Monday morning began with a beautiful sunset over the mountains…

and a delicious breakfast to match of scrambled eggs, cheese, croissant and my favorite apple pastry:

We also awoke to a coup  and neither Dr. Carlson was in charge of our band of merry travelers – VH and the front of the bus rose up against their rulers and they declared him the ruler of our travels:

It wasn’t long before VH, Sophia and Odysseus led us to the gates of Delphi, the belly button of the earth, where we were met by our first oracle of the day:

The great oracle Kittius declared that cats would rule the world (as interpreted by Dr. Michelle Carlson).

The first prophecy of Delphi, however, was about the Trojan War.  From that point forward it was the focal point of the Greek world.  It served as something similar to today’s UN, where the leaders of the Greek nations gathered regularly to resolve dispute diplomatically.  It led to a dramatic decrease in wars and therefore to a more prosperous Greek nation.

When the Roman empire came to power and all political decision making took place in Rome, Delphi started to decline and was reduced to just a cultural center.

But let’s go back to the beginning…

Apollo was the son of Zeus and Leto, one of the many women Zeus had an affair with.  Hera, Zeus’ wife, was a bit vindictive and sent Python (a dragon/serpent) to kill her.  When Apollo came of age he went out and found the Temple of Mother Earth in Delphi and there he fought the Python, which lived beside the Castalian Spring, to protect his mother.  However, because Python was a child of Mother Earth (Gaia), Apollo needed to be punished – the self-imposed punishment was to serve as a slave to the king of Thessaly.  After his required service, he purified himself in the river and then went back to Dephi and thus began the history of the giving of oracles at Delphi.

People would come from across the world to Delphi to have their future told, whether it be about war, love or prosperity.  When first approaching the Sanctuary they would be interrogated by priests who asked about where they were from, what their country was like, how big their army was – they were probably better than the CIA.

Once they got past the interrogation they would purify themselves in the spring and then bring water to sprinkle on a goat.  If the goat trembled, it was a good sign and then could continue on their quest.  If it did not, their quest was over.  Essentially they were making a goat shiver from cold water. 

Once the goat shivered they walked through the gate and then up the Sacred Path, which finished at the Temple of Apollo. 

Sacred Path

Cherry Blossom on the Sacred Path

Temple of Apollo

At the Temple they would offer a gift to the god – a statue, gold, food, or whatever else they chose to give, but they had to give a gift.  They also sacrificed the goat that trembled (and no wonder why, he probably knew what was coming), which was done in the courtyard area by the priest.  The bones, fat and skin would be burned for the gods.  The meat was barbecued for the people to purchase in the market – this would have been like the meat that Paul talked about in Romans 14.

The blood was an entirely different matter.  The goat was sacrificed in the courtyard area and not in the Temple because the blood needed to reach the underworld as a gift to Pluto.

Once all the appropriate rituals and gifts had been made THEN one would receive a message from the oracle.   A young woman from the village usually served as the oracle and sat in a room in the Temple of Apollo that had a hole down to the Castalian Spring that emitted ethane and methane (that was a relatively recent discovery) that made her dizzy and start to babble.  Since she was so drugged up a priest needed to decipher her message and so was in the room next to her listening to her babbling and would interpret.  In a third room, next to the priest, was the pilgrim who would then share the oracle via a poem that usually had two meanings, this allowed for enough vagueness so that if the person understood it wrong, they would have a backup plan.  It also kept people coming… it also meant that all you got for going through all of the traveling, interrogations and rituals, all you got was a maybe.

They understood this to be that Apollo never gave a direct answer, never revealed or concealed, just pointed the way.  Ultimately, one had to make his/her own choices and mistakes and deal with the consequences.

Toward the beginning of Sacred Way was an agora.  The shops here weren’t traditional agora shops but shops for purchasing items for sacrifice and rituals.  Since most people traveled long distances, particularly by boat, it was hard to travel with all the things you needed, like animals that you would have also had to feed along the way.

Along the way up the Sacred Way there were several treasuries, where various cities set up banks. 

          The Treasury of the Sicyonians

         Treasury of the Thebes

           Treasury of the Boetians

The most impressive of all the treasuries, and the only one restored, was the Treasury of the Athenians.  It was built about halfway up the Sacred Way and made of white marble.  The difficulty of getting white marble up the mountainside, not to mention the cost, indicates the power and wealth of the Athenians.  However, in order to be politically correct, not to be offensive to others, there was a poem, a psalm if you will, dedicated to Apollo telling of his abilities and greatness. 

What really made it worth it was that one went to Delphi they HAD to go to the Temple of Apollo, which meant that everyone HAD to at least see the greatness of this treasury even if they didn’t use it.  It made a statement about how great they were and they wanted to make sure everyone knew it.

Just past the Athenian treasury along the wall were innumerable inscriptions – they were inscriptions stating the release of indentured slaves.  Since the poor could not always trust the rich to follow through on their promise to release them from their indebtedness, even though they had paid off their debts.  So, they would bring their payments for their loan or whatever their debt may be to the Temple and then their masters would receive their payment from the Temple, that way there was an honest and clear record.  Plus, you don’t ever want to mess with the gods.  When they had paid their debt in full, they would be inscribed on the wall to be a permanent mark that they had been freed.  This is what Paul would be referring to when he said in 1Corinthians 6 that God had liberated us with his blood.

Just a bit up from the Temple of Apollo was the theater, which was one of the best uncovered/restored that we’d seen:

Beyond all of these exciting things, one of my favorite parts about this day was the incredible view!  The pictures don’t do it justice but here are some of my favorites as we took the long (and I mean LONG) walk up to the stadium:

The stadium was worth the very long, uphill walk – it seemed to go on forever.  I wondered if the people who went up there ever said “the gods must be crazy.”

         The entrance across from where we were standing

Perhaps unlike other stadiums we’ve seen, this stadium was only used every four years but was the host to the second most important games of the ancient Greek world, the Pythion Games.  They were Panhellenic games, meaning that the only requirement for entry was to be Greek, though you had to prove your lineage, probably in similar ways that Knights had to prove their nobility to participate in Medieval games.

The games were not just about big muscles and athletic ability, but Greeks believed in the perfection of body, mind and soul which was born out of some agony… I think the agony part might have been getting up to the stadium.

After the loooong walk back down the mountain we went into the Delphi museum, which housed much of the original pieces of the city of Delphi, along with other artifacts found.

Some of my favorite pieces  in the museum are below.

The sphinx, who had the head of a woman, body of a lion and wings of a bird.  They don’t really understand the creature in general but gods/goddesses were generally understood to be part human and part animal.  It also helped to keep humans in their place and not let themselves think of themselves as gods:

The shields of ancient Greece were HUGE but only covered the left side of the body, since held with the left arm.  This left the right side of the body exposed to enemies, so you needed to rely on the soldier next to you to defend the right side of your body, since his shield was large enough to defend you:

The Argos brothers Cleobis and Biton, one of the earliest examples of large-scale sculptures found AND the oldest offerings found at Delphi thus far:

Remnants of a sitting Apollo, hunting Artemis and their mother Leto:

These statues were dedicated to Apollo by Daochos II depicting members of his family who were famous for their political, military and athletic abilities:

The Charioteer!  In classical times there was no such think as the touch down dance, celebratory expressions were not permitted – they violated the perfection and stoicism that was so highly revered.  The only way to know that this charioteer was a winner is the ribbon tied around his head:

Model recreation of the sanctuary of Apollo:

From the museum we headed off to lunch in the town.  I forgot to take a picture of my actual lunch of Greek Salad, French Fries and Tzatziki sauce, but I did get a picture of the incredible dessert that came with it.

After lunch we started the long trek to Athens.  My favorite part of the trip there, next to the great conversation of course, was this find during the pit stop:

When we finally got to Athens the very first thing we did was stop at the stadium there, the 1896 marble stadium that kicked off the modern Olympics!

After the much longer than 5 minute stop we were supposed to make (I took 30 pictures!) we were off to our last hotel of the trip.  On the way I snapped a picture of the Parliament building.

Dinner at the hotel was an adventure.  It included a cold avocado soup, pork chops with rice and spinach, and a whipped cream type thing for dessert with chocolate chips in it.

We tried going out on an adventure to check out the city, but we were foiled by a traffic circle, so it was just a quiet evening in the hotel being foiled by the internet.

Peace

The day started with anticipation, as I was anxious to get up into those mountains and learn more about the people who lived at the top or, and at one time lived within, the mountains of Meteora.  First, however, was breakfast, which consisted of eggs, cheese, an apple pastry and a slice of breakfast cake (think cross between poundcake and fruitcake), along with the requisite few cups of coffee.

