Turkey: Laughter and the Call to Prayer

On Monday, we left Thessaloniki, Greece early in order to leave plenty of time for crossing the border into Turkey and finding our way to our hotel without our trusty GPS. Our route went near the coast, and through a more fertile and flat part of Greece than we’d seen before. Soon enough, we went through a checkpoint where our passports were checked and stamped and I thought we’d entered Turkey, but as it turned out, we had only left Greece. A little further along, we came to the border station for entering Turkey, and pulled up to the Passport Police booth. There we were told we had to purchase visas in the next building, so we parked and did that. Then back to the passport police, who looked at our passports and sent us on to the adjacent booth, where the man sent us to the other side of the booth, where we had to show our automobile paperwork. This is what they were really interested in. Finally, we showed our passports and automobile registration to one last officer and were finally welcomed to Turkey.

Our first hotel was in Tekirdag, a small city on the Mamara Sea. We had no idea where our hotel was, but spotted a tourist info booth on the waterfront pedestrian area, so we parked and went to ask. There was no one in the booth, but soon a gentleman in a suit came up and welcomed us. He spoke no English, but was very friendly, and when I finally managed to make “Hotel Rodosto” intelligible, he pointed the way for us. We had to find a bank to get some Turkish lira, so we walked into the heart of town, which was bustling with lots of people and small shops. With lots of pointing and gesturing, we found the bank, and on the way back to the hotel, also found a small market, baklava, and a fresh fish dinner; for Deane, it was very reminiscent of the Middle East.

Because we really did not want to drive into Instanbul, I hatched this plan to park at the airport and take public transportation into the Sutanahmet district, where our hotel was and where the sights we wanted to see were. This worked surprisingly well -- just as the traffic was getting unbearable, we turned off for the airport, found a parking place, walked across the street to the light rail, which we took to the tram to the Old City. After finding our hotel, our first stop was Aya Sophia, rebuilt in the mid 5th century. It has a huge central dome surrounded by half domes, and the supports are hidden in such a way that the building has a surprising openness. The church was Greek Orthodox, for centuries, but was converted to a mosque in 1453, after being plundered by Crusaders earlier. Ataturk declared the Aya Sophia a museum, allowing the figurative mosaics that were plastered over in the conversion to be restored. Some have been; some remain under the plaster. As in Ravenna, there are crosses, but no images of Jesus crucified.

We had planned to see the Blue Mosque the following day, but as we had time and it was open to visitors, we removed our shoes and went in. A large area in the front of the mosque was set aside for prayer; visitors remained behind barriers. Women coming in for prayer had a small screened area at the back of the mosque. The interior of the mosque, designed to rival the Aya Sophia, had a huge central dome surrounded by half domes, all covered with tile painted with flowers, or Arabic inscriptions, or other designs. We sat for a long time, soaking up the place and watching men come in to pray. As we were taking a last look, a man asked me to cover my head (this had not been requested when we entered) and I learned that my hoodie sweatshirt could double as a headscarf.

In Turkey, Islam is the predominant religion, so each morning we are awakened very early by the first call to prayer, broadcast over loudspeakers from each mosque. Our breakfast at the hotel was on the rooftop terrace, with a view of the Marmara Sea. All the hotels in Turkey, apparently, serve breakfast, and it is similar in all of them -- cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, fresh bread, eggs, and strong tea. What a wonderful way to start the day, much better than peanut butter crackers!

Since we had done the two things on Deane’s “A-list” for Istanbul on our first day, our second day there had some freedom. We first went to see the Sokullu Pasa Mehmet Mosque, right around the corner from our hotel. This beautiful little 16th century mosque on the side of a hill is famous for the beautiful tiles inside. We could not take pictures, but it was very beautiful, with white tiles painted in blues, greens and reds. The man watching the mosque also explained to us that there are four pieces of the Kaaba inside the mosque, which makes it unusual as well. This picture is from the rooftop terrace at the hotel.

