Travels

Last published June 29?!?! Sorry. In my defense, I only just got regular access (in other words, more than two minutes at a time) to an Internet connection and working computer yesterday. Considering the number of job applications I have put out today before getting around to the blog, I am not going to feel guilty.

My countdown clock says it's been 20 days since I left for Greece. I'm glad someone is counting, because I could not tell you the day or date today. I know time in relative terms these days. It's been a little over a month since I left Texas, a little less than a month since I went to DC. As I now have no other date to attach meaning to, I will have to begin calculating time in terms of return from Greece. It is now 4 A.G.

I had planned to post pictures from my recent travels (four states, one district, two foreign countries, and counting), but the cables for my picture reader machine are currently MIA. I think I know where they are but am currently too lazy (and housebound-undermotivated) to find them. You'll just have to wait a day or two. In the meantime, here are a few passing memories or lessons from my travels.

Turkey is not a scary country to travel to for Americans, particularly when you stick to the Turkish coast in the height of summer vacation season. I say this for the benefit of those of you out there who think Turkey is a strange and exotic world where foreigners are the enemy (not true--they want your money the fair way, through capitalism), bombings are rampant (not true, though there have been incidents, the government publicly punishes any and all found threats), and that women must wear headscarves (only a few do, and almost none in western Turkey). Turkey is an interesting place and worth exploring. It's a rather large country with rugged, mountainous inland terrain, and lots and lots of coastline, both accessible and non. For the record, Turkiye is a Muslim country, though the vast majority of the population are secular and not particularly observant (again, especially in western Turkey), though mosques are certainly prevalent. It is vying for EU membership though it is (mostly) in Asia. Its membership application is stymied partially by the fact that Turkey is the Mexico of (almost-) Europe; its citizens form a goodly proportion of the cheap labor in Europe, especially Germany, including illegal immigrants and guest workers who are no longer treated as guests. If Turkey gains entry to the EU (against France's express wishes), it would be the first Muslim country to do so.

The Greek islands are full. If you wish to go there during the idyllic height of quiet summer sunshine and romance, find a time machine and go back about, oh, 25 years to the time of that Daryl Hannah movie. If you want nightclubs, swarms of fashionable (and smoking) people, and megayachts, go now. Right now. Nah, I mean nothing bad in my comments. I absolutely love the bustle of the Greek islands in summer, there is nothing like it in my experience. Fabulous people watching, great food (on local diet, not tourist diet--blech), amazing deep blue water. Sleepy islands, desolate, dull, and unfashionably damp or dry the rest of the year, come to life with out of towners in late July. Populations increase by a factor of 10 in some places. All of Greece and fair portions of Germany and England have relocated out to the islands for a few weeks of sun and fun. There is an entire industry catering to the 6 weeks out of the year when this happens. In the past I have seen the busiest and most popular of the Greek islands (the ones close to Athens, the far out ones with near-mythic reputations, like Mykonos and Santorini, the historic ones near Turkey, such as St. Paul's Patmos and crusaders' Rhodes). This time we went to one new island--Tilos. It has that pre-tourist explosion feel to it, where there's a single bus that makes the rounds of the island, goat trails that lead to isolated beaches for camping out (and whatnot), and very little to do other than walk/scooter around or lie on the beach. It was quiet, unassuming, slightly developed, a bit dull. When we hiked to the top of the town (Megalo Horio), a woman in the church asked where we were from. "We don't get many Americans here." She wanted us to come in and see her art exhibit. "You don't have to buy anything."

Everywhere we went, people spoke English or had information posted in English, both in Greece and in Turkey. In Greece this was just a matter of business. The Greek alphabet had been translated into Roman letters for purposes of commerce, primarily, because as I said, the Greek islands are the place to be in the summer, whether you speak Greek or not. In Turkey the use of English was a default second language. Many tourists there were from Russia, and the Turks did not speak Russian, so English it is. In one small town, three children followed David and I up a road. "Hello, how are you?" one asked quite formally and offered his hand to each of us. After he received David's response to "What is your name?" the boy repeated for his friends (many times) "My name is David." The kids were quite pleased to accompany us up the mountain and were more amused by our attempts at Turkish. When in town, especially Marmaris and Bodrum, it became a bit of an amusement when people thought we were something other than American. Never did we encounter any animosity, either personally for our behavior or for our homeland. David pointed out to others on our boat that Turkey likes the USA and the USA supports Turkey, so maybe it had little to do with us personally. Still, I like to think it was because we were well behaved tourists.

I feared that I might have missed out on what was going on in the rest of the world while I was gone. While on my boat adventure I found out two things from the local newspapers: the results for the Turkish election and the marriage status of an over-the-top Turkish transsexual tabloid star. Asked about the latest haps in the US of A upon my return, Ben informed me that Lindsay Lohan's career is over. I guess this means I did not miss much.