Izmir
Turkey
08 November 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

I have decided on a final itinerary for my remaining time in Turkey: Selcuk – Izmir – Bergama – Canakkale – Edirne – Karacakoy – Istanbul. Now I need to pick up the pace and cut back a bit on my strolling and wandering.

The first decision is how much time to spend in Izmir (pop 2.6 mil). I decided, very little. Big cities have become less attractive to me. But Izmir, the ancient city of Smyrna, is known for its large Jewish community and I did want to see the old synagogues.

Selçuk
Turkey
06 November 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

After Ephesus, I took the day off to wander around Selçuk.

I found the Citadel, the Basilica of St John,* the remains of a Roman aqueduct and a colorful Market.

I took a bus to Çamlik to wander around the Steam Locomotive Museum.

Of course, I wandered into one or two pastry shops.

Ephesus
Turkey
06 November 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

The "usual suspects" and several "unusual" ones are associated with the ancient seaport known as Ephesus:

Anatolians, Ioanians, Lydians, Persians, and Romans, and historical figures Androclus, Croesus, Herostratus, Alexander, Nero, Hadrian, St John, Virgin Mary, St Paul (Letter to the Ephesians) and Emperor Justinian. Quite a group!

I don't know how many tens of thousands of tourists visit Ephesus each year. I assume that many come for the day from a cruise ship docked at Kuşadasi. They come in groups with a guide who points out the many historical influences on what the guidebook calls "the best preserved classical city in the Eastern Mediterranean." Greeks, Romans, Christians, Jews, Muslims - all played a role in the history here.

I do not dare to describe the ruins of Ephesus. They are extensive and of course include all the "usual suspects" to be found in a classical city: walkways, columns, gates, fountains, temples, a gymnasium and baths, and a grand theatre that seats 25,000 people: each successive range of seating up from the stage is pitched more steeply than the one below, thereby improving the view and acoustics for spectators in the upper seats.

{C}

Şanlıurfa

Turkey

October 24, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

The bus ride form Mardin to Şanlıurfa (178 km - 110 mi) was a straight shot from east to west across the agricultural plain of Upper Mesopotamia. Olive trees, pistachio trees, apricot trees, cotton and corn fields are all irrigated with the river waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. As I travel across "the land between the waters," my university course, Ancient History 101, comes alive.

The area around the city of Urfa (pop 463,000) has been a battleground for more than three thousand years: first the Hittites in c.1370 BCE, then the Assyrians, Alexander and the Macedonians, Aramaeans, Persians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Armenians, Byzantines, Crusaders, Seljuk Turks, Saladin and the Kurdish Ayyubids, Mamluks, and finally the Ottoman Turks. Urfa was renamed Şanlıurfa (glorious Urfa) in 1984.

Şanlıurfa is a place of history and legend:

Mansfield

Louisiana

October 28, 2008

Have you ever felt the ground vibrate beneath your feet?

I don't mean the sensation you felt when you were window-shopping at Bloomingdale's on Lexington Avenue in New York, and you heard the subway train rumble up towards The Bronx.

I don't mean the sensation you felt when you were sipping a latte in Union Square in San Francisco and the workmen nearby were using noisy pneumatic drills to repair the cable car tracks.

What I mean is something like the vibration I felt when I was walking the streets surrounding the Great Synagogue in Budapest. In 1944, Hungarian Jews, by the thousands were herded into this small area, barely able to survive, until, they knew not what awaited them, they were transported to their final destination. As I wandered these same streets in the summer of 2000, I could feel the earth shudder.

Once more I felt the earth come alive as I strolled the Civil War Battlefield at Mansfield, Louisiana.

{C}

October 27, 2008

Here's a short quiz:

What is the correct pronunciation for the following places?

• Shreveport
• Bossier City
• Louisiana
• Arkansas
• Natchitoches, Louisiana
• Nacogdoches, Texas

Cato Parish
Shreveport, Louisiana
October 27, 2008

Bon jour mes amis,

"How…do…you…pronounce...the...name...of...your...city?" I asked the Continental Airlines agent on the tarmac of the Shreveport Regional Airport. (I anticipated that I would be obliged to modify my speech as well as adjust my hearing as I made my way into the deep South.)