“What at this moment is lacking?” ~Zen master Suzuki Roshi

Bumping Into My Stereotypes

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:21:23 -0700

Though I’ve certainly lived - and travelled long enough to know better, I still catch myself surprised to find that a place like Marmaris, Turkey, is not a dusty, medieval almost middle eastern place, but in fact a beautiful modern resort city. And so as our slow boat from Rhodes entered Marmaris’ harbor, I also encountered my own stereotypes.
Turns out that Marmaris harbor looks a lot like San Diego with its rows of white masts and docked cruise ships.
(There were the wonderfully unique Turkish gulets, though, low slung wooden boats with lovely interior cabins popular for cruising up and down along the coast.)
Because I’d been concerned about traveling on our own as women in a predominantly Muslim country, I’d been corresponding with Lale Aran, Rick Steve’s travel guide in Turkey, to help me plan our tour. But she was not available to lead it. We would spend the next nine days traveling up the Aegean coast in our own van with a full time guide Lale’d assigned us named Secil Gundogdular, and I was a little concerned about that, too. I hoped this Secil was good.
I saw a sign with my name on it just outside the sliding glass doors in from the passport office held by a beautiful young blond woman in a knee-length purple dress. “Welcome to Turkey!” she smiled, in perfect English. “My name is Secil.” (pronounced like Rachel, but with an S), “and this is our driver Suat. He doesn’t speak much English, but...” and before she could offer his help he was loading our luggage into the back of our beautiful van with bucket seats, big windows, air conditioning and a small refrigerator that held an unending supply of cold bottled water. After schlepping our luggage in and out of planes, trains and automobiles for the past two weeks, this was going to be lovely!
As we set out through rolling pine covered mountains, Secil stood at the front of the van before a large map of Turkey, and welcomed us to her country. She’d majored in American Studies at the university in Izmir, her hometown of 4 million people, and then completed the extensive certification Turkey requires of their guides 12 years ago when she fell in love with giving tours of her country to Americans. If you’re ever in Turkey, Secil is your woman.
Our first stop was, just about 1 1/2 hours north of Marmaris in Bodrum where we had a lovely lunch outdoors next to a long pier beside a line of polished gulets flying their Turkish flags.
Not to say that Turkey isn’t rich, rich, rich, in history. The first place we visited was Bodrum Castle built in the early 1400’s by those same European crusaders we’d heard about in Rhodes, the Knights of St John. (While the Knights started out in Jerusalem around 600 AD nursing pilgrims to the holy land back to health, they’d later become a military force that was not quite so saintly.) They used the stones and marbles of the Mausolem, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, to construct the castle with its English, French, Spanish, Italian and German Towers.
In addition to the castle’s significance as a historical landmark, it now also houses a unique Museum of Underwater Archeology. Because this area was a major shipping crossroads of the ancient and medieval world, a many ships also sank here. The museum displays some of the contents of these ships sunk over the millennia including amphoras used to transport goods like wine, grains or anything else. Secil said that many

Medieval Rhodes

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:47:50 -0700

We arrived late, and the long drive from the airport past expansive modern beachside resorts to the medieval city of Rhodes felt indeed like ages.
Outside the massive city walls, our taxi drivers informed us that the city streets were closed to traffic, but we could walk in through this side gate, then go straight, then left at the fountain, then right, and there would be our Kamelot Hotel. We rumbled and schlepped through cobblestone streets in the dark, pulling our luggage behind us, and wandered. Street merchants closing up along the way directed us through the labyrinthian narrow streets where we finally found the small door to our hotel.
“Oh, come in, come in. You’re so late. You should have called and I would have sent a trolly for you!” Oh. Opening the door wide, Nina, our lovely host and mother hen welcomed us into her charming small hotel built into the medieval walls of the city. She led us up a steep set of open stairs to a beautiful room for Laurel that looked like a honeymoon suite.
Lovely rooms for the rest of us were up another set of stairs. A small window beside my bed looked out over the rooftops of the old city to the minaret of the mosque built by Suleyman the Magnificent 500 years ago to commemorate his victory over the crusader Knights. I felt like a princess in a castle.
Despairing that we had only the next full day in Rhodes before moving on to Turkey, Nina provided us with a map and guidebook, highlighting the must-sees, and things we’d have to save for our next trip. And after her generous breakfast, we set out to explore.
Sitting just off the coast of Turkey, Rhodes is a great example of the eternal push and pull of history. Once its own powerful independent state with the greatest Navy in the Aegean, it was also once a part of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires before finally becoming a part of Greece in the last century.
Beginning in 1309, it was the stronghold for the Knights of St. John, the crusaders who went on to claim Constantinople for Christianity, only to be pushed back and defeated by Suleyman in 1522 when the Ottomans took over the island.
The Street of the Knights, one of the best-preserved medieval relics in the world, is just what it says: a long cobblestone street lined by inns for each nation represented by knights. Built in the 1500’s, they are still being used as banks, offices, galleries and museums.

We continued on to the Palace of the Knights which was actually destroyed in the 1850’s, but rebuilt in the 1930’s to accommodate Mussolini.

We also got our first real taste of the Ottomans at the small Museum of Islamic Culture.

...And walked down to the water to see where the Colossus, one of the 10 wonders of the ancient world, once stood astride the narrow harbor. Now, a doe and buck atop pillars mark where the Colossus once (maybe) stood.

After lunch, we took the Land Train for a one hour tour through the New Town as well as more ruins of the ancient culture.

