Christmas Travels Part 2

Since the last post, we have been to Izmir, Athens, and Rome. On the cruise, they sell "excursions" for every stop. The only time we actually prepared an expensive tour was for Israel, and that was well worth every penny. We went with a company that wasn't from the cruise, and maybe that made the difference. The name of the cruise was the "Holy Lands Voyage", and the only question I ask myself is why on earth did we stop in Izmir? I have a feeling that the only reason we stopped in Izmir is because the church of Ephesus is about 100 miles away or so- about 120 euro by taxi for round trip. However, the cruise sold a package probably in the $300 range for a tour of the highlights of Izmir. Our group, on the other hand, decided to just hang out in the city and maybe run into a few sights if we just so happened to do so.

On our way into the city, we met one of the thousands of taxi drivers there, and he offered us a tour of Izmir for 8 euros a piece. We reluctantly agreed, more because we just wanted something to do than actually see the sights. He called a few of his taxi driver friends, and we were off. I guess 8 euros is better than $300 to see exactly the same stuff. Now, I was in Peru this last summer, and I have made a few comments on the driving in Peru. However, in some ways, the driving in Peru doesn't hold a candle to the scariness of driving in Turkey. Those taxi drivers know the corners of their cars like the back of their hands, and at times, the back of their hands wouldn't even fit between their car and the next while speeding through the intersection avoiding the people in the crosswalk and avoiding other cars driving the exact same way. Our taxi driver didn't make us wear seat belts, but I became very faithful in remembering mine very early on.

Our drivers took us to some ancient ruins, a small castle, and a mosque. Before we entered the mosque, we had to remove our shoes and leave them outside. I am very fond of my shoes, and one of my only thoughts while we were inside was that one of the many children who were begging in the streets would come and take them, and I would be walking around the city for the rest of the day without shoes on. Luckily, I left the mosque with rubber under my feet, and leather over the top, and all was right in the world again.

Before we went to the mosque, we went to some ancient ruins and the castle of Izmir. Our taxi driver was also very conveniently our tour guide, but his English was very broken, so I only understood about half of the ideas he was trying to convey. The ruins were...well...ruins. I didn't really hear who they belonged to, how old they were, or what the real significance of them was, so to me, we saw a bunch of pillars, arches, and old rocks. Sweet. 

After we finished at the ruins, we went to the castle. This was a very small castle, but for how small it was, there was quite the bounty of people there. Most of them were begging children, and people selling souvenirs. When our taxi stopped inside the castle, a young child came up to the car door and opened it for me. I was very surprised, and just as I was saying thanks to this seemingly very well mannered child for the favor he hath done unto me, he said, "1 euro". My thoughts of how sweet this kid was vanished instantly, and I couldn't believe that he was trying to charge me a euro just for opening a door. Later on, we went up to the top of the castle, and actually walked on the wall. There was another kid there who did the same routine to everyone. First, he would tap you on the shoulder and say, " 'ello money", and I am 99.999...% sure that it meant that he wanted you to give him money. When you refused, he would follow you around pleading in whatever language the Turks speak. I will say, those kids have it down to a science: they don't really even need words because they do all the talking with their eyes. They are like puppies asking for scraps of food at the dinner table. When he had done this to about four of us, the rest of us caught on and just ignored him. When he picked up that everyone was just ignoring him, he started saying, "cheese" repeatedly, and really loudly. Finally, I thought, "well, why not", and I took his picture. He tried to charge me a euro. If I wanted a picture of a
Turkish model, I would have hired one.

I have very mixed feelings about the whole begging thing in general. On one hand, if Jesus were in Izmir that day, maybe he would have given each kid a euro until he didn't have any left and the shirt on his back was gone. When I see kids begging, part of me really does want to give each of them something until I have no money left, and no clothes on my back, but the other part, however, is that in a place like Izmir, if you give one kid a euro, the others will pester you relentlessly until they get their euro as well. Once one gets something, the others tend to expect theirs as well. Jesus says to give to the one who asks you, I acknowledge that fully, but when they are charging me for the privilege of taking a photo of them, or for holding a door open, my hand gets very comfortable staying inside my pocket.   Just one time, I would love to see just one of those kids just coming up to me and say something to the effect of, "excuse me, could you possibly spare some change?" If one went with that approach, I would be 100% more willing to pitch in. I am not saying that Jesus tells us to give only to polite people, but it certainly would make it much more appealing for me to give. I don't know if I made the right decision in Izmir, and I am not sure if I would do it differently next time.

