Monthly Archives: October 2015

Home for a Rest — Wrap Up

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Five countries later, 207kms walked, 300k steps trod, and an extra 5lbs gained (I’m guessing), my Eastern European trip is done.

In trying to give a flavour of what we got up to, I left a whole lot of fun out. In each city we compiled lists of recommendations from friends and guidebooks and checked them all off.

We ate at great restaurants like the one I described in Split and awful ones I didn’t, like the tourist trap called N’Joy (we should have guessed from the name) in Cappadocia that fed us a kind of Turkish quesadilla but with no discernible filling for my friend’s cheese version and crumbly dried dog food in mine.

We met some unimpressed, stoic, quasi-angry people in Croatia, the first of whom was a waiter in the Zagreb airport hotel who impatiently chastised my perfect mother for stacking glasses on plates to help with bussing the table, since “the plates go to the kitchen and the glasses to the bar!” We met lovely warm, friendly, helpful people…everywhere else.

We took tours and explored on our own; we took buses across countries and planes between them, mostly. We walked. A lot. And followed only one umbrellaed tour guide, which we appreciated as it provided a molecule of shade on a hot day in Ephesus.

We remembered to have Kleenex with us for all the toilet-paper-free bathrooms and generally had change in local currency to use the toilets. The exception was on the 7-hr bus ride from Budapest to Krakow. We stopped at the Slovakian-Polish border after four hours, with bursting bladders — a bus-load of people faced with a coin-operated turnstile that accepted Euro cents or Polish zloties. The machine rejected my Euro coins so we trooped over to the money exchange in the gas station. But that took some effort to get the right coin denomination back. The guy ahead of us in line, now zloty-rich, offered to pay for us to pee. But by then our fellow frustrated bus passengers had managed to jam the coin machine. We looked at each other nonplussed then jumped the turnstile. I crawled through the equivalent of a doggie door instead because I foolishly thought that would be more graceful. In the process, I re-opened the scab on my knee from when I fell on the rooftop of Budapest’s Spice Market, moments after standing on top of the world and face-planted into our good-looking guide’s crotch. See? The things I didn’t tell you.

We hired amazing cab drivers to be our guides, and avoided the one in Zadar, whose business card had the charming logo and contact info of his Croatian girlie club on the flip side. Although that would have made an awesome story.

I didn’t tell you when Mom and I pooh-pooh the organized tour to Montenegro from Dubrovnik, opting for public transit instead. Our bus got caught up in the border crossing at Bosnia-Herzegovina and arrived two hours late. Time enough only to eat uninspired fast food at the bus station out of view of the beautiful UNESCO-town before having to get back on the bus to head home. Nice bus ride, though.

We went to castles and swam at beaches. We rode the metro and walked across bridges. We took boat tours in every city with water, except Krakow. There we saw a salt mine with steps, bricks and cobblestones made out of rock salt, as well as a salt Pope John Paul II and a salt Last Supper.

We learned six key phrases in four languages: hi/bye, please/thanks, yes/no, and learned that you can turn any phrase into something English. Just as “buy a donkey” means thank you in South Africa, “choke a horse” sounds remarkably like “very nice” in Turkish.

I learned that any attempt at a joke in a foreign language wins you points. Mine was saying “bad dog” to a stray canine in Turkish. It sounds like “buu-uuk eat” and cracked us up all out of proportion. Must have been in the delivery.

And I’ve leaned a lot about myself:

The number of times I say “I’m good” instead of “No, thanks,” which is not helpful in foreign countries.

How much I don’t like hot weather; it makes me grumpy (sorry mom and sis). Not fond of 2-degree weather in Poland either but I can keep my sense of humour.

There is always a fancier section on a plane than the one you are in. In Lufthansa, First Class is set off from Business Class by a space-age door-like curtain instead of a regular accordion curtain, and those fancier pants people get macadamia nuts instead of cashews. Although in Business Class the flight attendant correctly determined the wine I was drinking by holding it up to the light instead of asking me. I also learned a credit card opens the door to business class. That’s almost free, right?