As with the other Greek islands, it was hot, even in September, and so it felt good to return to our cool hotel rooms for an afternoon nap. I learned that I definitely want to spend more than one brief day in Rhodes next time. In my planning, I’d treated it as a brief transition spot to get us to Turkey, but Rhodes is s a beautiful place rich in history and culture.
Nina recommended a wonderful restaurant just around the corner and up the street for dinner. Appropriately, we enjoyed our last supper in Greece outdoors in Romio’s garden with our souvlaki and spetsofai.

If you’re ever in Rhodes, be sure to stay with Nina at her Kamelot Hotel. She’s created a charming place right within the walls of the old city, and will make your visit special.

Do You Know the Way to Rethymnon?

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 22:47:11 -0700

I was nervous about this part of the trip. The rest I’d worked out carefully with the help of our Greek or Turkish travel agents. But I’d decided to depend on my very own planning for a 2 night stay away from the big city, and that turned out to be the seaport town of Rethymnon.
Getting there involved taking a taxi from our hotel to the bus station in Heraklion, then a bus north along the coast to Rethymnon, and finally a taxi from the bus station to the Hotel Ideon. No big deal when I’m traveling by myself, but I’m a little nervous when taking others a little off the beaten path, no matter how much research I’ve done.
I needn’t have worried. Our Hotel Ideon, was modern yet cozy and right in the heart of the harbor and within easy walking distance to the old town and its ancient sights. Our first meal was at a cafe that sat literally right above the shore so that we could look straight over the railing and down through the clear aqua sea.
Our first morning we walked practically next door to the Ventian Fortezza, the massive fortress built under the Venetians (by Cretans) in the 1570’s to protect their island from the invading Turks. It seems perversely comic that with all this effort to build a massive fort, the Turks simply went around it and invaded the town from the other side.
It was fascinating to explore the old buildings , the mosque, chapel and underground tunnels in the morning, but by afternoon it was hot. After lunch in the village, we enjoyed spending the hot afternoons hanging out in the lobby, the french doors wide open to the sea breeze.
Everyone seemed ready after several days of busy travel to just have a little down time to relax.
We went out for dinner, and enjoyed coming back to the hotel to watch a group learning the traditional Greek dance in the restaurant lobby.
The next day we enjoyed visiting the labyrinthian streets of the old village where some of us picked up some of the polished worry beads made of olive tree wood that so many Greek men seem to occupy themselves with in front of their shops. Perhaps a good souvenir for our sons.... And had a fabulous dinner at Samaria after making our way through the “shark infested” streets filled with barkers luring you to their tables along the way.
Late Sunday we returned to the bus station where the no nonsense “bus nazi” behind the window only gave us tickets with the right change and request. Hanging out in a bus station in a relatively small town is a great way to feel at home in a strange place.
Back in Heraklion, we took taxis to the airport there to hop a small 20 seater plane to Crete. The flight attendant was a lovely young woman who read safety instructions in several languages. We think one was English, though the only words we managed to understand were “Ladies and Gentlemen.....”

Meeting Laurel in Ancient Crete

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:22:26 -0700

By the time we arrived at the Galaxy Hotel in Iraklion late Thursday night, Laurel, my life-long friend and the final member of our tour was there waiting for us. Yea! Our group was now complete.
The hotel was gorgeous, but also very “corporate” and in the middle of the big, urban capital city of Crete, so I was glad we would stay just the one night for the “must see” sights of Knossos and the Heraklion Archeological Museum.
Storing our luggage at the hotel, we walked to the temporary housing for the Archeological Museum. (It’s once and future home was being remodeled.) That was okay, because it was filled with the most significant remnants of the very rich ancient Cretan culture back to 3000 BCE.
The Minoan culture of the island was remarkable for the fine nature of its art, pottery, frescoes, bronze and later gold jewelry. Here’s Laurel and Terri demonstrating for me the juxtaposition of the magnificent golden bee scarab on display in the case behind them. (We got in trouble for this. “No posing!” ...and we’re really all such good girls.)
(Actual bee scarab.)

Another highlight was the Phaistos disc, believed to be the first known writing -- which has still not been deciphered.
The Minoans had an amazing civilization, steeped in religion centering on female divinities, and influencing other cultures as far as Egypt and Britain, suggesting a naval empire. And they created extensive palaces built on a grand scale. In fact, they say that the Minoans created the first European civilization, long before culture reached the continent.
Leaving the museum, we took a city bus to the palace at Knossos, thought to be the place of the mythical labyrinth where Theseus slew the legendary minotaur. The scale of the place was huge, with samples of ancient frescoes restored by the team of Sir Arthur Evans, the British archaeologist of the late 19th Century. He directed not only extensive renovations of what had been only a mythical memory, but also attempted to rebuild and re-create portions of the palace and art that make the site as much about him as the Minoans. And frowned upon in archeological circles.
Our guide Nichol, who we hired at the entrance, made all the difference. One of the things that amazed me was the evidence unearthed of indoor plumbing she pointed out -- clay pipes that date back to 1500 BCE -- 3500 years ago!
I have tended to think of civilizations as having steadily advanced since the days of the cave man. This trip brought me many aha! moments, especially here in Knossos, demonstrating that very rich and “civilized” cultures were thriving long before the sometimes primitive cultures that followed. Civilization looks more like a wave of highs and lows than a diagonal upward line. We, too, shall pass.

Beautiful Oia

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:32:25 -0700

Our ferry to Heraklion, Crete, didn’t leave until late in the afternoon, so we spent much of the day in beautiful Oia at the top of the crescent moon that is Santorini.
If you’ve seen photos advertising a trip to the Greek isles, they were probably pictures of Oia.