Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Trip Five - South to North and Back Again
This time Athens is the start point but only for a few hours in transit as I wait for the flight to Rhodes. Yes, I know we did that before but I missed the beautiful, apparently, island of Symi and I didn't have time then to walk around the haunting moat in Rhodes Old Town and there is a very convenient ferry across from Rhodes to Fethiye in Turkey.
So what was the itinerary? As we said first to Rhodes, a Ferry to Fethiye in Turkey, a hire car to Antalya, Ephesus, Izmir, Troy, Gallipoli, Edirne and Istanbul, then a flight to Lviv (Ukraine) for a 3 day stay, then on to Poland and a hire car around Gdansk, Torun, Wroclaw, Krakow, Warsaw - then on to Serbia for a 4 day visit to Belgrade and lastly back to Athens. Thirty-three days - yes the trips are getting longer - 8 flights, 2 hire cars, three boat trips and 14 hotels/apartments.
Now you may think that a holiday starting in the heat in the South of Europe and then moving up to the North and then back down again is a little bit stupid but no that's not how it worked out. In fact, in combining both ends of Europe on the same holiday I was able to make a lengthy comparison of both lifestyles, customs and behaviour and come to some useful conclusions as to which ones I prefer.
So firstly the Highlights in no particular order.
If you didn't know, it would be impossible to guess that this charming little shoreline has a very bloody history. Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders soldiers landed here in 1915 during the First World War in a nine month campaign that achieved absolutely nothing. It's called Anzac Cove because it's a tiny little beach and the Anzac's was the name given to the Volunteer army from Down Under that were sent to invade Turkey, in particular the peninsular of Gallipoli. Eleven thousand of them died and over 25,000 were wounded and it's not surprising that it's an unspoken tradition for every Australian and New Zealand visitor to Europe to visit the area to remember those that died. It's even been said that the fighting in Gallipoli gave birth to their nations.
And even after the sadness when confronted with the terrible waste of very, young men in Gallipoli, this place brings a new dimension to the word slaughter.
Far from fighting for King and Country as the armies in Gallipoli believed, here there was just cold-blooded murder. Whereas in Gallipoli the battle sometimes brought out the courage and humanity of mankind, here it was quite the reverse, men turned into cruel sadists quite happy, it seems, to kill innocent men, women and children.
This is Auschwitz II - Birkenau where the train would bring the people in cattle trucks right into the middle of the camp. This picture is about one quarter of the length of the site, it really is a huge place measuring a mile by a mile and a half, 425 acres. It all finished with the explosive demolition of the two underground gas chambers as the Russian army approached in January 1945 and it appears as if the whole camp has been left unchanged since then and leaves you feeling that you have stepped back in time nearly 70 years. It's a grim reminder of what mankind is sadly capable of.
This is Auschwitz II - Birkenau where the train would bring the people in cattle trucks right into the middle of the camp. This picture is about one quarter of the length of the site, it really is a huge place measuring a mile by a mile and a half, 425 acres. It all finished with the explosive demolition of the two underground gas chambers as the Russian army approached in January 1945 and it appears as if the whole camp has been left unchanged since then and leaves you feeling that you have stepped back in time nearly 70 years. It's a grim reminder of what mankind is sadly capable of.
Going back in time again this is the famous Cordon at Izmir, in Turkey. Well, no it's not actually. It's a picture of the Cordon when the city was called Smyrna back in the early 20th century. Then the Greeks, in the majority, who had shared the city with Europeans and Turks for centuries, suddenly decided in 1922 it was time to invade the rest of Turkey. This, of course, ended in tragedy as Mustafa Kemel "Ataturk" reorganised the Turkish Army and let it loose on the town and hundreds were killed and large areas burnt down. It spelt the end of Greeks living in Turkish Asia and in Smyrna they were forced out some only made it by diving from the balconys into the boats shown here and the city was then renamed Izmir. And the Cordon looks completely different now, being lined with bars and restaurants although one Greek has apparently sneaked back in and opened a bar but I couldn't find it.
This is the wonderful mosque called Selimiye Mosque at Edirne, Northern Turkey. It was built between 1569 and 1575 which does seem a bit quick for the size of the place. The architect was the famous Mimar Sultan who built many of the grand buildings in Ottoman Turkey. It had one of the biggest domes, 31.25m in diameter, in the ancient world and has what used to the tallest minarets at 71m.
