LOST CHANCES

Our original intent was to spend the weekend in Germany traveling the Romantic Road, a highway that traces the old Roman trading routes winding through medieval villages and castle grounds. But after a day  of business travel and meetings and a rather disappointing tour through Augsburg, the launch point of our motoring itinerary, we decided to reorganize and returned to Munich, since we had barely scraped the surface of its rich history.  So glad we did!

But first, we stopped off to eat in an old farmhouse restaurant serving traditional German food.  My mother's family hails from Bavaria and a quick scan of the restaurant decor brought back a flood of memories for me.  Red gingham curtains just like the ones that hung in my grandmothers kitchen.  The same carved wood plaques and iron trivets decorating the walls.  Knickknacks in the cupboard. Sauerbraten on the menu, along with potato dumplings.  ( I ordered it, but it couldn't hold a candle to my grandmother's recipe.) It was both comforting and unsettling to realize that I was sitting within spitting distance of ancestral homelands and dining with their ghosts.

The next morning, our first stop was Olympic Park, a beautiful landscaped oasis on the north side of the city that housed the 1968 Olympics. Because of the Egyptian boycott, Nabil missed his second shot at an Olympic medal in Munich.  Forty four years later we wandered the park trying to imagine what his then twenty-one year old self might have been doing, thinking and feeling,  and how his life might have differed if he had indeed had a chance to compete again.

Of course there is no possible way to place yourself in the past.  Time and experience permanently alter us. Flooded with knowledge of both the world  and self, how can you reverse engineer an unfiltered experience of a past that never happened.  There was the realization, that in the end, the only thing that matters is what did happen. There are so many times when we think we might have made a different choice or voiced a different opinion, or had a chance at a different opportunity.  But in the end, we are shaped by the road taken and it is a one way street. It leads us deeper into the experience of life, building us up one layer at a time.  Padded with emotional baggage and carrying the burden of our egos, we can only hope that we are able to lighten the load by gracefully accepting that which is, rather than what might have been.

From the park, we headed into Marienplatz, the center of the Munich old town. A sea of bobbing heads met us as we entered through the old city gates.  Cobblestone streets lined with the residences of kings and their court are now lined with side walk cafes and designer boutiques.  Museums claim prime real estate that once housed government councils.  On the periphery of old town, a food and flower stalls overflowed into a riot of color. Locals and tourists gathered at long picnic tables, raising their beer steins in an endless series of toasts to the good life.  It is appears to be a very good life.  The city is clean,well maintained, safe and affluent.  The population is handsome and well built. Everyone bikes everywhere. We decided we liked everything about Munich, except German food.

We capped off the night with a Vietnamese feast in a small restaurant in the bohemian section of the city. The food was exceptional, the ambiance funky.  We ate crispy fish and basil duck.

On our last day, we spent the morning touring the Nymphemburg Palace, the summer residence of the bavarian electorate in Munich.   The palace was magnificent and the grounds even more so.  Unfortunately, the weather soured and a steady rain made it impossible to wander the gardens and smaller palaces tucked inside them.

Instead, we took in two of the national museums close to old town,  viewing an exhibit on the gods of mythology.  Afterwards, we ducked into a tourist trap of a restaurant for our farewell meal of sausages and pork roast, reaffirming that we liked everything about Munch except German cuisine!

A snarl of traffic met us on the way to the airport.   Tired and eager to find our way back to our Ankara routine, we fought the panic rising between us.   No need to worry.  The German GPS system recognized the stalled traffic and rerouted us safely to our destination. Oh, those Germans engineers.  I hope its in the genes!

MUNICH TOUCHDOWN

Our arrival is Munich coincided with the final week of Octoberfest, unplanned but welcome serendipity.  German is everything that Turkey is not.  Clean lines, crisp direction, finished details.  No crumbling curbs and unfinished sidewalks here. Bike paths run parallel to every roadway.  The underground system is efficient and traffic moves predictably (though with frightening speed). The GPS system in our rented BMW anticipated every small detail of our route from airport to hotel. everything in German is engineered, though surprisingly with ease of living as its end goal. Munich is ranked 4th in the world for best quality of city living.

Our touchdown in western Europe felt as if we had slipped into a pair of well worn shoes....comfortable, familiar and not too fussy. After unpacking and getting our bearings, we walked  a short distance to a street lined with an international array of restaurant options. We chose RUAN THAI, and had a wonderful meal along with the company of the restaurant owner, a Thai expat, with an encyclopedic knowledge of fine wines and a working knowledge of five languages.  After dinner, we wisely turned in early, though slept fitfully because of of overfull stomachs.

