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April 28, 2006

Neil Young's New Album

Last summer, Neil Young, of whom I have been a fan since high school, released a new album entitled Prairie Wind and late the following winter released a film of the tour's debut concert.

The latest news is that this spring, Neil Young recorded a new album in three days, entitled "Living In War." While the album won't be in stores for another month or two, you can listen to the album online. It's great. The Prairie Wind album is good, and if you're already a fan of Neil Young, buy it. However, "Living with War" is simply stunning, and it's with even greater frustration that I won't be able to have the CD in my hand for another 2 months or so, now that I can listen to it now and hear how good it is.

Its only weakness is that by the end of the album, it becomes a bit too specifically topical. The brilliance of Neil Young's album "Freedom" is that while it was political, what was being discussed in 1989 was mentioned obliquely with subtle mentions of individuals, and cultural references that could be recognized at the time but still remain relevant to anyone picking it up today. A couple times, Neil Young gets too tempted in "Living with War" to name names which, in 20 years, might be more or less forgotten. At the same time, despite its weaknesses, this will be the album that everyone remembers Neil Young for as his "album released around 2005 or so," rather than "Praire Wind," because this one overall better. Isn't that really the standard by which this sort of thing is judged? Even though a few passages and lines might not "stand up over time," as a whole, the album itself definitely will.

So you can't buy "Living with War," now, but you really, really should listen to it.

More reading:

The Living With War weblog

The Neil Young official website

The Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young tour schedule

Posted by Dean at 11:02 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 27, 2006

Ouch!

A few things about keeping your car in the driveway for almost 2 months:

Posted by Dean at 7:01 AM | Comments (15)

April 24, 2006

Updated Pictures

Now that I'm back, I got the chance to upload some more pictures that I had neglected to post during my travels.

I now have more a more complete archive of pictures of Demre (Myra), Turkey and pictures of my visit to Ephesus

Posted by Dean at 8:11 PM | Comments (4)

Dean Celebrates Easter with the Family

Mmmm... yummy.

Posted by Dean at 5:27 AM | Comments (6)

April 22, 2006

Arrived Safely at JFK

This is JFK International Airport, where I have just arrived today from Amsterdam in time to spend Orthodox Easter with my family. The truth is that after having taken a 14-hour overnight bus ride from Istanbul to Kaş, an 8 hour flight from Amsterdam to New York City was just not a big deal.

So, my international travels have taken a temporary pause while my family celebrates Easter and gets the lamb ready in the backyard. Happy Easter to those celebrating tomorrow.

Posted by Dean at 7:38 PM | Comments (30)

April 21, 2006

Back in Amsterdam

Well, I caught an overnight ferry from Chios Thursday night and flew from Athens to Amsterdam Friday morning. Mostly, this is a good time to rest and see my cousin before catching my 8-hour flight back to NYC in time for Orthodox Easter. There are still many pictures I'll be uploading over the next couple of days, particularly of Ephesus. So stay tuned. Happy Easter to those celebrating this Sunday.

Posted by Dean at 10:47 AM | Comments (1)

April 20, 2006

On Mortality

This Wednesday was Wednesday of Holy Week, before Easter. There are two major services Wednesday evening. One is where the Bishop washes the feet of twelve of his priests. During the service, two priests remove the bishops mitre and a layer of his vestments, and he kneels down and washes the bare feet of his priests in a ceremony of Christ washing the feet of the twelve apostles shortly before his crucifixion and reminding the bishop of his position of humility.

The major ceremony, however, is the sacrament of Holy Unction, which will be familiar to Roman Catholic readers as Last Rites. Orthodox Christians receive this every year on the Wednesday before Easter.

Why do we do this once a year? The explanation I heard growing up in a Greek church was "During the time when the Greeks were occupied by the Turks for 500 years, the Christians knew they could be killed at any time, so they accepted Last Rites once a year in case they would be killed in the intervening time."

One should be skeptical of this claim, as many Greeks know that the explanation for just about everything is invariably "because the Turks occupied Greece for 500 years."

Where does resinated "Retsina" wine come from? "Well, when the Turks were invading Greece, which they occupied for 500 years, Greeks put pine needles in the wine so that the Turks would gag on it when they stole it to drink, to ensure that they would stop stealing it. When the Greeks strained the pine needles out, they discovered retsina!" This is totally untrue, as resinated wine has been in the lands of Greece since the pre-Greek Minoan times.