The town really deserves two pictures as it takes so long to get there. In the old days it was called Adrianpolis and was the Ottoman capital because it lays right in the middle of Thrace on the main road between Vienna and Constantinople. It's been dubbed as "the most contested spot on the globe" with a reported sixteen Battle of Adrianoples over the centuries. But at the moment it's miles from anywhere unless you are planning to drive into the oddly named "Bulgaristan".
And here (well, almost) is a likeness of one of the best places in the world for a coffee and cake for your breakfast. The Edirne Palace Bar, nowhere near the Edirne Palace Hotel but in the centre of town in amongst overhanging trees and water courses and fountains. Whereas the Poles go in for walls everywhere, the Turks love their water and nowhere more so than in Edirne, an oasis in the middle of the monotonous plain of Thrace.
This is the view from surely one of the best located bars in the world (Ok, not quite the exact view but near enough.). It stands on the ramparts of the Belgrade Fortress in Serbia which overlooks the confluence of the Sava and the Danube rivers.
The bar only has one row of seats along the rampart so everyone has a good view, there's two smiling waitresses', the local beer is cheap, the sun is shining, good music is being broadcast and then they start playing "Susanna, Susanna...." one of my all-time favourites.
High up on top of a mountain near Antalya, it has survived the usual destruction by invaders and looters because it's so inaccessible. It was even under siege by Alexander the Great as it commanded a important pass through the mountains but even he had to admit defeat as it was impossible to get into the city.
Sadly it couldn't escape the force of nature as an earthquake destroyed it's aqueduct and other buildings too in about the 3rd century AD.
Sadly it couldn't escape the force of nature as an earthquake destroyed it's aqueduct and other buildings too in about the 3rd century AD.
This is the amphitheatre right at the top with marvellous views all over the surrounding mountains and valleys.
Before I tell you about the problems, I am going to tell you that I don't take any machinery on holiday with me except for an Alarm Clock. No phones, PCs, cameras, nothing. I've never taken a phone or computer with me on holiday and with my bad memory I constantly have to remind myself where everything is so I'm not about to complicate my life by adding expensive and worrisome extras. And the camera, well no, not these days.
As a consequence, dealing with Airbnb owners, to whom a phone is regarded as a essential part of any movement out of the house, life becomes somewhat difficult. So there I was in Torun, Poland with only a name, a street number and a phone number facing a panel of over 25 buttons. I had told the owner that I would arrive at 6 and that I had no phone but no-one was in sight. So I pressed every button and soon discovered quite a lot of Polish expletives. I wandered off in search of a phone or Internet Cafe but the one dubious-looking phone needed a phone card and the Internet Cafe was "down" until Monday. I returned to the house and asked anyone that moved if they knew the missing Miss So-and-So. At last someone took pity, let me in and knocked on the door of what must have been the porter. She came out and called her daughter who spoke very good English and after wandering about the building for 10 minutes she agreed to phone her and ask her where the hell she was. Obviously at home somewhere else she turned up 15 minutes later.
To be conned, "To swindle a victim by first winning his or her confidence" so no, I wasn't swindled anywhere but taken for a ride.....well, maybe.
First there was Sultan, the Turk at Ephesus who kindly helped me to park in the Car Park under a nice shady tree, right next to the "Shuttle Bus", an ageing Ford Cortina look-alike. He was very pleasant and pointed out how hot it was (it was very hot) and how the Tour Buses took all the tourists to the top of the three kilometre site and then waited for them in the Car Park at the bottom. Not having the advantage of a Tour Bus, he bought my attention to the car parked in front of us that would obligingly take me to the top of the Famous Site so that I could walk down at my leisure. "How Much?" was the obvious question. Years of Experience had taught him to twist the rope a few times before pulling it in so I ended up the proud owner of a map, a "wonderful" illustrated book and the ace in the hole, a guided tour of the world famous Ephesus Carpet School. Never heard of it? Come on, where have you been all your life?
Second leg pull was the additional Turkish salad that I was encouraged to have in order to make my Pizza type dish easier to digest.......