Our first outing was to Dachau, a small town about 40 kilometers northwest of the city, with the ignominious distinction as the birth of Germany's first and longest functioning concentration camp.  The town itself is charming, the center still laced with cobblestone streets and village shops leading to an old palace that stands guard over a commanding view of Munich and the surrounding countryside.  The fist floor of the palace has been reclaimed by a restaurant that serves both daily visitors as well as attendees for the special events often held on the now empty upper floors.  The architecture was magnificent with huge arched windows opening onto the grounds. The gardens were lush with the last of the fall bloom.  After a quick tour and a walk through the town, we drove to the camp site on the outskirts of the city. I wondered how the residents of this charming village must feel as flocks of people arrived to view the scar of their history.

The visit was sobering.  The sky turned gray and the weather chill as we pulled into the parking lot. We felt less like tourists here, and more a part of a remembering.

The entire complex is awash in putty colored buildings separated by huge expanses of gray gravel walkways and squares.  The sign placards are in greyscale.  Everything speaks of death.  A quiet hangs over the place, despite the throngs of visitors.  Entrance to the DACHAU camp is free, but we elected to purchase a guided tour and we were lucky to get an English expat with a nose for detailed human interest stories along with facts and dates. The camp was constructed as a place to detain and torture political prisoners and dissenters were threatening Hitler's bid  to solidify his power base, and not specifically to eradicate Jews.  In fact, there was a complex  hierarchy at the camp, and while Jews languished at the bottom of the pecking order, blacks, Eastern Europeans, Greeks, and a host of other sub groups were systematically tortured and eradicated at Dachau. It was also interesting to learn that a relatively small SS force supervised the sprawling camp, enlisting other prisoners to do their bidding, by trading on a system of privileges and punishments that tapped into humanities most basic instincts for survival.  The ovens and gas chamber still stand as do several of the barracks which at the end of the war were packed with the skeletal remains of nearly 40,000 desperate and despairing prisoners. Piles of bodies stood outside the warehouse waiting to be burned.  Fuel supplies were low, both for those who needed to fed and those requiring burial.  Museum exhibits have moved into the main building, where showers, meals and punishments were once metered out.  The guard house still marks the boundary of the camp entrance and the prison building hidden from view stretches out like a long walk through hell.  The military layout of camp offered few places to hide.   With with the help of our guide, it was easy to reconstruct the misery of living and dying there.

The day grew colder, the sky darker.  A light rain fell just as our tour guide wrapped up, and the group filtered back to their cars, heads hung low.  Sobering.  Shameful.  And a reminder of the atrocities that are often committed in a grab for power in desperate times.

We drove  back to the hotel in a reflective mood, and showered  to refresh our bodies and spirit. The chandeliers in Il Paladino, a small Italian restaurant twinkled across the square from our hotel and somehow the comfort of pasta seemed like the ideal antidote to our emotionally draining morning.  As the  silky smoothness of the spinach egg soup first course slipped into our bellies, we knew we had chosen wisely.  Food, service and ambience were all perfect, the idealized romantic European trattoria.

Too full to sit, and too early to sleep, we decided to walk, and headed south into the unknown, enjoying the cool October evening.  Within a few blocks, we saw the carnival lights of Octoberfest beckoning.  Of course, we answered the call.  Octoberfest is the South Jersey boardwalk on steroids.  Beer consumption is the primary activity. All else is secondary. The beer tents and gardens open at 11:00 in the morning. A sea of people is packed into each tent, singing and swaying to pumped up bands playing German folk music and American  rock and roll. The last draft is drawn at midnight.

An enormous ferris wheel anchors the complex, which is  studded with a wild  array of dare devil experiences that challenge the drunks to test their balance and bravery. The smell of sausage and sauerkraut, roasted chicken, and pretzels compete with cinnamon buns, chocolate and crepes. Bands of friends weave through carnival games, souvenir stands and strong man competitions, emptying their wallets and occasionally the contents of their stomachs.  Pools of beer and vomit puddle under the high flying swings and coasters.  It is an international party for adults who have never grown up.   The hosts are recognized by their traditional German costumes: the men in short sueded knickers with suspenders, the women spilling their bosoms out of gingham peasant dresses. It was a hoot...and an awkward and unexpected contrast to our somber morning. But then we are used to contradictions.....

SNOW DROPS

I picked  up A.D. Miller's, SNOW DROPS, because I loved the first line, and because it was short listed for the Man Booker Prize. One of their selections, THE BOOK OF PI, is one of my all time favorite books.