Most of all, I learned again how small the world is:

…From the family and friends I travelled with (huge thanks to them for the great times)
…to the old friends I met unexpectedly abroad (in Croatia and on the plane in Munich)
…and the new ones I met on the road (cab drivers and tour guides alike)
…as well as those who emailed from home and around the world as they work and live in countless other countries
…and the one I texted on safari in Tanzania from a catamaran in Croatia.

I am truly lucky to have friends and family no matter where I go even if they are simply back home at the end of an email. Now I just have to pay more attention to the cab drivers in Vancouver. I had good success with the ones over here.

A Warning to Humanity — Krakow, Poland

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Red bricked buildings stand in quiet rows along a wide tree-lined boulevard, like a broader version of New York brownstones or a set of university dormitories in New England. We took pictures with blue sky and green trees and red buildings just outside of Oświęcim, a small town in southern Poland, 50km from Krakow. It’s when you turn the pictures to black and white that the scene take on its sinister cast. That, and the words “Work will set you free” that you walk under to get there — to the place that is more famous by its German name, Auschwitz.

Auschwitz is actually three separate camps plus 40 subcamps. The three camps had slightly different roles during WWII although they each included ingredients from the Nazi recipe of forced labour: human experimentation, starvation, disease and extermination. Auschwitz I is the one you think of, held 16k prisoners, and was the administrative head. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was built a short distance away primarily as an extermination camp and held 100k prisoners, with high volume gas chambers and crematoria. Auschwitz III-Monowitz focused on forced labour for a nearby rubber and chemical plant. Inmates there had a three to four-month life expectancy which dwindled to one month for those who worked in the nearby mines. The 40 subcamps provided slave labour for other factories in the 100km radius. The population of the Auschwitz complex comprised 25% of the entire concentration camp system with 1.3 million people deported there during WWII and only 200k making it out alive. 90% of those killed were Jews.

No picture can capture the size of the operation or the horrific things the Nazi minds thought up. The 2hr tour (joining a tour is mandatory) walked us though selected barracks to show just a touch of what was involved. The stats are what stick in the mind, a hopeless attempt to comprehend the scale of the horror:

Two trains could unload a total of 6k people at once. People were either sent directly to the gas chambers or to registration. The gas chambers killed 2k people in 20 minutes.

232k children arrived at the gates but only 22k made it as far as registration.

The gas, Zyklon B, was previously used as a pesticide for insects and rats before the Nazis thought to use it on humans.

Hair shorn from arriving women was made into textiles — human-hair blankets and cloth. Blankets were tested after the war and confirmed to be made of hair, likely female and containing traces of cyanide, left over from the Zyklon B. Liberation forces found two tonnes of hair in the warehouse. A selection fills a room today at Auschwitz, at a guess, approximately 30’W x 10’H x 6’D. Most impactful perhaps because it was so unexpected and so human. This is one room where no pictures are allowed although you can find them online if you search “Auschwitz hair.”

The warehouses contained the accumulation of the 25-50kg of luggage each prisoner could bring. Room after room, window after window, showed piles of these belongings grouped together: shoes, shoe polish tins, combs, brushes, children’s clothes, prosthetics (most people with disabilities were killed immediately) etc. We were ashamed to hear that the prisoners called the warehouses “the Canada Baracks,” as Canada was seen as a rich country with a lot of material goods.

There were 802 attempted escapes out of Auschwitz; 146 were successful. Out of 1,300,000 people.

But aside from all the numbers, what stuck us was the quiet. There were hundreds there with us. Filing along, communicating with each other through speaking glances. And not one selfie.

The 1.5 million tourists that visit Auschwitz every year read the memorial plaque: “For ever let the place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity…”

But for all the sadness and horror there are stories of help and hope. We walked through the Jewish Ghetto in Krakow and visited Schindler’s Enamel Factory. While Schindler was also described as a war profiteer, a womanizer and a cheat at business, the 1,200 Jews that worked in his factory were among the few that survived the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943, codenamed Aktion Krakau, and were fed, provided with jobs when that was the golden ticket and treated like people. The very things we take for granted.

