It's all Greek to me

Olympia, Greece

May 29. 2010

Today we scooted out of Athens in our rental car and you could have soon heard Paul and I singing, "Hey, ho, nobody home..." in a round at the Greek theater Epidaurus, where it's reputed that you can hear a pin drop the acoustics are so good. We received thunderous applause - from our audience of about ten people.

Our busy day brought us to Olympia, Greece, home of the Olympics, late tonight and we plan on being up and out early to run our own races.

The Greek ferry system kindly gave advanced notice that they are going on strike soon and, since we spent about a month here on our honeymoon, we are flinging through Greece to hop on an overnight ferry tomorrow from Patras, Greece to Bari, Italy.

Wishing you all the best,

Jackie

Living the Dream

Athens

May 28th 2010

As coastal sailors, Jackie and I often talk about cutting loose the dock lines and setting off for distant ports and traveling where the wind might take us. Sailors call this idea "living the dream" and many have managed to successfully transition to a life on board away from the constraints of a "traditional" existance.

As I was contemplating the dream while sipping a frappe on the pier in Samos' Pathogorio port I got the distinct sensation that we were in fact living the dream as well. True, we were not bobbing on the hook in an exotic port, but we were there too and our experience seemed pretty exotic in its own right.

One of the characteristics of living the dream is that you are free to decide your own schedule; to react and adjust your plans as opportunities and issues arise. Earlier that morning we arrived at the airport at 9am to catch our 10 am flight. After learning that I'd been reading the arrival time instead of the departure time, the unhelpful team at Aegean Airlines informed us that we could basically buy our tickets again if we wanted to fly out of Samos anytime soon; we decided to modify the schedule.

Instead of flying to Athens from Pathagrio and giving the nasty Nellies at Aegean Airlines any more cash we "decided" to take the overnight ferry from Samos city. Smarting from my expensive mistake of reading the e-tickets wrong, I went back to the rental car company and asked for our car back. No problem. We could have let the entire incident ruin our day, but instead we went to the port and "refined" our plans over lunch and a cold beer.

As Bob Bitchen, owner of Lattitudes and Attitudes Seafaring Magazine is fond of saying, "Attitude is the difference between adversity and adventure!" We've got plenty of positive attitude on this adventure, so if you ask me, we're living the dream.

--Paul

Man Up and get a Turkish hair cut

May 23rd, 2010
Selcuk, Turkey

I'm not much of a pretty boy, but even I need a little "man care" from time to time and that how I came to find myself in a Turkish barber shop today. I can honestly say that today's experience was the most comprehensive barber shop experiences of my life. Yes, comprehensive, not totally excellent or overwhelmingly satisfying; this was a haircut taken to Olympian heights.

I started at lunch when the restaurant owner heard me practicing the Turkish phrase for I'd like a razor shave. Being Turkish, he immediately offered up his favorite shop down the alley and yelled down to his barber that I wanted a shave. I tacitly agreed and continued to down my cold Efes while wondering what exotic hair cut rituals lay ahead. I tried to pay for lunch and the owner (now busy waiter) said no problem just pay after your haircut. So off I went.

As I sat down I rattled off my newly practiced Turkish indicating that not only did I need a shave but I also wanted a cut, and make it short on top. We started from the top. He did a little preliminary head rubbing and hair mussing and then shampooed my hair with my face in the sink. We don't normally do face in the sink shampooing where I'm from, but after the initial shock I was able to cope.

Next he cut and combed and cut some more. At one point he had combed my hair so much and so vigorously that my scalp actually began to feel raw. Just then a bowl of magic mentholated cream appeared and he rubbed it deeply into my scalp. As I sat there with my head in increasingly colder bliss, he began to prepare my face for a straight shave.

Straight shaves are serious business and barbers don't like cutting their clients, so he examined each contour of my face like a skier studies the course before a race. During the examination he must have found some things he didn't like because he used some unknown tools to dig and free up what I can only assume were in-grown hairs in my beard. Then came several warming creams and then the brushed on lather.