Why does it take 6 months for the Greek national phone company to install a landline phone? "Our country has this problem because Greece suffered under the occupation of the Turks for 500 years!" Ok, that last one might actually be true.

Despite the fact that such an explanation can lends itself to overuse, there were real reasons for administering Holy Unction once a year which lend credence to the explanation I received in Sunday School. From here on out, this blog entry will become serious and rather dark.

In the spring of 1822, during the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Empire, some revolutionaries landed in Chios and attempted to foment separatist feelings from the Chiots. After the revolutionaries failed and left, the Sultan decided to teach the Chiots a lesson and thus began the Massacre of Chios in which, of a population of 118,000 people, 23,000 were killed, 47,000 women and children were sold into slavery, leaving 1,800 spared to continue cultivating the sap from the mastic trees. The others escaped.

In Chios you can see the scars of the massacre. About 25km from Hora is the isolated mountain town of Anavatos perched on a hill:

This town is completed abandoned. All of its people were killed or threw themselves off the cliffs rather than be captured by Ottoman Turkish troops, and no one ever moved back. It remains as a ghost town and a memorial to the dead.

It is maintained and parts are being restored, but nature is taking over:

Nearby is the monastery of Nea Moni, founded in the 11th century and built by Constantine Monomachos. During the Massacre of Chios, 3,500 women and children sought refuge in the fortified monastery which was ultimately penetrated by the Ottoman Turks, who killed the refugees and the 600 monks who lived there. The remains of the monks are kept in a public ossuary as a reminder of the tragedy:

Posted by Dean at 10:56 AM | Comments (5)

April 19, 2006

Dean Makes a Family Pilgrimage

My grandmother was born in Chios and came to the United States when her mother and all of her aunts and uncles left the island. None of my family really remains there, except for a couple of distant cousins of my mother's generation who still maintain summer homes on here. However, there are still some things to see.

My great-great-grandfather (my grandmother's grandfather), Demosthenes Hatzoglou (or Hadjoglu, or any number of other variant spellings) was the patriarch of the family. Either he or his father moved from Constantinople to Chios, bringing some antique icons with him.

He lived on Dela Grammatika street in Chios's main town of Hora:

The site of his old house, in which he fathered 8 children with his wife Athena is now the site of a medical clinic:

Behind the clinic are remnants of the old house, which includes a wall leading to a garden. I will have to see more of this on Thursday.

He was a builder, and was reputedly involved in the construction of the Korai library when it was rebuilt after the 1881 earthquake:

He and his wife are buried in the St. John the Baptist cemetery, where he managed to secure a single plot so that he would not end up in the ossuary.

The inscription on the tomb reads "Tomb of the family of Demosthenes Hatzoglou, born in 1861, died February 23rd, 1912"

Posted by Dean at 5:30 PM | Comments (25)

April 18, 2006

Crossing the Border by Sea

This afternoon I departed from Turkey via Çeşme, having finally escaped from Izmir (getting to Çeşme from downtown Izmir is more difficult than you would think). I made it in time to catch the daily ferry to Chios and waved Turkey goodbye:

From the Çeşme, you can easily see Chios in the distance, as the island is only about 10km away:

After a relatively short trip of 45 minutes (compared to a bunch of 6-12 hour bus rides that I took through Turkey), I arrived in Chios, checked through customs, and was on my way. This is actually the first time I've entered a new country by sea (correction 4/24/06) and been required to go through customs. (I grabbed a ferry between Corsica, France and Savona, Italy back in early March but since it was intra-EU, there was no passport control or stop at the customs house)

The island of Chios lays claim to being the birthplace of Homer. It is also where my grandmother was born and the place from which all of her family left from in order to move to the United States. This is the first time I've visited the island, and I'll be visiting a group of different spots of particular family significance.

Posted by Dean at 4:30 PM | Comments (31)

Language notes from Turkey

At present, I am in Izmir, on the Aegean coast, having just returned from a visit to Ephesus. Normally, during this trip I've been avoiding the 'tourist sites you have to visit' excursions, though I made an exception for Rome and Istanbul, and on my way up from Demre, I figured, 'hey, Ephesus supposedly has the best-preserved ruins of a Roman city in the eastern Mediterranean. This might actually be worth it.' From Izmir, I will head out to the Aegean port city of Çeşme, from where I will catch a ferry to the Greek island of Chios.

Anyway, this trip through Turkey has been a bit daunting because I speak absolutely no Turkish, though thankfully many people speak English or are at least willing to be patient with me as I patomime my way through explaining what I need. One phrase I can say pretty well in Turkish is İngilizce konuşuyor musunuz? (een-gee-leez-je ko-noo-shoo-yor moo-soo-nooz?) which means 'Do you speak English?'