Shortly after 8:30 we started our ascent up the mountains…

I will warn you now, I was enraptured by the beauty of the mountains, caves and the people who lived among them, so you may get tired of looking at pictures of rocks by the time this entry is done.

Part of this fascination was connected to learning that people actually lived IN the caves on the sides of the mountains in the early years (9ths century) of the monastic communities that live on the top of the mountains today.  Sophia even said that some people may still live there.

The caves were naturally formed under water, so at some point these caves were actually underwater.

Varlaam was the very first monk to live among the caves but the monastic communities didn’t really start to solidify until two brothers, who were members of the Byzantine aristocracy, abandoned everything they had to become monks.

Their journey really started on a deserted island where they were taken in by a monk who taught them the ascetic life.  When he died, they found another teacher who continued instructing them in the spiritual life and how to run a monastery.  When he thought they were ready, he told them to go back home and take care of their affairs and when temptation came, and it would, they would know that it was time to leave. 

That time to leave came as a result of jealousy over their spiritual life, so they picked up, left and built the church in/on Verlaam. 

It was that church that we first entered on the mountain tops of Meteora.  When we first arrived, the first site off the bus was this:

The journey ahead of us to get to the Church and community of Verlaam would take 120 steps further up the mountain.

         The ascent begins

A look at how far up we’d come so far.

At the top the view was breathtaking!!

        if you look carefully you can still see evidence of people living in this cave, there are planks across different sections which may indicate a sleeping place or other needed platform in a mountain side cave.

Looking at the expanse of the world below, across, further up was just an amazing witness to God’s good creation!  May favorite picture, however, was this one:

Right by it was this plaque:

  AMEN!

When we first walked up the steps of the church we saw a very, very rare icon – Christ as a young archangel with wings. You can see the IC and XC, which stands for Jesus Christ.  Around the halo are an omega, omicron and eta.  The omicron stands for Jesus’ gender and the eta is the participle form of eimi, the verb to be.  The first person present active of that verb is “I AM” which is the name God told Moses to call him.  Surrounding Jesus is a regiment of angels.

Along the far wall was a beautiful icon depicting three separate scenes.

On the far right were the two brothers who had labored in vain until they labored for the glory of God:

The center icon was of Jesus flanked by Mary and John the Baptizer (or John the Testifier if you’re talking about the Gospel of John):

On the right were two disciples of the two brothers who build the church:

Notice the winding staircase up the mountainside

Cameras were not allowed in the church so all I can do is really explain it to you.

On the way in many of us lit candles, saying prayers for family, friends and those in need.

When I finally got to enter the church it was overwhelming, it was like seeing someone whose body is completely covered in tattoos and you can’t discern anything except that there is a lot of ink.  After a few minutes, as I started to adjust and Sophia started explaining the beauty was magnificent (though still not something I’d hang on my wall).  The frescos told the stories of our faith, stories that all people, not just those who could read, could understand and learn and grow from.  So they are not about every single detail of the story but the fact of Christ’s incarnation, his death and resurrection, not whether of not the magi appeared twelve days or 3 years later.  Sophie called them “the comic book of faith.”

For instance, there was a fresco of God’s judgment which is not about being an accountant, making sure all the credits and debits add up, but one of mercy and love.  St. Peter was there with the keys and the bandit on the cross whom Jesus said “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” was there as the first person in heaven.  (Yes, I know my Gospel friends that the comma makes all the difference and could more like be read “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise” but I don’t make up the art, just explain it J )

One of the main differences between this chapel and the one at St. Stephen where we went later, was style.  This was pre-Byzantine and we don’t just know that because of the colors.  The Virgin Mary in this chapel looked like a mother who was mourning the death of her son, but in Byzantine times images of mourning were not appropriate.

One of my favorite icon frescos was the resurrection depicted with Jesus in gold with a blue aura (blue equaled life then) and pulling Adam and Eve up from the underworld.

On the way out of the chapel we saw the bell that calls them to worship, there are different rhythms that indicate the different daily offices.  Since we were there on a Sunday morning, we didn’t get to hear the ringing of their bell.

The scariest thing about these monasteries is how they got up to them before stairs were built.  Every time they went up and down the mountain they were risking their very lives.  There is a tail that once upon a time a monk bribed a goat keeper to show him the trail that goats used to get up the mountain and that’s how they went.  Later they used a rope and basket to get up and down -  A ROPE AND BASKET!  You always thanked God for having made it down safely or made it back up safely.

Here are some pictures of that rope and basket system still in place at Varlaam:

And a shot from one of the stair platforms looking up at the basket entry.

There is a tale that an exiled bishop once looked for asylum in this monastery and when he saw the way up he refused.  Knowing that he nowhere else to go, the brothers blindfolded him and lifted him up.

The museum in the monastery had several stoles and Sophia shared with us the meaning of the stoles in the Greek Orthodox tradition.  Once you are ordained you must always wear your stole when officiating over a service, if not, you can’t officiate.

The tassels at the bottom of stoles represent the souls of the people the priest shepherds. 

She also taught us about communion practices – the bread is always stamped with the IC XC (Jesus Christ)and the wine is a sweet red wine cut with warm water, representing the blood and water that poured from Jesus’ side.  You also are not allowed to receive communion unless you’ve fasted from the night before, including not drinking water.  Of course today that’s really between you and your Father Confessor, who also determines how many times a month you are allowed to receive.  In the Greek Orthodox Church communion is like medicine for the soul and you have to have preparation for it to work, otherwise it is just a talisman.  In other words, they are serious about people understanding what communion is and incorporating it into their piety so that they do not forget or take it for granted.

On the way back down I couldn’t help but get a shot of me with the mountains and village down below.

When I finally got down to the bus I discovered the Dr. Largen Dog of the Day:

Once on the bus we were on our way to St. Stephens Monastery (or what we could all in the US a convent – in Greece they use the word monastery for houses for communities of monks and nuns.  On the way we saw some more monasteries on the mountaintops, like bird nests, to use Sophia’s terms.  She told us the names of them as we passed them but I just can’t match them to the pictures.

We did make one brief stop at a small park and shrine area to read the gospel text for that day (or really, January 23^rd – there was a slight hiccup in reading the calendar).  Pretty powerful words to hear as we overlooked the valley.

The Holy Monastery of St. Stephen was a beautiful place.  The women even had a little garden on the side of the mountain: 

There are indications that this monastery was inhabited as early as the 11^th century, though by monks at the time.  It was dedicated to Stephen, the first martyr.  They say that when Stephen was stoned, people left their clothes at the feet of Saul.

In the 16^th century they received the relics of a Bishop in Asia Minor – Haralambos who was martyred when he was over 100 years old and so it was also dedicated to him at that point. 

Today St. Stephen is the largest female monastic community in the Greek Orthodox church.

Entrance courtyard:

Entering St. Stephen

              cross on top of entryway

As with the first monastery, pictures were not allowed to be taken within the building itself.

The frescos in this chapel were much different, brighter and more colorful and I was more easily able to distinguish between the individual icons.  Perhaps it was because of the white space they took advantage (some pillars where white and some sections of the walls were yet unfinished) or perhaps the colors, but I instantly saw the beauty here and could have spent hours reading the stories of my faith. 

The fresco icon of the judgment had little devils jumping on the scales of judgment, tipping them in Satan’s favor.  This shows the theology of, and importance for, praying for the recently deceased.  In the time right after they die they are being judged and who knows if Satan will be victorious in claiming them.

One of the icons had Meteora on it, including the two brothers of Varlaam, showing the importance of their own story and history as part of God’s story.

While standing in awe of all the icons, particularly one of Luke painting Sophia told us about the Greek Orthodox story behind the first icons.  St. Luke the physician made the first icons of the Virgin Mary from beeswax and Mary blessed them and from that point forward they were used. 

Also interesting about icons is that for many years they were not signed, so one had no idea who wrote it (icons are written, not drawn because they are not art but liturgy and prayer).  Later on icon writers began to sign them by saying “by the hand of…,” so that they were saying that God wrote them through the hand of the writer.

True to her promise, Mary did not have the expression of a mother mourning her son at the foot of the cross, but a woman who knew what was really going on and what was going to happen.  In the crucifixion scene blood was trickling down from the cross into the underworld loosing the bound in Hell.

