8.23.2012

Kos Island, Greece

So I'm on Kos visiting Dean from back one on Maui. His family lives here and runs a bar /restaurant here in Marmari, Spatzennest. It is so completely charming here. It feels so good to be lounging  on a recliner staring into the sea and feasting on a Gyros platter as the sweet winds waft by. Spatzennest is HQ for me daily. Every morning after I casually rise from a deep slumber, I make my way here through the path from Dean and Phoenix's house to the restaurant- a mere 1 minute commute. Here I have the most amazing cappuccino complete with clotted cream. 

Today, being no different, except my heart is heavy with grief over the Friday car bombing in Gaziantep. I was on Kos when I heard the news Monday evening. As the news of it progressed I became more distressed. Yesterday my emotions took over and I just had to walk off my sadness. I walked and I walked and I walked...  Perhaps the first 100 meters or so i was in tears, but they soon dried up. I mean, one cannot cry and walk for too long a time. I just needed to look at pretty things. I was not disappointed.

I headed out from Marmari to a neighboring village, Mastihari- at least 20 kilometers away. By the end of my journey I did get picked up by an overly gregarious Greek man who dropped me off nearby my destination. I did decline his offer for a kiss...I had another fabulous lunch- all the food is fabulous in Greece- there and decided to return by way of the beach instead of the main road. It took less than half the time, and was extraordinarily beautiful. 

I returned exhausted- mostly on an emotional level even though it was about  a 30 kilometer round trip more or less. I didn't come away from it with any solutions, but I felt better and drained of energy. I finished up st the beach here in Marmari to catch pre sunset activities and read my book with invigorating interest.

Speaking of books,I love to read when I travel. Dean's bookcase is full of interesting treasures. I started/finished a Sufi book already. Now I am reading 2 books simultaneously by Nikos Kazantzakis. Now for those of you who don't know Kazantzakis' works, he wrote "Zorba the Greek" as well as "The Odyssey: a Modern Sequel" among others. I am reading "At The Palace of Knossos" and "The Fratricedes". The first, in the evenings as the book sorts through the wonders of the goings-on inside the Palace of Knossos just before the city-state of Athens conquers the ancient Minoan Crete- complete with minoutars and labyrinths. The 2nd book is a daytime novel for me as the issues are intense. It's about the 1940s Greek civil war. In the style of a Greek tragedy, there is a hero that deals with good and evil entangled in a web based on social, political and religious problems.

I feel like I am living a Turkish tragedy now complete with the same struggles that the Greek hero, Father Yanaros, is dealing with. What is happening in Gaziantep? Who is behind the bombings? PKK? Syria? PKK + Syria? Other internal factions? Getting reliable news stories is another issue to deal with. What will happen as a result of this? Civil strife? What about what happened in Tunisia? This is very close to my heart. I can't have another revolution of sorts. What do I tell my mother? She was so distraught when I was stuck in Tunisia. I can't do this to her again. Hopefully I am over-reacting, but how can my mind not wander when, after 1.5 years of the Syrian unrest, it finally spills over the border into Gaziantep- where I currently call home. 

Okay, that is all for now as I become too emotional again. I am thankful I am currently over here, yet many friends of mine are indeed in Gaziantep right now, and elsewhere throughout Turkey and worried about the situation and growing unrest developing. 

ps, typed this out on my iPad so I didn't error correct the error corrections... 


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