So Here's the Deal...

...I feel obliged to keep up the blog, but at the same time I have no interest whatsoever in actually writing lately. Why? Because I'm actually enjoying getting lost in the little moments, experiencing new sights, sounds and tastes, and just living "la dolce vita" as the Italians so aptly put it.

In short, while I love the fact that I can share my experiences with you, the people I love and care for the most in this world, I just don't have the passion to do it via this blog on a daily basis. I'm keeping notes for myself, and I'd love to sit down and have a drink with each of you when I get back to the States and tell you what I've been up to. But in the mean time, I'm not going to put any pressure on myself to write an entry for each day of my trip.

Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind at any given moment ;) Just check facebook if you want to know what's up and where I'm at!

Peace and Love Y'all!

Day 55: Athens

Now is when the real fun starts:

Today, I spent my time in Ancient Athens. I started on the Acropolis, home of the famed Parthenon. As with all European landmarks I have encountered, this visit was blighted by modern cranes aiding in the restoration of the building. Additionally, the crowds were very thick and at times quite ornery. Being the easy-going dude that I am, I waited patiently to ascend the hill, allowing those who thought that maybe the famous sights might vanish in the next ten minutes to go ahead of me. It seems that David Copperfield was not in the crowd this day, as the Parthenon was still there in all of its glory when I reached the summit. Let me back up a minute - first of all, you walk through these giant marble columns that once formed the gate of the Acropolis. To your right as you ascend is a smaller version of the great temple, which once served as the meeting place of the Supreme Court of Athens.

Once you are atop the Acropolis, the first thing you see, of course, is the Parthenon. It was designed very intentionally to sit at an oblique angle from the gates so that one can see it's full dimensions upon first sight. I marveled at the Doric columns (two things to note there - I now know the difference between Corinthian, Doric, and Ionic columns, and {as a tribute to my failed fifth grade spelling bee attempt} I can now spell column) and what's left of the friezes. Of course, the marbles that once adorned the temple are now in the custody of the British Museum and the bitter quest to return them to the Acropolis goes on. Even so, the Parthenon is a cultural icon and a testament to solid architecture and building.

To the left of the Parthenon is the (restored) Temple of Athena Nike. Athena, the goddess of victory, is the patron goddess of Athens and the source of its name. The temple itself is magnificent in it's restored beauty.

So, to summarize, there's lots of old buildings and an incredible view of the city from up here. All of it was very cool, and I spent a good three hours looking around the site.

Moving on, I walked down the hill to the ancient Agora (as a tour guide was telling her group that Agora means open space, hence agoraphobia....gotta love the Greeks). This is the site of the marketplace where Greeks gathered to work, shop and play. A lot of the philosophical movements of ancient Greece, including that of Socrates, were born here. So, this is where Socrates (So-crates a la Bill and Ted) came to pester his fellow Athenians with vexing questions that formed the basis of the Socratic Method. Just this fact alone makes the place amazing to me, but then there's also the whole best-preserved temple in Greece thing going on too. That would be this:

Behold! The Temple of Hephaestus! Pretty neat, huh? Check my facebook for the up-close and personal views (of the temple, not of my dumb ass). So, I walked around this bitchin place for a while, then over to the fully restored Stoa of Attalos. Here, they have a bunch of marbles and reliefs on display, all of which were very cool to check out.

All of this walking around and pretending to live in ancient times left me really hungry, so I walked further down the hill to grab another 1.80 euro gyro (so delicious and so affordable!), then into the flea market area. There's tons of shops here for whatever grabs your fancy (especially if you like Greek military surplus items, for some reason). Not much of a consumer these days, I took in the atmosphere but didn't purchase anything. The only thing that tempted me was a leather "satchel" (not a purse) because I want to be cool like Indiana Jones. But, impulse control worked and I left satchel-less.

A nap was up next, followed by gorging myself on some "veal" (definitely not veal, tasted and felt more like roast beef). Thus, I rounded out my night with some conversation with the local-folk, most of whom were probably trying to scam me. I stuck to my rule though - no going to bars with locals you just met on the street. My wallet and most likely my dignity will thank me later.

Day 54: Athens

Despite staying up pretty late getting acquainted with both my new roomates (Heather, from South Africa, and Patrick, from Northern Ireland) and the local brew (Mythos, a lager, and red wine that comes in a 1.5 liter plastic bottle for 3 euro at the corner store), I managed to drag myself out of bed early this morning to take a walking tour of Athens. Our guide, whose name escapes me, was a local Athenian and pretty cool dude. He looked like the Greek Jesus and spoke just as softly, which made for some problems early on in the tour. But once we got going and he adjusted his volume to compete with the traffic, it was a great hike. And I do mean hike - 4 hours of walking up and down the hills of Athens. It was completely worth it though, as he pointed out all of the major sights - from the Acropolis and the ancient Agora, to the Parliment building and the president's mansion.