On leaving St. Stephen I discovered a little chapel as well as a shrine:

        here you can see the signature I talked about – through the hand of Blasid Tsotsone

Just as quickly as we arrived we began our descent back down the moutains, but not before I got a few parting shots in:

An icon on the portico wall with the Virgin Mary in the center

A shot of our hotel from St. Stephen

As we made our way to our next stop I caught a few glimpses of some more monasteries –

and some more caves:

you can see evidence of people living in these

if you look carefully you can see colors in one of the caves, if I remember correctly this is a shrine to the monastic life of those who lived there

When we got to the bottom of the mountain we headed for lunch.  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of lunch but I can tell you that it was a fabulous Greek salad with a big hunk of feta cheese – YUM!!  I did get a picture of some rock climbers on the rock face across from the restaurant though:

After lunch we went to a Greek icon writing workshop.  This was another case of no photos, not because we weren’t allowed but because I was so busy writing down the process that I didn’t get a chance to snap a few shots of the process as they were quickly told to us. 

There are three kinds of icons.  Hand painted icons begin with a cotton canvas, stretched and treated with egg and vinegar.  The darkest colors are applied first, then the lighter colors, then gold (for the outside or for part of the figure in the icon) and then, finally, patima to make it look older. 

There is also hagiography, which uses the same materials and colors of the hand painted icon but is machine made. 

The third is lithography which is a photocopy of a hand painted icon and glued to a piece of wood.

We spent quite a long time shopping and looking at the many icons.  Did you know that there are over 10,000 different icons of the Virgin Mary?

After our time at the workshop, and some shopping for many of us, we were off to Delphi!

On our way Sophia told us many stories of Greek mythology and history.  My favorite was of Alexander and his horse.  Thessaly was a place of legend, centaurs were from there, and so they were known for their horses.  A Thessalian went to Macedonia (I didn’t catch his name and do not have internet at the time of typing this story out) with a beautiful black horse worth 3500 sheep and gave it to Philip II.  He was pleased with the gift but when he tried to ride it he was thrown off.  Again and again his soldiers tried to master this horse but were thrown off.

Philip’s son, Alexander, watched this happening and finally asked his father permission to ride it.  Philip was hesitant, Alexander was the heir to throne and he didn’t want anything to happen to him.  Philip’s generals said that he needed to prove himself so that he could rightfully take his place when the time came, so Philip said yes.

Alexander got up on the horse and rode off.  All were amazed, but what had really happened was Alexander had figured out that the horse was afraid of his own shadow, so he just turned him so he wouldn’t see it.

After a very long and rather scary bus ride over the mountains, twisting and turning in rain and snow, coming very close to the edge of the road a few times we finally arrived at our hotel right outside of Delphi.

We didn’t go out that night, it was still raining, dinner was delicious though, I just forgot to document it.

I can’t wait to tell you about Delphi and the many oracles we heard and saw while there.

Peace

As we’ve come to be spoiled here in Europe, breakfast included a baked apple pastry thing (which I’ve come to LOVE), cheese, scrambled eggs and a sesame pastry with honey (or dipped in my coffee, depending on my mood at that bite).

We headed out at 8:30 to hit the first site of the day, the site of the Roman Forum in the city.  The forum was discovered when they were breaking ground for an underground parking structure, as soon as they discovered what they had stumbled upon construction stopped and shortly thereafter excavation began.

On the left hand side was a theater, originally used for entertainment and plays but later used for gladiator games.  Attached to the theater was a “pleasure house.”  They discovered this identity because of the frescoes and paintings in “odd shapes.”  When we all giggled Sophia said, “hey, it’s a port city this wasn’t anything new.”

Off to the right would have been the location of the Odeon:

You can see across the back it looks like there is a dip or trench.  The forum had two levels, a upper and lower, or crypto-portico. 

What we were looking at was the Roman level, but it was built on the same site as the Hellenistic agora. In a country like Greece, where mountains and rocks make much of the land uninhabitable, or at the very least difficult to traverse, a city couldn’t just pick up and move when there was an earthquake or fire that destroyed part or all of the city.  They had to build right on top because the land was usable and there was a known and reliable water source.

When asked if they would ever restore the Hellenistic level or not, Sophia explained that the archaeologists determine which level is the most important and then stop there.  As for Thessaloniki, they are probably stopping at the Roman level because that is what they determine to be the most important, perhaps because of the Roman Empire and ability to reconstruct it, or perhaps because of biblical significance.

From the Forum we went to St. Dimitrius Greek Orthodox Church.  Dimitrius’ story is both interesting and rather common, in some respects, for Christians of the time.  He was a general in Constantine’s army and a really popular and successful one at that.  Dimitrius was also a Christian. 

Prior to Constantine’s conversion, one of the best ways to stay on the emperor’s side was to turn your enemies in for being Christian.  Dimitrius had made some enemies via jealousy due to his success.  At the time, to prove one’s loyalty to the emperor, who was a god, was to burn incense in front of the emperor, which, of course, Christians wouldn’t do.

When Dimitrius faced Constantinople he refused.  Rather than execute him, which would have been the custom, because of his status instead Constantine locked him in the “bathrooms” of the stadium, which today is under St. Dimitrius, to supposedly give him time to change his mind and if not be sent to fight in gladiator games.  While locked down there, Nestos who was called to fight, asked Dimitrius for a blessing.  He blessed them and then Nestos went out to fight chanting “God of Dimitrius, help me.”

Nestos won, got all the rewards of winning but was then beheaded because of the chanting.  Shortly thereafter Dimitrius was speared to death because of encouragement of Christianity.  Dimitrius’ body was supposedly claimed by his slave and dragged him and hid him behind a column and buried him – that was the only way his bodied would have been claimed, since he was an enemy of the emperor.  The slave also took this things and later those things performed miracles, hence his sainthood.

This is the supposed column that Dimitrius was buried by:

St. Dimitrius was rather young when he was martyred, only in his mid-20s, so he is always depicted as a young man without a beard:

After Constantine declared Christianity legal a chapel was built dedicated to St. Dimitrius.  It was later burned and rebuilt in the 5^th century.  An even bigger chapel was built in the 7^th century (what I understood to be renovations to make it bigger).  When it became a mosque during the Ottoman rule Christians would bribe the guards so that they could still pray at Dimitrius’ grave.  In 1917 there was a huge fire in the city that demolished half of it.  From that point up to 1947-48 excavations were underway to put the church back to together and it became a functioning congregation again in 47-48.

Today you can see the different features of the building throughout its lifetime.  The arched windows are from the 7^th century, the stones surrounded by brick are 20^th century recreations of the Byzantine style.

    This section of the outside (the stone section) includes original pieces of the wall.

Icons are a critical part of the piety of Greek Orthodox people.  They do no worship icons, only God, but they pay their respects to their forefathers and mothers in faith through the icons.  They have a very deep and intimate connection with the communion of saints – we could learn something from them.  They understand in very real and present ways the church triumphant and the church militant and the connection between the two through the Holy Spirit.  So when they ask a saint to pray for them, it is like asking the person in the pew next to you to pray for you when you’re in need of prayer. 

Many people kiss the icons, again not because they are worshipping them, but they are giving thanks and respect to them for their witness.  They draw strength from the saints depicted in the icons.

So, naturally there would be many icons in the church:

 
           Icon of Mary and Jesus

          Icon of Mary and Jesus

          Icon of Jesus

   
              Dormition of Mary

This icon is the dormition of the Virgin Mary.  They believe that the Virgin Mary did not go to Ephesus with the John (if he was the beloved disciple) because that wouldn’t make sense (I think I talked about this in the Ephesus post).  They do however believed she died in a village outside Jerusalem, which is much more likely.  This icon depicts her death and Jesus coming down to receive her soul into his care.  The Greek Orthodox church has a very different understanding of death and the body than we in the ELCA do, where the soul and body are not two separate entities but we area a body reality (Paul’s soma reality for my Epistles friend) and when we are resurrected we will made new in a body reality.

The frescoes in the church were amazing, which would be right inline with the rest of the inside of the building:

          Fresco in altar apse

                Altar

          banner

          Banner

             Sanctuary

There was a side chapel that once held the relics of Dimitrius, though it is now empty, it is still a prayer point for the congregation. 

Another interesting thing, which I may have talked about in the Philippi post, was the little altar and curtain in front of it.  They are very careful to protect the altar and sacraments from non-Christians.  The best that I can gather is that there are still very deep connections to the time when the church was persecuted (not unsurprising given their strong connection with the communion of saints) and still practice some of those methods of protection and secrecy that they had to 1500 years ago.

There was a place for people to write names down for the prayers of the church – it was pretty cool understanding what it said (or at least understanding it when Dr. Carlson pointed it out)

             
          Dr. Carlson says this sign says names for the liturgy!

         This was a little prayer chapel where I think the Onamata prayers went

From St. Dimitrius’ we left to head to the acropolis.  Along the way we saw the Dr. Largen Dog of the Day:

And one of the most shocking things we’ve seen – graffiti on 4^th century BCE walls!  In the picture below you can see a few levels of work, 4^th century through Byzantine times.

