guides made certain to inform us that Herodotus (the father of history), Homer, and Santa Claus (St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra in southern Turkey), were among Turkey's famous denizens, and that ancient Troy and Smyrna, as well as Mt. Ararat (where Noah's ark landed) were all on Turkish soil.
*Turkey was also home to two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the afore-mentioned Tomb of Maussollos (mostly reduced to rubble, but the ruins at the site are worth a visit), and the Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Selcuk (of which nothing remains).
*Note to Turkish marketers: if you want your bottled spring water to appeal to Westerners, best not to give it a brand name like "Aroma" - that's not an attribute people look for in their water. (The stuff is actually pretty good.)
*You meet some interesting people on these ships, not the least of whom are the young crewmembers. Some join just to see the world, some are climbing the next rung in the ladder of professional hospitality, and some have fascinating backstories of travail and consider their cruise ship experience to be the best break they've had in their lives. One notable thing that typifies the crews on all three Mediterranean cruises we've taken. - other than entertainers and lecturers, there hasn't been an American in the lot. This is a shame - onboard experience clearly builds character, rewards a serious work ethic, and exposes you to many corners of the globe.
*A "Greek Breakfast" as defined by our guide in Santorini: "coffee, cigarettes and a newspaper."
Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Goodbye to Turkey, Hello to Greece
This is usually not the best time of year to visit Turkey's southern coast, we're told - it can get very rainy during late September and early October. But we were presented with a perfect day to walk through the primary tourist attractions in the whitewashed city of Bodrum.
The Castle of St. Peter (erected by the peripatetic Knights of St. John in the 13th century before they moved to Malta) and the remnants of the Tomb of Maussollos (the source of our word "mausoleum," it was one of the Seven Wonders, destroyed in an earthquake, with many of its parts later used in other structures - it became kind of a "pre-cut marble quarry" for the town) .
Bodrum has a picture-perfect inner "yacht harbor," but rather than a basin full of floating fiberglass mansions, this harbor features scores of wooden sailing ships, many of them the round-sterned, locally produced craft know as "gulets." And the promenade around the harbor is one of the most pleasant we have seen in our visits to Middle Earth.
Our wrap-up on Turkey: This is a land that has really only opened itself up to tourism over the last two decades, and there is much of historic interest to see - the quality of the antiquities is stunning and not to be missed by any fan of archaeology or ancient civilizations. The towns and cities are well-maintained, and the streets and sidewalks are kept very clean. The food is good and fresh, if not particularly inventive. If you're a bargainer by nature, shopping can be great sport - if you're not, then it's not as much fun. The three Turkish guides we had over the course of three days were warm and interesting people, and they all were emphatic that Turkey is a secular nation and that it should stay that way. It's clear that the current ruling party, which has fundamentalist Islam leanings, is a source of discomfort for the educated class, and they are concerned that the image of these rulers not scare away tourist dollars. Fortunately, if the crowds of tourists we saw during the early autumn season are any indication, that is not an immediate risk.
From Bodrum, we sailed to Santorini, anchoring in the harbor facing the walls of the immense caldera that sits in the middle of what was once the island's core. It's a picture-postcard island, with iconic views of whitewashed buildings, cobalt blue doors, windows and rooftops set against a turquoise Aegean Sea. The villages are set 1000 feet above sea level, and you get there either on a bus making hairpin turns on roads with no safety barriers (as we did, because we were on a tour), on a funicular (much like a skilift), by mule or on foot.
Santorini's primary contribution to history seems to be the fact that it blew up circa 1500 BC, and the volcano created a quake and tsunami that destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete, opening the door to the Mycaenean civilization. Today, the island exists mainly for fun and, relatedly, for winemaking - though I would stick with the vinsanto and some of the whites and avoid the reds. Oia ("EE-ya"), the loveliest of the 13 villages, offers fun walks, awe-inspiring views and a number of fine and creative jewelry shops and art galleries.
Tourist tip: When a guidebook tells you how many steps you must walk to approach a hillside castle or trek through a mosque or a palace, multiply that number by three. Ann called Bodrum Castle "a medieval Thighmaster."
