Thur 8/4

Day trip to Knidos -- the remotest ruins I have ever visited. Datca peninsula unremarkable except for its length but there is a feeling of being in a different Turkey. Knidos ruins unexceptional but location unbeatable. From edge of Aegean great view looking back: a few columns on the left, palm trees and the masts of sailboats on the Mediterranean-side harbor to right of columns -- have asked Oya to fashion a watercolor from my photos.

Eski Datca a lovely collection of stone houses but impossible to visit with car. Who lives here?
Datca itself a smallish Mediterranean city, the coast strangely invisible from the city center. Tiny harbor, saw very little but seemed different somehow.

Julia has loved swimming in the sea each day, squealing with delight, "Again!" New words: swim, Istanbul, I don't know, put it down, ben goon (penguin) whom she insists is in the shower (at home). Wakes up asking for Neva, Ebru & Murat's 9-month-old. Began Kurlansky's "Cod" on the plane. Great evenings are on the patio after babies are asleep, talking with Murat.

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exploring the ruins at Knidos

 

RHODES

Sat 8/6
Crossed by ferry, met at port by Tasula. Back to her house -- south and west of the Old Town. Everything as it was 3 years ago. Relieved to be out of 99º heat of Marmaris.

Sun 8/7
After coffee at T's house headed to the northern tip of the island to swim. Had lunch at Koukos in the New Town. The walk along Mandraki Harbor is possibly my favorite part of the city -- the market, the two stags, Evangelismos church (great frescoes!), the archbishop's palace and the mosque. Reminds me of Alexandria.

Evening visit from Konstantinos and new girlfriend. Sat on T's balcony and talked. Not possible to go out the way we did 3 years ago with Julia.

Mon 8/8
Took a walk into Old Town that ended in disaster. Found a great Ottoman-era cafe "Bekir Karakuzu" and sat down for a beer and a game of tavla. Julia tripped and hit her head on the pebble mosaic floor -- lots of blood and crying. Got her cleaned pat a pharmacy in the central square by the fountain. Oya very shaken.

In the evening took a walk towards the ancient acropolis, a straight shot from T's house. Julia walked most of the way, seems fine. Great feeling there as the light fades: the 3 columns of the Temple of Apollo, the kids playing soccer in the remains of the stadium, the wind in the cypress trees. After Julia went to bed had ouzo and mezes on the balcony.

 

the culprit: Greek pebble mosaic (left)
our wounded soldier near the Rhodes acropolis (right)​

Tue 8/9
Most of the day spent outside of Rhodes town, past Kalithea and terrible tourist tack of Faliraki. Nothing of note.In the evening had a bottle of retsina on the balcony. Smells a bit like a pine grove -- brought to mind the scene where the messenger gives Oedipus to the shepherd.

Wed 8/10
Canceled day trip to Symi planned for today. Looks as though we will cancel our trip to the northernmost islands, too. Icaria is too hard to reach (midnight ferry 3 times a week) and Patmos has nowhere to stay. Really wanted to see where St. John penned the book of Revelation, but it looks like I will have to wait... again. Our new plan is to take a boat to Kos Sunday and then to Bodrum later in the week. Not as interesting, but it will have to do.

Back to the Old Town today -- Julia asleep the whole time. Had beer and a light lunch. We saw everything here 3 years ago, and it is fresh enough in our memories not to repeat it.

                                                                          

 

Lawrence Durrell's house in Rhodes town (left) 
Filerimos Monastery, Rhodes (right)

Thur 8/11
Left the house early (by 8:00) and had breakfast in the courtyard of the new market by the harbor -- ham & cheese toast, o.j. coffee, yogurt w/honey -- while a group of old men gossiped loudly between the tables.

Spent the day at the beach. Took Julia swimming twice. Read "Cod" while she slept. Had lunch at Meltemi restaurant -- ouzo, moussaka, tzatziki. Walked by Lawrence Durrell's house in the corner of the Turkish cemetery on the way home. His houses are always in odd places -- makes me wonder if they were given to him for free.

In the evening were visited by T's son Konstantinos and Natasha (a big hit with Julia). Tried some Cretan raki -- more like vodka than anything.

Fri 8/12
Each morning after our coffee and breakfast on the patio at the house's entryway, Julia and I have the same routine. First we collect cones from the cypress tree in the garden, then go and smell the roses, then look for fallen apricots on the other side of the courtyard. We avoid a prickly plant and then look at the pomegranates, green and red. Lastly, we touch a stone cannonball in the last corner of the courtyard. Julia knows the names of each of these things: tree, rose, apricot, pomegranate. She demands that we "walk!" or "run!" and we go back and forth across the courtyard a few times, bringing back whatever treasures we find and setting them out on the low wall of the entryway.

Today we headed to the playground between here and the Old Town after breakfast. Julia played on the swings and the slide while Oya and I took turns watching her. We ate lunch there and then, when Julia napped, strolled down to the New Town to do some shopping.

We bought our tickets for Kos for Monday. Two days there, two in Bodrum. After a week here have fallen into a comfortable rhythm. Will be hard to go.