     Many of us were shocked that someone would write graffiti on a wall so old, but then again, when you grow up with it as part of your community it probably looks different.

It was exciting as we approached the acropolis, eager to see the beautiful view of the city and Aegean Sea.

           Going up to acropolis

The corner tower of the city wall was curved, rather than square.  As one of the last additions to the fortification of the city, it shows the continuing advancement of style and architecture. 

In the small holes/windows you can see, that was less about seeing what was out there and more about the city’s defense.  Those windows provided the last line of defense, and as enemies would scale the walls, the citizens would pour boiling water or oil on top of them.

    As with other city gates, the gates would open at sunrise and close at sunset.  The only time the common people would be allowed to live behind the gates on a regular basis would be when the city was under attack.

Down at the waterfront was the White Tower.  It was originally part of the fortification of the city and served as a lookout.  During the 15^th and 16^th centuries, during the Turkish occupation, the tower was used as an execution site.  IN 1912 it was white washed, hence the name White Tower.

The Rotunda is now in the middle of the city served as a church in the 5^th century, a cathedral in the 15h century and a mosque in the 16^th century (during the occupation).  It was originally built, however, to serve as a mausoleum for Galerius. 

         Hopefully you can make out the Rotunda in the middle of the city

Once leaving the Acropolis we headed to Borea, where Paul escaped to when the people of Thessalonica were ready to revolt against him.

We piled off the bus and arrived at the place where Paul first arrived and probably taught people.

      Steps going up to where Paul arrived in Borea

         Plaque on steps where Paul arrived

At the top of the steps we reached a shrine dedicated to Paul’s arrival, including two incredible mosaics of Paul’s vision of the man asking for help in Macedonia and the Boreans searching Scripture.

Just over 10 years ago they also built an additional shrine commemorating the anniversary of Paul’s arrival:

After that we headed for lunch, on today’s menu was gyros and we were on a mission to find them.  A few of us found a nice, small café and had an incredible lunch – hands down it beats the gyro place across from Madison Square Garden (my NY friends, you probably know the place I’m talking about).  One of the things that made them better was the inclusion of French fries in the gyro.

After lunch we had a hankering for ice cream and walked all around Borea to find some and when we had given up and headed back to the bus, there was a bodega with ice cream – YAY!

While we were wandering and losing hope of ever finding ice cream I snapped a few shots of the original city walls and the city in the background.

From Borea we headed back to the Via Egnatia and travelled parallel to the original for quite a few miles:

After a rather long bus ride over the mountains we finally arrived in Kalambaka (a city in the foothills of Meteora) and got a nice shot of the holy mountains!

We went on a bit of an adventure to explore the city and found what I, as an American, think of as a Greek hotel, that had statues of goddesses and everything!

Our hotel didn’t have such things.

We didn’t stay out too long because dinner was being served at 7 PM.  We had a salad, roasted potatoes, grilled vegetables and some people had pork (it was on my plate but I didn’t eat it).  My table also shared a bottle of Greek wine, which wasn’t half bad for 18 euro!  Dinner was topped off with chocolate and vanilla ice cream with whip cream on top.

After dinner a few of us went out to explore some more and check out the local scene.  We ended up in a neat little bar, had a glass of wine and, the best part was the bar snacks were definitely a step up from the US – we were served apple slices and mandarin oranges!

All in all it was a fabulous day and great way to set up for the excitement of Meteora.

Peace

Our first morning in Greece started the same way every other day has started – a 6 AM alarm, packing up the bags and getting them out into the hallway by 7 AM (and late morning means bags in the hallway at 7:30 AM) so that they could be picked up and taken to the bus.

Breakfast this morning consisted of eggs, cheese, croissant, a delicious baked apple thing, a delicious baked cheese thing, and a bit of nutella and apricot jam.

We all piled on the bus about 8 AM and headed for Philippi.  Shortly before arriving we made a pit stop because the facilities at the site are not all that good.  It was there that we started wondering about what exactly determined good facilities, for the bathrooms here were only Turkish toilets, or what we’ve come to fondly call them “squatty potties.”  If I find a clean one to take a picture of, I’ll share it.

The highlight of this stop was the coup d’état which resulted in the ousting of VH and coronation of Dr. Carlson:

The was only one problem there is more than one Dr. Carlson on this trip – we were caught in a paradox. 

Now we need to decide should it be Dr. Rick Carlson or Dr. Michelle Carlson… the jury is still out.

Our decision making process was cut short by Sophia as she gave us some background information on Philippi.  The road we took toward the city was the Via Egnatia, no relation to Ignation, but the ancient road that goes from southern Greece and up across Thrace (the northeastern portion of Greece).

Though there is evidence of life in Philipi from about 5000 BCE, around 360 BCE Kallistratos, an exile from Thasos because it was foretold he would be greater than the king, set off north.  When he stopped in Delphi, the oracle told him that he would found a new city in the place where his goats would refuse to keep going.    We all had a good giggle because that certainly seems logical, if you can’t get your animals to keep moving then you’re going to stay with them.  The oracle’s point was that the goats would know that they had arrived in a lush land and wouldn’t want to leave.

Eventually he arrived in Macedonia and founded the city of Krenides, which eventually became Philippi.

In 356 BCE Philip II (Alexander the Great’s father) conquered the city, renamed in Philippi and the rest is history.

When we entered into Philippi area we drove through the aqueducts – it amazes me that huge charter buses can fit through them!

Our first stop in the city was actually not in Philippi at all but at Neapolis, the port city near Philippi and at the place where Paul first arrived to the area.  Much like in Turkey, there had been silting over the years and the original port was a little bit inland than right on the water.

The most amazing thing – I touched a stone that may have actually been in the original port!  Perhaps not, but I’m telling myself I did.

The shrine behind me/I was standing on, was erected to memorialize the place where the gospel was first brought to Philippi.

We then headed to the place right outside the city gates where Paul, Silas and Timothy found some women on a Sabbath day, including Lydia who as a God worshipper. 

The story is actually quite amazing because Paul spoke with a woman without a male relative of hers present, something that never happened in that time.

After they talked, Lydia came to believe and asked to be baptized and she was probably baptized at the river that ran along the outside of the city walls. A shrine has been erected at the spot where they think their meeting took place, including a baptismal font redirected from the river.  One would enter from the west and exit from the east side of the river, just like the font at the Basilica

Once again Bob was an amazing addition to our trip and some of us affirmed our baptism!

              The Smith Sisters affirming their baptism with Pr. Bob Hoover

I, on the other hand, got a little sacrilegious:

          I’m simultaneously saint and sinner!

This is the shrine beyond the font:

From the shrine we headed into the Church of Lydia, which was a little chapel near the shrine.

The frescos were absolutely gorgeous!

This was the fresco of the main dome of the sanctuary, depicting the baptism of Jesus.  It is one of the few that has the entire trinity is shown – Father, Holy Spirit and Son.

The fresco behind the altar just glittered with beauty

It was in this little church that I learned something new about church buildings.  The Narthex area originates from the term narthex for a bamboo like switch that priests used to put the fear of God into people.  This was particularly important when determining people’s preparation for receiving communion.  Those who were not yet baptized would stay in the narthex during communion, in addition to those who needed to repent of something and were not properly prepared to receive.

The baptismal rites in the Greek Orthodox church is really interesting.  The baptismal sponsors take the vows of baptism, denouncing Satan and his ways.  Then the baby is covered with olive oil, followed by baptism via immersion (in copper cauldron fonts) and then anointed with myrrh. 

Infants are not allowed to be baptized until 40 days old, but parents usually wait until they are 5 or 6 months old and they can hold their head up on their own.

From there we headed up into the city of Philippi! 

The road we took in from Turkey, the Via Egnatia, ran through the city of Philippi splitting it into a upper and lower parts of the city.

My first shot of the lower city was overlooking the Forum:

When I walked down the stairs I found the Dr. Largen dog of the day:

I also found a sign for the Via Egnatia

           The Via Egnatia

Philippi also had it’s own library, that included taking an oath that was something to the effect of, “we won’t let anyone take anything from here!”

Libraries were an important part of ancient cities, it was where philosophers studied, many had their own collection, and allowed for further education of the city.

The site where the library once stood.

We then heard a reading from Acts 16 about the Philippian slave girl who could tell the future.  My acts brothers and sisters – this may have been the story of Annabelle, although Karen did the reading.

We then swung around and entered into the Octagon, the cathedral church built around 400 CE that was dedicated to Paul.  There was an inscription within the mosaic that originally said, “Porphyrios, bishop, made the embroidery of the basilica of Paul in Christ” (embroidery means mosaic).

Some more mosaics of the Octagon floor:

Outside the Octagon were the remains of yet another basilica in the city.  You can see here the altar and where the priest and other liturgy leaders would have sat. 