The Castle of St. Peter (erected by the peripatetic Knights of St. John in the 13th century before they moved to Malta) and the remnants of the Tomb of Maussollos (the source of our word "mausoleum," it was one of the Seven Wonders, destroyed in an earthquake, with many of its parts later used in other structures - it became kind of a "pre-cut marble quarry" for the town) .
Bodrum has a picture-perfect inner "yacht harbor," but rather than a basin full of floating fiberglass mansions, this harbor features scores of wooden sailing ships, many of them the round-sterned, locally produced craft know as "gulets." And the promenade around the harbor is one of the most pleasant we have seen in our visits to Middle Earth.
Our wrap-up on Turkey: This is a land that has really only opened itself up to tourism over the last two decades, and there is much of historic interest to see - the quality of the antiquities is stunning and not to be missed by any fan of archaeology or ancient civilizations. The towns and cities are well-maintained, and the streets and sidewalks are kept very clean. The food is good and fresh, if not particularly inventive. If you're a bargainer by nature, shopping can be great sport - if you're not, then it's not as much fun. The three Turkish guides we had over the course of three days were warm and interesting people, and they all were emphatic that Turkey is a secular nation and that it should stay that way. It's clear that the current ruling party, which has fundamentalist Islam leanings, is a source of discomfort for the educated class, and they are concerned that the image of these rulers not scare away tourist dollars. Fortunately, if the crowds of tourists we saw during the early autumn season are any indication, that is not an immediate risk.
From Bodrum, we sailed to Santorini, anchoring in the harbor facing the walls of the immense caldera that sits in the middle of what was once the island's core. It's a picture-postcard island, with iconic views of whitewashed buildings, cobalt blue doors, windows and rooftops set against a turquoise Aegean Sea. The villages are set 1000 feet above sea level, and you get there either on a bus making hairpin turns on roads with no safety barriers (as we did, because we were on a tour), on a funicular (much like a skilift), by mule or on foot.
Santorini's primary contribution to history seems to be the fact that it blew up circa 1500 BC, and the volcano created a quake and tsunami that destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete, opening the door to the Mycaenean civilization. Today, the island exists mainly for fun and, relatedly, for winemaking - though I would stick with the vinsanto and some of the whites and avoid the reds. Oia ("EE-ya"), the loveliest of the 13 villages, offers fun walks, awe-inspiring views and a number of fine and creative jewelry shops and art galleries.
Tourist tip: When a guidebook tells you how many steps you must walk to approach a hillside castle or trek through a mosque or a palace, multiply that number by three. Ann called Bodrum Castle "a medieval Thighmaster."
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Snapshot: Ephesus, Turkey
After crossing the Dardanelles, we docked in Kusadasi, a summer resort popular with Europeans. We went almost immediately to the historic site of Ephesus.
Ephesus is magnificent - a 3000-year-old city in southwestern Turkey, abandoned in the 7th century AD (when the harbor silted over), where an incomparable set of Greco-Roman ruins representing about 10 percent of the original city have been excavated and beautifully restored.
Ephesus was the third-largest city in the world at its peak with a quarter-million residents. Only Rome and Alexandria were larger.
In the Christian world, Ephesus is associated with St. Paul who, during one of his three visits as a missionary, locked horns with the silversmiths making idols of the goddess Artemis and was nearly put to death. It was also visited by St. John the Evangelist (who is buried in nearby Selcuk), and Mary, Mother of Jesus, whom John (according to legend) brought to Ephesus where she later died in.a hilltop building that still stands.
Some highlights of the visit:
* The breathtaking facade of the Library of Celsus, to which we returned in the evening for a chamber concert under the stars.
* The remains of a brothel immediately across the road from the library ("honey, I'm going to get something to read").
* The terrace houses - generous grants from Austrian banks and businesses have restored seven private homes full of mosaics and frescoes, and they've built a plexiglass catwalk that lets you see the homes from every angle.