Sat 8/13
After coffee, we strolled to the bus station and caught a bus to Filerimos Monastery. 30 min. on the bus to a small town and then up a mountain. Wild peacocks everywhere on the grounds. Monastery abandoned by monks but a priest or two present in chapel. Archaeological digs from ancient city of Ialysos, part of the Doric Hexapolis with Knidos, Lindos, Kos and Halicarnassus. Groves of pines and cypresses. Walked with Julia on my shoulders. Air fresh and a nice breeze. Stayed for two hours, Julia asleep at the end. Had a delicious green liqueur made at Filerimos -- herbal and a bit medicinal but good. Took a walk to immense cross with airplane lights it rises so high.

Back in town before one. Went to Koukos for lunch. Julia fascinated by their parrot. Bought a nice bottle of mastica on the way home. Visit from K and N in evening. K is a bit distant this time. Have tried to engage him in conversation but had had trouble. 3 years ago he was very excited to show us around Rhodes. I did get him to tell me a bit about other Greek islands -- he seems to know them all. Am curious about Corfu, Spetses ("Phraxos" from "The Magus") and various others. Have a compulsion to see them all -- that old sickness.

Sun 8/14
Observations about Rhodes...

Archaeology sites everywhere so that apartments are separated by or even built on stilts above ancient ruins. At what point is it too much? How much should the past be allowed to interfere with the present?

Intense greenery in Rhodes Town (though the rest of the island is dry). My favorite walk the avenue of cypresses along Demokratias on the way in to town. Elsewhere dark, waxy leaves on massive trunks forming canopies overhead.

Prepared our bags today and had a last meal with T. (Oya wrote down the recipe.) Evening, K & N took us out to ice cream. Took interesting route thru a park I had never seen past the city library. Wish I could have come by day. Could imagine L. Durrell there!
               
                                                
 

Julia at the beach in Rhodes (left)
a local Airbnb listing in Rhodes town (right)

KOS

Mon 8/15
Felt seasick on the ferry. Still the view of Symi's harbor was wonderful, but I am sure this is not the harbor I saw by night all those years ago. Church bells were ringing while I was on the upper deck, created a great ambience with all the colored houses.

Arrived in Kos around noon. Hotel not far from the harbor. Had a bad lunch on the waterfront -- terrible versions of Turkish-Greek staples. Took a walk thru Kos' Old Town -- pleasant enough with a great square in front of the agora. Had coffee under the trees behind the agora then walked to the castle. Saw the Hippocrates plane tree in Plateia Patanou up a strange incline with steps on a paved hill. One of those strangely beautiful urban spaces one finds in ancient cities.

In the evening had a big Greek meal along the wall of the ancient agora. Was not expecting much from Kos but have been surprised at how nice it is. Because the Old Town is not separated from the rest there is not the feeling of a tourist zone.

Tue 8/16
Wanted to go to the Asklepeion outside of town but simply too hot. Contented myself with exploring the western excavation site not far from our hotel. Finding piles of stone less evocative than I used to. Went for a swim on my own early evening. Not a great beach -- think you need to go to the far side of the island for that.

Excellent Greek dinner right behind the church at the top of the stairs above Plateia Eleftherias -- lamb cooked in fig sauce, sweet red wine... a fitting end to our time in Greece.

 

the wonderful harbor at Symi (left)
artists at work, Kos (right)    

BODRUM

Wed 8/17
Arrived in Bodrum before noon. The harbor quite a sight with the masts of all the yachts and then the castle. Found our hotel -- an old stone house in a narrow warren of streets. Bodrum the same as all Turkish towns yet different.* The line of shops -- more like Kos than Marmaris -- but the food and the people about the same. More Turkish tourists than foreigners.

*An incredibly stupid sentence, I know, but that's what I wrote, and I'm trying to keep this authentic.

Headed to the castle, which is magnificent and houses a museum of underwater archaeology. Walked the Old Town -- everything painted blue and white like Greece. Walked to Zeki Muren's house -- a bit like Graceland but more modest and Turkish. Afterwards had a good fish dinner at a table on the beach in the middle of the bay.

 

at Bodrum Castle (left)
a Turkish Graceland (right)​

Thur 8/18
Today finally made our pilgrimage to the village where Oya once lived. Morning took a bus to Akyarlar Karaincir beach, on the southwestern end of the peninsula. From there a minibus to Turgutreis. Oya said she recognized nothing -- the village had become a town.* Spent some time in a curtain shop talking to her parents' friend who still lives there before walking to the village based on a map she scratched out for us.

*This is also a little hard to follow: the space between the village where she had lived and the beach had filled in completely.

The village was mostly stone houses painted white and Oya's house a more modern one. She talked to the two old people who now live there, and we bought Julia milk from the bakkal she went to as a child. Oya very moved to return after 25 years.

Fri 8/19
Before leaving I made my own pilgrimage to the ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus -- one of the 7 wonders of the world. It takes a lot of imagination to inject meaning into those broken pillars and mounds of stone, but I enjoyed the grounds full of trees and rose bushes. I have just two wonders left to see: the statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Hanging Gardens of Babel. We'll see if I get to them in time.