TravelStream™ news feed for member johnelliott on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/johnelliott en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:21:39 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1223010720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1223010720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1223010720/tpod.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:21:39 -0500 East Africa and Mediteranean

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Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Trumpets was a very inspiring Feast for all we spoke with. It began with the first two of thirteen messages I was to give by the Last Great Day. I am so thankful for the inspiration God gives to those of us who have teaching assignments and shared that with the brethren of Phoenix East at services today. Tonight we hauled our eight pieces of luggage and carryons to the Sky Harbor Airport compliments of Scott and Michelle Delamater who have a new minivan, just in time. Boarding the 747-400 jumbo jet I remarked to Merrie how odd it is to a small airplane pilot to imagine that one airplane can carry these hundreds of people, all their luggage plus thousands of pounds of fuel and actually fly. As we thundered down the runway the speed gradually increased to the point that buildings were flashing past, but we remained shy of takeoff speed. One comes to the conclusion that this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. Either we get airborne, or plow into the freeway at runway's end. Thankfully, lift was achieved just in time as we floated upward as car lights on the freeway flashed by beneath us. Life on board gets busy at altitude as beverages, entertainment and meals are served. But the need for sleep grows whilst the sun is already rising at our stopover destination, London.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225195800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225195800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225195800/tpod.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:00:03 -0500 East Africa and Mediteranean

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Kusadasi, Turkish Aegean Coast, Turkey

28 October - A warm sun shines down on us as we walk along paths, through doorways and sit with the Apostle Paul. The small river once meandered here, so the Greeks called the town Ephesus. We stroll with Hakan our tour guide among ancient restorations on the same pavements that Paul walking among the same structures he lived among for some years here long ago. It was here that he first began the use of anointed cloths. Paul re-baptized a dozen of John the Baptist's disciples here, probably at the town's ancient seashore long ago filled in with silt and now extends for miles covered with olive, fig and mulberry trees. Paul's teachings generated enough antagonism with the Jews here that he moved services to the schoolhouse of Tyrannus. The magnificent temple to Diana was once legendary throughout the Eastern world but was exposed as a fraudulent god by Paul. Nearby, the great amphitheatre was flashpoint to a near riot when local idol making silversmith Demetrius riled up fellow craftsmen and against Paul whose teachings about Diana threatened their livelihood. The nineteenth chapter of Acts details the altercation that ensued, including a two-hour chant of "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" Friends and officials prevented Paul from entering the theater while Alexander reasoned them to calm. Soon afterwards Paul departed this place, as did we. However, we followed him to another ancient Agean Sea port nearby where he again met with the Ephesian elders. In ancient times the large river there had a large meander past the seaside town and thus it got its name, Miletus. Due to the prominence and wealth of these two cities, drawings of river meanders became popular symbols of good luck that continue in Turkish culture today. It was here that he met the Ephesian leaders again and motivated them to remain godly in their pagan environment. Miletus city today is some 15 miles from the coast, the silt long ago having filled in the vast ocean inlet following the Romans' cutting of the forests in the mountains above. As our bus drives through the ancient sea, Miletus rises as a curious bump in the delta of cotton fields and olive orchards that extend over the distant horizon. Two hours later, rich glows from a retiring sun bathe the city of Kusadasi, Turkey as ebbing nightlife heralds the end of another day. Red flags large and small twist slowly in the breeze, reminiscent of the Russian banner with hammer and scycle. But here the scarlet banner's icons are a crescent moon and Eastern star being flown with enthusiasm and pride on this eve of Turkish Independence Day. Atop a distant mountain a massive statue of Ataturk stands monument to their successful campaign for independence in 1927. Some conclude that Turkish people are the modern descendants of the ancient Edomites. If so, the prophesies of Jeremiah 49:7, etc. do not bode well for them. However, like every other culture I have had the privilege to visit in my brief lifetime, these Turks are yet another version of Earth's families struggling to make ends meet and are at once endearing in our common quest.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1223097300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1223097300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1223097300/tpod.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:08:10 -0500 East Africa and Mediteranean

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London, England, United Kingdom

