Friday, July 09, 2004
Part 3 - Reality sets in
I'm realizing that I've scheduled this trip within an inch of my life. I worried before leaving that I might not be able to post the blog regularly, as I'm dependant on others for access to the internet. I never imagined I'd be unable to post because I just couldn't find a minute in the day between the hours of 8:00AM and midnight to sit down in an internet café (of which there's several right around the corner). Let alone write everything out.
I foolishly thought I might be able to do a little work on this trip as well. It seemed a bit optimistic, but I thought if I was determined… The past two days have been non-stop, intense expedition and education from the moment I got up to the moment I went to bed. (and I've been getting up early - amazing what an included breakfast and once-in-a-lifetime sights can inspire)
Tonight, after returning from our tour at 10:30 PM, K and I had a "working" dinner at our "regular" restaurant (oddly eating Italian as the sound system played Sting) while sorting out my itinerary for next week in western Anatolia. It's insane. Nearly every hour is booked. I don't even know if it's humanly possible.
I'm exhausted thinking about it, but the fear that I may miss some amazing place drives me, and while K keeps saying "Isn't Istanbul wonderful.? We have to come back. Lots." It's always an uncertainty. You never know. This might be the beginning of a life-long relationship with Turkey, or it may be a one-time fling. Impossible to know. So I better make the most of it.
I've already ceded Troy to the unvisited (I know - there's nothing left to see, but I had wanted to stand on that hill, to look out to those beaches…). I won't let Aphrodisias, Hieropolis, Ephesus, or the legendary Temple of Artemis slip away as well.
Then next weekend, I've only got two days to recover before turning around and doing the same thing in Cappadocia.
But for now, I've got to be up in 6 hours to get ready for an impromptu all-day trip to Edirne, on the Turkish/Greek border. With a crazy Israeli named Nimrod…
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I foolishly thought I might be able to do a little work on this trip as well. It seemed a bit optimistic, but I thought if I was determined… The past two days have been non-stop, intense expedition and education from the moment I got up to the moment I went to bed. (and I've been getting up early - amazing what an included breakfast and once-in-a-lifetime sights can inspire)
Tonight, after returning from our tour at 10:30 PM, K and I had a "working" dinner at our "regular" restaurant (oddly eating Italian as the sound system played Sting) while sorting out my itinerary for next week in western Anatolia. It's insane. Nearly every hour is booked. I don't even know if it's humanly possible.
I'm exhausted thinking about it, but the fear that I may miss some amazing place drives me, and while K keeps saying "Isn't Istanbul wonderful.? We have to come back. Lots." It's always an uncertainty. You never know. This might be the beginning of a life-long relationship with Turkey, or it may be a one-time fling. Impossible to know. So I better make the most of it.
I've already ceded Troy to the unvisited (I know - there's nothing left to see, but I had wanted to stand on that hill, to look out to those beaches…). I won't let Aphrodisias, Hieropolis, Ephesus, or the legendary Temple of Artemis slip away as well.
Then next weekend, I've only got two days to recover before turning around and doing the same thing in Cappadocia.
But for now, I've got to be up in 6 hours to get ready for an impromptu all-day trip to Edirne, on the Turkish/Greek border. With a crazy Israeli named Nimrod…
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