At this point I've been in the chair for 45 minutes, roughly 30 minutes longer than my longest haircut ever, and my head is still blissing away under the effects of the menthol cream on my scalp. The shave goes well until I realize that my baby face has not handled the shave as well as I thought and I've got micro nicks on my neck and chin that are beginning to bleed. No worries, there is a fast and effective way to stop shaving nicks. An assistant barber shows up with what must have been a "styptic" bar of soap that was spread all over my face. In a second those tiny nicks stopped bleeding in a symphony of needle like pains all over my face. Luckily the pain was offset by the menthol rub that had now effectively frozen my brain.

Now that the shave was over it was time to wash out the menthol. Face in sink, I revel in the mix of sensations this "haircut" has brought on. Secretly I'm relieved that its almost over because after an hour I was not sure I'd be up for much more primping. You guessed it, there was more. After some serious scalp rubbing it was time for "little hair removal".

Removing little hairs is tough and requires specialized tools as I found out. First there was what I thought was dental floss. I literally was preparing to open my mouth and shut my eyes for a flossing when the barber began to roll this twisted string all over my cheeks pulling many "little hairs" out by their roots. I admit this hurt almost as much as the metallic paste that was used to stop the bleeding. Next came the flaming cue tip that was thumped against my ears and face. I'm not sure what that was for but it was cool to see in the mirror as the flame licked my skin.

Finally, after an hour and a half I was looking like a new man and was ready to pay. I must have looked tired because a full scalp, arm and back massage ensued. At one point the barber had what appeared to be a random orbital sander wedged between the seat and my lower back. That felt good!

In the end, with a wink and a splash of lemon water, he announced that we were done and now it was time to enjoy some tea. In a flash we were outside sitting in a makeshift cafe, sipping tea with a bunch of other guys with menthol paste in their hair who must have needed cigarette breaks during their haircuts.

All I can say is that if you're ever in Turkey and you've got a few hours, man-up and go in for a haircut and a shave. You wont soon forget it.

--Paul

Enjoying Sea Breezes on the Med

Mediterranean Coast

Kalkan, Turkey

May 20, 2010

A few days relaxing around the water is just what we needed. We've been going, going, going since Thailand and it's nice to just hang out around the water. (Picture of Paul paddling on the Med.) At the Pasha Apartment Hotel where we are staying we have a one bedroom apartment, kitchen and two couches that turn in to beds for the kids, small balconies and a pool garden retreat. Love the extra room of an apartment and the ability to cook our own food. After a morning doing schoolwork we are all sitting outside enjoying the 75 degree, sunny weather - blogging(me), reading (Amelia and Paul) and wandering (Ben).

Five times a day the Muslim Muezzin (similar to a Pastor) sings the melodious call to prayer from the loud speakers of the town Minaret and he's calling right now - his voice echoing off the local hills. The latest in the evening we've heard them call is about 9:30 p.m. and in the morning it's around 5:30 a.m. We've heard these calls to prayer in Thailand, Egypt, Jordon and Turkey in every town throughout each day. Depending on how close you are to a Minaret - there are often several in a town - or how well your windows are insulated will make the difference how well you can hear the call. (See picture above of the exquisite Blue Mosque in Istanbul and four, of it's six, Minarets.)

At this point of our trip we are really planning on the fly - a day ahead even. The high season is just starting to pick up so after many phone calls to other places in other parts of the Western Med of Turkey we found this little gem of a hotel in on the coast. While the town has clearly been spruced up for the tourist trade it's a lovely place to walk around and has everything one could need. Interestingly this is a big town for English tourists, while some towns on the coast are where the Russians or Germans go. We didn't know that when we booked - just found a good recommendation on Trip Advisor.

A short stroll takes us to the local grocers - about the size of a 7-11 in the U.S.. This afternoon I walked (down the hill and up the hill and back down the hill and back up the hill) to the local farmers market to buy fresh vegetables for dinner.

After two more nights relaxing we are off to see the ruins of Ephesus with perhaps one stop in between.

Gule gule,

Jackie

Homeschooling and Kindles

Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea

Antalya, Turkey

May 17, 2010

Homeschooling

How are we traveling for six months with two children ages 9 and 11? Homeschooling. The school year in the States starts in September and this year the children went to a regular school for about the first half of the school year then we started traveling at the end of January. Next fall Ben and Amelia will be enrolled back in their same schools. On the road we are homeschooling.

