Selimiye
Yesterday Kerry and I rented a ridiculously large boat with a crew of two in the little fishing village of Selimiye, near the point where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean. They took us around to little islands off the coast and to good swimming spots. The water, as you can see, is astonishingly clear and, in the shallows, is the color they paint the bottom swimming pools, I guess to make them look like the Aegean. The highlight of the trip was our time exploring a small island containing the ruins of a Greek Christian monastary, now inhabited only by a herd of goats and a lonely donkey.
Today, we’re in Pammukale, which is weird and awesome. Kerry’s got a pic.
May 8th, 2008 13:33
most ‘blue’ pools are painted white on the bottom. The water is blue.
May 9th, 2008 15:35
Delightful! Your trip is much more in line, philosophically, with my idea of a vacation: take what comes based on what you find when you get to your destination. Ideally, of course, I’d want to live for a few years in any given place to really get a feel for it, but that tends toward impracticality.
May 10th, 2008 13:43
Beautiful water; hope you two are having a wonderful time.
Some few centuries ago, there were 352 Greek cities on the Anatolian Peninsula; all are Turkish now with Turkish names, ever since the Muslim conquest of Constantinople. Interesting, for a philosopher, to think how different Turkey might be today if all of the Greek lights had not gone out in Anatolia. Do they read Homer in Turkey, for instance (you are quite near Troy), or are all things Greek (their ancient enemy, including Alexander) diparaged?
When Europe lost Greek thought in the 5C, eight hundred years of intellectual stagnation ensued. Do any Turks see a similar lesson for their culture, by the loss of Greek thought after the sack of Baghdad in the 13C?
Beautiful water; history everywhere. Hae a great time.