Shoes on the Danube Bank — Budapest, Hungary

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I found Budapest both beautiful and slightly elusive. Partly due to hazy mornings that made the views of the city look ethereal, like a watercolour painting. Partly because of a language filled with Sz’s and unfamiliar accents, although Hungarian wins for the best hi/bye greeting of “szia” (see ya). In part because of a broad mix of architecture styles from intricate and lacy to upright and martial. But mostly because it has changed rulers so often and fought on the unpopular side of the two world wars that even the history is hard to grasp.

To start, Budapest is the amalgamation of two cities: Buda and Pest (pronounced Pesht). The Buda side is hilly and boasts the Castle District. The Pest side, flat and is home to pretty much everything else. They are separated by the Danube as it meanders through 10 countries. The commentary on the Danube boat cruise stated proudly that Budapest has “never had trouble with the Danube, except in 1838 when it completely wiped out Pest.” That’s like saying, “I’ve never had trouble with clowns, except for the one that killed my father,” (paraphrasing an old Jack Handey joke).

Between that, the occupations by the Huns, Tartars, Ottoman Turks, the Habsburgs, Austrians, Germans, Soviets, a war of independence and two world wars, it isn’t surprising that the architecture is a mix of over eight styles:

  • Baroque: the dome and colonnades of the Royal Palace
  • Neo-Gothic: the lacy spires and flying buttresses of the Parliament Building
  • Classicist: the proportion and geometry of the Chain Bridge
  • Renaissance: the symmetry of the Opera House, borrowed from Classicism
  • Romantic: the aesthetics of the Great Synagogue
  • Art Nouveau: the intricate Academy of Music
  • Plus the Turkish baths and Roman ruins

    • There are a few oddities of architecture as well. In the late 1800s, the Jewish population divided into three congregations: the Neolog (modern), the Orthodox (traditional) and the Status Quo (moderates), with each building its own synagogue. In what sounds like a fairy tale, the Neologs hired an architect more used to building cathedrals or basilicas so the Great Synagogue has the cathedral layout with a central rose window and is jokingly called the most Catholic synagogue in the world. The moderates hired a protege of the first architect who, in some kind of odd competition, built a synagogue with Islamic elements like minaret-style spires. And the third synagogue, neither too hard nor too soft, too hot nor too cold, was just right.

    That was described on a free walking tour about the Jewish history in Budapest. The guide also spoke about what it was like to be on the losing side both two world wars, having aligned with the Germans. It was tragic and a bit disorienting to see how both Allied and German bombing left only 26% of Budapest undamaged. Most of it has since been rebuilt using original materials and matching the architecture where possible, as shown in an eye-opening set of before-and-after photos on Castle Hill.

    While the Jewish Memorial and Museum were closed for a high holiday there was a low key but impactful memorial called “Shoes on the Danube Bank” on the river wall near the Parliament that is not mentioned in many guidebooks. Shoes sculpted in iron represent Jews who were made to remove their shoes and stand on the bank before being shot by the Arrow Cross Party (Hungarian Fascists) so their bodies would fall into the Danube and be swept away. People come to fill the shoes with flowers.

    But Hungary is not dwelling as much in the past as I have here. The city is vibrant, the people friendly and speak such good English that it feels pretentious to attempt our limited Hungarian travel phrases. And much like Canadians who name all the famous Canadians in other countries, Hungarian commentary lists their proud accomplishments, both known (Liszt, Rubik’s cube, ballpoint pen) and lesser known (vitamin C, the computer, the foundation of physics, and Windows and Excel). I’ll have to fact-check those last ones. So despite its elusiveness, or maybe because of it, Budapest should not be missed.

    Surviving the Apocalypse — Ephesus, Turkey

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    Wisdom, knowledge, fortune, virtue: this is the Ephesian recipe for success. It could also be why a nearby village in Turkey was deemed a safe haven to survive the predicted apocalypse of Dec 21, 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar. This little village of 600 people, Şirince (Shee-reen-jay), swelled to 60,000 for doomsday – chosen by virtue of its proximity to Ephesus, where the Virgin Mary spent her final days until her assumption into heaven.

