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Dear
Family,
We left Athens yesterday. Today and tonight we will spend
at sea before
reaching Italy again (Naples and then Livorno). There we
are hoping to see the ruins of Pompeii and also the city of
Pisa.
I write these postcards mostly for my family and some close
friends. I
think these are better than sending the usual picture postcards.
I know
some of you like to read them; I am sure some others probably do
not have
the time or inclination to read. But, that is O.k., I feel
like writing
because unless I write now I will forget most the thoughts that
I might have gathered during my visit to these places.
After leaving Istanbul, we stopped at another Turkish city
called Kusadasi. This city is on the Mediterranean Sea.
We were shown a small cottage up on the hills where these
people believe Virgin Mary (Jesus Christ's mother) lived in
her later part of life and died. It is thus a very
sacred place for the Christians, especially the Roman Catholics.
Two Popes came to visit the place. Many believe miracles
happen here. I wonder how Mary actually traveled more than
1,000 miles from Jerusalem those days to come here. In this city
we also saw another recently excavated ruins of a Roman city
from more than 2,000 years ago, fairly well preserved. As
I said before the Romans really left a strong legacy here in
Turkey.
Let me say something about the money. All the countries
that we have
visited and will be visiting during this trip (Italy, Greece,
France,
Monaco, Spain) are members of the European Union except Turkey.
Thus the money in all those countries is the Euro. Which
makes it easier for the
tourists. Euro at this time is more powerful than US
dollar (1 Euro = 1.2
US $). The money in Turkey is Lira. One US $ =
1,200,000.00 Liras! That is one million two hundred thousand
liras to one dollar. That means if you want to buy a cup
of coffee you need to pay one million liras. The beggars
expect that you give them at least one million liras as alms.
It also means that every one in Turkey is a millionaire!
Next day we reached Athens, the capital of Greece. Both
Anjali and I were very much
interested to be here. We have heard so much about it.
After visiting the city, I must say it was worth the visit. The
present day Athens is a big city (5 million), but not as big as
Istanbul (13 million). Istanbul was really big.
At first appearance, Athens
looked like any other industrial city.
Indeed the buildings are all relatively new and quite
unimpressive. Traffic is chaotic and the air is quite
polluted. This is not like other "older"
European cities that I visited recently, Prague, Budapest,
Warsaw, Krakow, St. Petersburg, Paris or Brussels, where
the cities are well planned with wide boulevards, and the buildings
are very impressive and beautifully old-fashioned from many
centuries ago, and are well preserved. Most of Athens look
like Bombay or Calcutta or may be like
part of London. On top of that the whole city seemed to be under construction
preparing for the upcoming summer Olympics in the year 2,004.
They are building new stadiums, new roads and hotels and
renovating the whole city. The people here are quite fed
up with the mess they have to face. Many people believe they
will not be totally ready before the
start of the games. Some one said,
"The ruins in this city looks better than the city ".
That is true.
Because, in the middle of this not so impressive industrial town
there is
a part of Greece which really moved us - the ancient, 6,000
years old Athens. It is unimaginable how old these things are.
We were shown the drainage system from 6,000 years BC.
We were awed by the collections at the Agora museum that is full
of elegant statues, vases, plates, jugs and other artifacts from
2,000 years BC and onwards.
And there are hundreds of artifacts and most impressive is that
they all are very beautiful not just primitive. In
the USA, we talk about the history of 200 years, in Europe may
be 600 or 700 years, but here we are talking about 5,000 -6,000
years! In India we hear
about history of 5,000 years but we do not have much to show in
terms of buildings, relics and artifacts. I know Egypt
and China have really old history and they have relics to show,
but I have not seen them.