* The latrines - everyone chuckled as we walked through, and the Chinese tourists all wanted their pictures taken sitting on them.
* The infrastructure - roads were made in large part of marble, grooved for safety; an elaborate water and sewer system made of terra cotta pipes, many portions of which are visible in their original locations.
*The outdoor theater - it's in terrific shape and seats 24,000 - Elton John, the Berlin and London Symphonies, Joan Baez, and Ray Charles are among those who have performed there in recent years. After a show by Sting literally rocked the house, they decided to bar rock concerts and to stop using the top 10,000 seats because they had become unstable.
*The columns- Ann points out that it's an art historian's dream to see Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns all simultaneously in use in one place.
*The harbor road - a stately, colonnaded marble road on which Anthony and Cleopatra walked into the city.
We had a warm-up lecture by Dr. Louis Sussman, professor emeritus of classics at the University of Florida. He used the layout and facilities of Ephesus to highlight Greco-Roman city planning concepts.
One of Dr. Sussman's favorite things at Ephesus - and it became one of ours, too - was the signage on little shops at both the entrance and exit to Ephesus reading "Genuine Fake Watches."
Unnerving moment of the day: we learned that the only commercial cruise ship that has ever been attacked by the infamous Somali pirates is the one we're on - apparently an RPG went thru the window of a suite, and there are still bullet holes visible in the hull. Fortunately, after two hours of evasive action (during which most of the guests were fast asleep), the captain shook the pirates and headed out to open sea.
Ephesus is magnificent - a 3000-year-old city in southwestern Turkey, abandoned in the 7th century AD (when the harbor silted over), where an incomparable set of Greco-Roman ruins representing about 10 percent of the original city have been excavated and beautifully restored.
Ephesus was the third-largest city in the world at its peak with a quarter-million residents. Only Rome and Alexandria were larger.
In the Christian world, Ephesus is associated with St. Paul who, during one of his three visits as a missionary, locked horns with the silversmiths making idols of the goddess Artemis and was nearly put to death. It was also visited by St. John the Evangelist (who is buried in nearby Selcuk), and Mary, Mother of Jesus, whom John (according to legend) brought to Ephesus where she later died in.a hilltop building that still stands.
Some highlights of the visit:
* The breathtaking facade of the Library of Celsus, to which we returned in the evening for a chamber concert under the stars.
* The remains of a brothel immediately across the road from the library ("honey, I'm going to get something to read").
* The terrace houses - generous grants from Austrian banks and businesses have restored seven private homes full of mosaics and frescoes, and they've built a plexiglass catwalk that lets you see the homes from every angle.
* The latrines - everyone chuckled as we walked through, and the Chinese tourists all wanted their pictures taken sitting on them.
* The infrastructure - roads were made in large part of marble, grooved for safety; an elaborate water and sewer system made of terra cotta pipes, many portions of which are visible in their original locations.
*The outdoor theater - it's in terrific shape and seats 24,000 - Elton John, the Berlin and London Symphonies, Joan Baez, and Ray Charles are among those who have performed there in recent years. After a show by Sting literally rocked the house, they decided to bar rock concerts and to stop using the top 10,000 seats because they had become unstable.
*The columns- Ann points out that it's an art historian's dream to see Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns all simultaneously in use in one place.
*The harbor road - a stately, colonnaded marble road on which Anthony and Cleopatra walked into the city.
We had a warm-up lecture by Dr. Louis Sussman, professor emeritus of classics at the University of Florida. He used the layout and facilities of Ephesus to highlight Greco-Roman city planning concepts.
One of Dr. Sussman's favorite things at Ephesus - and it became one of ours, too - was the signage on little shops at both the entrance and exit to Ephesus reading "Genuine Fake Watches."