If the person doesn't speak English, occasionally I will ask them if they speak Hunance (hunanje -- 'Ionian'), which is the modern Turkish term for 'Greek' and the only other language I speak with any kind of competency. Now, the original Turkish term for the Greek people was 'Rum'-- the Romans, which is what the Greek-speakers of Greece and Asia Minor called themselves until right around the Enlightenment and Independence Era. The term still persists in references to the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey, which is referred to as the 'Rum Ortodox' Church. So once I referred to the Greek language as Rumce (rumje). At this point I was told that 'Rumce' now actually refers to the Pontic Greek Language which is still spoken in the region by some Muslim families on the Black Sea coast and amongst the Greeks living in the Republic of Georgia and Greeks living in Armenia (and some members of the Greek community in Norwalk, Connecticut). In Greek the language is generally generally referred to as Pontiako or Pontiaki.

Posted by Dean at 10:53 AM | Comments (5)

April 15, 2006

Pictures from the Church of St. Nicholas

So, the city of Demre in Turkey is milking the whole "we're the home of Santa Claus" thing for all it's worth, as can be seen from this statue in their main square:

In all seriousness, however, the city of Demre has the remains of the cathedral of St. Nicholas, as Demre was Myra, the where St. Nicholas was the bishop:

This is the church from which St. Nicholas's relics were stolen before being brought to Bari, in southern Italy, which I visited earlier.

Wow, this trip has been like tracing St. Nicholas's story in reverse. I started off in Amsterdam, where St. Nicholas is venerated as Sinterklaas during their public festival on December 5th (the eve of the Feast of St. Nicholas). Then I went to Bari where St. Nicholas's relics are interred and saw the local church and pilgrimage site. Now I'm in Myra, where St. Nicholas was originally from. I suppose the next step in tracing St. Nicholas's life in reverse would be to visit his birthplace of Patara, but tomorrow I'm off to see the ruins of Ephesus.

Posted by Dean at 4:00 PM | Comments (28)

Overcoming Inertia

I could have easily stayed in Istanbul for the remainder of my vacation. It was inexpensive, I met a bunch of people whom I enjoyed hanging out wıth, and I was feeling pretty satisfied with where I was. Keep in mind that I came here having started in Amsterdam, and after hopping from city to city, I enjoyed staying in one place for a little while.

However, I decided to motivate myself to move on, so I took and overnight bus to Kaş in southern Turkey, putting me within spitting distance of the Greek islands of Rhodes and Kastellorizo. Counter-intuitively, the 14 hour bus ride re-invigorated me. I feel energized to keep moving and see more of Turkey and Greece before I head home next Saturday.

Following up on previous travels in Italy, I decided to visit St. Nicholas's original home of Myra (now Demre). No pictures yet, but hopefully I will get a chance to post them as I work my way up the Turkish coast.

Posted by Dean at 1:23 PM | Comments (3)

April 14, 2006

Socializing in Sultanahmet

By 7pm, all of the museums are closed. The stores have shut down, and it's too dark out to enjoy the major sites. So, at this point, it's always a good time to head to the other local hostels and socialize. One of the more active places is the terrace bar at the Orient Hostel, which is right around the corner from me. This is where a lot of young travelers gather.

At night, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the Oriental Hostel has an entertaining, if someone cheesy, bellydancing show at night in their basement bar:

Posted by Dean at 5:00 AM | Comments (3)

April 13, 2006

On Archıtectural Elegance vs. Brute Force

These are the pillars that hold but the dome at Agia Sophia, built in the 6th century A.D.:

This is one of the pillars that holds up the Blue Mosque, built more than 1000 years later:

That's how amazing Agia Sophia is.

Posted by Dean at 3:52 AM | Comments (3)

April 12, 2006

Exploring some obscure corners of religion in Turkey

On Sunday, I went to liturgy at the Church of St. Kyriaki in a district south of Sultanahmet which I had visited earlier in the week. While there, I saw another young guy carrying a backpack, like myself, and surmised he was another tourist visited Istanbul and attending church on Sunday. When I introduced myself, he explained, in better Greek than I can speak, that he was actually a Kurdish Muslim who lived in Istanbul but was learning Greek and enjoyed visiting churches on Sunday. He then offered to show me around the various Christian churches, some of rather obscure sects, in Istanbul, of which he had a rather encyclopedic knowledge.