We went past the Archaeological Museum, but since it had rained earlier, and was not raining at the moment, we decided to keep walking. There were four large school groups heading for the museum, and as we walked past, easily identifiable as Americans as we seem to be everywhere, the children called out, “Hello.” When we answered, a whole chorus of helloes swept down the line, each child wanting a personal response. At the end of the line, “Bye-bye,” and again everyone chorused their good-byes. We walked over the Galata Bridge, starting in Europe and stepping off in Asia, then came back and found our way to the Spice Market. It’s somewhat touristy, but lots of fun, and colorful and aromatic with piles of powdered spices of all sorts, along with nuts and dried fruits, and of course, Turkish delight in an overwhelming number of flavors. The vendors had great senses of humor and made us laugh out loud so many times that I started writing down their best lines so I could remember them. Here are a few of our favorites:
     “Hello! How can I take your money?”
    “Turkish delight very good -- tastes like hummus!” (It's a candy.)
    “I have poison for your mother-in-law.” (Don’t worry, Mom. Deane made it clear that he didn’t need any!)
    “Don’t you want to see my magic carpet? Give me some time -- it’s hard to fly!”
    “This shop is recommended by Obama!”

From there, Deane thought we could find the Grand Bazaar, so off we went through the maze of streets, down alleys and up stairs with the crowds of people shopping for linens, party supplies, cooking pots, gold -- everything imaginable. And then we turned a corner and were at the Grand Bazaar, which is a rabbit warren of covered shops selling antiques, jewelry, souvenirs, leather, and anything else that tourists might need or want. Deane led us through, saying, “Turn right! Turn left!” without any basis I could see as, once you’re in, there is no daylight or sight of an exit. But then suddenly, there we were out on the street.

We ate a variety of street food, which was fun and a real treat for me. We had a fish sandwich from a cart by the Galata Bridge, and little donuts drenched in sugar syrup. Later, as part of our dinner, we had gozleme, which they call a pancake, but I would call a flatbread, filled with cheese and spinach or potatoes.

We had dinner at a restaurant where there was a Sufi dancer each evening, since we realized that we would not have time to see as much of Turkey as we had hoped. I had mixed feelings about the performance. It was beautiful, but in the restaurant people were talking and laughing and not paying attention. The dancer performed three dances, accompanied by live music, first taking off his black cloak, then beginning to turn counter-clockwise with his right hand floating skyward, and his left hand down. At the end of each dance, he bowed to the musicians, and put his black coat back on.

There was so much more to see in Istanbul, but we needed to move on, so went back to the airport, picked up our car, and headed towards Eceabat, on the Gallipoli peninsula. It was a long drive, but we arrived with a couple of daylight hours to spare, so went to the Gallipoli memorial park, which is huge. ANZAC Day was coming up, so there were bleachers being prepared for the celebration there attended by thousands of people from Australia and New Zealand. We walked some of the graveyards, and felt the sorrow of so many parents and families of young men who died there, most of whom could not be identified. Even more moving was the monument with the quotation from Ataturk:
    Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
    You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.
    There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours...
    You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
    After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.

From Eceabat, we took the ferry to Canukkale, and the drove down the Aegean coast to Selcuk, where we have spent two days. The first day, we visited Ephesus, which once held the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world until it was destroyed by the early Christians; the city was rebuilt by Constantine. The highlight of the site (besides the well-preserved men’s latrine) is the Celsus Library, which once housed 12,000 scrolls.

Also on the site were the ruins of the Church of Mary, built in the 4th or 5th century, and site of the Councils of Ephesus, where church doctrine was debated and established.

From Ephesus, we went to the ruins of the St. John Basilica, which contains the tomb (empty) of St. John, who may have been the disciple, or may have been a later follower. Legend has it that the apostle John and Jesus’ mother Mary traveled together to Ephesus, where they both lived out their lives. The huge church is now in ruins.

Behind the basilica is the Isa Bey Mosque, built in the 1300s. The mosque and its courtyard were impressive, but more so was the Imam, who welcomes all visitors and is happy to show the mosque. There were some Greek visitors there at the same time as us, with some challenging questions, but the Imam would not discuss politics -- he believes that politics is not Islam, that Islam is about the heart. He also gave the best explanation we had heard about why women have a separate section in the mosque. I still don’t feel completely peaceful about this, but he gave some reasons that made sense, particularly in this culture.

One more note about Ephesus: In the Archaeological Museum, there were three statues of the Ephesus Artemis, a most remarkable goddess.

Today, we went to three archaeological sites: Didyma had a Temple of Apollo that was the most intact we’d seen since the Parthenon, enough so that we could really get a sense of the grand scale. So you get a sense, too, Deane is somewhere in this picture -- can you spot him? He's in the gap at the top of the stairs.

Miletos had a whole complex of buildings, including a large theater. I most like the Temple dedicated to Apollo Delphinus, which was the dolphin form of Apollo. With the heavy rains this spring, the open area in front of the temple is flooded, making the temple seem even more beautiful to me. The waters and the land around were hopping with little frogs and toads -- it was a good spring for the amphibians!