SNOW DROPS is a spare novel that digs into the corruption of modern Russia, uncovering dead bodies, deals gone sour and cast of characters who have lost their moral compass.  Nicholas, a London expat working as a lawyer for an investment bank, is at its center.  Written as a confession to his future wife, the story slowly reveals his willing particaption in  a scheme in which he sacrificed his morals for the possibility of passion.  It is a subtle unveiling. There is no defining moment, just a slow shrugging off of what he knows to be right, in the hope that he can have what he wants.  It is a layered novel stripped of pretense.  With a surgeons precision Miller dissects complex themes with simple language.

In the end, knowing his culpability, he admits his guilt, but also owns his regret, not for having succumbed to temptation, but for the thrill of the chase and for the things that made him feel alive.  For the walking dead who feel guilt for having broken the rules in order to find their way back to the living, Nick's confession will not alleviate the pain, but will let you know you are in good company.

Urfa

Twenty minutes west of Gobekli Teki lies Urfa, the third largest city in the region and famous for being the birthplace of Abraham, the father of western monotheistic religions and red peppers.  No sure if there is a connection there,  but I will tell you the  food was hot as hell.

Our first stop was lunch (no chance of slimming down on this trip). We ate inside an enclosed two-level courtyard open to the sky and centered by a beautiful fountain spewing a steady trickle of water into an aquamarine pool. Other than dessert, it  was the only cool thing about our lunch. We had spicy yogurt soup, spicy kebabs, eggplant and roasted peppers stuffed with a spicy rice mixture....and if things weren't spicy enough for your taste, an assortment of red peppers with varying heat indexes were served on the side.

After our "last supper" we went to visit a famous 1,000 year old mosque, which had once been a church...I don't remember why it was  famous...there are just too many religious sites to track.  What I do remember is that the caretaker had wedged a pair of old shoes in the belfry windows, to keep the pigeons from roosting there and shitting on the walkway. Ingenious!

We walked through the streets heading to Abraham's birthplace and the lake which was supposedly created when King Nemrut attempted to set Abraham afire. In a miraculous turn of luck, the fire turned to water, and a lake with holy fishes appeared on the very spot where he  was to meet his demise.  The lake with its swarms of holy fish now stands not far from the caves where he was purportedly born.

On the way, we ran into  a wedding party.  A parade of family and friends encircled the young bride and groom.  The whole entourage marched and danced in the streets accompanied by their own musicians.  As we walked beside them, they invited Nabil into the circle of their celebration hooting and hollering as he shimmied and pranced with the best of them.  Soon after, a huge dump truck lumbered down the street, heaped with furniture, housewares and bundles of clothes and linens.  This was the bride's dowry.  The truck pull up to her new home and another swarm of young Turks began unloading the bounty and ferrying into the house.  Later that evening, our parting image was of the same young couple entering a local hotel for the kind of traditional wedding celebration you might see at any US holiday inn.

We made another stop at a famous madrasah, one which was  built on the remains of a pagan worship site.  (Another reminder of the layer upon layer of beliefs stacked up in this corner of the world where people seem astonishingly comfortable with marrying  past traditions with  modern living.)

The Abraham complex sat at the foot of a sheer rock cliff. Landscaped and lined with souvenir shops and restaurants, it had the feel of a small amusement park, without the rides. The lake was more like a concrete pool, lined with broad walkways and benches.  The fish swimming in it were grey, slimy looking creatures that swarmed to the surface as people threw sprays of fish food onto the holy waters.  The inside of their greedy mouths were the color of the yellow fat that clings to raw chicken thighs and gaped open as they jockeyed for position to receive their communion.

A wooden barrier had been constructed to wall off the entrance to the cave, and there was  a side for women and a side for men.  The vestibule was lined with shoes and smelled of dirty feet and dank earth.  Fluorescent lights flickered and lit the way to a small room at its end which opened into the cave.  Women in head scarves prostrated themselves on the dirty floor, fingering prayer beads and muttering prayers.  A plastic divider walled off the sacred spot on the cave floor where the baby Abraham was birthed. The water in a small well behind the plexiglass shimmered green in the artificial lights.  A thin film of dust and dead insects floated on its surface. I couldn't breathe and made a quick escape.

Jews, Christians and Muslims all hold Abraham in high esteem. Millions make the pilgrimage to Urfa to pay his respects.  It is hard to imagine that this place could be a source of solace or inspiration to anyone, and even harder to believe that that from these early stories and legends millions of followers had been swayed and convinced of the divinity of the teachings that followed. I felt deeply disappointed in the gullibility of the human population and emotionally drained.