The heads nod and four hours later we are awakened by staff serving a quick snack high above the patchwork green of County Cork in Ireland. Soon afterwards we settle onto the soggy tarmack of Heathrow and the plane empties us into Terminal 5. From there we stand outside in the cold waiting for a bus to take us to our hotel where we crash for a wink and a nod before dinner. Sleepily, I ventured out in the night air in search of an ATM to get some cash for dinner. The dark country highway was punctuated with headlights of commuters racing home to their families. I timed the traffic in both directions in an effort to cross at a bend in the highway. Once traffic from the right had broken, I slipped across two lanes to the divider. Now, only one speeding car was rounding the bend from the left. Knowing that I had already crossed his lanes, and looking and seeing no traffic to the right, I quickly stepped into the remaining lane of highway. One more step and I would have been killed, but the sound of the tires made me look left as the black car flashed by right where my next step would have been. Ah yes, they drive on the left here. This being my 48th visit to England I should have remembered that small detail. Dinner in the UK is always a memorable experience. You always remember the price, but never the food.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225368600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225368600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225368600/tpod.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:00:16 -0500 East Africa and Mediteranean

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Venice, Veneto, Italy

23 October - Dopo una sera magnifico complete ala musica classico en Piazza San Marco, il giorno oggi e molto bene! My mother was born Anne Gambino in Clintwood, Virginia. Her father, John (Giovanni) Gambino hailed from the town of Fontanarosa located in Avellino, Campania, Italy near Naples. Had I her maiden name, I would today be known as Giovanni (John) Gambino. Having studied some Italian twenty years ago, words and phrases return as I mingle and shop among the Venetians here along the ancient corridors of the former capitol of the Republic of Venice. A cool morning breeze refreshes this 15th century complex of islands that were once a major Mediterranean seat of power. Cobblestone passageways twist through an endless patchwork of tall crumbling buildings that fill every meter of this main island. A corresponding network of narrow canals backdrops the tall buildings providing maritime access for supplies by boat. Merchants along the main walking routes that connect popular spots like Rialto Bridge, Academia, and Piazza San Marco scurry to open their doors and setup displays of goods and wares. Behind the shops, flatboats laden with supplies are docked along the canals delivering barrels, boxes, cases and bottles to the vendors. Barges deliver and remove building materials in an endless effort to keep the cameras veccia from crumbling and sinking into the silt of the shallow seabed below. As the morning sun paints its warmth across a palette of crumbling plaster, the old world charm of Italy draws together a bustle of black clad locals and foreign language tourists. One canal widens to reveal a huge flotilla of empty, black painted, shiny gondolas. Here a local service cleans and redies them for their gondoliers who this evening will again ferry tourists through the quaint waterways for a sizable sum. There is a passion for life here that cannot be described or really even understood. It has to be felt, to be smelled, spoken, eaten, and shared. It begins at first light with the bustle of commerce and sightseeing and concludes with friends, food and music spilling out of ancient structures, squares and waterways. This morning I went in search of something familiar and inexpensive for us to eat and sought some solace in this unfamiliar culture by heading for a supermarkado. Yet, no matter where the locals described one might be, I was fortunate to instead lose myself in the labyrinth of cobblestones and locals hurrying about. What we really wanted was fresh Italian pane, cheese and puttanesca which had so far proven illusive in this district of San Marco. But suddenly down a dark alley there she was; "Mamma Venezia" I shall call her. Old and round and as genuine Italian as you can imagine, she stood in the doorway of a shop filled with breads, cheeses, meats and condiments that typify Italian cuisine, at least for me. I let her suggest a couple of cheeses from among the several half cut wheels while I found a jar of puttanesca (tomato sauce) containing chopped olives and capers. Everything, including a freshly-baked pane baguette was weighed on a scale before paying with euros. Later Merrie and I walked together through this city of unique paradoxes and contrasts watching an old culture saturate the new generation. An absolute delight of Venice are the afternoon and evening "quartet wars" presented to patrons of the most fashionable restaurants lining Saint Marco's Square. Taking turns, each mini symphony upstages and outdoes the others in a Renaissance "battle of the bands." Mozart, Vivaldi, Schubert, and Brahms are all alive and with a passion. It's all good fun as a backdrop of the less wealthy rush behind them listening to each competing performance. Merrie and I sit on a low wooden scaffold that is used as a walkway for the Square during high tides. I have just arrived with a custom calzone (no pruscietto) from a pizza shop who supersized it and stuffed it with mushrooms, olives, red peppers and cheese before sliding it into a fired oven. We share it, sipping a local beer and affordably enjoying the concertos while seated just behind the rich. For all its old world charm, the reality of Venice can be seen only at a distance. From a high panorama we faced eastward and counted 78 spires, towers and duomos of a religion much older than the landscape before us. Now leaning, crumbling and sinking the buildings reflect a civilization that is likewise built on sand. Supposedly charming and hospitable, the city has not a single free chair for its travel weary visitors. The law forbids sitting anywhere except on chairs. Chairs are readily available, but only at expensive restaurants. And should you wish to beat the system, other posted laws forbid the eating or drinking of personal food in anywhere in public, where incidentally restaurants with chairs abound. Shops, hotels, street vendors and gondoliers rake in the dough at a high cost to themselves. Venice is a city of walking dead whose happiness, warm greetings, smiles, laughter and children do not appear to exist.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225455060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225455060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225455060/tpod.html Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:45:40 -0500 East Africa and Mediteranean