Continue reading "Exploring some obscure corners of religion in Turkey"

Posted by Dean at 6:22 PM | Comments (35)

All better

Thanks to all who e-mailed and commented. I slept off my 24(ish)-hour flu and I've been up and travelling again. More updates to follow. My fellow hostel-mates here at Mavi were great about going out to bring me food and juice to help me recover.

Posted by Dean at 1:00 PM | Comments (2)

April 11, 2006

On Long Vacations

The consequence of taking a long vacation is that the longer you remain abroad, the greater the chance that, at some point during that vacation, you will become ill. Thus was Monday, April 10th completely lost to me in Istanbul, and I've fallen behind on blogging and photo-posting. More to come soon.

Posted by Dean at 7:26 PM | Comments (3)

April 8, 2006

Visit to Fener and a night out with the Greeks

It was hard to get a good picture of this church, but Friday night I attended services at St. Mary of the Mongols, a Greek Orthodox (or "Rum Ortodoks", as it's known in Turkey) Church in the Fener district of Istanbul:

Of all of the churches in this city built during the time it was the capital of the Roman Empire until 1453, this is the only one that is still in use as an Orthodox Church. The only one. While there are many other Orthodox Churches in the city, they were all built after the Turkish capture of the city. The rest were either turned into mosques, destroyed, or ultimately converted into museums. One or two are reputed to have been granted to other religious groups. It breaks your heart.

More details and pictures after the jump.

Continue reading "Visit to Fener and a night out with the Greeks"

Posted by Dean at 3:35 AM | Comments (2)

April 6, 2006

Wanderings in Istanbul

So, my goal to have my picture taken with all monuments associated with the Emperor Constantine seen to have been stymied for the time being, as Constantine's Column seems to be under major restoration:

More pictures of my adventures after the jump.

Continue reading "Wanderings in Istanbul"

Posted by Dean at 5:07 AM | Comments (12)

April 5, 2006

Istanbul, First Full Day

The first thing I've noticed here is that there are few public garbage cans anywhere. A guy trying to recruit me to go to his carpet store noticed me with a bewildered look on my face, empty water-bottle in hand, and mentioned to me that for security purposes, there aren't any public trash cans in most central places. Surprisingly, he did not use that as a segue to tell me that at his cousin's handicraft store, he had a garbage can in which I could throw out my empty water bottle. I think that would have worked on me.

Posted by Dean at 1:17 PM | Comments (3)

April 4, 2006

Arrived in Istanbul

This is the view outside of my hostel in the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul. I'm having a great time here so far...

Posted by Dean at 3:25 PM | Comments (3)

April 3, 2006

Day trip to Xanthi

My guidebook wasn't kidding when they spoke about the heavy military presence in Thrace. Alexandroupolis and Xanthi both have military offices, and there are larger military bases further out of town. Soldiers frequently arrive at these bases via the train, so likely stops at the train station invariably involve some soldiers embarking or departing, to be picked up by another soldier in an army truck. I'd provide you all with wondrous pictures of the ubiquitous military presence in these cities, but the last thing I want is to attract their attention to a lone traveler snapping pictures. Sorry, guys.

Another unique feature of Thrace is the presence of the Turkish minority or, as they're known to the government, "Greeks who are Muslim and happen to speak Turkish." In Xanthi, I took a picture of the first functional mosque I've ever seen in Greece:

In the old town, one can see old Turkish women speaking with each other in the streets and speaking Turkish in the stores. When I took this picture of some Turkish families waiting outside the local school, the women turned their heads away from me:

What I didn't find was a particularly Oriental flavor to the towns of Alexandroupolis or Xanthi. Possibly if I headed to the towns that dot Greece's eastern border with Turkey, I'd find places with more of a middle eastern feel, but I don't know. Tomorrow morning, I head to Turkey.

Posted by Dean at 11:08 AM | Comments (23)

Looks like I picked an interesting time to go to Turkey

The first link on Google News when doing a search for "Turkey" yielded:

"Turkey hit by worst civil unrest in years"

Don't worry, dear readers, I won't do anything stupid. :)

Posted by Dean at 10:53 AM | Comments (6)

April 2, 2006

On the Border of the Middle East

I am in Alexandroupolis, Greece, 44km from the Turkish border. It looks like have to cool my heels here until Tuesday, when the first bus to Istanbul leaves, so I think I'll look around western Thrace.

Posted by Dean at 12:42 PM | Comments (32)