December trip part II--Konya - Peloponnesia

A four hour bus ride takes us from Cappadocia to Konya, home of Rumi, spiritual leader of the Sufis. We stay at the Dervish Brothers guesthouse, a warm, good vibes place chock full of colorful carpets on floors, seats, and walls. Our room has an actual water closet! You step up and over a ledge and into a small enclosed area with a toilet and shower. At dinner a lady makes me spice tea and I watch: a small handful of sage, a cinnamon stick, snapped into a few pieces, ~ 6 cardamom pods, a few black peppercorns, several whole cloves, maybe half a teaspoon of powdered ginger (she said you could use fresh), a little turmeric, and, to my amazement, two small dried red chili peppers. She said she likes to add more but was toning it down for me… When I tasted it I thought I could have had more as well. She added 2 cups of water and boiled the mixture a few minutes, then added ½ cup or so of milk, heated it, turned off the heat and stirred in honey. This is more an Indian concoction than Turkish. Of Turkish tea, we have had many, many small glasses--delicious--and so fitting in both cold and hot weather. It is a much simpler brew, tea leaves, steeped in a double boiler.

Only one night in Konya. We board an overnight train for Istanbul. Great sleeper car, with a compartment for four.

Istanbul, an old friend for us after our visit in 2002, our first family foreign adventure trip. We eagerly revisit the breathtaking Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque, the former 1500 years old and the latter 500. Camera batteries were dead at this point, so you will just have to imagine…

We also revisited the Grand Bazaar, but were not as smitten with it as we were on our first go round. It is more touristy and there is less bargaining.

Tom and Cam have an authentic hamam experience, and come back to the hotel just glowing. They had been steamed, scrubbed, rubbed, massaged and fed tea.

We take trams, a ferry, a taxi and the “tunel”--a short railway up a hillside built by the French in the late 1800s--getting around Istanbul. Everywhere that we have been in Turkey we have encountered efficient, frequent, easy to use transportation systems--both in and between cities. So civilized.

We board an overnight train to Thessaloniki, Greece. It is apparently not a very popular run--only three cars long. The sleeping compartments are all doubles, and have an odd configuration. Some you step up into and the bunks are on either side, others have upper and lower bunks and no seating area. At 1:30 am. we stop and are boarded by Turkish border guards who take our passports to stamp them and by customs agents who half heartedly glance at our bags. Some time later there is another stop on the Greek side. Here are Cam and Ben after being woken up by their mother after an interesting night.

GREECE

The train is 3 ½ hours late getting to Thessaloniki. Our plan was to board another train to Athens, but we learn there are no seats left on any train to Athens that day. Tom looks into buses and we dash, making the bus with seconds to spare. It is a six hour ride. No movie or attendant offering tea on Greek trains...

Reaching Athens, the bus driver appoints a lady to show us the way to the Metro station. She doesn’t speak any English but takes her role seriously and shepherds us along. So sweet! It is evening. We emerge from the metro at the foot of the Acropolis, lit up, towering over the sprawling city.

We have only one full day here, but walk the whole day and evening, tour the Acropolis and various neighborhoods, refueling periodically with souvlaki and “Greek coffee” (formerly known as Turkish coffee before the Turkish invasion of Cyrus). We are struck by the guidebook descriptions of of what “used to be” in a particular spot--details of buildings and statues, where only ruins are visible. In Lebanon we have either the standing object or ruins, but no wide knowledge of former history.

Here is a meat market we came across in our wanderings. The pigs definitely looked like they were smiling.

We pick up a rental car for the last leg of our trip--to the Peloponnese peninsula, southeast of Athens.

Momenvasia! An impossible hunk of rock accessible by a land bridge. UNESCO world heritage site, topped by a castle. Lovingly restored stone buildings, our hotel among them. Our room has stone walls, arched or wooden beam ceilings, a fireplace with a full bin of wood, tasteful rugs on the stone and marble floors, all modern conveniences, and a relaxing private patio with decorative stone work. The scenery--oh oh oh! The sea framed by incredibly picturesque hills. The beauty makes me weep! Well, that and knowing we have only two days left together. We hike along the city walls and up to the castle and old city ruins at the top, terrific views all around.

It was more magical timing: our day on the rock island of Momenvasia has sunny, blue, cloudless skies and temperatures up to 60°. The day we leave the clouds and rain move in. It is hard to leave, because it is so lovely and peaceful, and because it is our last day together.

Ben enjoying a pomegrantate in our hotel room.

We leave paradise for Sparta and Mystra, en route to Athens. Mystra, a world heritage site, is now assorted ruins on a hilltop 620 meters/2000 feet high, was a cultural center of the

Byzantine world, home to a school (of the day) of humanistic philosophy, and a flourishing silk trade, built in 1249 by the Franks before being won by the Byzantines.

Later, we are back in Athens, at a hotel near the airport. We had originally planned a third night in Momenvasia, but had to skip the third night when a flight schedule changed and required an early departure.

It was so nice to have a second Christmas season in Greece. In Lebanon, Syria and Turkey we had largely missed Christmas fanfare, but it was there in Greece in January, where Christmas falls on January 6th. Trees, lights, cookies--all good.

Goodbye to Ben at Athens airport

and later Tom and Cam and I fly Cyprus airlines back to Beirut.