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Corfu Town, Ionian Islands, Greece

30 October - Our final destination in Greece is in stark contrast to that which we visited yesterday. Here near the border of Albania and Northwest Greece, groves of olive trees join pine and cypress forests studded with orchards of oranges and lemons across a panorama of hillsides on the mainland and the "Emerald Island" of Corfu. Named for its unusual greenery the region has a rich Phoenician, Greek and Roman history with an old fortress and a palace and gardens reminiscent of its Austrian connection in the 19th century. Here, modern Greek culture connects with ancient Hellenistic mythology in curious relationship with Orthodox Christianity. The result is a culture with a certain incomplete hollowness that makes it yet another perfect tourist destination. Devoid of anything one can finger as "Greek," except the concourse of traffic and pedestrians among featureless canyons of plaster buildings and narrow streets, the town is a very busy destination for tourists and locals alike pursuing their day's activities. Coptic priests stroll among youthful locals dressed in the latest western fashions, buzzing on cell phones and listening to techno music. We enjoy the long walk through town but don't know quite what distinguishes this Greek culture among the mix that makes up the European Union. "Amazing weather," everyone comments. The horsy tail wisps of an oncoming weather front can be seen high above us to the west. Indeed we have been thinking of other post-Feast travelers as a massive cold front has swept down across Europe, but hasn't reached us yet. We are thankful too of our friends and family and homes and brethren on both sides of the globe whom we long to be with again.
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Nairobi, Kenya

Another four hours of sleep and it is 3AM which one cannot sleep past for some reason. Never mind trying to figure out what time zone you are on as by now we are on our way to inventing one of our own. Catching the bus back to Terminal 5 we are seated amongst a troop of older single British women heading off on a sightseeing adventure in America. When Terminal 5 opened this spring, it was a chaotic mess that took weeks to sort out. Today its operations are smooth and its décor a functional pale green throughout. We boarded another 747-400 for Kenya and Merrie soon made a "connection" with the staff who made treks to first class to provide libations that were not on our menu here in steerage. Below the pale brown landscape of Sicily basks in the sun with Palermo in the distance. We cross the Mediterannean and overfly Libya, Sudan, nudge Ethiopia and land in Kenya's capitol, Nairobi.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225368660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225368660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225368660/tpod.html Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:59:41 -0400 East Africa and Mediteranean