Unnerving moment of the day: we learned that the only commercial cruise ship that has ever been attacked by the infamous Somali pirates is the one we're on - apparently an RPG went thru the window of a suite, and there are still bullet holes visible in the hull. Fortunately, after two hours of evasive action (during which most of the guests were fast asleep), the captain shook the pirates and headed out to open sea.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
More Notes on Istanbul
As we ride the rolling seas (urp) crossing the Dardanelles on the way to the Turkish Aegean ports of Kusadasi and Bodrum, a few more observations about Istanbul:
*Our breakfast buffet included the elements of a typical Turkish meal: many varieties of cheese, sheep's milk yogurt (salted, more savory than sweet), a huge array of olives (some with unusual stuffings such as orange peel and almonds), and chunks of honeycomb (I'm not entirely sure how they are to be eaten so I worked the honey loose and spat out the waxy comb. I didn't get odd looks from the waitstaff, so I guess that was OK).
*Our lunch on our day of touring the Old City was at the Pudding Shop (aka Lale Restaurant), an unremarkable place serving typical Turkish foods (stuffed zucchinis, stuffed peppers, kofte meatballs, doner kebab). But the proprietors will tell you that the Pudding Shop is "world-famous" because in articles in The New York Times and elsewhere over the years, it is hailed as the place where many a hippie would hitchhike a lift to Afghanistan or Nepal during the Seventies.
*As we sailed out of the Bosphorus into the Sea of Mamarra on Saturday evening, we saw a hundred or more container ships and other commercial craft lined up to enter the passage to the Black Sea. Apparently a serious crash in the recent past has led to strict limits on how many may pass at once. Given the huge volume of ships we saw in the Bosphorus, it's hard to imagine it any more crowded.
*A special moment on our first night in Istanbul: as we were leaving the hotel terrace, we spotted a perfect crescent moon hovering above Topkapi Palace.
*Our breakfast buffet included the elements of a typical Turkish meal: many varieties of cheese, sheep's milk yogurt (salted, more savory than sweet), a huge array of olives (some with unusual stuffings such as orange peel and almonds), and chunks of honeycomb (I'm not entirely sure how they are to be eaten so I worked the honey loose and spat out the waxy comb. I didn't get odd looks from the waitstaff, so I guess that was OK).
*Our lunch on our day of touring the Old City was at the Pudding Shop (aka Lale Restaurant), an unremarkable place serving typical Turkish foods (stuffed zucchinis, stuffed peppers, kofte meatballs, doner kebab). But the proprietors will tell you that the Pudding Shop is "world-famous" because in articles in The New York Times and elsewhere over the years, it is hailed as the place where many a hippie would hitchhike a lift to Afghanistan or Nepal during the Seventies.
*As we sailed out of the Bosphorus into the Sea of Mamarra on Saturday evening, we saw a hundred or more container ships and other commercial craft lined up to enter the passage to the Black Sea. Apparently a serious crash in the recent past has led to strict limits on how many may pass at once. Given the huge volume of ships we saw in the Bosphorus, it's hard to imagine it any more crowded.
*A special moment on our first night in Istanbul: as we were leaving the hotel terrace, we spotted a perfect crescent moon hovering above Topkapi Palace.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Snapshot: Istanbul
Ann and I are privileged to be spending three weeks traveling from Istanbul to Athens by boat. We'll post some impressions of our ports of call, and add some photos later. (This is a Blogger Mobile posting using Blackberry, so let's hope for the best.)
This evening, we're sitting on the terrace of our hotel on the European side of the Bosphorus, gazing at the Asian side. It's a rather narrow (maybe the width of the Charles in Boston?) and incredibly busy (an estimated 50,000 commercial craft a year) waterway, hugged by buildings on both sides.
Istanbul is immense - over 15 million people - and densely populated. Traffic is as thick and scary as Rome. There is advertising everywhere - not traditional billboards, but big murals, building hangings, and some creative 3-D (for Knorr soup bases, of all things) and electronic displays. Minarets and domes of 3,000 mosques pierce the sky all across the landscape.
Ramadan is just ending. Many shops are closed. The bridges over the Golden Horn (the natural harbor that separates the Old City on the European side from the financial district) are lined check-to-jowl by men (almost exclusively) with fishing poles enjoying their holiday.
