We arrived safely in Toronto after an 11 hour flight. The flight “inservice” offered lots of movie options but even that can be tiring while sitting in cramped seats for those many hours. It was good to collect our luggage and head for home. Farewells were said quickly by the luggage carousel as the 30 travellers headed off in different directions across Southern Ontario.
Now the washing machine is humming and I am sorting through souvenirs and photos. Here are some memories of Turkey that will linger …
-singing Holy, Holy, Holy in the lasting remains of an ancient church building
-sipping steaming Turkish coffee
-floating in a balloon above Cappadocia’s fairy chimneys
-soaking in the thermal hot springs at Pamukkale
-bartering with carpet salesmen for of beautiful Turkish carpet
-communion in the open air chapel of Mary’s home
-standing on the beach at Gallipoli
-pushing through the crowd at the Spice Bazaar
-enjoying a bowl of yogurt soup
-seeing the landscape quilted with crops and orchards
-watching a belly dancer!
-the Whirling Dervishes in their whirling meditation
-the holy stillness of the ruins of Laodicea
-mosaics floors in Ephesus
-sampling Turkish Delight
-thirty wonderful friends to travel with
We couldn’t help but think of your blog about Turkey today. I have to confess that I didn’t know a lot about the battle at Gallipoli until today. We met a nice Australian couple yesterday in our travels here in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. We became fast friends and today they invited us to join them for a very solemn event here: a sunrise service for ANZAC Day (the equivalent of our Remembrance Day). There were hundreds of Aussies here to commemorate those who died at the hands of the Japanese here at the site of the PoW camp in Borneo. Our friend Ian was well versed in the World Wars and we learned of the Aussie contributions and especially their terrible losses at Gallipoli and Singapore. And that led us to think of you. As you know, travel is such a wonderful educator. So here we sit comfortably vacationing on the other side of the world and once again we are reminded of home and the ties that bind. Best regards.