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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Boldrum: England East

We had a wonderful dinner with Eric and Carol last night, right after we visited the Virgin Mary's final home, and drank from the sacred well she used to drink from. It is now a tiny church and pilgrimage sight, visited by many Popes and others.

Clara found a beautiful white leather jacket she bought with her birthday money which we picked up (after she had it altered) on the way out of town. The final words from the salesman were the typical battle cry of the Turkish Businessman: "the stuff at the other guys store really is terrible."

It has become a running joke for us how our 'friends' who is whomever we are talking to are quick to disparage wherever we might be going in order to steer us to someone they know (and will get a kickback from). Usually this also results in someone trying to get you to buy a carpet. None yet!

We drove about another hundred miles today, again mostly in the rain. We stopped to see the Temple of Endymion. Not much to it, but I was drawn by the fact that Endymion is one of the largest New Orleans parades and thus felt a minuscule connection with it.

Later in the afternoon we arrived in Bodrum which is an English tourist haven. Prices are in pounds, Euros and sometimes in Turkish Lira. It is a pretty place with an amazing assortment of wooden yachts in the harbor, white concrete villas overlooking the double harbors, split in two by a peninsula with St. Peters fort at the point.


There are tons of shops, restaurants and activities and we may stay a couple days to beat out the rain. We saw the remains of the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world this morning and there is another one of the ruined wonders here as well. Who knew Turkey was such an historic hotspot.

The Turks are pretty ticked about this Kurdish thing, and we have seen marches and even more Turkish and Ataturk flags than normal. War and rain seem to follow us, guard your borders and open your dams, we're coming through!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Go SOX!!!!! I love your blogs...can't wait to read the next entry!

smiles and hugs,
Alicia

Unknown said...

and GO SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FAPORT International said...

Very nice blog..