Priane was our third site, and I was beyond the point of absorbing much, but I do remember something about a heavily fortified city with a temple dedicated to Athena.

Tomorrow we’ll head to Pamukalle. I already feel that our time in Turkey will be too short, but Deane wants to be in Bulgaria by May 1st. Next week, I’ll let you know if we make it.

Efharisto, Greece! (Thank you, Greece!)

I love dogs, and have enjoyed watching the various ways they live with people as we’ve traveled through different areas: Very well trained dogs on leashes in France, gorgeous German Shepherds in Spain, more feral dogs as we went south in Italy. But the best dog experience was in Crete, where dogs seem to be treated as honored guests. Some have owners (i.e., are wearing a collar) and some seem not to. But all roam the streets together, sleep in the middle of the sidewalk if they please while everyone walks carefully around them, and all seem well fed and in good condition. I got to watch dogs enjoying themselves, as they obviously were, and having a good deal of autonomy even as they maintained friendly relationships with people.

But on Monday, it was time to leave the dogs of Crete and travel on to Santorini. We didn’t have a particular site to see there -- Deane’s son Greg had said that it was one of the most beautiful place he’d been, and that was enough to put it on the itinerary. Our hotel was quite a distance from the new port, and we weren’t sure how we’d get there, but when we arrived, Kosmos, the hotel owner, was waiting for us with a big sign reading “Villa Romantic.” We drove to the hotel, while he gave us an overview of the island, which is pretty small. Our room had a view of the ocean from the balcony, and a view of the town from the back -- much more beauty than we were expecting. Kosmos took us up the hill to town and dropped us off, and we spent the afternoon ambling around. We walked down to the old port, pushing through a gauntlet of donkeys at the top and bottom (the donkeys would give you a ride for a small price). We took the cable car back up, and wandered some more.

On Tuesday, we rented a car to see the rest of the island -- the prices were reasonable and it saved us riding the bus out from Fira, the main town, and back in again for each place we wanted to see. We had planned to see some hilltop ruins, but looking up at the height of the hill and thinking of the heat of the sun, we decided to pass on those. Instead, we walked for a bit on the black sand beach at Kamali, then drove on to the red sand beach -- the two colors of sand were from different colors of lava from the volcanic eruptions. A huge eruption in the 16th century BCE turned what was one big island into a caldera with the remains of the volcano and a ring of separate islands around it, of which Santorini is one. To get to the red sand beach required us to hike a ways, and it was hot, so we decided to view it from a distance. We drove north to Oia, and on the way found another beach that was deserted, so we walked that one for a while. In Oia, which is gorgeous but definitely aiming for a higher spending level than ours, we were supposed to hike out to where you could see the sun go down, but it was a long hike down, meaning a long hike back up, so we passed. I suppose you could say that we had a lazy day.

Wednesday, we took the ferry to Mykonos. The town is sleepier now than in the summer, and we had a quiet afternoon to buy our boat tickets to Delos, an island nearby, and walk the streets. We have seen roadside shrines all over Greece, ranging from mailbox-sized boxes on dangerous mountain roads to buildings so large we wondered whether they were churches. The small ones have, generally, a picture or two of saints or religious figures, holy oil, and perhaps other objects of symbolic value. In Mykonos, some of the larger shrines were within the town, and were open, allowing us to see inside. The shrines we saw were lined with pictures in the Greek Orthodox style of saints, Mary and baby Jesus, and others I don’t recognize. Some had candles and a donation box; others were just there with a chair or two.

Delos is the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, twins born to Leto from her liaison with Zeus. Hera, Zeus’ wife, was not pleased, so Zeus gave Leto Delos as a place to give birth in peace. The whole island was considered sacred, and perhaps the same is still true in a sense, as the whole island is protected, and access is strictly limited -- our boat left Mykonos at 10am, and we had to leave Delos no later than 1:30pm. On the way out, we shared the boat with 20 Korean microbiologists, vacationing after a conference, and they spent the whole hour taking pictures of each other in the front of the boat where we were sitting. We decided to join the fun.

Delos had extensive ruins, and once hosted a large, prosperous and multicultural population, where each contingent built shrines or temples for their gods and goddesses. So there was a temple for Apollo, one for Isis, one for the Assyrian gods, and so on, and a surprising chapel for Dionysus, the entrance flanked by two giant phalluses, which sadly had met the same fate as the headless statues in the museum. The island was under attack periodically, and finally succumbed to pirates in the early common era. We walked through as much of the site as we could, then returned to Mykonos for a leisurely lunch and a restful evening.

