I am very lucky to have visited Turkey and Greece this year. I have learned very much from my Professors and from my peers that attended the trip with me. I am grateful to you all.
     I think what I learned about the most is the enlightening nature of Islam. I enjoyed very much hearing the call to prayer throughout the day and I found most Muslims to be very jovial and willing to engage in conversation about their faith. I think that there is much spiritual health to go around in the country of Turkey. There was definitely a peaceful and open kind of vibe there. i will be returning to Istanbul in the very near future.

 M. Calabrese

                          The two picture above show some of the ceiling in the beautiful Blue Mosque.
                                                      Above is the Church of the Holy Apostles.


 These two mosaics were from the Church of the Holy Apostles at the Aghora in Athens.
     Here is a statue of Emperor Hadrian with his head missing.

     M. Calabrese

Almost, almost done, til next year in Belize...

Here, a bit more from our last day in Greece.  More of that village we drove through getting to Delphi--here, um, maybe local cheese...


Some more of the local produce I wish we'd had time to get out and sample.  Honey and ouzo, looks like.


And here, that bus encounter--though it really needs a video version--I'm sure Steve has one.

We stopped on a nice hill outside that village.  The girls hold up a newspaper, good if we ever need to validate the date, in one of those 22nd century Cold Case mysteries...


And Beth just hanging out, near these yellow flowers, that I still don't have a name for.  But more than sightly, the flowers also filled the whole hillside with a sweet smell.  (Sadly, guides in non-rainforest areas tend to not know all the botany I bug them about).


And another plant, not quite as warm and fuzzy looking...


The view, again...


Our late lunch, after we stopped at yet one more souvenir store...This is my Greek sampler platter.  All swell.  I had/have no yearning for that cheeseburger and fries.  Miss my Turkish olives and yoghurt for breakfast.


Then, after 3 hours more on the bus, with me furiously pounding my laptop, to finish the play, here's the smiling, slightly puzzled Xerox guy, making our 35 or so copies of 10 pages...

One last glimpse of the Parthenon, up there on the hill, as we raced from copy-shop toward dinner in downtown Athens...

Passing all sorts of nice stores.  A nice thing to do with gold--dip olive leaves in it...

A movie poster for Prometheus, though not quite the Greek story...

And a rose, for our last hours in Athens...

later, bob

Ok, one more kind of geeky post, which I promised not to do the last time I went on and on about stuff in a museum (the one on Santorini).  So, this is just a post about a lot of old broken pottery and statues, and corroded metal.  Skip this, if you only like shiny new things.

The museum is a little ways down the hill from the temple complex.  Nice facility, though infested with dangerous animals...


Inside, here's a clay figure from the Mycenean era (I found my notes!).


And a bit of blue, aged bronze, probably also about 2700 years old...


Figures of gryphons, 8th-7th century, BCE and a small horse...





Helmets from the 7th C BCE...they don't look all that comfortable.



A large sphinx...

And then a series of friezes, horses from the south side of the temple...




and images from the Olympian gods battling the giants from the north (notice that expression of surprise)...



Two larger statues, in an older style, with the stiff expressions (Lee needs to tell us about all this change in sculpture)...


A ceramic plate, I believe telling part of the story of Apollo, being told by the raven about a lover betraying him...


Here, just to note that most of what the archaeologists work with are fragments like this.  But notice, still bits of color...


Again, look at the traces of color, the blue eyes of this lion...



Dogs who still look friendly and eager...







Nearby, some ferocious critter...



And equally scary, those classic abs that seem impossible to replicate, no matter how many crunches I do...


A battle against some serpent, with a centaur on the far left...





and then back outside, looking down the mountain...




later, bob

Alas, I skipped this...After the morning visit to the Parthenon, the afternoon/dinner took us a bit out of Athens, to see the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.  [I was especially glad to see this, since on our last trip to Athens, I spent the whole day looking for a Xerox machine, which, strangely,was easier to find in a village in Fiji than in downtown Athens.]



Legends say that this is where Aegeus plunged into the sea, thinking his son Theseus had been killed by the minotaur--thus, the Aegean Sea.


And this place was mentioned by Homer, as well.




What I didn't find, since we can't these days clamor over all the ancient stone, is the place where Lord Byron scribbled a bit of graffiti on one of the stones.  I guess that is better than taking the whole temple back to London or Berlin.  And Byron is considered a national hero in Greece, for his role in their war of independence from the Ottomans (the Turks, that other place we just visited). [I kind of like the Byron-as-vampire tales--even used one such novel in a class.]


And then back to the harbor, for a nice, sunset dinner...

[and best, I found a cup of real coffee, at least a cappucino, across the street, so I could think enough to start writing the @#$$+!! play.]
later, bob

We finally arrived at Delphi, the site of the oracle, that voice of prophecy that echoes through so much of Greek mythology.  We met our local guide, who I recognized from our previous trip--she is rather a celebrity, the force behind much of the expansion and recovery of this site for the public (she has even been in a History channel show about Delphi).  Wish I remembered her name...Someone?


She led us through the lower levels of the temple sites, before letting us explore on our own.  As before, she talked about how difficult the choices archaeologists have to make here--to reveal one layer of culture, often means burrowing through other layers.  So some of what is here has been opened for us.  But the whole valley had, at various times, been part of the oracle's complex.

Here, a bit of one of the 'treasuries,' the place where a region/king would donate/display his donations.


And here, the stone currently placed to represent the omphalos, the navel, the center of the world....


Here, our guide shows us a book of overlays, to help try to envision what this might have looked like, once upon a time--including all the colorful paint the Greeks used on what they considered too-plain marble.


Some views down on the temple of Apollo, and the valley beyond...






Here a theater in honor of Dionysus, curious since Dionysus and Apollo can sometimes be seen as opposites...



Me...

and Michelle...

Some of the columns they have restored...

A block of stone.  But notice the number.  Pretty much every rock here has been numbered and accounted for, as the pros continue to piece it all together.


And here a cypress tree, also associated with Apollo, through the tale of Cyparissus...

A curious rock wall, pieced together, so many thousands of years ago, without mortar, just cleverly fitted...

An accidental juxtaposition, of column and tree, showing, perhaps, what the columns first represented...


and here the stone, near the entrance to the temples, where by legend perched the Delphic Sibyl...

Finally, a tree that refuses to go away.  Always life.

later, bob