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Thursday, 28 Oct 2010

Went to Malahide Castle. Interesting, but not something that interested me a lot.

Had lunch at Nancy Hands pub, where I was told some scenes from Educating Rita were shot.

Others visited Jamieson's whiskey company. I went to a couple bookstores.

Tonight, gala dinner to celebrate our tour around the world.

Tomorrow back to Toronto and back to reality.

From St. Petersburg to Dublin.

Our stop today was at Trinity college, which houses the book of Kells. I have seen it all before so did not go in. Instead wandered around the streets of Dublin for a few hours.

Dinner at Foyles pub.

Unevenful.

Today we went to the Hermitage.

What a magnificent place! What a wonderful collection art! I am not sure if there is any other place that has as many works of art as this (Louvre perhaps? Not sure.)

This sounds repetitive, but St. Petersberg is a magnificent and majestic city.

Today we visited Catherine the Great's palace. Couldn't get in though because it is closed on Mondays. It is a huge palace but we were told that, after th communists took over, the palace was left open for nearly a year and, during that time, people walked in and took away anything that they felt like taking away.

Her son Paul's palace was not too far off. It was a wonderful look at. A beautiful palace with many great works of art.

From Turkey to Russia.

Petropavlosk, our first stop abroad is at the one end of Russia and St. Petersburg at the other.

This is one of the most magnificent cities I have ever seen. The roads are broad, the sidewalks are generous, the squares (of which there are many) are spacious. The parks are populated with tall trees.

Each city block is concevied as a 'wall'. It means that there are no gaps between buildings. Each building is 4 or 5 stories high and large. Each building is conceived by a different architect who may use a different design and a different facade, as long as it is consistent with the other buildings. The effect is a stunnigly majestic city.

This evening I went to the world famous Kirov ballet at the Hermitage theatre. The theatre surprised me. It was small (about 7 rows) and intimate, with seat for about 200 people. Seating was open. Swan Lake was on the program and was immensely enjoyable. It was like watching a private performance.

Today we visited the new palace. It was again extremely impressive.
More on Istanbul later.

Friday, 22 Oct 2010

Istanbul is one impressive city.

We visited a number of places today: Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, St. Sophia Museum, and the Underground Cistern. Blue Mosque (so called because of the primary colour used in the mosque) was magnificent. Right across from there is St. Sophia Museum. It was actually a church but not anymore. It was even more impressive than the Blue Mosque. Most impressive of all was the underground cistern. When I have more time I will elaborate on this.

One cannot but look at awe at the Ottoman and Byzantine empires that created such beautiful and sophisticated structures.

Thursday, 21 Oct 2010

Arrived in Istanbul around 5pm.

Checked in at the Crowne Plaza hotel in the old city. The hotel property and the common areas were impressive but the rooms were small (and quaint).

For dinner, we went to Kumkapi fishermen village where there are rows of restaurants. At our restaurant, Neyzen, was excellent. We were entertained by gypsy musicians. Very enjoyable first day in Istanbul.

Another exciting day. A trip to Wadi Rum Nature Reserve. Wadi is one of the most spectacular desert landscapes. The red sand, the rolling dunes and sandstone mountains looked incredible in the sun. We travelled in the desert by 4x4 jeeps to the great mountain of Al Khazali. It was fascinating see carvings of figures and hieroglyphics on rocks, evidence of a civilization that existed thousands of years ago.

This was the stomping ground of TE Lawrence (of Arabia) and our guide warned us that other guides will make up stories about Lawrence to make it appealing to tourists. For example, he pointed out to a mountain which seemed to look like a series of pillars and said some guides would say that this was the mountain that inspired the title for Lawrence’s book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, although there is no evidence to that effect.

Our lunch was at the Bedouin Camp in the desert in a tent, in the typical nomadic style of Jordanian Bedouins. The campsite was set up with the customary black goat-hair tents, low tables and seating on mattresses on an uneven ground. Good lunch, but not cooked on campsite, catered by a local restaurant.


Today we went to the ancient city of Petra, situated about two hours by road from Aqaba. It is about 2 km walk from where cars could take you, but well worth the effort. The ruins were interesting and we could see the remains of a sophisticated civilization that existed prior to the birth of Jesus. There was so much to see: the carvings, the remains of buildings, the tall columns, the amphitheatre, the tombs and so much more. It was exciting to be so close to the birth place three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

There was also the expected hype about Indiana Jones (with Sean Connery and Harrison Ford) which was filmed here. One can of course ride a camel, buy souvenirs or do any touristy thing if one wanted to.

On our way, we noticed a lot of construction in the City of Aqaba. Did they discover oil, someone wondered. No, the guide said, they discovered America.

Our guide was a Cambridge-educated engineer, doing this as a hobby. He gave us a lecture on Arab-Israeli conflict. He said that Arabs are not anti-Semites, the conflict is not between Muslims and Jews but between the Arabs/Palestinians and the state of Israel which was artificially carved out of the Middle East, for political reasons by the British. Religions are not in conflict in the Middle East. For example, he himself was a Christian. Jews have a right to be in the Middle East for various reasons: they were persecuted all over the world and the land is where they were from and they had as much right to be here as anyone. The problem is establishing a separate state and displacing of Palestinians.

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