We spent our last hour hunting down bargains in the old bazaar.  When we could spend no more, we drank Turkish coffee in an open air shop crowded with old men playing cards and backgammon. We were done! Life's big spiritual questions faded into the background as we looked forward to our return flight from Urfa to Ankara.

GOBEKLI TEPE

Our final day in southern Turkey began with a two hour bus ride across the endless Anatolian plains and fields of peppers, squash and cotton.  Our destination was Gobekli Tepe,  an archeological dig that has  rewritten the timeline on the development of civilization. The Neolithic find dates back to 10,000 BC.  The carved stone monuments sit in an open wound at the crest of a mound. A team of German archaeologists, led by Klaus Schmidt, have slowly scraped away the earth to reveal what is thought be a burial and worship site for an early hunter:gatherer civilization.  Huge stone figures carved with human and animal markings rise up from the bedrock.  These monoliths are planted in circular hives, nesting close to one another.   Once erected,  the original builders buried these monuments, perhaps for protection, or as part of some ritual belief.

Lucky for us, Schmidt was on site with his team when we arrived. He personally led our group through the dig.  They have been excavating for more than 18 years. Progress is slow.  The project is expensive.  The excavating is limited to spring and the fall when the weather moderates. The work cannot be completed in one lifetime.

Dressed in loose clothes, head scarves and a film of dust and sweat, the laborers, students and experts at work are nearly indistinguishable from one another.  They chip away at thousands of years of compacted dirt with small hand shovels, and then sift through it to find their clues. This giant jigsaw puzzle of our past comes without a cover picture to guide its re-assembly.  It requires encyclopedic knowledge, endless patience and the mind of a crime scene investigator.

We learned that the now barren land which stretched endlessly out from our hilltop view had once been covered in lush forests and fertile farmlands.  Over thousands of years, man had gnawed it to the bone. For all that time, man has been creating stories, building temples, and  naming gods, struggling to make sense of the cycle of birth and death. The stories and the names of the gods have changed countless times, but we are still we are searching.

MIDYAT MUSINGS

On day two, we spent the morning tripping over torn up streets and revisiting the sights in Mardin, capped off by a luncheon marking the end of the Biennial.   We stepped through wooden doors  into a beautifully restored building to enjoy an outstanding meal of traditional Mardin cuisine; an oasis of beauty amid the rubble. The owner was a woman who had defied all odds, resisting the oppression of women in her culture to become a successful entrepreneur. She was running not one, but three restaurants, including one in Istanbul. She shared her journey  with us in a short welcome speech, moving the group to tears and applause.  As I've shared in previous posts, Turkey is a country of contrasts and full of surprises.  Even amid the most conservative and most traditional communities,  you'll find cosmopolitan rule breakers who defy stereotyping.

The people on tour with us were an eclectic bunch, including several well-traveled artists, writers and business owners. There were couples, a few divorced women, and a few married women traveling solo.  Most spoke at least some English and many were fluent. Most had lived abroad. Their children were all enrolled in top schools in the states. They were incredibly individualistic in their views on spirituality and religion, women's roles in society, and the changing international landscape in politics, education and business.

Traveling with these global citizens made me realize how limiting our US orientation can be, and how much we miss because of our dominant position on the world stage.  It is as if the view from the top has obscured our need to look from side to side or behind us.  Our conversations in Mardin made me wonder if the next generation of kids in the US are hungry enough, or have enough curiosity to remain competitive in a global economy.    If a small and developing country like Turkey is successfully grooming its children to be multi-lingual and cross culturally educated and are securing top spots in  institutions like MIT, Berkeley and Stanford, what is happening in China, India and Brazil?  I think a year of education abroad should be mandatory for US college students.

In the afternoon, we travelled to Midyat, another small city renowned for its jewelry making trade. As old and as storied as Mardin, it lives in its shadow.  We arrived close  to dusk, so had only a short time to wander the stone alleys and climb through the markets.  Still it was immaculate, stark and hushed in the fading light.  It seemed as if time had stopped and the world outside the walls had fallen away.  It made me wonder what Mardin might have looked like if its seams had not been ripped open.

We bought some wonderful trinkets for a song, then headed to  another beautifully restored hotel and restaurant, bathed in golden flood lights under a sky decorated with an oversized orange moon.   We on the rooftop terrace in the company of new friends. Across the way, a family watched the festivities from their own rooftop perch, then hunkered down behind a curtain made from rags drawn across their open doorway.  Again, there was the contrast; modern luxury and desperate poverty separated only by a narrow strip of empty space between two concrete rooftops.