I felt a bit angry with myself for agreeing so easily but then it appeared. This picture is the closest I can found and it's half completed. They still have to do the flowered tomato and the similarly-worked orange and it lacks the white cheese that was kind of "dusted" over the lettuce. And only 3 Euros
So you can make your excuses and turn tail but that stinks a bit doesn't
it so I took a seat at the bar as seamlessly my old geezer swapped
places with a young lady, who was clearly the English speaking member of
the outfit. She was very pleasant, good at listening and expert at
making conversation. And thirsty, of course, Greece is very hot at this
time of year. It was all very above board, really, I was shown the bar
list and made aware that my can of beer would set me back a cool 10
Euros while my companion's non-bubbly "champagne", which of course was
not on the house, would cost me 30 Euros a glass. Eager to get down to
work my friend, no, not the old geezer, was desperate to move to a couch
to get more comfortable but I was not to be moved, in more ways than
one, and after her two glasses of "champagne" I made my excuses, to the detriment of the story I know, paid my bill and wrote it all down as experience.
I was obviously taken in by the wonderful the sights mentioned in the Rough Guide that I planned 12 days in this country. OK, there were some pretty buildings, but bad weather, flat boring countryside, a lack of any smiles, a surfeit of traffic signs, white lines everywhere and a lack of spark and then I went to Auschwitz. Yes, it's Poland, land of very dark mysterious forests but mysterious Northern people who are polite but not friendly as one of my students so aptly put it. And it seems to me that Poland has a minor problem. It's compulsory to smoke and have a haircut every day and drinking all the time comes a close third. I saw the locals downing large glasses of beer at 11 on a Sunday morning and a old geezer collecting his beer supply on his bike at 10.30 in the morning from the petrol station. In fact petrol stations look more like an off-licence with crates of beer and a extensive spirits rack.
I had expected some exciting motoring during my driving but no, the penalties for drink-driving here must be very severe. In fact, the only time anything happens is when it starts to rain. And hard driving rain really brings out the passion that's normally lacking as then they really put their foot down and suddenly I was the slowest car on the road.
Maybe it's just me, I felt like a round peg in a square hole and couldn't wait to leave. And there was one occasion when it occurred to me that the Poles are us. They are our ancestors, the people that invaded England 2000 years ago came from here, or not very far away, the Angles, the Saxons. They behave like us, the queue like us, they have mountains of rules like us and they even look like us. Clearly the Real English are the Celts, pushed over into Wales and Ireland.
Maybe it's just me, I felt like a round peg in a square hole and couldn't wait to leave. And there was one occasion when it occurred to me that the Poles are us. They are our ancestors, the people that invaded England 2000 years ago came from here, or not very far away, the Angles, the Saxons. They behave like us, the queue like us, they have mountains of rules like us and they even look like us. Clearly the Real English are the Celts, pushed over into Wales and Ireland.
Loads of people, but maybe I should list them by country:
Greece 2 (4 days - an unresponsive Polish waitress and very responsive young lady whose name I have forgotten - see "Were You Conned?")
Turkey 5 (10 days - Monica, the lady owner of the hotel in Fethiye who paints wonderful pictures and has built a fantastic water feature in her outside patio; 2 Aussies; Sultan the Ephesus Shuttle Bus Man and finally the Hopeless Shopkeeper in Seljuk.
Serbia 1 (3 days - a long chat about Serbian history with the guide to the "Roman Well"....(built in 1731..!)
Ukraine 0 ( 3 days, well, two friendly hotel Receptionists)
Poland 1 (12 days - a very helpful porter's daughter in Torun)
Aegean Flight Home 1 (3 hrs retired American coming home from her Aegean cruise.)
I found no sandy empty beaches ( no, I did actually on the coast of Turkey ) but both Ukraine and Serbia were the main surprises. Ukraine is in the middle of a Civil War in the East but in the West, Lviv (only 50km from the Polish border) is a haven for tourists. It used to be in Poland before Stalin kicked them all out and sent them to Breslau ( now Wroclaw, which was German but is now Polish..) Very good tourist shops abound and the whole atmosphere was a clear illustration of how life goes on even in the face of a Civil War. The tourists were mainly from Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia because the language is a difficulty with the added complication of the Cyrillic alphabet for street names, places, menus....But everyone was very obliging and patient and fished out the tattered old English menu. But no bookshops in Lviv.