In the orthodox church, the altar and sacraments needed to be protected from the unbaptized, and so curtains and other means were erected to keep it away from the eyes of those who were not believers.  This was particularly true in the times during persecution of Christians throughout history as they were accused of being cannibals.

We then passed the remains of a Roman bath.  The room pictured below would have been the hot room and steam would have risen from the holes in the side of the bricks.

On our way to the basilica we came across the ancient Christian symbol that I first pointed out way back in Ephesus.  It was cool to see something from a different continent here.  Travel was difficult and things like this simple symbol even made it among the network of Christians.

Speaking of Christian symbols, our next stop was a basilica that was actually never used.  The way Sophia describes it, the people in the countryside had no idea what they were doing when it came to architecture and when their basilica was complete, the dome collapsed and it was never rebuilt.  Ironically, this is the one building, besides the theater, that is the most complete among the ruins of the city.

The four small pillars that are within the basilica are the site where a resting place, or inn, once was.  The city was on one of the main travel routes of the empire and people often came through town and needed a place to stay.

In front of the steps to the basilica was evidence of the city drainage system.  Water would run through this 24/7 and would end up in a cistern somewhere, where a garbage man (for lack of a better term) would take all the garbage out.

We found evidence of another ancient game in the back of the forum.  Sophia said it was something like backgammon but the board looked completely unfamiliar:

An incredibly exciting part of this stop was getting to see Paul’s prison at Philippi, or at least its suspected location.  The cell was on the outskirts of the upper city and at first glance it would never be an inner cell because it’s on an outside wall. However, the room originally had not doors or windows and would have no access to outside light – it was essentially an ancient cistern built into the wall.  So the evidence seems strong, though with all things it may not be 100% accurate.

From Paul’s prison, we walked up the steps of the upper city and around to the basilica that did function there.  In Byzantine times, the pulpit was in the center of the nave area and generally up a few steps.  It was exciting, and not a little bit surreal, to get to stand in the pulpit of this ancient church!

The final site of Philippi was the grandest – the theater!  Sophia shared with us how the theater was used in Roman times – a place to educate the people (they were paid sometimes to attend), as well as manipulate them and work with the collective psyche of the people.  Part of the reason education was so important was because of the principles of democracy.  You can’t have a fully functioning democracy when the populace is not educated enough on how to exercise their freedoms and responsibilities.

Unlike the horseshoe shape of Greek times, the orchestra in Romans times was completely round.  They would fill up the area with water and then reenact sea battles as part of their entertainment. 

Once we had finished with our picture taking we were on our way to lunch!  We stopped off at a Sheetz type of place (though Sheetz is still way cooler) where I had spanikopita and a yummy chocolate dessert.

Our lunch break was short lived and we were once again on the bus for the 2 hour drive to Thessaloniki.  On the way among the many things that Sophia pointed out on the side of the road, included this marble quarry:

We were on the bus and it was still a bit foggy out so the pictures didn’t come out all that clearly.  You can see that the marble looks white, what happens after mining/exposed to light they start to gray from pollution.  Also, marble changes colors depending on the minerals they are exposed to.  Iron turns marble red and chlorides turn it green.

The area we drove through also produces a lot of almonds and grapes.  Sophia said that some of the wines are competitive with French wine as a result of the stabilization of the Greek wine industry.

Along the way we also saw some spots where they were currently excavating.  Since we were following the Via Egnatia we were bound to find other cities that they are still disovering.  Part of that is because one could only travel at most about 20 – 25 miles a day, so there were generally cities that cropped up about that distance.   If one was traveling and wanted to make it to a city they needed to be careful and swift travelers because city gates generally closed at sunset for the protection of the city.

It was around 4 PM when we entered Thessaloniki and there was definitely excitement brewing on the bus, and not just because we had been cooped up for a few hours (there was only one day in Turkey where we ever this much time on the bus at once… it is going to be a regular occurrence here in Greece).  Thessaloniki was built around the 4^th century BCE by Cassander, a general in Alexander the Great’s amry, and named it after his wife Tessalonike (daughter of Philip II and half sister to Alexander the Great – Philip was a polygamist for political gain, which wasn’t really accepted in ancient Greek times). 

Once Thessaloniki was built, everything in the region shifted.  It was the second city only to Athens and was known for its cultural events.  It’s location on the water helped propel it to its stature very quickly.

Once we had checked into our hotel several of us decided we were ready to go on an adventure through the city, to hopefully find some of the “hot spots” within walking distance – our adventures were a success!

We found a Starbucks (a staple experiment for us as we compared and contrasted various European Starbucks offerings to those in the US.  In Turkey they served Turkish coffee).  After a little bit of wandering and figuring out that Sophia really meant right and not left, we found the Aegean!!  Since many of us had never seen the Aegean and probably never would again, we all took some time to touch it… and prayed to God we didn’t fall in because it was a bit precarious:

We watched the sun set over the sea….

….and then were off to the city square – Aristotelous Square – where we found someone who may be smarter than VH:

          I think VH may have been checking to make sure he had his λυω chart right.

And then everyone got in on the fun…

From there we headed into the market where we passed through the butcher section and then into the spice area – look at the beauty of all those spices, I bet they were all in that 40 spice soup we had in Turkey.

I also found a fabulous pair of red shoes that would make great Reformation shoes:

Dinner was a fabulous buffet of a pasta bake, potatoes, vegetables, feta cheese and, of course, dessert which was an entemen’s chocolate donut on crack and a cream puff kind of thing:

The night ended with a round of Bananagrams before we all fizzled and headed for bed.

Peace

PS Tuesday Night Greece Time Note:  Pictures take a bit to get up and I will hopefully have Thessaloniki up before going to bed tonight and Meteora and maybe Athens tomorrow night before leaving for the airport.  Everything else (Corinth and Myceane) will be done when I get back to the states.

The border crossing into Greece has upgraded from the last time a Turkey/Greece trip was taken.  We waited on the bus for about 20 minutes while Hussein took our passports into the guard to get our exit stamps… there was some discussion about perhaps being abandoned but he came back and gave us all back our passports.  Then we drove about 1 mile through no man’s land to the Greek border.  We all got off the bus with our passports and proved ourselves to be who we were to the guard and then had about another 20 minute wait while the guard checked the bus to make sure we hadn’t smuggled anything into the country… like Cem.

Then our Turkey bus drove up next to our Greece bus and Hussein and the new driver who we’ve decided to call Frank because we can’t figure out how to pronounce his name put all of our luggage on the new bus while we took our bags and jackets and selected our Greece bus seats. 

Before we knew it, we were on our way and getting to know Sophia our new tour guide.

As we drove to lunch Sophia filled us in on some of the history of the area.  The portion of Turkey that we arrived in is part of Thrace, part of the original Macedonia.  According to ancient writers Thrace was one of the largest most populated areas that were known, next to the Celtic people.  In 1922-23 Thrace was divided into nine parts by the European powers.  1/9 went to Greece, 4/9 to Turkey and 4/9 to Bulgaria. 

Modern day Greece is smaller in size than the state of Alabama – we checked the map when we doubted it and sure enough, it’s true!  The population of Greece is less than 11 million, which is smaller than the city of Istanbul where we’d just spent the last two nights.  And the biggest surprise statistic – the coast line of Greece is larger than the coast line of the United States.

Greece is mostly rocks and mountains (70%) with smaller patches of land that is fertile for agricultural living.

We stopped for lunch rather late but in the first city we came to – Alexandroupoli.

I had cheese stuffed meatballs (aka stuffed meatloaf) with French fries. 

Unbeknownst to us dessert came with our meal!

On the way back from lunch we found the Dr. Largen Dog of the Day:

We stopped just before our hotel at the grocery store so that we could stock up on water and any other items we may need.  For me, it was Pepsi Light – I have been way under caffeinated on this trip and many naps in the day are required to make up for it.

The sun was starting to fade as we arrived at our hotel in Komotini.  It was a fabulous hotel!  It was pretty knew and it was the first time Sophia had taken a group here and they pulled out all the stops.  The Carlsons and VH told us they had a HUGE suit.  Our rooms were pretty nice too! 

My first Greek dinner, at 8 PM, consisted of eggplant salad, tomatoes and cucumbers, rice, and fried eggplant. 

Dessert was a cake dipped in honey:

We were all exhausted after dinner and called it an early night so that we would be ready to visit Philippi!

Greece has been great so far – look for me to catch up on posts within the two next days (if we have internet… these last few posts have been done from an internet cafe).