We looked in to various homeschooling programs - one that was going to send us 40 pounds of books for each child (!) and others that were online courses. But with traveling every few days and intermittent Internet access neither one of those would have worked for us. After reviewing the Standards for Learning for the state of Virginia we developed our own program. We still ended up with a stack of books about a foot high which are very heavy but much used.

Some days the kids do school work before we leave the hotel for the day and some days they work while we are traveling. Ben and Amelia have done history reading schoolwork in a Landcruiser while on safari. They have read and done work on a plane to China, in a camper van in New Zealand, in a cabin overlooking a river in Australia, on a bus to the Med, on a cruise ship on the Nile, and in a taxi in Cairo (multiplication practice) and much more! And, clearly, they are getting great history and geography lessons along the way.

Ben and Amelia have also had a chance to go to school for the day in Beijing, China and Amelia also went to school for the day in Amman, Jordon with children of the friends we were staying with. The kids had a Chinese class in China and several of the classes Amelia went to in Amman were in Arabic (they teach some classes in English and she also got to go on a community service field trip that day). We also visited an orphanage school in Phuket, Thailand and a Maasai village school (one room about the size of a typical US classroom for 132 students!).

Kindle - Electronic Books

We have also taken four electronic books around the world with us - Kindles from Amazon. We decided on the Kindles because we've read a lot about getting access to English books over seas - and how hard it was to find children's English books in particular and the Kindles have international wireless downloading ability. This was a much easier solution than getting books to mailed to us as we don't know where will be. (One family we read about who traveled around the world had their books mailed to them every four weeks but at least one shipment got lost in the mail.)

The Kindles have been fantastic. Each one of us has our own Kindle and we've been able to download books from in every country we've been in except Cambodia. We've downloaded books while in the car passing farmers in rural China planting their crops, and accessed the online Kindle functions in a cave hotel in Turkey. The batteries can last up to two weeks of solid reading. Amelia has read more than 60 books on our trip as she reads during travel time and any chance she gets (and she's reading as I write this).

In Turkey they have a saying "Someone who reads so much does not know as much as someone who has traveled so much." (Roughly translated and shared with me by a woman here at Deja Vu Boutique Hotel in Antalya after she asked about our children and school and said she thought it was such a great idea to travel with children.)

We hope that learning about the world and meeting all these different wonderful people pays off for the children in the long run. It's certainly an incredible learning experience every day for all of us.

Happy learning,

Jackie

Underground Cities

Cappodocia region, Urgup, Turkey

May 15, 2010

Underground Cities

Imagine going deeper and deeper in to the earth through cave rooms dug out of solid rock connected by passages barely wider than your shoulders and low enough that you have to bend over to make your way through them (even our nine year old, Ben, had to bend over).

Over 137 cities were built in the region reaching up to twelve levels down - like upside down skyscrapers. As we got lower and lower in the underground city of Kaymakli we learned more about the air shafts used to get oxygen and how sometimes shafts had collapsed in earthquakes. The guide even showed us one tunnel blocked by huge rubble in a 3rd Century earthquake.

Starting in the 6th Century Christians in the region cut and dug hidden tunnels and whole underground cities deep into the earth out of rock to serve as places of refuge from the Persians, Arabs, other Christian sects and Romans. When armies started to march toward the area beacons of fire or mirror signals would be sent and could give the people of the region warning of the impending armies - enough time to move everyone to the underground cities to hide where they stayed for months at a time if necessary to avoid death.

As you can guess the rooms were very small - a families underground 'home' might be 8' x 6' and just tall enough to stand. From what we learned the cities had air shafts disguised as wells and light in the caves would be flickering candles or oil lamps. Since they had to be able to survive for months there were cave rooms dug for livestock, churches, schools, kitchens and homes. Food, including bread, might be cooked only every other week to reduce the need for fires (smoke would go up air shafts and be partially absorbed in to the rock and dissipate by the time it reached the surface).