    It’s a cute town whose white hillside houses are lined up like soldiers, rows of windows shuttered with dark brown wood. It has UNESCO status but while it is pretty compared to its neighbour, Selçuk, the cultural significance might be more the cause than the aesthetics. The cobblestone streets funnel you through a tourist trap, at least on the surface, of pensions, uninspired restaurants and kitschy shops.

    Founded by freed Greek slaves in the 1400s, they named it Çirkince, “rather ugly,” to discourage others from coming. The current name means “quaint,” changed a few years after Turkey’s 1924 population exchange with Greece following the Greco-Turkish War. The exchange was based primarily on religion, ignoring language and nationality: Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians were sent to Greece in exchange for Greek-speaking Muslims.

    The new now-Muslim town retained the local trade in very sweet fruit wine (blackberry, mulberry strawberry, pomegranate, melon) and in 2012 created a special end-of-the-world vintage that had to be consumed before the apocalyptic deadline. Savvy. They also jacked up the $60/night hotel cost to $1600/night.

    Şirince had a role in the discovery of the House of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus. With most of the credit going to a paralyzed German nun with visions, it was the people of this hillside village making their annual pilgrimage from the town’s church of St. John the Apostle to a little place in Ephesus that triggered a greater look at the area. 

    Mother Mary’s House, as it is called in Turkish, is a lot of guesswork. The two-room structure has only a two-foot base of original walls. The rest is reconstructed. There is some doubt as to the authenticity of the house and site but it has received three papal visits, the first in 1896 and the last from Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, which is good enough for the pious and tourists alike. Outside, the “fountain” is a row of taps mounted in a wall reminiscent of the bathrooms in prison movies. But we gamely washed our hands and I took a sip, unsure if that was required to aid in good fortune. 

    Beside the fountain is a wishing wall covered in paper streamers to tie up your wishes. I wrote my wish, more of a freeform haiku, on a bank receipt. My friend felt that could be construed as bribery and elected to use toilet paper instead. I didn’t point out how *that* could be construed. Our guide dashed our hopes by saying the wall is cleaned off once a week so I hope Mother Mary works fast.

    Selçuk, the nearest city to Ephesus, takes the knowledge requirement of success seriously. Guiding is a profession, not a summer job. Guides are now required to have a 5-yr tour guide degree that includes courses in History, Archeology, and Mythology. We were fortunate to book a tour that had only two other people on it, an Australian couple married 46 years. The four of us had our pedigreed guide, Nizan, and minivan to ourselves.

    Ephesus is a revelation. Expecting only the theatre, we were delighted to find a city of marble ruins with a wide main street, the beginnings of side streets, a harbour street and columns, arches, walls, stairs, and a few key buildings.

    The highlight is the Library. My kind of town. Rising two-stories high, it could be the twin of Petra’s Treasury in Jordan, but free-standing. It is intricate with tall Corinthian columns and the four statues of wisdom, knowledge, fortune and virtue guarding the entrance. 

    Directly across from it is the brothel with an ancient ad for it etched into the marble sidewalk a block away. The ad shows a broken heart, a footprint pointed towards the building, and the face of a beautiful woman along with a square that once held menu prices. You can almost hear the Ephesians calling, “Honey, I’m going to the library..” as they closed the front door. 

    Through the arches, down another street and past the agora, lies the famous theatre. Still in use periodically today, it has hosted Sting, Elton John and Yanni, seating 25,000 people and using the natural acoustics. 

    Having the guide brought us to great vantage points that large groups passed by unaware and provided some commentary not found in books. Ephesus is still being excavated. With only 20% of the city uncovered, new artifacts are being found every day. We passed a colonnade that had been discovered in 2013 and the previous week, an archaeologist measuring an area found a tablet with a Maltese cross etched into its face, that she placed casually against a wall.

