Gaza

YouTube - World condemns Israel raid on Gaza aid convoy

Gaza, Israel, Turkey, the world.

Visit Destinations

I am tentivily eliminateing a number of destinations. I won't mention the ones I am eliminating, but I will start keeping track of my top ten contenders for places worth a longer visit. The top ten contenders of the day are:
#1. Ecuador
#2 Uruguay
#3 India
#4. Argentina
#5. Honduras
#6. Turkey
#7. Colombia
#9. Malaysia
#10. Nicaragua

I hope to write a few words about Ecuador and what has attracted me to it in the near future.

A Destination to Visit

Turkey could be a destination to visit. I think that I could learn interesting things through a study of the Ottoman State. Istanbul was Constantinople. Perhaps I could gather some wisdom in such a study. Such a study might, for example, give an excellent perspective from which to watch the doing of mankind from, say, the height of Byzantium to the policing of the world by the United States. It could also provide a place from which to gain some understanding of the Arab body politic or of the movements of the Catholic body politic.

I have head that the ottomans caused Dracula sleepless nights. There are interesting destinations in Eastern Europe too.

Gathering information from dim past or chaotic present seems a worthy way to stir the imagination. My imagination is moving from visit to history. They are both a trip.

My historic imagination of the moment moves me to around the end of WWI. But, I think that I have written of these things before. I'll try to get back to looking at tentative destinations for a visit,

Lots of Neat Mysteries

Etruscans had a higher culture than did the Italics who became the Romans. Did those Etruscans come from what is now Turkey about 900 BC as they claimed? How close to those of Troy might they have been? How is it that Etruscan see ms to have been the language of the early inhabitants of the Aegean island of Lemnos?

Besides the Etruscans other peoples around before the great Indo-European migrations included a Caucasian group typified by Georgians. I find it interesting that the languages of the ancient kingdom of Van and of the Hattites, Kassites, and Elamites are probably part of this group. And interesting also that all of these may be related to the Sumerians who are an early part of our direct line of high culture.

Elamites and Sumerians lived in close contact with each other near the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates about 2500 BC.

There is evidence that as early as 2300 BC there was contact by sea via Bahrain among the people of southern Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

Where might knowledge of the Caucasian kingdom overthrown by the people who became the Armenians lead us?

Where might knowledge of the ancient, interesting and important towns of Mari and Isin lead us?

Knowledge from all these people nourish us via the culture of Persia, Greece, and Rome. And Egypt, forget about it!

An small, but notable vein of that culture started for the Americas before Columbus via Ireland and Iceland.

There are stories available to us about these happenings which carry much more wonder than the brief notes above.

"11,000 Year Old Monument"

The Smithsonian reports that in Turkey near Urfa on the Syrian boarder at a dig called Gobekli Tepe a series of beautifully carved standing stones are being investigated.
That makes this very interesting site 6000 years older than Stonehenge.

Travel Where?

I've been thinking.
I've kind of decided "what." Now seems like a good time to consider "where."
Being awake, alive, alert as I follow my nose or toes is a way. I've enjoyed and learned that way.
It's not the way I have been thinking of.
Recently I have been thinking of attractive ways of looking for a home. That has led me to think of Thailand. Thailand is a place of helpful, beauty loving people, who respect their elders. They give value for value. The food is tasty and wholesome. One may find an elephant in ones alley or ones seat in peculiar temple. The dollar goes far and there a lots of fine things to learn. I enjoy the wide variety of interesting people one can find there.
Looking for a home has also led me to think of Uruguay. Uruguay is a land of farms and ranches and people willing to let you be. They are also willing to help when asked and they speak pretty good Spanish. There is plenty of fresh air and clean water there.
They have lots of meat, plenty of vegetables, and they're mostly organic. It has a compact stately, bright, cosmopolitan capital. I like the hot water spas there.

More recently, I have been thinking or Europe. I admit that the thought of the prices there brings a film of perspiration to my brow. Still there have have been reasonable flights to London from NY. I remember one very inexpensive flight from NY to Luxembourg via Iceland. Took a very nice layover in the unspellable capital of that country.

I could go to Portugal from England and from there on to Holland and up to Denmark. If the weather seemed warm enough I could head on to Norway and from there to Russia via Finland. If the weather were turning cool when I got to Denmark I could heat to East Germany and from there rapidly south to Turkey and beyond.
I'd like to check out a lot of old Prussia and a lot of the hot water health spas of Eastern Europe. With days in hot water I could handle cold weather.
If the weather were already getting cold when I got to Portugal I could head to Morocco and then overland to Egypt and then on south as far as necessary.

Ah, well.