It was such an amazing experience to think that people lived underground with no sunlight in these tiny spaces for months. It gives you a real appreciation of the danger they must have lived under to be willing to live in essentially a dark prison for months. I am so glad we went there to see such an amazing human achievement but after creeping through the passages and seeing the blocked tunnels I was ready to get out of there.

Paul and Ben braved another underground city, Derinkuyu, with an awesome guide named Ramanzan (who toured us around the region for two days) and new friends we made along the way. In the Cappadocia region we also saw fairy chimneys and cave homes that are what the people lived in above ground. You can stay in cave hotels and we stayed in one, the Gamirasu Hotel (great hostess and they set up super tours http://www.gamirasu.com/) and then as it was full we stayed at another small pension with only 4 rooms (we were in two of them) called Urgup Konak hotel with views of cave dwellings and more wonderful hosts. The whole area is magical and looks like it was inhabited by fairies and hobbits. It's a beautiful part of Turkey and we highly recommend it.

Today we are taking a bus to Konya, Turkey and may go see some Whirling Dervishes.


Gule Gule (goodbye in Turkish),

Jackie

Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey
May 11, 2010

Istanbul - a modern, vibrant city filled with people - on a day to day basis we've seen and interacted with many more people than we ever saw in China! Look at the top picture and from foreground to the distance and you'll see a street called Istiklal that is packed night and day with wall to wall people. Where are they all going? No idea! These are mostly locals in an area of Istanbul away from the tourist sites but near where we ended up staying in the Istanbul Apartments (it's nice to have extra room and our own kitchen now and then).

Basilica Cistern - one of the most amazing things we've seen in Istanbul is the Basilica Cistern built by a Byzantine emperors in AD 532. Able to hold 100,000 tons of water back then and still holding water and fish (!) today it was built with 336 columns. The cistern is a hidden gem under the streets and buildings of the current city. Save the visit for the afternoon as when you go down there the air temperature drops precipitously - very welcome on a hot day.

Below is a picture of the Blue Mosque - as beautiful on the inside (covered with blue tiles) as the outside.

Tomorrow early we are flying to Cappadocia, Turkey to stay in the Giramisu Cave Hotel built in to the hillside.

All the best,

Jackie

Istanbul day two

May 8th 2010
Taksım Square, Istanbul, Turkey

Sıttıng ın an ınternet cafe ın a bustlıng vıbrant cıty that straddles two contınents. The kıds are enjoyıng a lıttle down tıme from the non-stop pace of the last month. We rented a small apartment ın Taksım area of Istanbul for a few days and we are just coolıng our jets ın thıs cosmopolıtan hot spot. Next week we wıll set out to explore the rest Turkey, but for now we are enjoyıng the bıg cıty.

--Paul

Returning to the land of my birth

May 7th, 2010

Amman, Jordan

Today we head to Turkey, the land of my birth. Yesterday Jackie booked an apartment in Istanbul that will be our home for the next few days. I don't know where the apartment is located, but the owner is picking us up at the airport. Bonus!

I just uploaded some pictures of Jordan. Check them out in our photo stream.

--Paul

Day 6 of a 4 Day Jordan Visit

Holiday Inn Resort

Dead Sea, Jordan

May 6, 2010

Flexibility has been a constant theme of this journey, but now that we're on day 6 of our planned 4 day visit to Jordan I'm glad we have the ability to change our plans at the last minute. Our new friends the Mowafis convinced us that rushing through Jordan made no sense and we readily agreed to stay a couple more days!

PETRA
Our trip to Petra was amazing. We'd scheduled a single day (recommend two) so I knew we'd need to do some serious forced marching. We checked into the Marriott dropped our bags and headed to the entrance down in the valley below. A short horse ride from the ticket booth brought us to the famous Siq (narrow canyon) that leads to the Treasury. The treasury is the facade everyone knows from Petra (and the Indiana Jones movie). They've recently discovered another floor below the currently exposed Treasury and they now estimate that they've excavated only about thirty percent of the Nabatean city. Good reason to come back in another few years.