Peace

Thursday started very early in the morning (okay, at the same time for the last week but it just seemed very early) and on a bit of a downer.  Not only were we tired, many of us were sad to be leaving Turkey behind… and fog made it seem like Turkey was sad too (or at least that’s what we’re telling ourselves).  It has been an incredible week of discovery, adventure, fun, learning and fellowship. 

Breakfast included a pastry, cheese, Turkish French toast, cherry jam and honey. 

At 8:06 we were on our way to the Greek border and to celebrate (or perhaps get those of us who were glum excited) VH read the passage from Acts 16 which tells of Paul’s vision being called to Macedonia.

About half way to the border we stopped for one last pit stop where we took this photo of our entire group, Cem & Miten included!

        picture taken by Dr. Michele Carlson who is missing from the photo

If you haven’t gathered already, Cem is an amazing tour guide!  He really helped to make this the great experience that it was with his knowledge, humor and patience.  We wanted to take him to Greece with us, we even asked if we could smuggle him in, but sadly we were told that would be wrong. 

Our bus driver was also one of the most amazing drivers that exists – he parallel parked the bus one day, kept us from falling off the edge of a cliff another, navigated traffic that was more like an obstacle course, and was faithfully present and patient as we loaded and unloaded the bus each day at the hotels and sites. 

Cem’s parting words included his birth in 1973, his first words of BC and, in all seriousness, his pride for his home country and the desire for people to visit it.  He shared two other tours that people might want to do, “the footsteps of St. Paul” that focuses on central Turkey and then moves out to the western coast that lasts two weeks and another in eastern Turkey that lasts about three weeks.  While his favorite site in Turkey is Cappadocia for all the incredible sites it has to offer, he also recommends the three-week trip in western Turkey.  While the amenities aren’t as nice as in the west, the sites out there are the most intact and in its original form because it hasn’t modernized out there.

Just a few miles before the border we picked up our new driver, Hussein, not with the Sadaam, who is licensed to drive in the “no man’s land” between the Turkey checkpoint and the Greece checkpoint.  Sadly Miten did not have a license to do that.  Even sadder was that a few miles later we literally dropped Cem and Miten off on the side of the road (by a Burger King) where they would wait for Hussein to return with the bus after we were safely across the border and in our new Greek bus.

While waiting at the border I took one last shot on our Turkey bus of the group in the back:

All in all, Sophia, our guide, and our driver in Greece have BIG shoes to fill.

Peace

While the morning was full of wondrous things of history and beauty it was the afternoon many of us had been looking forward to.  The Grand Bazaar!

From St. Sophia’s we first stopped off at a leather shop where they make their own leather from lamb’s skin and have a fabulous line of leather products.  One of those products is the first washable leather made from a material called piloria that they created. 

We started our time there with a fashion show that was fabulously fun.  Two of our tripmates, including Sarah Smith a first year MAR student at LTSG were chosen to be models for us:

After quite some time shopping and my very first haggling experience even though I wasn’t trying I walked away with a beautiful bags!  It was such a rush having that kind of success with haggling even though I started out seriously just saying no.

I was ready to take on the Grand Bazaar!

Cem gave us several hints about how to shop.  First about 90% of the pashminas being sold in the bazaar are made in China.  Turkish pashminas are more expensive because they are handmade.  If you can bargain down between 10 – 20% you’ve hit the right price.  If you can bargain down 50% of the price you’ve likely found a non-Turkish pashmina that was already overpriced. 

The bazaar also has a variety of beautiful chess sets with unique pieces like the Byzantines vs. the Ottomans.

There is also an entire silver district.

Sadly I did not take any pictures inside the Grand Bazaar.  Cem was also pretty clear about safety and being aware of pick pocketers that are throughout the bazaar.  So, I left my camera safely tucked away in my bag lest I lose my brother’s camera that he graciously lent me for this trip.

We all had a grand time shopping and encouraging each other in the art of haggling.  By the end of our two hours there we felt like we had finally figured out what we were supposed to be doing but it was also the end of our time there and we had to leave.  The group I shopped with had much success buying gifts and souvenirs from our time here in Turkey.

We headed back to the hotel at 6:30 and got there just in time for dinner.  Our last Turkish dinner was (mostly) delicious!  We had salad, what we called the 40-spice soup, a beef dish of some sort (I didn’t like it) with mashed potatoes, and Turkish tiramisu for desert!

After dinner the back of the bus crew took Cem out for a last night of the tour celebration.  I even had an Efes!

It was a great way to end a fabulous week in Turkey!

This was probably one of the most exciting days of the trip!  Istanbul is like the NYC of Turkey, according to Cem and it definitely had the feel of a city, that rhythm and energy that comes with being in the midst of so many people.   It was so very much fun!!!

The morning started off with a delicious breakfast of eggplant, potato cheese (the three cheese balls had poppy seeds, another seed and chopped nuts), a round hard pastry with sesame seeds and a light fluffy one (much like a croissant) with chocolate drizzled on top – yum!

We started our journey inside the hippodrome getting to see three obelisk structures (I’m not sure the second one really counts as an obeslisk, but I could be wrong). 

Unlike the other stadiums we’ve seen the Hippodrome is nota complete oval but rather one end is straight.  I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a picture of the one section you can see from the outside.  The city has built up on top of it, so no longer visible.  When we entered the Hippodrome we stood 12 feet above it’s original floor.

The Hippodrome served many functions.  In addition to games many ceremonies would take place there, like the circumcision of a prince.  Executions of criminals, as well as martyrs, would also take place here.

Inside the Hippodrome today there are three obelisks: The Egyptian Obelisk which was erected by Pharaoh Tuthmosis II as early as 3,300 years ago and later given to Emperor Thedosius in 390 CE; the Serpent Column erected in 4^th century CE; and Constantine IX’s obeslisk given in honor of his fourth marriage.

      Egyptian Obelisk

        The Serpent Column

     The Constantine Obelisk

On the base of the Egyptian obelisk there were reliefs depicting various events, like the royal family watching chariot races and foreign people paying homage to the Emperor.

       The royal family watching chariot games

     Paying homage to the emperor

When telling us about the Constantine obelisk Cem shared with us a game that people played.  People would climb to the top of the obelisk, without any safety gear, touch the top and then climb down.  The only problem is that people would fall down a lot.  Cem said, “it was a stupid game.”

From the Hippodrome we headed over to the Blue Mosque, which gets its name from the blue mosaics inside.  The story of the mosque and it’s six minarets goes something like this.  The sultan was leaving the city and going off to see the country side and purvey his empire.  Before he left he told his chief architect to build a mosque with a gold (altan) minaret.  Once he got underway developing the mosque he discovered there wasn’t enough gold in the treasury to do so.  Thinking he would be clever rather than risk execution he changed the desined and build six (alta) minarets.  When the sultan returned he asked the architect what had happened, why there weren’t gold minarets and the architect said, you didn’t said gold (altan), you said six (alta).

For those of you not familiar, a minaret is a tower like structure built with a mosque where the call to prayer is given at the appropriate prayer times during the day.  It was beautiful getting to hear the call to prayer everyday while we were in Turkey.  It will be missed once we cross the border into Greece.

          Entering the Blue Mosque

            The courtyard of the mosque

Inside the Mosque was gorgeous!  The intricate frescos and mosaics were absolutely breathtaking. 

   The main dome

        Ablution fountain

         Prayer area for women

         Blue mosaic on second level – the original prayer space for women

You’ll notice that the carpets here are machine made, not handmade ones, as discussed yesterday.  Since the mosque is so highly visited that they need to replace the rugs every ten years and so it is better to do so with machine made rugs.  You’ll also notice the daisies and tulips that I wrote about yesterday.

Something I found fascinating was the chandeliers and the story behind them.  They used to hang ostrich eggs between the lights of the chandelier because they ward off spiders.  Something my grandmother will probably want to try when she reads this.

Something I didn’t know before is that mosque attendance is only mandatory for men, not for women.  And when traveling you are excused from daily prayer requirements because you keep moving and turning around it can sometimes be difficult to figure out which way is Mecca.

          Leaving the Mosque

From the Blue Mosque we headed to Imperial Palace of the Ottoman Empire. 

There are three gates to the palace complex.  The area behind the first gate was open to the public, it was where merchants might sell wares and people could go to the clerk to file complaints (essentially lawsuits).  If your lawsuit was worthy enough you were granted an audience with the emperor who would decide the case.  The most impressive thing was that bread was sold in this courtyard for 3500 people daily!!  How amazing is that!

       Entering first gate

It was just inside the first gate that we found the Dr. Largen dog of the day…

The basset hound was so adorable and bounded right up to the bigger one to say “hi”

The first building we passed was St. Irene, which actually doesn’t reference a person but rather is divine peace.  It was at St. Irene where the second ecumenical council was held and was the original see of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox church before the larger, St. Sophia (which I’ll get to later) was built.