The history of Athens is interesting and moving too. Greek
people like to
talk constantly about their country as the cradle of
civilization, cradle of
democracy, cradle of philosophy, cradle of modern day
medicine, cradle of western art and culture. Cradle of drama
(play), cradle of justice system (jury), cradle of architecture,
cradle of sculpture, cradle of buildings in large scale, cradle
of this and that and so on
and so forth. But you know, what? They are
absolutely right. It is indeed the cradle of all these, at least
for the western world. (I remembered the recent
comic movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
Although there are clear signs and proof of a thriving
civilization here
5,000-6,000 years B.C., the golden era of Greek civilization was
at about 500 B.C. That is the time when great people like
Aristotle, Plato, Socrates (philosophy), Hypocrites (modern medicine), Sophocles and Euripides (Plays) and others
lived. This is the time when they built these amazingly
huge buildings and temples, like the Parthenon, Agora, and
Temple of Zeus etc. I have not studied the Greek mythology,
so I cannot remember all the names of the gods and goddesses on
whose names these magnificent temples were built 500 years
before Christ. I can only say that the biggest temple, the
Parthenon, was built for the Goddess Athena. The City
got its name from her. She is the goddess of peace and
prosperity, and her symbol is an olive branch. Hence
the usual term "to offer an olive branch" is symbolic of
offer of peace. (Sale of olive oil has made enormous
wealth for Greece over the centuries and millenniums). In
most monotheistic religions,
the core conviction is that God
created everything including the universe and human. The
ancient Greek people actually created Gods and Goddesses
according to their need, and worshiped them as immortals.
Like god of the sea, god of the fire, god of prosperity, god of
beauty, god of drama, god of wine, and so on. I see
similarities between their thoughts and the ancient Hindu
mythology.
The Greek history after that golden era is very tragic. Again, I
see a
parallel to the Indian history here. Since Greece was a
very wealthy nation it saw waves and
waves of invaders and occupiers over the centuries.
First came the Persians who destroyed much of the ancient Greece
and plundered its wealth. (Later in 200 B.C. Alexander the
Great took revenge by conquering Persia (king Darius) and
by plundering it), then came the Venetians, French, and few
others not necessarily in that order, and lastly the Ottomans
from Turkey. The Venetians were particularly bad and destroyed
the city and stole most of its wealth. The Ottomans ruled
over the Greece for about
four centuries. They converted the Parthenon into a mosque
(built Minarettes around it) but did not destroy the actual
temples. Of course after the Ottoman rule these were
converted back to original temples. Then somewhere in the middle
of the chaos, the British got into the picture and stole much of
the ancient relics that were still available to steal. I
am told they collected 57 shiploads of relics from the old
temples and shipped to England. Unfortunately some of the ships
sank during the journey, thus invaluable historical relics were
lost forever, although most reached England. Thus, if
you want to see the most beautiful and precious relics of
ancient Greece you will have to go to the British Museum in
London.
The other historical significance of Athens is of course the
Olympic
games. The Olympic games originated here in Athens I believe, at about
400 years before Christ. The modern Olympic games also
were restarted here in Athens in 1896, inspired by a
Frenchman. The Stadium used for that game in 1896 is still
here (all marble) and will be used for some games during the
upcoming Olympics in 2,004. A bigger new stadium is
being built about 10 kilometers away for the main events of
2004. About all the constructions going on for the
Olympics, someone joked " these people have been
constructing the city since 5,000 years BC, it
is time they get done"
As we were wandering about in the market place (Plaka) we met a
number of young Bangladeshis
selling junk binoculars. They were shocked and very
pleased to see a tourist asking them prices in Bengali, as we
started to talk, 6-7 others joined in and were very happy to
chat with us for 10-15 minutes. They are illegal immigrants and they move from country to country as the police
trace
them. I met some Bangladeshis
at Venice during our previous visit selling flowers, and some at
Paris (and Pisa) selling souvenirs. They are everywhere.
Whenever I spot them, and do spot them easily and often, I
make it a point to talk with them in Bengali for some time. They
get really happy. They often offer me staff free or
at cost price. I give them some money for these.
I enjoy talking to them.
I would like to come back to Greece sometime
and spend some time in some of the Greek Islands. There
are many. I am told that they are beautiful, not
crowded, the seawater is very clean and the air is not polluted.
Love.
Sujit
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