On Friday, it was time for the long ferry ride back to Piraeus, and time for us to resume our hard traveling schedule. The Greek islands were a beautiful and relaxing break midway on our trip, and I appreciated each moment that we had to slow down. Back in Piraeus, we walked to the parking lot to meet Nikolaos and pick up our car. I knew I was perhaps starting to get a little bit homesick when seeing him brought tears to my eyes -- it was the first familiar face I’d seen in six weeks. He had arranged to have our car cleaned for us, which it sorely needed, and added a bag of croissants for us to snack on. What a nice man and how lucky we were to meet him!

Saturday, we went to Delphi. Delphi was the home of the Oracle, and also “the navel of the world,” which Zeus discovered when he released two eagles in opposite directions to find the center of the world -- they met in Delphi. There was a huge temple dedicated to Apollo, which was where the Oracle spoke and answered questions, and treasuries for the power centers in the early centuries BCE. As in other places, wealthy people raised monuments as tributes to the gods. Down the hill from Delphi was a gymnasium and Temple of Athena, from which we had a superb view of all the ruins, once all connected in a bustling pilgrimage center, now connected again by tourist paths.

Our drive to Thessaloniki, with a view of Mount Olympus on the way, was supposed to be an easy one. We ended up on the toll road when we missed a turn, but that was fine. At a toll booth, the woman gave us a handout which seemed to suggest that there was roadwork, and we should follow the yellow signs to Thessaloniki where there was a detour. Fine. Then, a ways down the road, the highway ended abruptly, turning us around and sending us back the way we had came. We pulled into a gas station to ask, and the attendant said, “Follow him,” pointing to the car just ahead of us. So we did, and lucky thing we did, because he wound through back roads in counterintuitive directions, and started heading up into the Olympos Mountains. We just kept following him, even after the road turned to dirt, barely room for two cars, no guardrails, clinging to the mountain side. The steady traffic coming from the other direction let us know that this was, indeed, the detour. Eventually we ended up back on the toll road, but it was the wildest detour I’ve ever been on. Picture below to document Deane’s brave driving.

Thessaloniki isn’t a big tourist city, so we walked to the one attraction listed in our guidebook, the White Tower. We couldn’t remember whether it was the Byzantines or the Romans who built it, or maybe the Venetians, and there was no explanatory signage, so we just let it go and joined the crowds of Greeks out strolling on the waterfront on a Sunday afternoon. Deane bought me a bag of the first popcorn we’ve seen, but it was a little stale, so we sat and fed it to the pigeons (picture the scene in Mary Poppins--”tuppence a bag“ [Deane‘s addition] ). It was a fine afternoon, and tomorrow we head for Turkey, minus the GPS, which did not come loaded with maps for Turkey, much to my dismay. We will have to muddle through -- wish us luck!

Deane's Dream Comes True

Before we left Ancient Olympia (which really is the name of the town), we visited the archeological site, even though it wasn’t on Deane’s original list. It was quite impressive -- the track where the original Olympic games were held was well preserved, and there were ruins of temples, training centers, baths, and one prehistoric house on the site. Deane is still in awe that Plato and Aristotle visited the games there. The museum was even better, containing artifacts from the entire course of human history on the site. There were little bronze animals used as offerings, pottery of all sorts, marble temple facades, battle helmets and armor, and a beautiful statue of Hermes.

From Olympia, we drove across the mountains to the eastern side of the Peloponnese, coming out onto a view of the Aegean Sea. The GPS failed us here, having no maps of the area where our hotel was. So we navigated by signs, and found our way to Tolo, and the Hotel Nellys on the beach. Our room had a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean and this is the view. Best hotel so far!

For dinner, I had a plateful of a local fish, whitebait in English, which were fried and eaten head and all. I found that I didn’t really care for the heads!

Tolo was a base for us to visit archeological sites in Epidaurus and Mikenes. Ancient Epidaurus was once a major pilgrimage site for people seeking healing. Aesclepios, son of Apollo, was gifted with healing powers. People came to the site and went through ritual baths to prepare; water symbolized purification and resurrection. They then slept in the temple and waited for a dream, in which the God appeared with the cure. In addition, they had sacred meals, where people shared in meat offered to the Gods, keeping the Gods present with them in that way. Some of this sounds familiar, no?