After our guided tour, we walked around the huge market, and headed back to the boat.This market was huge; a city of it's own. One could easily get separated and lost in there, and spend hours trying to meet up with their party again. One of the interesting things about that market is that there were many coffee booths there, and they would invite us to sit down and enjoy a cup- right in the middle of the market- literally.



The next day, we landed in Athens. There were only two things I wanted to see in Athens; the Acropolis, and the Parthenon. Until the day of our little excursion, I thought that they would be on two completely different sides of town. When someone told me that the Parthenon sits on the Acropolis, I was blown away, shocked, and of course, really excited. One of the attractions of the Acropolis for me is that I am a big fan of Yanni. In 1994, Yanni released an album called, Live at the Acropolis. Guess where it was performed? It was really exciting to see the stage where it was performed. It is kind of sad, isn't it? There is so much Greek history in and around the Acropolis from centuries and centuries back, and all I cared about was the stage where Yanni stood 17 years ago. Even though I am not an ancient Greece history buff, I still enjoyed it thoroughly, and of course took a bounty of pictures. After the Parthenon, we walked around more, and saw the temple of Zeus, and the Olympic stadium used in 2004. On our way, we passed by a long line of souvenir shops, and up until that point in the trip, the only souvenirs I bought had been post cards. In Athens, I bought a small Grecian pot that was handmade and hand painted, and an 8x10 oil painting on canvas of the Parthenon. The real test will be getting that pot back to school in one piece.

On our last day of the cruise, the sea was very rough. Up until the last day on the ship, we had smooth, nearly perfect sailing. On that day for the first time, I, and many of my companions, felt very sick. The entire day, it was like a constant rolling motion that wouldn't let up. The only way to try to avoid it was sleep, but getting to sleep was near impossible. Despite countless motion sickness pills, it never seemed to get better. Normally when I feel nausea, I just roll down the window of the car, or in this case go out on the deck for some air, but the wind was so strong, it was hard to even walk in a straight line without getting blown away. At dinner, about 20 of us started out seated at the table, but one by one, we dropped like flies, and we finished with about 7 of us enjoying desert. When we woke up the next morning, everything was perfect again.

After we packed up and left the boat, we all took a bus to the train station in Savona. There, we all hugged, said our goodbyes, and all headed out on separate trains for different cities, countries, and for some, different continents. Our plan is for everyone to reunite in Paris for New Years.

For Devin, Eric, Josh and I, our next stop was Rome. To put it simply, I have completely fallen in love with Rome. We went to the Coliseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican museum, a few other famous museums, the prison of Peter, the Trevi fountain, and many more places. What is it about Rome? Maybe it is the history, the beauty, the atmosphere, or maybe something else. Whatever it was, it was an unforgettable experience.

I found everything we did  over the past four days to be very enjoyable, and so far on this trip, Rome is my favorite city. One thing that made it very enjoyable was that a friend told me about a Rick Steves’ podcast that gave audio tours for all of the places we went, so when we went to the Coliseum and the Forum, I had a free, enjoyable, and educational audio tour that was probably better than the ones that could be purchased for 7 euros or so. The Coliseum was the most remarkable to me simply because of its sheer size. The size of St. Peter’s Basilica was impressive too, but the fact that the Coliseum is still standing from the Roman Period, even after the people yanked out the iron supports that were holding the bricks together and melted them down (something I learned from my audio tour with Rick Steves). Another interesting fact I learned from my audio tour is that back in the days when the Coliseum was used for Gladiators and gore, there was a crank/pully system that was used to bring the warriors (or victims) from under the stage right up onto it, having no idea what else would be up there when they arrived. There were apparently over 80 “elevators” to bring them to their glory or to their doom. Another fact l learned is that the court where all of the action took place is a ratio of 5 long to 3 wide, thought to be the perfect ratio by Pythagoras (Thank you, Mrs. Mumper, for the poster on the back wall of your classroom). 

