Comments on: Why on earth go to Turkey?

By: Tom Young

Tom Young — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:59:28 +0000

That sounds like a awesome trip. I would love to do something like that. Turkey is one country I’ve never been too. Spent most of my time searching the left overs of WW2 in the Pacific areas. Amazing what can be found just walking along a coral reef.

So glad you had a wonderful time

By: kristiw

kristiw — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:54:51 +0000

Thanks for blogging about the fantastic Turkey/Greece tour on the Almira. It was quite possibly the best vacation of my life and very inspiring and our little gang of tourists became fledgling archeologists by the end of the trip. We finding all sorts of stuff… coins, pottery, new plant life, other alphabets, porcupine quills…., and the trip changed my thinking to: it would be nice to have a temple to Aphrodite or Apollo in the backyard…. I had some of the same fears about Turkey, but upon arrival the earth energy felt great, the people were so nice and helpful and everything had an air of the mystical. It was easy on the gulet to expect great things every day, like newly uncovered archeological sites, or when this group of sheep just exploded out of this one temple, or the pod of baby dolphins, or this giant snake at one of the last big sights that seemed to jump from ancient wall to ancient wall or the baby owl on top of the column at Knidos. I am not sure I am fully back from there yet!!

By: M.G. Zarocostas

M.G. Zarocostas — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:49:11 +0000

I can tell you why many people asked why you would go to Turkey: the Turks have a long history of genocide, oppression (ask any Greek or Armenian), persecution of artists/writers, and civil rights abuse. In fact, the famous journalist, Hrant Dink, was recently assassinated in Turkey. See the link below re Human Rights Watch:

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/01/20/turkey15135.htm

I would never go there- but I’m Greek.
Z

By: NewMexicanAnn

NewMexicanAnn — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:54:09 +0000

I LOVE hearing about your vacation, Tess!!!!!!! I guess you got to see the Bosphorus and everything else there, too, I hope. Dad was back in the Middle East in January, so he doesn’t have any problems going to mostly Muslim places. I wouldn’t either except that I REALLY hate to travel, but like you, I love to chase history. When Dad and I had our mini vacation in May, I rented a “land yacht” (RV) and dragged Dad along. We were on or along the old Santa Fe Trail and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (now the Burlington Northern and SF) RR “chasing history” as I call it. I just do Old West history and don’t chase ancient history so much.
I wonder, though, if anything weird or funny happened to you, too, because unusual things happen when you go on a trip. Dad and I are still laughing about my accidentally stepping on that snake in the middle of a cemetery in Kansas.

By: Ali M

Ali M — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:02:15 +0000

Now that sounds like my sorta vacation!!

By: Trace_ZBullet

Trace_ZBullet — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 01:55:53 +0000

Wow, the scenery is truly beautiful! I’m glad your vacation was good and I hope the muses heard your prayer! I’m looking forward to Bone Garden’s release!

By: Dru

Dru — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:55:27 +0000

Welcome back. I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed your vacation.

By: Jude Hardin

Jude Hardin — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:16:41 +0000

Happy edits, Tess! Glad to hear you enjoyed the vacation.

By: joe bernstein

joe bernstein — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 02:20:46 +0000

oh,and by the way don’t tell anyone in kashmir or the northwest frontier that pakistan is not at war-in those areas it has been more or less continuous with the only variation being intensity

By: joe bernstein

joe bernstein — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 02:15:49 +0000

to soniakhamal-i have known more than a few pakistanis and many of them left there because of turmoil starting in the period when bhutto was overthrown by a military coup-there is at the present time quite a serious amount of sectarian violence and a an ongoing struggle between the government and extremists-it is only one of many countries in the world with this situation-if it would make you feel any better pakistan could be replaced with colombia,new caledonia,papua new guinea,sierra leone,congo,ivory coast etc,etc-and most of those places have great natural beauty and historical sites as well as nice people but they are not the best places to vacation,that’s all i was saying