Mikenes was the site of a fortified city built by the Myceneans around 1300 BCE. Not a whole lot is left of the city, but you could see why they chose the position -- you could see for miles around, and all the way to the Aegean Sea. The museum here had particularly interesting female figurines, and snakes, and some amazing gold jewelry and adornments.

We were sad to leave our beautiful room in Tolo, but had to move on to Athens. On the way, we stopped at Korinthos, where Paul once was hauled before the local officials, accused of violating Mosaic law. He was not in violation of Roman law, so was allowed to continue his evangelism in Greece. This beautiful mosaic of Dionysus was in the museum.

From Korinthos, we drove on to stay in Piraeus, where it is an easy train ride to Athens and the Acropolis. I have seen many pictures of the Parthenon, but it was quite different to step out of the Metro, turn the corner, and see it shining way up on the hill. Along with the Elgin Marbles missing from the Parthenon, the Temple was missing one statue, also in the British Museum -- this is an ongoing controversy. Seeing archeological artifacts in museums on the site where they were found has made me value of the importance of place in understanding what I see.

Big surprises for us as we were exploring cave shrines around the Acropolis hill were turtles, three of them, grazing the vegetation.

For fifty years, Deane has wanted to visit Crete, because of the Minoan civilization that once flourished there. On Friday, fulfilling that dream, we boarded the ferry for Crete. We left the car in Piraeus for a week while we ferry between three islands. We met Nicholas at a parking lot near our hotel when we were looking for parking for the week we’re away. He took us under his wing, and not only provided us a safe parking place, but gave us a tour of Piraeus and chauffeured us to the ferry. In addition, he recommended a wonderful (and reasonably priced) restaurant, where I had this amazing dish of lamb with lettuce (I would call it chard, and a lamb shank is underneath it) in an egg-lemon sauce.

The ferry ride was long, and we napped through it, arriving in Crete after dark. We spent our first day at the palace of Knossos, a major archaeological site from the Minoan era. The Minoans were prosperous and peaceful, in contrast to the Mycenaeans, who were also prosperous but warlike; the peaceful Minoan culture has been linked by some with their worship of the Goddess. The site was restored by Arthur Evans in the early 1900s, and he put so strong an individual stamp on it that I wasn’t sure whether what I was seeing really reflected the original site, or his ideas about the original site.

For our second day in Crete, we went to the Heraklion Archeological Museum, where most of the artifacts from Knossos and other Minoan sites on Crete are housed. The museum was undergoing renovations, so they had a temporary museum set up with a small subset of their much larger collection. It included enough examples to give some picture of the changes in art and society on Crete from the Neolithic era until about 1400, when Knossos Palace was abandoned. There were many highlights, but certainly the beautifully preserved statues of the Snake Goddess were among them.

We had an amazing meal at what we later learned is probably the best restaurant in Heraklion, feasting on grilled fennel pie and shrimp, stuffed grape leaves, and a beautiful salad. We passed the afternoon with a walk in the sunshine down the long jetty defining the harbor.

I have tried to concentrate on the sites we‘ve visited in this blog, but of course there‘s so much I haven‘t said. I watch as we drive through different places to see how the land is used, and in Europe it is used intensively and has been for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Agriculture is intensive, but in most places, in a way that requires a lot of care, as in the carefully trellised and pruned fruit trees. There also is an awareness of energy conservation, not only in the tiny cars (a Fiat model in particular looks, as Deane says, “as if I could step on it and crush it”), but in the huge solar panel farms in Spain, wind turbines in all countries, and here in Greece, little solar hot water heaters on almost every rooftop. I think we could learn a lot from this place that has been inhabited so long!

Holy Week in Italy and Greece

This week marked the end of our first month of travel and the beginning of our second. We are in the rhythm of travel, or perhaps I should say that I am more in the rhythm, as it seems to come naturally to Deane. This week we’ve moved from Italy to Greece, and right into Easter.

We had a second day in Rome, and rode the bus, picking up the gypsies at the stop after ours, the women with long skirts, flowered headscarves, and wildly colored and striped socks. They pile onto the bus with shopping carts and empty baby carriages. We all leave the bus at the train station where Deane and I pick up the metro, and I don’t know where they go.

San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome holds several significant relics: the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, for two, housed in two golden statues in a reliquary lifted high above the sanctuary, almost too high to be accessible to the kind of devotion that relics often inspire. I saw more people around the brass relief of the Last Supper, which housed a piece of the cross, and around the statue of St. John the Baptist.