On the first day we were in Rome, we spent the day in the Vatican. We saw St. Peter’s Basilica,  the largest Cathedral in the world, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Museum. St. Peter’s Basilica was impressive and beautiful, but I could have sworn the whole time we were in there that the Duomo in Milan is bigger. Maybe it was the lighting. Even though it didn’t seem like the biggest to me at the time, that didn’t discount from it's beauty. It was indeed gorgeous. Right smack dab in the middle where the altar is, in fact right under the altar, Saint Peter is supposedly buried. The funny part to me is that in the little museum right outside, there is a relic with Saint Peter’s finger in it, and it looked more bronze than dead flesh. My question is did they hack off his finger right before they “buried” him there?

After St. Peter’s Basilica, we went to the museum, which turned out to be a maze that went straight into the Sistine Chapel. The museum was okay, but I must confess that it was so big that after two hours or so, everything started to look the same. We saw roman statues, Grecian pots, paintings, artifacts, and many other types of stuff. Finally, after about what seemed like all day, but what could have only been two hours or so, we arrived at the Sistine Chapel entrance. Maybe it seemed so long because we had been looking forward to the chapel from the start. Amazingly, there was no line whatsoever, which almost unheard of, so we just waltzed right on inside. The chapel was beautiful, but it didn’t capture me the way I was expecting it to. Don’t get me wrong, it did capture me, but it was more of a subtle growing feeling rather than the blow to the face I was expecting. That is, I was expecting to walk in and to be absolutely blown away instantly by the intricacies, the gold plated everything, the bling, and the fanciness. The chapel is bright and inviting, don’t get me wrong, but it is beautiful because of the work that went into it and its significance. When I say the work that went into it, I am talking about the years Michelangelo and the other famous artists put into it, and their representations of different Bible stories and the way they express them. The chapel is divided up into many different paintings called frescas, and each painter painted one or three. My very favorite painting is by Michelangelo, and it is covering the entire front wall of the chapelt, and it is called, “The Last Judgment”.  As a whole, it is a great painting, but the reason why it is my favorite is because of the way Michelangelo painted the dead rising. It excites me every time I think about the Second Coming and the dead rising, and I really enjoy how it is depicted. What makes the paintings by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel even more impressive is that Michelangelo was not known for painting; he was known for sculpting. When he was chosen to paint, he was reluctant because he didn’t know if he could do a good job in 2d. Even so, he made masterpieces on the walls and the ceiling as well.

I have taken up a new hobby; a new past time since we have been in Rome, and that is bartering. Yep, it's a real past time, or at least it is now.  I have found that it is actually quite fun to find something you want and argue and bicker for sometimes quite a while about what price you think is right to pay. Let’s see, since we have been in Rome, I have bartered for an umbrella, a new satchel because my old one is giving out, little souvenirs here and there, scarfs for Eric and Josh,  and we even did a little bit of bartering for our hostel/apartment arrangement. The way I see it, if you can’t agree on a price, especially when you are in a place like Rome, someone has the exact same thing for sale just down the way, and the worst that can happen is you just walk away. There are only two rules I have had to live by so far to make it work; patience, and having the ability to walk away. Usually they go hand in hand, because once they see you start to walk away, they usually call you back and give you what you asked for. If they don’t, you just keep on walking to the next shop or market, and start over again. Just this afternoon, there were a bunch of guys walking around selling little souvenir glass blocks with the word Rome in the middle with a picture of the Coliseum or the Vatican under. I thought those would be great gifties for family and friends, but I already had plenty of goodies and didn’t really need to get any more, but we had time, and we all decided that we would split the cost, which would be about a euro each if I did well. I talked to about four different guys, and none of them would go lower than 1 for a euro, so I just kept walking away. Finally, I was able to talk the very last guy into giving me 6 of them for 5 euros. Now we all have little gifties for our families, but to be honest, for me, it was more about the opportunity to negotiate and battle rather than the booty itself. I came back to the others, who had been watching everything from above (literally), with a huge smile on my face because I had had such a great time…and got a deal on little souvenirs. 

Rome is definitely a place I want to return to when I get the chance, maybe in 5, 10, or even 20 years from now, but I definitely want to see it all again. Of all of the cities we have visited so far; Milan, Genoa, Olympia, Athens, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Rome, Rome is my favorite. Now we are on the train heading out to Florence, which is where we will be for Christmas. I can’t wait to see what will happen next. Until next time…