Serbia also uses the Cyrillic alphabet but also suffers from having had a very bad press for most of the last 80 years. It's long fight for independence from Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans eventually sparked the First World War when a Serbian from Bosnia shot the Austrian heir apparent Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. And then after the death of Tito and the breakup of Yugoslavia, once again Serbia looked to expand culminating, ironically, in the nearly four year siege of Sarajevo and the bombing by US of A of Belgrade. The bombed buildings are oddly indicated on the Belgrade tourist map, as a indication of their continued suffering. But it's a very lively place with bars, cafes and terraces everywhere and in contrast to Ukraine many people spoke English and you could even find English books in the many bookshops.
Another surprise was in the driving. I had picked Poland partly for its reported "exciting" driving but I was disappointed. In fact Turkey is a more pleasant and interesting place to drive with a very good road system and with wonderful twisting roads that dive through the mountains around Fethiye and Antalya and the roadside is not cluttered up with numerous Polish signs. There's even free tea available in the petrol stations and you soon get used to the Turkish habit of drivers not waiting to join the main road.
So What Did You Learn?
It's becoming very clear to me how important people are. Meeting them, finding out about them, listening to them. Everyone on holiday takes photos of the beautiful buildings and sights that they see but I feel like taking photos of the people that I meet. The guy who gave me personally a tour around the Roman Well in Belgrade, Monika, the owner of the hotel in Fethiye, the sad shopkeeper in Seljuk who had no customers, the strange but helpful woman in Torun, the american woman on the flight home.
And it's also clear that you meet more people when you are travelling on your own. You are in charge of all your movements and have the responsibility to find out how to get to places and then find your way back to the airport. And you constantly have to figure out how things in these strange countries work. It shakes you out of the familiar and you will very often need to communicate with people to find out things. Perhaps that we why we travel?
Also I used to travel with my wife P and we went on organised trips to many places. But it strikes me now that we never met any locals on these trips. You get to know the guide very well but in contrast while travelling in Spain by ourselves my wife would always make friends wherever we went and although I am not so easy with people as she was, I am now trying to follow her example.
Comparison Between the European North and the South
Travelling from Turkey to Poland with just a three day break in Ukraine between them showed some clear differences. I remember years ago driving from Germany into France and being struck by the difference in the pavements. We are not talking motorways here but local roads. Germany had neat clinical pavements at the side of the roads whereas France had a simple dirt edging. I preferred the French approach.
So you won't be surprised to learn that it was white lines that struck me first. In Turkey you stop at a red traffic light where you want, there's frequently no white line. In Poland there are white lines everywhere. At the edges, in the middle and at the red lights. So, what does that matter, you say. But then you notice all the traffic signs - there are thousands. I did a count, in one little village of half a kilometre there were fifteen (15) road signs. Every few metres another sign. The yellow triangle was very frequent, as was various pictures of people crossing the road. And the most ludicrous, the "End of Tunnel" sign, a tunnel with a red line through it. Who, driving a dangerous metal object capable of frightening speeds needs to be told that he has left a tunnel?
And after the roads you meet the people. In Turkey, the people talk to you, they are open, two people actually asked where my wife was. Nobody in Poland will enquire after your wife. In Turkish petrol stations you can find free tea and a chair and table to drink it at. All you will find in Polish Petrol Stations is a coffee machine and booze. The old churches in Turkey and Ukraine and Serbia are all free, in Poland they will, sometimes, ask you to pay.
Taxis Versus Airport Buses - Taxis 4 Airport Buses 6
It's best to avoid taxis if you can and use the local transport so how many taxis this time? Four in total, two in Istanbul, the hotel is near the airport, 16 million live in Istanbul, it's huge, and there are no buses. Another in Lviv, to get back to the airport as I couldn't figure out where the bus left from. Another in Gdansk, to get me back to Gdansk from the Gythia Train Station after my error in catching the wrong bus. It was too late to find another bus.
