Paradise

Today we decided to go to a Greek Island. For years I have heard about Greek Islands, and it brings to mind people like Aristotle Onassis, riding around on yachts, seeing whitewashed houses contrasting with the blue Med.

After actually going there, I see why everyone around the world raves about them. We caught a hydrofoil over to Aegis, and after a quick 40 minute nap, we were there. We walked along the cutest little village with both neo-classical buildings and whitewashed ones, and then caught a cab to the other side of the island. And then, there it was.

Paradise.

We sat on an empty Aegean beach with the waves gently lapping at our feet, slumbered after a giant lunch of feta, olives, tzadziki, and other things made with a touch of olive oil, I swam out through the turquoise water and just floated in the Aegean under the afternoon sun.

I almost stayed on the island instead of coming back to Athens, but then I realized I had something very, very important to do tomorrow.

I have to get onto a plane and come back to America.

I have to come back to Los Angeles. I have an interview next week. I have to wear a tie again. I have to go back to the life I knew before and try not to talk about Siberia, Mongolia, Lithuania, Turkey, Egypt, Spain, and Greece for the rest of my life like this was the highlight of it all.

Tomorrow I will set off and begin crossing over the rest of the time zones, all of which I've already been in. I set out months ago with the goal of being in all 24 time zones this year, and very soon I will complete it. I will have circumnavigated the globe with no plans other than getting to Hong Kong. Everything got made up along the way. There was no ending to a chapter that I could see in advance.

This whole thing was a mystery.

It has been an adventure unlike anything I have ever considered or undertaken. Some of the people I met along the way were the worst type of human beings on the planet, but the vast majority of them were unbelievably kind. Mongolians opening the doors of their gers to welcome me. Russians escorting me around their capital. Lithuanians being hosts that make Emily Post look like she's clueless about hospitality. Greeks being kind and generous, Turks being funny and caring, Lebanese saying prayers for my safety. That Egyptian smile.

I look back on the past few months, which I do not want to admit are coming to an end, but the only solace to it all is the fact that I can really see now with clear vision how lucky of a man I am. Really and truly to feel the blessings I have while I have them.

I have tasted paradise in this life.

In great footsteps, I have stood

Today I visited the ruins of Troy.

It was amazing.

The City of Troy goes way back into the BCs, and is actually a series of cities built on top of one another. There are 9 in all, including Troy VI and VII, which are the two historians believe are The Troy We All Talk About.

And I don't just mean USC fans talking about it. I mean Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom, too.

The city itself has undergone a lot of changes since the 3rd millennium BC, including the fact that the sea has receeded and the land between Troy and the Dardenelles has been filled in by the government to make some of the most fertile land in all of Turkey.


(Look at them fertile lands! And that Aegean Sea behind 'em)

Deep inside the remains of Troy, there are still some original parts. These bricks date back to to Troy II, and boy, do they ever look like it. The original part of the wall is totally run down, but it's amazing that there's anything left. 5 millenia of being buried under dirt sure preserves things!


(Oooooooooohhhhhhh...old bricks...lovely)

On to more exciting parts of the ruins...Homeric Troy (D'oh!) was really just an upgrade from Troys I-V. That is, the city plan didn't change too much, it just grew and got more awesome.

For example, the Southern Gate was pushed back to allow for more room inside the citadel's walls, but it was in the same location on the wall for all the Troys, even when the Romans rebuilt it (more on the roamin' Romans later). However, there were definitely some additions that went onto the wall between Troy VI and VII, which is part of what makes everyone think that these were the Troys that duked it out with the Greeks.

I mean, if you saw 1,000 ships appear in your front yard, wouldn't you build an extra guard tower or 2?

You can see the junction of the guard tower (left) and the original wall (right) look like they're different colors and even different stones.


(Wall of Homeric Troy joining the guard tower at the Southern Gate)

There were also some slick architectural changes in the wall. The Southern Gate in the early Troys was really just an archway. By the time Troy became rich and famous, they knew some bad people would come a-knockin', so their front entrance was a narrow corridor that had a 90 degree turn in it.

This way you couldn't bring up a battering ram and knock the door down.


(Troy VI Southern Gate with a 90 degree left turn in it)

Now, there really was just one thing that I came to see in Troy, and it wasn't the back door or the fertile lands.

I wanted to see where history was made.

I wanted to see where Paris stood while Achilles slew his brother Hector, chained him to this chariot and dragged him around the city. I wanted to see what Priam saw when he looked out at the Aegean and saw what Shock and Awe were in the 13th century BC.

Sure enough, there, at the western gate of Troy VI and VII, is a place. A vista. A section of the wall looking down on the land below, which is now a field. But with a little imagination, you can see Greek and Trojans legends fighting to the death and making history.