This is one of the few churches under the control of the Ottoman Empire that was not converted into a mosque.

Today St. Irene is not open to the public but is open to diplomats and other VIPs during visits to Istanbul, where concerts or receptions are held in their honor.

         St. Irene

Each of the three areas had a treasury.  The first treasury would be what common people had access to and was thought of as the outer mint.  The building was guarded by the non-Muslim soldiers of community called the Janisseries.  Though they converted to Islam once trained, they were originally outsiders to the community and were the personal bodyguards of the palace.

     The first treasury

At the second gate there was a cauldron that was used by the Janisseries that would be raised at different times to indicate to the Sultan that he was not feeding them enough.  The Sultan generally had to comply since they were his personal bodyguards and could easily assassinate him if they so chose.  In fact, the Janisseries were so powerful that should a sultan attempt to eliminate them as a branch of the military they would assassinate them, as they did with Osmand II.

        Entering second gate

Once on the other side of the second gate, which was only for men and NEVER for women, only the sultan was allowed to be on horseback, everyone else had to walk, however those were limited in number.  Generally, beyond those associated with the palace, they were ambassadors, statesmen, and those who were granted permission by the clerk in the first garden area.

Cem loved telling us about the rules given to Ambassadors before actually being granted an audience with the sultan behind the third gate.  They had to strictly abide by the rules of kneeling, kissing his hem (no longer were people allowed to kiss the feet or hand for fear of conspiracy), and never turning one’s back on the emperor, even when leaving.  Often the emperor would make guests wait for hours before granting them an audience and even then he sometimes said no.  If you were blessed to be granted an audience if you didn’t follow all the etiquette rules you were beaten severely and then sent back home as an example for anyone who may come later on the consequences of not “following the rules.”

The Imperial Council Building was also in the second garden.  The Grand Visier led the business of the state, as the sultan was never actually in attendance but would watch state business be conducted from behind a screen.  The Grand Visier’s posotion was the most dangerous in the empire because there was always the possibility of losing your head if your decisions didn’t prove fruitful or you were suspected of conspiracy.

The Grand Visiers tended to be originally non-Muslim (mostly Christians, though Jews were allowed to as well after the Spanish Inquisition), being students brought in and educated at the palace school.  If you were too smart or not bright enough, you were dismissed from the school.  The latter seems obvious, the former was because really smart people could figure out how to eliminate the sultan and take power for himself.

There were various schools available in the palace education system – business, politics, art so all, including the future Grand Visier, would have been well educated in a variety of areas if he chose.

Cem also told us that those who served the emperor directly were deaf mutes, so that they couldn’t be spies or plot to kill him.  They were deaf and mute from birth, so there was no harming of actual people in the process.

             The Imperial Council Building

The Imperial Council met four times a week to conduct the business of the state and would only meet on the other three days of the week if it was necessary.  It was in the Imperial Council building where Ambassadors would be given their instructions.

       The Foyer of the ICB

         The dome of the foyer room

          The meeting room.  You can see a gold grate up on the wall – it was behind that grate/screen where the Sultan would watch over their meetings.

Behind the second gate was also the inner mint/treasury.  It was in this building that

Just before we entered the third gate we say the place where the standard/banner of Mohammad was placed during times of war and handed off to the army.  The hole where the banner was placed was always covered whenever not in use, only the standard of Mohammad was allowed to be placed there.

      The third gate

Just beyond the third gate, we entered into the private audience hall where the sultan would receive guests.  The sultan sat on this incredibly lofty looking (though perhaps not all that comfortable)

The glass cases in front of the throne were throne cushion coverings

      Throne pillow coverings

The sultan also had his own ablution fountain

There were some interesting rituals regarding the changing of power.  First, while most people think that the size of the turban indicates power, in reality, one’s turban was their death shroud.  If one died in battle, including the sultan, their intestines would be taken out on site and then the rest of their body would be wrapped in the shroud and returned home – the sultans (along with all others who wore turbans) wore their death on their head everyday.  If at all possible, the people would not be notified of the death of the sultan for three days, in order to not incite a riot.  The members of the Imperial Council would also take this time to determine who the next sultan would be formally – the informal decision had already taken place long before the sultan would have died.

The coffin of the sultan is then displayed in the third garden area until the time of the coronation.  When the new sultan was coronated, the coffin of his predecessor was immediately behind the throne, reminding him that he too will die one day.

The very next thing we did was enter into the personal treasury of the empire, seeing gifts from other countries, swords, daggers, thrones and jewels.  I saw an 86 carat diamond!!  Unfortunately we were not permitted to take pictures.

        Heading into see crown jewels

After seeing the personal treasury of the empire, we walked across the way into the palace.  The palace is now used to house items that belonged to the whole empire, not just the sultans.  These included the sword of David, the staff of Moses, and in the palace bedroom all the personal items of the prophet Mohammad that are in existence and in their possession.  It was surreal. 

Now, of course, the sword and staff are only authentic if we believe them to be but what was interesting about it was that the staff they said belonged to Moses was more like a switch and less like a staff.  It was just a thin stick that was polished – it looked like cherry or mahogany wood.

The items belonging to the prophet are displayed for the whole country during Ramadan.

In this building there are passages of the Quran read 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  There is always an Imam sitting there (I saw him!) chanting the Quran.  Amazing and tedious, but what a gift.  I wish I could have understood what he was saying. Again, we were not permitted to take pictures in this area.

         Heading into see the country’s items

Afterward we made the long trek out of the palace grounds and we headed for lunch.  We were given free reign to go where we wanted (the first time we’d had this opportunity for lunch) and a few of us headed down the road so that we could have a Durmur a Donor, which is a cross between a gyro and a burrito.

        The lamb being cut

On our walk I couldn’t help but take pictures of the McDonalds and Starbucks… yes, we did stop in Starbucks and get coffee.  Maybe if we tried to use our gold cards we would have gotten two stars.

After lunch we headed to St. Sophia’s basilica.

@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }

         Entering the basilica

There were three gates into the basilica.  The middle one, where we entered, was only for the royal family.  The gates on either side was for the common people.  All people had to relinquish weapons when entering the basilica, except for the royal guard, because all are equal in the eyes of God.  This also meant that the emperor had to remove his crown…. Which was then carried on a pillow, so perhaps all might not be so equal.

       The gold mosaic as we entered the basilica.  Mary (the theotokos) and Gabriel are on either side of Jesus and Leo IX is kneeling at Jesus’ feet asking for forgiveness for his fourth marriage.  A marriage that produced Constantine.

St. Sophia would be considered the jewel of religious buildings in Byzantine times – the main dome was 170 feet across!  The mosaics were absolutely breathtaking!  They are still working to restore some parts of it, back from when it was converted to a mosque but they are also balancing that with restoring what it looked like when it was a mosque. 

For instance, images of a face are forbidden in the Muslim faith, but six months ago they revealed the face of one of the angels (probably actually a seraph, if I’m remembering my angelic beings correctly):

        The main entrance hall

We walked up an incredibly long ramp to get to the second floor.  It was a ramp, and not a staircase, because the emperor never would have walked, but was carried up to his seat.  Again, perhaps not all are really equal.

When we reached the top the site was breathtaking:

Looking down at the main sanctuary

We then proceeded to look at the various mosaics that are on the second floor – they were amazing and I could just imagine the glory or the images when they were first completed.

      Mary Jesus and John

     What the original probably looked like

Jesus’ eyes on this mosaic are not centered, so that his eyes follow you wherever you go.  Also, you’ll note that the eye on the left is very serious and decisive, which represents his divinity and the eye on the right is sad (like the eyes of Mary and John) which represents his sadness/solidarity with humanity.

Across from the Mosaic was the grave of Henricus, Doge of Venice and commander of the Latin armies that invaded Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade.  He died during the expedition and was buried in Hagia Sophia (compliments of the sign by his grave)

       The Virgin Mary is the center with Emperor Johannes Komnenos II and Empress Irene.  Mary is holding their son Alexios (Mary was added later).

Just a few feet away was another breathtaking mosaic of Jesus flanked by Justinian and Constantine:

I had several minutes to admire this while I waited my turn to see Cem’s all time favorite mosaic in the basilica the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus with the adult head.  I think this visual understanding of Jesus just fascinated him:

When we entered the sanctuary on the first floor we ran into the Emperor Mehmed’s cat, you know how they have nine lives and all, this one’s on it’s ninth:

 :

The chandelier’s were amazing and all in their original locations.  In it’s original form, they held candles and when they were all lit, the entire basilica would light up and glitter from all the gold and silver in the mosaics.  I can only imagine how much more beautiful it would be.  In it’s glory days it was said that St. Sophia’s was the chandelier of heaven.

