Greek gods and carpet salesmen

So much happens in a few days, then I sit down to write about it so my mother can relax and I feel like I end up writing a book and boring everyone. Then again, no one is making you read this, so *shrugs*. So we arrived in Athens on the 26th, beautiful bright skies, old ruins in the middle of a curious city, street markets, pushy salesmen, soulvaki. We arrived at the airport, took the subway to a random stop, and happened to end up in a street market area. I bought a sarong because "they can do everything." Sarongs make great skirts, dresses, pants, scarves, bags, towels, blankets... ya get the point. And all this for bout 10 dollars US. Anyways, after food and a bit of wandering, we made our way to the hostel and spent the evening recuperating and figuring out the next few steps. The next day we visited most of the ruins in the city, including the acropolis that was right next to our hostel, Hadrian's library, and Zeus's Temple. There were a couple of really neat statues in the Ancient Agora, men/mermen with tree/snake designs on the base. And these dated to before Christianity in Greece. The sight from the top of the hill was almost as phenomenal as the ruins themselves. Tuesday after making plans to head to Turkey at midnight that night, we took a day tour to Sounion, the site of the Temple of Poseidon. The view of the ocean was one of the best I've ever had the luck to witness. I enjoy taking candid pictures of people I don't know, just interesting shots. So here's one of my favorites. I love the silhouette in this pic, the posture, the view... We returned to Athens and caught the train to Istanbul at midnight. Not nearly as nice or fast as the high speed trains in France, but not nearly as pricey either. I figure that's a fair trade off, specially since I'm on a budget here. The ride is supposed to take bout 20 hours.

Well, 36 hours later we arrive in Istanbul. We spent 16 hours on a train, just to get to the border station 2 hours late for our connecting train. They only have 2 trains a day through there, so we had to wait about 9 ours for our next one. So from 5pM til 3AM, we got to sit in an empty train station in the middle of no where. I'm not kidding here, i thought Bozeman was the middle of nowhere (least after six years), and definitely though Sunburst and especially Kevin was the middle of no where... no, i was wrong. This was a train station, and a police station. That's it. Couple other run-down falling-apart buildings, a telephone, not even a drinking fountain. We had a couple books all of which I've already read, and my computer, but no internet and no movies or anything to watch. We did have company though, we couldn't get a size comparison here, because when we set a coin down next to him he wandered off, but trust me when i say this thing, leg span included was bout the size of the palm of my hand. Poor Joey was going nuts over this thing, i thought he was friendly. Anyways. Train finally arrives, and they take our passports, tell us to get on the train, but don't give them back right away. That had us spooked. I guess they were filling out paperwork with them, but I don't like it being out of my sight. But all was well and I feel asleep with my first good view of the stars in weeks as we rolled past the border (damn city lights).

We arrived in Istanbul, found the hostel and headed straight out to see the sights since Joey was on his last 24 hours of his trip. We paid the 10E fee to see the inside of the Aya Sofia, an old church that was renovated to a mosque in the 1600s (i think.. don't quote me on the dates). It was interesting, you could even see where they had painted over crosses on the ceiling with geometric designs. And the whole place was beautiful in its simplicity of design. At first glance it seems like so much, but in reality its all simple patterns, symmetrical designs... Much of the walls were decorated by taking large pieces of stone (granite?) and splitting it, then putting the two halves side by side so the grains in the stone were symmetrical (think wood grain on doors). Across the courtyard from the Aya Sofia is the Blue Mosque. The Aya Sofia has become a museum, so while beautiful, it's lost some of its... hmm the only word i can think of isn't even English, and I've never heard it used this way but some of you will get it. Zanchen. A term i picked up from Aikido, meaning a sort of presence. The mosque, however, had prayer music playing, you were asked to remove your shoes and cover your hair (women for the hair), and it was very real. I'm not really religious, but I have great respect for it, and I was awed by the interior of the mosque. I didn't take any pictures of the interior, but here's a night shot.

So one last comment before I do something productive (some Arabic practice perhaps?). I also was offered a job helping a local businessman swindle tourists out of their money in exchange for carpets. I was very tempted, considering not only the money but how fun it would be to be able to say I'd sold Turkish carpets for a living. However, I'm turning down the offer, not only because I don't plan to stay in Turkey very long, but also because the gentlemen in question
is about the sleaziest man I think I've ever met. Oh well, still a story. I'm changing hostels tomorrow, going to spend some time in another part of Istanbul, and figure things out more from there. With the recent events in Syria, my plans may be changing a bit, or rather they already have since I was planning to leave for Syria by tomorrow or the next day, and that isn't looking reasonable.

Hope no one fell asleep reading this. I'll try to write more often and shorter. <3 all