Airport Buses - Rhodes, Lviv, Gdansk, Warsaw, Belgrade, Athens
Best Airport
Still Istanbul. An amazing place, it's a major hub from East and West so there many different people from all over the world and wonderful Greek yogurt with fruit in Cafe Nero. BUT, no signs to the Car Hire Drop off; you have to stop and ask a copper to fetch the AVIS guy to direct you.
Bizarre Things
Another surprise was in the driving. I had picked Poland partly for its reported "exciting" driving but I was disappointed. In fact Turkey is a more pleasant and interesting place to drive with a very good road system and with wonderful twisting roads that dive through the mountains around Fethiye and Antalya and the roadside is not cluttered up with numerous Polish signs. There's even free tea available in the petrol stations and you soon get used to the Turkish habit of drivers not waiting to join the main road.
It's becoming very clear to me how important people are. Meeting them, finding out about them, listening to them. Everyone on holiday takes photos of the beautiful buildings and sights that they see but I feel like taking photos of the people that I meet. The guy who gave me personally a tour around the Roman Well in Belgrade, Monika, the owner of the hotel in Fethiye, the sad shopkeeper in Seljuk who had no customers, the strange but helpful woman in Torun, the american woman on the flight home.
And it's also clear that you meet more people when you are travelling on your own. You are in charge of all your movements and have the responsibility to find out how to get to places and then find your way back to the airport. And you constantly have to figure out how things in these strange countries work. It shakes you out of the familiar and you will very often need to communicate with people to find out things. Perhaps that we why we travel?
Also I used to travel with my wife P and we went on organised trips to many places. But it strikes me now that we never met any locals on these trips. You get to know the guide very well but in contrast while travelling in Spain by ourselves my wife would always make friends wherever we went and although I am not so easy with people as she was, I am now trying to follow her example.
Travelling from Turkey to Poland with just a three day break in Ukraine between them showed some clear differences. I remember years ago driving from Germany into France and being struck by the difference in the pavements. We are not talking motorways here but local roads. Germany had neat clinical pavements at the side of the roads whereas France had a simple dirt edging. I preferred the French approach.
So you won't be surprised to learn that it was white lines that struck me first. In Turkey you stop at a red traffic light where you want, there's frequently no white line. In Poland there are white lines everywhere. At the edges, in the middle and at the red lights. So, what does that matter, you say. But then you notice all the traffic signs - there are thousands. I did a count, in one little village of half a kilometre there were fifteen (15) road signs. Every few metres another sign. The yellow triangle was very frequent, as was various pictures of people crossing the road. And the most ludicrous, the "End of Tunnel" sign, a tunnel with a red line through it. Who, driving a dangerous metal object capable of frightening speeds needs to be told that he has left a tunnel?
And after the roads you meet the people. In Turkey, the people talk to you, they are open, two people actually asked where my wife was. Nobody in Poland will enquire after your wife. In Turkish petrol stations you can find free tea and a chair and table to drink it at. All you will find in Polish Petrol Stations is a coffee machine and booze. The old churches in Turkey and Ukraine and Serbia are all free, in Poland they will, sometimes, ask you to pay.
Taxis Versus Airport Buses - Taxis 4 Airport Buses 6
It's best to avoid taxis if you can and use the local transport so how many taxis this time? Four in total, two in Istanbul, the hotel is near the airport, 16 million live in Istanbul, it's huge, and there are no buses. Another in Lviv, to get back to the airport as I couldn't figure out where the bus left from. Another in Gdansk, to get me back to Gdansk from the Gythia Train Station after my error in catching the wrong bus. It was too late to find another bus.
Airport Buses - Rhodes, Lviv, Gdansk, Warsaw, Belgrade, Athens
Best Airport
Still Istanbul. An amazing place, it's a major hub from East and West so there many different people from all over the world and wonderful Greek yogurt with fruit in Cafe Nero. BUT, no signs to the Car Hire Drop off; you have to stop and ask a copper to fetch the AVIS guy to direct you.
Bizarre Things
Turkish Car Wash - While driving along the Mediterranean coast from Antalya to Gallipoli I noticed many strange things. One was a pipe sticking out of the trees at the side of the road and spraying water over the roadside. The idea was you drove your car underneath to get a cool off under the trees. Did you have to buy something to get a quick cooling? Maybe, but I don't think so.