From San Giovanni, we walked in the direction of the Coliseum. We could see something down the street, and Deane asked, “Is that the Coliseum?” I thought, “We’re in the one place in the world where we could ask that question.” The Coliseum is huge and iconic, and restored enough to give a sense of what it once was. I learned that Christians were probably not martyred in the Coliseum, contrary to legend.

From the Coliseum, we crossed the street to the Roman forum, a huge collection of excavated ruins of temples and public spaces, the intact columns and the variety of temples showing the religious diversity of Rome in the early common era, including a temple for Vestal Virgins.

From Rome, we drove to Sorrento to stay for three days, using our hotel there as a base to explore Pompeii and Herculaneum. From reading reviews on booking.com, I knew that the road to our hotel was very narrow, but even so, we were not prepared for what that really meant. Here’s a picture of Deane driving the last stretch.

Sorrento is on the ocean, so fresh seafood is on the menu. We had an amazing pasta with clam sauce, looking like not much, but tasting like the whole ocean.

The ruins at Pompeii are so extensive that it is overwhelming, acres and acres of houses and shops. There were temple areas defined with restored columns, but little left of the evidence of religious activity other than that. Many frescoes had been taken to the museum in Napoli, along with statuary and other objects, so what is left is a vast empty town, that nonetheless, through details like the cartwheel ruts in the road, marble-faced counters in taverns and stores, and the grinding mills and large ovens, had echoes of the human lives that once filled it.

We also went to Ercolano, where the town of Herculaneum was covered by the same eruption of Vesuvius that obliterated Pompeii. This was an easier site to visit, smaller, and with more left intact, even wood, which was carbonized but not burned from the intense heat. One house with amazing mosaics was the highlight.

Back in Sorrento, our hotel manager, Marco, told us that there was a procession that night starting at 3am, and that we should attend it if we could. The men in the procession wear white gowns with peaked hoods, which resemble the KKK gowns in the US. However, in this case, the white gowns represent the Virgin Mary in her search for her son. So we slept for a few hours, and started back into town at 2:30am. As we approached the town, we could hear the band start to play and walked faster. We found a chorus of perhaps 75 men singing, the leader singing a phrase or word (“Misere” was the only word I could make out), and the chorus singing a response. After a while of singing, the procession began, lit by torchlight. Groups of four men abreast came from the church, fully robed and hooded. The first groups alternated carrying crosses and carrying torches. Then, other objects from the crucifixion began to appear -- scourges, crowns of thorns, the rooster, lances, interspersed with crucifixes small and large. Then a statue of the Virgin Mary was brought out, followed by a full size crucifix. When the whole procession, which Marco said involved 2000 people, had passed, we followed the crowd to the main square, where we watched again.

Later in the morning, we left Sorrento for Bari to catch a ferry to Greece. We had time to walk a little in Bari, and we heard band music again. Following the music, we found another procession, this one with life-sized statues representing various events leading up to Jesus’ death, with bands in between. We watched for a while, then left for the ferry, where we spent the night in “airplane seats.”

One of the last things I was expecting to see as the ferry pulled into Patras, Greece, was snow-covered mountains, but there they were, in the brilliant sunshine. We had an easy drive to Olympia, Greece, where we had a lovely dinner with the first of, I hope, many Greek salads, and my first taste of taramosalata (a spread or dip made with fish roe), which was tangy and salty but not at all fishy -- even Deane, who had warned me that I would have to eat the whole order, liked it.

We knew that there was a midnight service in the Greek Orthodox church on Easter, and one of the shop keepers gave us more detail. Alone, the Patriarch enters the sepulchre in the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem to receive a mysterious fire, or light, which is then passed to all the churches and on to the congregants at midnight. The appearance of the light is considered miraculous. The arrival of Easter is celebrated with church, candles and fireworks. When we heard the chanting/singing from the church across the street, we went out in front of the hotel to see. The church was packed to the rafters, with people out the door and more coming with candles. There were constant fireworks from two locations near the church throughout the service. At midnight, the church went dark, and the fire was passed from candle to candle until all were lit. Then people began to come out of the church, and the fireworks became more dramatic. Finally, all the rockets had been ignited, and people left for home, shielding their candles as they made their way back to their cars. After almost everyone was gone, and the church doors were closed, the grandmother from our hotel made her way across the street with her candle, and we went to bed.

Today, Easter, we are having a quiet day off. Only a few restaurants are open, and the ruins here we had come to see are closed. We’ve had a long walk and a good breakfast, a nap and time to read. I feel very blessed, and hope that all of you reading this have had more than your share of blessings, too.