We are in a Muslim land - sung prayers ring out from loudspeakers on the minarets of the mosques several times a day - but there is a strong Western sensibility. From our visits to key tourist sites, we learned about this city's gradual orientation toward the West, beginning with some of the sultans of the 18th century who abandoned caftans for jackets, and completing its arc to secularism under Ataturk's bold leadership after World War I.
Having only one full day in the city, we hired a guide and toured Topkapi palace, Hagia Sofia (the Byzantine church turned mosque), and the Blue Mosque. We skipped the Grand Bazaar (which sounds like one immense hustle) in favor of the Spice Market, which features curries, saffron, teas, honeycombs, dried peppers, figs and fig concoctions, and every imaginable spice, but also loofahs, pastirma (Turkish pastrami, which our guide called "spicy and smelly"), 18k gold bangles, and the ubiquitous hookahs and Turkish delight sweets. The most interesting come-on: a big yellow sign reading "Turkish Viagra 6 times in night" - "garanti," said the news article below.
I always keep an eye out for street food. Here, popular items include kastane (roasted chestnuts, like "castagne" in Italian), roasted corn on the cob, freshly squeezed orange and pomegranate juices, and doner kebabs (like gyros, but on Italian-style bread rather than pita).
Odd moment of the day: a small Japanese gentleman approached our guide at the palace kitchens in Topkapi and asked our guide to take his picture. I began to step aside, but it then became apparent that he wanted to be photographed with me - not because of my celebrity, but because I stand 6'6" tall and he came up to just below my sternum. This reminded me why I've not rushed off to visit Japan - I'm afraid I'd be regarded like Godzilla.
This evening, we're sitting on the terrace of our hotel on the European side of the Bosphorus, gazing at the Asian side. It's a rather narrow (maybe the width of the Charles in Boston?) and incredibly busy (an estimated 50,000 commercial craft a year) waterway, hugged by buildings on both sides.
Istanbul is immense - over 15 million people - and densely populated. Traffic is as thick and scary as Rome. There is advertising everywhere - not traditional billboards, but big murals, building hangings, and some creative 3-D (for Knorr soup bases, of all things) and electronic displays. Minarets and domes of 3,000 mosques pierce the sky all across the landscape.
Ramadan is just ending. Many shops are closed. The bridges over the Golden Horn (the natural harbor that separates the Old City on the European side from the financial district) are lined check-to-jowl by men (almost exclusively) with fishing poles enjoying their holiday.
We are in a Muslim land - sung prayers ring out from loudspeakers on the minarets of the mosques several times a day - but there is a strong Western sensibility. From our visits to key tourist sites, we learned about this city's gradual orientation toward the West, beginning with some of the sultans of the 18th century who abandoned caftans for jackets, and completing its arc to secularism under Ataturk's bold leadership after World War I.
Having only one full day in the city, we hired a guide and toured Topkapi palace, Hagia Sofia (the Byzantine church turned mosque), and the Blue Mosque. We skipped the Grand Bazaar (which sounds like one immense hustle) in favor of the Spice Market, which features curries, saffron, teas, honeycombs, dried peppers, figs and fig concoctions, and every imaginable spice, but also loofahs, pastirma (Turkish pastrami, which our guide called "spicy and smelly"), 18k gold bangles, and the ubiquitous hookahs and Turkish delight sweets. The most interesting come-on: a big yellow sign reading "Turkish Viagra 6 times in night" - "garanti," said the news article below.
I always keep an eye out for street food. Here, popular items include kastane (roasted chestnuts, like "castagne" in Italian), roasted corn on the cob, freshly squeezed orange and pomegranate juices, and doner kebabs (like gyros, but on Italian-style bread rather than pita).
Odd moment of the day: a small Japanese gentleman approached our guide at the palace kitchens in Topkapi and asked our guide to take his picture. I began to step aside, but it then became apparent that he wanted to be photographed with me - not because of my celebrity, but because I stand 6'6" tall and he came up to just below my sternum. This reminded me why I've not rushed off to visit Japan - I'm afraid I'd be regarded like Godzilla.
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