Err, mythology. Whatever.



Note the difference in the quality of the wall between the hastily constucted part in the middle and the very few pieces at the edge where it turns.


(Where it all happened)

Really, after that, seeing the rest of Troy was kind of weak. I mean, I walked on the stones that Helen of Troy walked on! I stood where Prıam stood! I was lookıng at a patch of earth where one of the most famous duels took place!

But I guess there were some other cool things worth mentioning, too.

Like the Western Gate from Troy II was still pretty much original and looked swell.



(Troy II Western Gate)

And when Alexander the Great was whipping everyone's armies all across the world, he had some folks build a big temple here in Troy. And it had a mable ceiling. And there's still some original pieces left.


(Ceiling from Alexander the Great's era)

Right in front of the Western Gate of Troy VI where Achilles did his thing, the Romans built something new. They added a sacrificial altar made of Roman marble. It seems that Romans held a special reverence for Troy since they considered themselves decendents of Aeneas, and it was a big deal for Romans to come to Troy during the AD period and make a sacrifice to their 'ancestors.'

The two little containters in front of the altar are for water and blood.


(Oh those Romans! Always with the blood!)

So it seems that Troy is not just a great place in our time. It was great to Homer and the Greeks, and great for the Romans.

I'm just hoping it doesn't take me 10 years to get home now.

Pearl

When Ryan and I finally rolled out of his house this morning, he asked me where I wanted to go, and I knew that my first stop had to be Pearl Harbor. I had never been on the USS Arizona Memorial, and since they are talking about taking it down soon, this would probably be my last chance to see it.

Well, see isn't quite the right word. This would be my last chance to feel it.

The USS Arizona memorial has both a museum on land and the actual memorial that is in the harbor. We picked up our tickets and wandered around the museum, waiting our turn to catch the boat to the small rectangle of white floating on the water. As I read through the various museum exhibits, I realized that these were average people. The pictures of sailors who fought and died at Pearl weren't guys who woke up every day thinking they would pick up a Bronze Star or a Navy Cross today. They were 19 and 20 year old kids from New York, California, and everywhere inbetween.

What separated them from everyone else was that when the bombs started falling, they each did their duty. They looked after their people, they provided leadership when no one else was available to lead, and they sacrificed for the other men on their ships.

I was shocked at how many of the sailors who survived Pearl Harbor stayed in the Navy until the end of the war. And into Korea. And into Viet Nam.

As all this was sinking in, we stepped into the small movie theater that precedes the ferry to the memorial and watched a film on Pearl Harbor. In it was the actual footage of several of the ships being bombed, including the Arizona. I rememer hearing in history class that the sound of Arizona exploding was something that stuck with all the survivors for the rest of their lives.

Hearing it in Dolby digital was equally shocking.

As we took the boat over to the memorial, we were reminded that this was a war grave, that more than 900 Americans still lay under the water directly below us. We were asked to be quiet, and I was nervous about this. We, as a people, do not have a reputation for being quiet. Americans are often described as loud (myself included). But when we actually stepped foot on the memorial I was shocked by what I heard.

Nothing. No one was speaking. There were footsteps shuffling, and some cameras clicking, but of the 150 people getting of the ferry and the 150 people waiting to get on, no one was talking. And for the majority of my time on the USS Arizona Memorial, it was properly quiet.

It wasn't just when I looked over the side at the oil visibly leaking from the battleship. It wasn't just when I saw the names of all the men who were killed in those few, short minutes on Dec 7. It was all the way until we were getting back on the ferry to leave and I noticed a beautiful sight right above me, reminding me what those men died for, and why the lump was in my throat the whole time.

It's all Ace's fault...

This whole thing, really, is Ace's fault. A couple of years ago he and I were having a beer somewhere in San Francisco, catching up on things. I let him know I would have a little bit of free time between b-school and the next job, and he got serious all of a sudden.

For Ace, serious is a big deal. In the decade I've known him, he's been all smiles all the time. But when he put his beer down, he gazed across the table at me and stopped smiling. "You need to circumnavigate the globe," he said, and then broke back into his usual smile. Ace was a world traveller himself, a man who took his passion for trekking the unbeaten paths and turned it into a wonderful book ("The Worldwide Guide to Cheap Airfare" is one of the best books EVER and everyone should have a copy on their shelf) that's all about cheap travel.

After reading through his book and thinking about it some more, I thought a trip around the world might be nice. But where to go? What to do? How to do it? These were all questions I would answer over the next 2 1/2 years while I worked and went to grad school, but now that it's all over, I guess I should spill some beans about the plans....



(This was probably the coolest site I have ever seen - Taj Mahal shrouded in mist)