This is the entrance that baptismal candidates would have come through before being baptized:

This marble jug was found on the country side and brought to Turkey in the 15th century and turned into an ablution fountain.  It originally probably held water or oil.

This final mosaic is of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus flanked by Constantine who is presenting his new city of Constantinople and Justinian presenting St. Sophia (Hagia Sophia)

The final passage out onto the street was through the splendid doors which were imported from Tarsus and originally from a second century BCE temple:

From St. Sophia’s we got on the bus and began to prepare for our trip to the Grand Bazaar! 

It was a splendid day of sight seeing but it was definitely time to switch gears to the highlight of the day, whose tale requires it’s own post…

Tuesday started a bit later with an 8:30 departure but not before a delicious breakfast of coffee, cucumbers, cheese, pastries (the one with the sesame seeds was great for dunking in coffee) and two kinds of honey. 

               Some of our group eating breakfast.

At 8:30 the bus got rolling and we were off to the ancient city of Troy, also known as Ilios and Wilusa.  We know of these two names because of the stone tablets with those names that are from the time of the Hittites. If only Brad Pitt were among us.

Troy was originally excavated in 1865 by Henry Schliemann.  He had read the Iliad as a child and was fascinated with it.  When he finally discovered the site of Troy he started digging.  Rather than taking care for each item he found, he dug through pottery, buildings and other things he came across because he was not interested in the city at all, he was only interested in gold and becoming rich.

He had trenches dug around part of the site as he looked.  It took him a long time to find gold but when he finally did, he dismissed them and then took all the gold for himself because he didn’t trust his workers.

The gold he found he then smuggled into Germany, some of it by having his wife wear as everyday jewelry:

Though she probably didn’t wear this much, this is a picture of Sophia Schliemann wearing jewelry from the site. 

Schliemann tried to then sell the pieces at auction in London but tehy did not sell because he was asking too high a price.  He brought the gold back to Germany where they stayed until WWII when the Russians confiscated them.  They’ve been trying to get those pieces back since then.  The funny thing is, though Schliemann thought he found the royal gold and treasury, in reality he found the gold of peasants.  The location he found it in was on the outside of the city walls of Troy II where the poor would have lived and not anywhere near the palace of the city.

So, the reason why Cem doesn’t like the movie Troy is because it leaves out major scenes from the actual story of the Illiad, “it’s Hollywood fiction… Homer turned in his grave” when it came out.  Now, I need to preface this explanation with the fact that I saw the movie when it first came out on DVD and not since, so I don’t remember all the details, so forgive me if I don’t tell Cem’s story right.

In the Illiad Homer tells the story of the fight between Achilles and Hector.  Hector’s mother begged him not to go through with the fight but he does so…. The family would have watched from one of the city watchtowers which also would have been the porch of the palace.  When Hector dies, Achilles takes his body and drags it around and then takes it back with him.  In ancient times having a proper burial meant everything, it meant honor and respect.  And so when Achilles took the body it meant his family could not bury him.  Hector’s father goes to Achilles and asks for his son’s body in these really touching scene.  Achilles even cries!  So he goes, washes the body, prepares it for burial and then gives it to Hector’s parents. 

Something that makes excavation at Troy so difficult is because there are nine different Troy cities, one built on top of the other as they were destroyed by earthquakes, other disasters and, of course, conquering.  Troy I dates back to at least 3000 BCE and lasted for about 500 years.

Here you can see the evidence of several layers of Tory cities:

But let me take you back to the beginning.  When we first entered the excavation site we found out we were still standing on layers of cities of Troy.  The copy just up the hill from where we stood was the original height of the entire site when they first started excavating after the Schliemann Trench plundering.

The city originally started on the far end of the current site as a castle and then expanded to the south as it grew.

We entered into the site along the walls of Troy VII (around the 12^th century BCE).  Rather than having right angles for the city walls they layered the walls vertically to make a rounded wall so one could never be surprised right around a corner.

We walked out onto the Northeast watchtower where we could look out over the countryside.

Come back from the watchtower we saw the city walls of Troy II from about 2200 BCE!  CITY WALLS FROM 2200 BCE! 

This is what is left of the Temple of Athena, from Troy IX, which once stood at 36 meters x 16 meters.  It was built somewhere around 300 BCE and wasn’t destroyed completely until 4^th century CE.

From there we walked around the city a passed the remains of a well building around 300 BCE:

And then the city ramp from Troy II (around 2200 BCE) where horses, carts, etc. would enter the city. 

We saw the remains of the Palace House, which really didn’t look all that much.  It would have been from the watchtower/porch of this building where the battle between Hector and Achilles would have been watched by Hector’s parents, the King and Queen during the years of Troy II.

There was also a sanctuary in the city, separate from the Temple of Athena, from Troy IX.  They are not sure which gods/goddesses they would have been associated with, though Cybele and Dardanos are likely.

We then swung around to the front of the complex to see the odeon/bouleterion of the city:

Though we walked through this city with such a rich mythological history and we all know the stories of the Trojan war and of Paris capturing Helen of Troy, the highlight of the day was really getting to climb into this:

This replica was given as a gift in 1975 by the Turkish artist Izzet Senemomog.

After Troy we started making our way to Istanbul.  First by bus, then by car Ferry across the Dardenells.

The sign across the way in the picture below is a memorial to the site of battle in WWI where the British army attacked and lost.  Despite the loss, 250,000 children died – 14 and 15 year old boys lied to get into the Turkish army and ended up dying for their country.

It was on this ferry trip that we said goodbye to Asia and within 30 minutes we landed on the European shores of Turkey.    Since we were so close to the water we had to stop at a waterfront restaurant for lunch.

I had fresh swordfish and it was incredible!!  I don’t think I’ve had fish this fresh since I was in Seattle a year ago feasting on fresh salmon.

After lunch we began the long bus ride to Istanbul!  On the way Cem stayed true to form and shared a wonderful and story filled history of Turkey and the Turkish people.  He began by reviewing some of the history he had already shared about the ancient history of the country and the founding of Istanbul and it’s history with the Imperial cult and its movement into Christianity and the ecumenical councils.   I stayed with him through all the things we had mostly talked about already until… I fell asleep.  I felt bad but I finally succumbed my much needed nap.  The next thing I knew we were in Istanbul!

I was able to get a shot of the aqueducts as we drove by:

We arrived just in time for a dinner of salad, potato wedges, rice and chicken, and a strawberry pudding type of dessert.

Shortly after dinner we went on an excursion through the city to see the main strip where shopping, restaurants and other fun places are.  It was packed!  More packed than I’ve seen Time Square at that time on a week night.  But it was fun!

Peace

As Cem has been sharing the history of his country and the various sites we’ve visited there has been one constant – conquering, reconquering and coups.  I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be a conquered people, much less being conquered over and over and over again.

In the United States we’ve essentially been in charge of ourselves since we came to the colonies.  Sure, we were under British rule but that’s because we were British.  People of other ethnicities who have come here have come here by choice (in some way at least).  Immigrants may have been conquered but we as an entire nation not so much.  We were the conquerors, we were the ones who were on top of the food chain, so to speak.  Just look at what our forefathers/mothers did in displacing native Americans – we “conquered” them, insofar as we told them to move or be killed.

The history we’re learning about here isn’t really mine.  Sure, the history of Christianity is involved, like the ecumenical councils, the historical aspects of Scripture, but my great-great-great-great-(you get the idea)-grandfather wasn’t slaughtered when Alexander the Great came to my town, much less all the people of my town.

What is it that unites us as citizens of the United States?  Is there anything?  We are such a hodge podge of people that we don’t really have a common history that’s millennia old… there are so many people whose families have only been in the US for 100 years.  At most small towns can trace their roots to their mother country or perhaps to the civil war.  I wonder if this is why Pearl Harbor and September 11^th are such potent memories and events in our country’s history.  Though we prevailed in WWII and September 11^th happened only on the day, it was a moment when our weakness and fragility was shown, and then our power and resolve to overcome devastation together.  We never had to refigure our identity after being conquered, never had to deal with the feelings being oppressed in that particular way.

Now that I think about it, perhaps this young and scattered history may be the reason we obsess about tragedy in our country, following stories like baby Jessica in the well back in the last 80s (or early 90s, I forget), forest fires and hurricanes, and other events – it is a common history we all witnessed and share.  Whether we realize it or not, we may just be yearning for that common history, the things that bind our “tossed salad” of a country and turn it into a “melting pot” of one people, the way other countries automatically have that commonality just from their very existence.

Just a few thoughts I’ve been pondering as I reflect on what we’ve seen already and prepare to see sites in one of the oldest cities of Greek lore – Troy.

Peace