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Santorini, Cyclades, Greece

29 October - A great mountain once rose from the Ionian Sea here in the Greek Islands. The towering natural landmark would have paled into insignificance the later manmade wonders of the Hellenistic world at Rhodes and Troy. Far south in Northwest Egypt, the Israelites labored over brick making and stone quarrying with no perception of this in the Phoenician and pre-Greek world. Word may have reached nearby Atlantis that steam was joining clouds at the top of Santorini, but little if anything would have been understood by it. One day at around 1500 BC the largest explosion in recorded history sent that volcanic island skyward with such force and hot pyroclastic flow that both it and the lightly documented city of Atlantis disappeared suddenly and forever. Today we are exploring the fragmented base of the great mountain. Only a partial ring from the base of the cone-shaped island remains which is settled by Greeks who eek out a meager existence on this windy, arid skeleton of an island. Whitewashed buildings perch atop thousand foot crumbling cliffs facing the moonscaped volcanic core rises from center of the watery ring in the distance. Behind the cliffs terraced hills drop away to the coast studded with little towns and windswept vineyards cascading down to the sea. Winds are so fierce here that vintners braid their vines in ground-hugging circles to protect the grapes from the turbulence. Two black and grey crows and a lone seagull are the only birds we'll see today as Merrie and I tour the entire island on a rented 150cc quad ATV. Presented with the rental agreement and insurance paperwork for signing, I decided to read the small print. Summed up it stated, "This vehicle has no insurance and you will pay for any damage or loss using your Visa card." We at once learn that Santorini is renown for its wine, at least here in Santorini. We eventually sipped an unknown vintage from a label written solely in Greek at Kamari's black rock and pebble covered beach. An intriguing sight was the occasional glimpse of ocean so clear it had the appearance of liquid crystal or flawlessly transparent Jell-o. Sadly, that absolute clarity was wholly lost upon its dark backdrop of the black stone seabed. Occasionally however, a wave top broke high enough to reveal the pure liquid's translucence. At Amoudi Bay on Santorini's western tip, a few Old World fishing boats rock idly in the interior harbor ringed by steep collapsing cliffs and an uncertain sea. Common are twisted concrete reminders of an earthquake that devastated the island fifty years ago. The traditional village of Oia nearby includes crude dwellings carved into the soft lava rock that helped the inhabitants endure the harsh environment. "It is so beautiful, a Paradise that people come from all around the world to see," exclaims Tony the scooter rental owner as I enquire what attracts visitors to his island. "Do these brown fields turn green during the summer tourist season," I ask with hopeful anticipation? He pauses, then responds slightly bewildered, "No." In my travels I frequently find that the most touted landscapes on earth are in stark contrast to those found in the lands that God reserved for the modern descendants of Jacob. For nowhere else is the rainfall as seasonally predictable, the soil as fertile, clear water lakes, rivers and streams, or the land as scenic and the flora and fauna as hospitable. I wish Tony could have the opportunity to leave his tiny island of bare grey cliffs and arid, boulder-strewn terraces to witness life there. But should he come to know environments which we consider common, what would he inevitably return to here in Santorini? Better for him to keep renting scooters that help wow the crowds coming here to "Paradise." We are told our visit has had a very special aspect: no wind today, or suffocating heat. I descended from the cliff's peak following a steep donkey trail often enmeshed in the richness and aroma of their agricultural byproduct. As a warm sun sinks into the balmy haze behind this relic atoll, we are thankful for our pleasant visit to Santorini, my first return to Greece after 37 years.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225109400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225109400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/johnelliott/4/1225109400/tpod.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:18:12 -0400 East Africa and Mediteranean

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Dubrovnik, Croatia

27 October - Dubrovnik, Croatia was a fortified trading center during the Middle Ages. The inhabitants walled themselves behind defensive structures and built a city of stone buildings and streets paved with stone. Safe it may have been, but it lacks any warmth and natural life within from soil, plants or trees. It was self-ruled until Napoleon added another layer of fortification, namely a fortress above a fortress which subsequently dominated the first. After trekking through the labyrinth of block walls and streets we paused at the harbor and saw a unique and unexpected site: Allan and Helen Hambleton from Australia walked up and greeted us. We spent time catching up on events from college days in England as we strolled out of the old city and into the new. Modern Dubrovnik sprawls along a rocky and somewhat barren landscape bordered on one side by steep mountains and on the other by falling cliffs and the clear blue Mediterranean ocean. I left the group and walked and jogged through the city. While life and commerce seem to be viable here, again no friendliness was apparent anywhere. Nevertheless it is a treat to visit this unique region of the world where some friends and acquaintances once lived.
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Naivasha, Kenya

October 13 - Members from Tanzania and surrounding congregations camped at the Migori church hall last night in anticipation of catching the two hired busses to the Feast site this morning. We shuttled some luggage and equipment from there to the waiting busses in town and bid them a safe safari to the Great Rift Valley site. Then we finished "closing the hut" by removing curtains, stacking and covering furniture, shutting off water and solar power, dealing with linens, locking windows and cupboards, disconnecting the gas stove, plugging the wall vent, and padlocking the steel door behind us. From Migori we drove 7 hours taking through the green mountainous regions of the Kisii and Kalengen tribes and down through the semi-arid Maasai region of the Maasai Mara. We enjoyed the day together and when roads permitted, Merrie read aloud as we completed our book together. Late afternoon found us at the Lake Naivasha Feast site holding pre-Feast meetings and settling in for the start of the Feast of Tabernacles 2008. All the 309 attendees were in high spirits and excited to be here together.
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Migori, Kenya

12 October - Sunday was an interesting day for Merrie and me because it was our Feast prep day, just like the local brethren. Washing clothes, packing suitcases, cleaning the hut, visiting members who dropped by, updating software and hardware on two donated laptops, and last minute Feast work. Oh, and we read to each other again and talked of how much we appreciate having our little hut here on a hillside overlooking the town with malaria, typhoid and no cultural music tonight.I couldn't fall asleep worrying that it was going to start up again, which it didn't and so I did.
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