We started at the temple of Zeus (what's left of it anyways), then proceeded to the stadium where the first modern Olympic games were held in 1896. It also happens to be the spot where the original marathon ended with Pheidippides dying from exhaustion after he told the king of the defeat of the Persian army. Today, it's still used for rock concerts and for the official exchanging of the Olympic flag from one city to another. We went from there to the presidential mansion, the Greek version of the White House (except that the president doesn't live there and he really is a socialist), just as the changing of the guards was taking place. Our guide told us about the whole presidential guard unit, and the Greek army in general. They have mandatory conscription here - 9 months of military service for every Greek man, unpaid. And if you happen to be among the few Greeks that are over 5' 10", you'll probably serve in the presidential guard. Sounds great huh? Except for the fact that while they are very prestigious, they are also the most brutal. They are actually allowed to hit their troops to condition them to stand in place for an hour at a time. So yeah, glad I'm not Greek.

Anywho, we continued on to Syntagma Square (syntagma means constitution), home of the Parliment building and the tomb of the unknown soldier. Again, more presidential guards standing about. We went down into the  metro station, which was built for the 2004 Olympic games. The dang station is a museum! Seriously, they found a whole bunch of artifacts from the early Roman era when they were excavating, and they are now on display in the station. It's really neat; they even have a cutaway where you can see the different layers of earth that correspond to different settlements. Someone's grave is right there, in the middle of all of it (body removed of course). It's definitely the weirdest subway station I've ever seen, but one of the most gorgeous, too.

In the square itself, there were protests going on...what's new? Greece is like France in that the people here are really involved in politics. It's the birthplace of democracy, after all. I think the protests are against all of the (necessary) austerity measures the government has just imposed to keep its economy from going under. See what you did, corporate America? Now a bunch of old guys have to take to the streets to defend their pensions.

Making our way past that temporary diversion, we came to a square that is home to two things: A really neat Byzantine church that I don't know the name of, and really cheap gyros. Seriously, 1.80 euro for a chicken gyro with all the fixins! Oh yeah, and a church with some really neat mosaics....

The rest of the tour consisted of the ruins of Athens - Hadrian's library, the ancient Agora, and the Acropolis. We didn't actually go in to any of these sights, so I'll give you a more thorough rundown after I visit them. All very cool though. The view from the Acropolis is ridiculous - you can see all of Athens! By this time, I was getting tired from all of the walking, not to mention that my guide was rather long winded. It's great to have some information, but it was a little too much for me. And, in the spirit of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", he delighted in telling us about how almost every word in the English language came from Greek. Oy.

I returned to my hostel for a much needed nap, and woke up in time to have some dinner (shank of lamb with pasta - it's a traditional meal here and very good), and cap off the night with some wine and conversation with my roomates.

Day 53: Travel Day

Just a few notes here:

1. Ataturk Airport in Istanbul is rally just a shopping mall with a bigger parking lot.
2. Turkish Airlines rocks - they serve you a full dinner on a 1 hour flight!
3. I'm in Athens now!!

Days 51 & 52: Istanbul

So the reason I put them together is this: nothing really happened on day 51 (which, by the way, was 22 October). I did my normal morning routine of coffee and people watching. The only interesting thing to come out of that was the man who accosted me (well, not exactly accosted, but he seemed pretty intense) when I was coming out of Starbuck, yelling: "Why you drink that? You're in Turkey, you should drink Turkish coffee!" No doubt he knew of a 'great place' to get some Turkish coffee. But I told him that I already tried it (I did) and that it wasn't to my taste (which it's not), and then I continued on my way to the park.

I was just through with my delicious Starbucks non-Turkish coffee when it began to rain. I walked myself back to the hostel, with the wind starting to pick up and the chill of autumn starting to kick in. The rest of my day consisted of drinking Turkish tea (so freakin good - apple chai is amazing) and sitting around the hostel, napping and talking with the other travelers. And for dinner, of course, Medcezir. By this time I knew all of the staff there, especially my waiter Ragyup. Every time I see him when I pass his restaurant to go up towards the main thoroughfare, I say hello and he asks me how my day is going. It's really nice to have a routine with local people I kind of know, and who kind of know me.

Okay, on to day 52. I took the tram as far as it goes in the Northern direction to the tip of the Golden Horn. This left me near the piers where ferries depart for Asia. I was tempted to jump a ferry and go over, just to add another continent to the trip, but then decided that it's still Istanbul (and therefore much of the same), and I've already been to Asia. So I sat by the Bosphorus Bridge, watching the fishermen do their thing and the boats ferry passengers across the strait. By the way, the Bosphorus Bridge is pretty impressive - it's nearly 5,000 feet long and connects two continents.