Dinner was followed by a concert. The singer, Guvenç Dağuston, was accompanied by a fabulous violinist and two other musicians.  He had an incredible range and repertoire, including American jazz and pop. As the night grew longer, he broke into a rousing rendition of Turkish favorites.  Nearly everyone in a crowd of almost two hundred took to the dance floor, pounding and swaying and singing along to songs memorized in countless family celebrations. Their enjoyment of the music was contagious. The singing and dancing carried on long past midnight, before we staggered onto the bus. They danced in the aisles all the way back to the hotel. It was a magical night.

MARDIN MAYHEM

A week before Nabil's 65th birthday, we were surprised with the gift of a company-paid trip to Southeastern Turkey. We traveled with ArtTour, a company that had  arranged the itinerary, in part to participate in the Mardin Biennial, a contemporary arts festival that aimed to bring international recognition to this fascinating city situated in the farthest southeastern corner of Turkey.  Mardin was on our must-see list and so we were thrilled to join this group of art aficionados, though somewhat worried about Mardin's proximity to the Iraq and Syrian borders.

Mardin is as old as dirt. The old city sits atop an arid hilltop overlooking the Mesopotamian plains.  Supposedly, it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken there.  So is Turkish and Arabic (which opened a world of possibilities for Nabil to connect with the locals).  It is one of the most culturally diverse cities in this region, home to Assyrians, Jews, Christians, Arabs, Kurds and Turks. Despite the rumors of political unrest, Mardin's population is remarkably tolerant of each other's differences.

Unfortunately for us, the city was in the throws of major reconstruction.  The streets had all been disemboweled.  Piles of dirt, cobblestones and garbage  were heaped in unceremonious piles.  Dust swirled through the air and painted everything a translucent shade of rosy beige. I suspect it will take years to try to put the city back together. Between the heat (an unbearable 95 in the shade even in late September) and the filth, it was difficult to appreciate the architecture of the old city.  There were glimpses of what could have been enjoyed; stone-walled alleys pocked with ancient wooden doors, shady courtyards sheltering huge extended families, roof-top sleeping terraces to escape the sweltering summer heat, hidden passageways leading from one level of the hill-town to the next, beautiful stonework, old churches and mosques, donkeys laden with cargo and a parade of locals dressed in a stunning array of traditional costumes. (Costumes to us, normal daywear to them!)

The concept of the Biennial was interesting and the goal commendable,  but the implementation was lacking.  The primary goal was to bring world attention to Mardin's unique history and architecture (already recognized as a deserving UNESCO World Heritage site, but a distinction the locals failed to appreciate.  They turned down the offer to work with UNESCO to revitalize the city and now have to fund it themselves.) The second goal was to showcase contemporary artists and have them develop unique art installations inspired by the daily lives of the people of Mardin in situ. This meant trekking through the streets to view art installations in tea houses, vegetable markets, blacksmith and barber shops.  This  might have worked if the streets weren't almost impassable and the art worth seeing. While the promoters were keen on revealing the collective thought process of the contemporary artist,  the artists themselves seemed to have skimped on their investments in time, talent and materials.  Multi-media seemed to dominate and almost nothing resonated.  Still it was fun being part of an international "happening", and we made some great friends on the tour.

As part of the itinerary, we were invited to the opening GALA of the Biennial to be attended by the artists, organizers, local and regional dignitaries, and some of Turkey's wealthiest art patrons.  We were told the event was formal.  Not trusting the definition of formal, we consulted with several people and were told several times that we needed to dress formally.  Doubting the practicality of slopping through construction debris in formal wear, we again consulted the tour organizers who confirmed that it was indeed "formal".  So despite our misgivings, we got tripped out; Nabil in his best black suit and me in a floor length  gown.   I must say we looked great!  We headed to the lobby to meet the group, only to find everyone waiting for our bus, dressed in sandals, summer dresses and jeans. Of course, no one wanted to make us feel uncomfortable and all tried to ignore how ridiculous we looked.  We chalked the mistake up to the language barrier, had a few belly laughs with our new friends,  stripped back into our casual wear, and headed to the "gala"'.  The event was held on the rooftop patio of  a beautiful old madrasah, where we drank local wine under a star filled sky and watched the invitees try to muster enthusiasm for artwork that paled in comparison to the beauty of the setting.