We walked the 6 km down the valley and although the day was getting late I decided to hire donkeys to take the family up the mountain to see the "Monastery". It was well worth it, but we knew we had to hustle so we basically ran down the eight hundred steps carved into the mountain so we could have a chance of seeing the sunset from above the valley. Thankfully the donkeys were at the bottom waiting for us and we happily mounted our trusted steeds for the return gallop (walk for Jackie and Amelia) back through the city to the Treasury. Ben was particularly thrilled by the ride on the galloping donkey and wants to get one when we get home.
I guess there is a donkey union and they have an agreement not to cut into the horse's turf, so we had to dismount at the Treasury and walk up the valley from there. The donkeys saved the day. If it were not for them, we'd probably still be in Petra slowly making our way back from the Monastery.

WADI RUM
I lived in Amman, Jordon when I was around 5 and 6. My brothers always speak so fondly of their time in Wadi Rum so I knew we wanted to spend some time in this desert reserve in southern Jordan. Thanks to Amer and Lisa we found a private guide that drove us around the wadi and delivered us to a Bedouin camp where we spent a glorious night under the stars. The landscape in Wadi Rum is incredible, we climbed up to Lawrence of Arabia spring, played around on huge sand dunes, climbed up to massive sandstone arches and had tea with Bedouins in various well placed camps.

Our night under the stars was just as I had hoped. The majesty of a desert sunset is only matched by the infinite glow of the heavens that follows. We were lucky to have a late moon rise and no clouds so the universe opened up unimpeded by city lights.

After a fine dinner of rice and marinated chicken we danced and made new friends around a camp fire that was right in the middle of the tent communal tent. Later we bedded down in traditional rectangular Bedouin tents made of black goat's wool. We were happy to have our travel sleeping bags AND the provided blankets to ward off the cold desert air.

DEAD SEA
While it is almost the size of Lake Champlain, this land locked Sea almost certainly gets its name from its high salt content. It is truly bizarre to be so buoyant. We floated, hands and feet out of the water and looked across the sea towards Israel. We're staying at the new Holiday Inn resort on the northern shore of the Sea and while its not as rustic as it might have been 40 years ago, I certainly appreciate the amenities that come along with staying in a swank new resort like this.

If you're interested in visiting the Dead Sea come soon. The lake is drying up from excessive use of water from the Jordan river.

--Paul

Egypt and Jordon - and our computer

Amman, Jordon
May 2, 2010

Egypt
History thousands of years old - being able to go in to the pyramids (bent over going in and out the small tunnel), cruising the Nile from Luxor to Aswan (4 days, 3 nights), having tea in an Egyptian market shop, sailing in a faluka on the Nile in Cairo past Paul's old apartment, and flying to Abu Simbel were all highlights of visiting Egypt.

Abu Simbel is a temple built by a Phaoroah in honor of his wife. The temple included incredible cliff carvings and rooms carved deep in to the mountain itself. When the Aswan Dam was built the entire half a mountain, cave rooms and all, was moved uphill to save it from drowning. The combination of old and new human inginuity combined to make an amazing wonder.

What surprised me most about Egypt? When cruising down the Nile I expected green palm trees and lush plants. What I didn't expect to see were the desert mountains rising behind the plants. The Nile must have eroded the land just like the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River (though the desert mountains are not as high). The mountains hovering above the lush green of the Nile plants are not sand dunes but rather mountains of eroded rock and rubble without a single plant or blade of grass growing on them - the Sahara Desert. The Sahara Desert borders the Nile and it's clear why the land adjacent to the Nile was such a welcoming place for human civilization for thousands of years.

Jordon
We are staying with new friends in Amman, Jordon and have greatly enjoyed their hospitality. Yesterday we toured Jerash, home of Hadrian's Arch. The arch is just a small part of the Roman ruins of a once grand town and the ruins, including the stone roads, sewer lines, hippodrome (where they still run chariot races every day), collosium, forum and more are considered to be the largest and most well preserved Roman ruins outside Italy.

Today we toured Amman and tomorrow we start our journey to Petra, the Dead Sea (where it's so salty you float) and a night in a Bedouin camp.

Computer
We've been able to get online quite a bit by connecting using wireless connections and our Acer netbook - unfortuneatley the computer has met an early death (undiagnosed issue) and for at least a while we will have to rely on friend's computers and internet cafes - we'll let you know how that goes...

Much love,

Jackie