    We left the ancient city to lunch at a small restaurant in the country that is part of a carpet-weaving cooperative. The meal was delicious and fun as we and the other couple good-naturedly out-travel-storied each other. Hard to do with peripatetic Australians. We had a fascinating demonstration of de-silking worm cocoons (the worms had been gassed to death) and watched slackjawed as women wove intricate Turkish patterns into carpets in silk and wool. Then it was time to pay our dues. A large, square room, some Turkish tea and men blanketing the floor with carpet after carpet, twirling them professionally to show how colours shift depending on the angle at which you see them. Despite the timeshare-style full court press, we left empty-handed, but with a greater appreciation of the skill involved and an understanding of the thousand-dollar price tags.

    So farewell to Turkey, a warm and friendly country, with a blend of ancient and modern, natural and urban, delicious tea and a McDonald’s that delivers (based on the branded motorbikes with panniers). That’s civilization.

    Up, Up and Away — Cappadocia, Turkey

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    Our cave hotel came with a welcome cat. Cut into the soft, rock cliffs, caves are everywhere in Cappadocia, and make the best kind of boutique hotel. The cat is the Cappadocian equivalent to a mint on your pillow. And a natural byproduct of leaving your window open.

    Cappadocia is a large region best seen by car. We used the lazy-traveler method of hiring the cabbie who drove us to the hotel as our guide. I’d had such good luck with my last one.

    Our new guide’s name was Ufuk (pronounced oo-fook, come on, now). He was 40 and at mid-afternoon was still laughing at a feeble joke I’d made in Turkish, hours earlier. I was charmed, especially since “joke” and “Turkish” is overstating it. He rejected the standard tour bus routes for a more natural one, which included sites called “Church with the buckle” and “Church of the snakes,” and where he had to chase the keeper of a 9th century monastery down from high in the branches of a tree so that we could pay the $2.50 entrance fee before we left.

    Cappadocia is the land of fairy chimneys, rock churches and underground cities of tan, brown and black, softened by shades of green from the cypress groves, apple trees and grape vines. Fairy chimneys are the Turkish counterparts of the hoodoos in the North American badlands, eroded by wind and water out of ancient volcanic deposits from eruptions more than three million years ago. Like Stone Age Rorschach tests, the formations take on many shapes: black-hatted chimneys, a camel, the profile of Napoleon.

    The churches were carved out of rock 1600 to 2000 years ago and painted at some point with murals on a black background. While the murals in some churches were still quite colourful, the monastery looked to have unrelenting black ceilings until Ufuk borrowed a powerful flashlight. As the light played over the black, paintings of Jesus and the apostles came out of the shadows, as if being discovered for the first time. There is Greek graffiti (Plato heart Persephone-style) dated 1888 on the walls adding to the sense of history. Ufuk also led me up a set of very worn, just-short-of-vertical stone steps to another church and top of the world moment. He complimented me for making it without any difficulty by saying that even young people in their 20s had trouble. I looked around for my cane.

    The underground cities are the stuff of Indiana Jones movies and nightmares for claustrophobes. The region has an estimated 200 of them, linked to each other and to the houses of the ancient residents through hidden trapdoors and courtyards. We toured Kaymakli, a four-level city, walking through slanting tunnels just wide enough for a person and in some areas only high enough to walk fully bent over at the waist. The tunnels were generally well lit, with fresh air due to effective ventilation shafts, and opened every few feet into rooms about five feet high. They were used for retreat when under attack, had their own water source that couldn’t be tampered with from ground level, and could house 10-30k very short people with their tiny horses. The first level was kept as the stable.

    Our final moment of wonder was going up, up and away in our blue- and yellow-striped balloon, suspended over the canyons and valleys of Cappadocia at sunrise, one of 100 hot air balloons dotting the sky. The balloons themselves draw the camera as much as the wide vistas. People whisper or gesture. The balloons glide, up and down and rotate in each direction to provide everyone a view. The pilot brings us within touching distance of the cliffs then we rise silently by them. It’s peaceful. Awe inspiring. Not at all scary. And a great metaphor for Turkey itself.