After watching life go by and daydreaming for some time, I walked over to Dolmabahce Palace (Dol-ma-bach-ie). It was home to the sultans from the 1850s until the Republic of Turkey was founded, and then it served as the first president's home and offices (that man - Ataturk, actually died here in the palace). The current president still keeps an office here for when he visits Istanbul. It was all quite impressive (check the pics on my facebook page), but I felt as though the tour was rushed. You aren't allowed to just wander around by yourself, you have to be on a guided tour. Every half hour or so they have a group go through. This leaves you little time to actually look at all of the fine furniture and art in the well-appointed rooms of the sultan and his wives. Really, you just get glimpses. So, yeah...not my kind of tour.

More apple chai capped off my day (I actually didn't "drink" that much here in Istanbul, just a glass of wine or two with dinner each night). I'm not a tea drinker at all, but I could sit around all day with this stuff and be happy and contented with my life. I'll definitely be figuring out how to make it when I get home so that I can get through the cold winter. My evening drew to a close while watching the moon rise over the hills on the Asia side of the city:

Day 50: Istanbul

So today I decided to investigate the modern culture of Istanbul. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to people watch. With my coffee in hand, I sat in the park and watched the interactions between school kids, business men, and tourists alike. As I sat there, the same group of school boys from a few days ago were sitting around in the park (apparently they don't actually go to class). Anyways, one of these guys, no doubt prodded by his buddies, finally approached me and started up a conversation. He could only speak fragments of English, but then I have no Turkish under my belt. We got through the conversation though, mostly by American pop culture references and hand gestures. They taught me some Turkish - like Tesekkür ederim, which means thank you. There has to be a Persian influence on the Turkish language, because it sounds very similar to another Persian dialect I've heard called Dari (the language of Afghanistan). I sat there and talked with these guys for a good two hours (all while wondering why they weren't going to class), and had a good time. One of the guys, named Ercan, even showed off his beatboxing skills....and needless to say, I have a new facebook friend!


In the evening, I sat down with the hostel manager to watch the local Turkish football club get trounced by the Porto (city in Portugal) team. The game was being held right down the street, near the manager's home. He left in the 50th minute so that he wouldn't have to deal with the traffic (completely understandable), and because his team was losing so badly. The game ended up 3-1, with Turkey's only goal coming in the 91st minute. Surprisingly though, there were no riots or even booing - apparently Turkish soccer fans don't even drink (that much)! It's always nice to see well behaved football fans, and it's even better to sit down, watch a local game, and cheer on the home team even if they don't win.

Day 49: Istanbul

It's pretty easy to slide into a routine here. That being said, I walked the mile or so to the Starbucks for my morning fix, and went to the park to people watch. Really, I ended up watching the stray cats (there are so many of them here) going up the trees and then sitting there while trying to figure out how to get back down before finally mustering up the courage to just jump. The muezzin's call was just beginning to start when I left my bench and headed down the hill to the Basilica Cistern. For all you Bachelorette fans, this is where Ali and Frank had their date when they were in Istanbul (please, really, don't ask me how I know that):

Magical...

Anyways, it's pretty neat to check out. It was constructed in the 6th Century CE under Emperor Palpatine (or Justinianus, one of the two) and was filled with water from the moisture farms of Tatooine (or the forests of Belgrade, again it's one or the other). Seriously though, it's the best preserved example of an underground cistern in Istanbul and definitely worth visiting. Nowadays, since we have plumbing and there's no need for cisterns, there's all sorts of koi and such swimming around in the water. You have to watch your step though, as it's very slippery from condensation that builds up on the ceilings and drips down to the walkways.

After my tour through the cistern (once my eyes adjusted to the sun), I walked across the street and over to the crown jewel of Istanbul, the Hagia Sofia. This 1,000 year old building has served as both a church (under Roman rule) and a mosque (under the Ottomans). It's been secularized now and serves as a monument to Turkish history and culture. It's fascinating to see both the Muslim and Christian iconography displayed throughout the interior. A lot of the original mosaics were covered in plaster when the church was turned into a mosque, but through careful restoration they are now seeing the light of day once more. Unfortunately, the altar area is undergoing construction currently, so there's an obstructed view of what should be the focal point of the nave. Regardless, the building itself is an amazing testament to architecture, and it has great views over the Golden Horn.

I spent the evening on the rooftop terrace of my hostel, watching the sun set over the Sea of Marmara and enjoying the beautiful day. And of course, I went back to Medcezir and had some more pide!