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| The Blue Mosque - picture taken in 2009 from the DoyDoy terrace. |
Here's the plan....
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Leave Sunday
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Two days in Istanbul
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Four days in Cappadocia
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Four days on the beach in Dalyan
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Four days back in the city
And back on July 14th.
Planning on this one got away from me. I wanted to get out to this conference on Heybeliada (one of the Princes Islands off Istanbul), but that one seems to have vanished - not the island, but the conference. Five days before the conference begins the website still posts "coming soon..." regarding the program and the conference details.
Too bad... Just a few days ago I listened to a podcast about the monastery and seminary there on Heybeliada and an interview with the leader of the monastery there who was talking about the meaning of the place and it's future. There was also a longer interview with a Dominican monk from Istanbul who has become a scholar of mysticism and the Sufic tradition.http://www.onbeing.org/program/spiritual-boundaries-modern-turkey-fr-alberto-ambrosio-and-metropolitan-elpidophoros>
It's been five years now since I started teaching my course on Istanbul - it's mostly about historical stuff (Byzantines and Ottomans). Now I am heading back again to the City. It's the classic vertigo experience - the more I fall into the place the more the floor recedes. I think this go round of the City and it's sights and neighborhoods might be the best yet as it comes after a few years of on again off again research and reading. I'll have a much better idea of what I am seeing.
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