Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road

A 31-day adventure by Diane Read more

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Trip start
May 4, 2026
Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Arriving in Athens
May 4 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F
After a little flight delay, we made it to Athens, the first stop on our journey. Our Airbnb apartment is on the pedestrian walkway around the Acropolis, which is very scenic and conveniently located!

Today’s highlight was an excellent walking tour entitled “Mythology, Philosophy and Democracy.” Our guide, Panos, walked us around around some of the less well-known (non-Acropolis) sights of Athens, while explaining the history of Athens, the advent of western philosophical thought and the birth of democracy.

Here are a few things we saw:

Hadrian's Library, created by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132, was the second largest in the world at the time (after the library at Alexandria). When it was built it featured a 100-column facade. Now, just a fraction of the Corinthian capitals remain after it was destroyed by invaders 130 years later.

The Tower of the Winds, located in Athens' Roman Agora, is a 1st-century BC octagonal marble structure regarded as the world's oldest meteorological station. Built around 50 BC, it served both as wind indicator but also a clock, so it was the “Big Ben” of Athens and also the meteorological station of the city. The clock was solar but in cloudy days there was also a hydraulic mechanism that produced a sound every hour.

In the earliest days of Athenian democracy (508 B.C.), the citizenry (middle class and wealthy males, that is) would meet in the Agora to vote on laws that anyone could propose.

Our guide’s favorite law was that when policeman would come to a suspect’s house, they had to leave all their clothes at the door. That way it could be known that they didn’t plant any evidence or remove any belongings.

Sometime in the early 5th century the meeting place was moved to Pnyx Hill, which was where were ended our day at sunset, with views over the city and up to the Acropolis. It was a great start to our trip!Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Delphi Archeological site
May 5 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F
We set off this morning on a small group tour to the archaeological site of Delphi, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus (stunning views!). Here in Greece, we’re finding that historical places and events can’t be discussed without weaving in the mythology surrounding them. Greek myths helped explain natural phenomena and taught moral and practical lessons.

There really were priestesses (Oracles) at Delphi who delivered prophecies—often while in a trance—which were interpreted by priests. Geologists have confirmed the presence of fault lines at Delphi that emitted toxic gases, corroborating the ancient accounts. The oracle resided year-round at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

The prophecies were often delivered as informed advice, because Delphi was a supreme information hub of the ancient world. People flocked to the site—from everyday citizens to kings and generals—seeking divine counsel. By collecting and trading this vast intelligence, Delphi's priests became the most informed political and geographical network of their time.

Sometimes, prophecies were purposely vague, leaving it up to the recipient to interpret. Case in point: a Greek king asked if he should go to war with the Persian Empire, and fatally misinterpreted the oracle’s response: “If you cross the river, a great empire will fall." Turned out it was his.

Another fun fact we learned was the reason the Olympic games are held every four years. In ancient Greece, other major athletic festivals took place in the years between the games at Olympia, and Delphi was one of the four cities hosting them.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Archaeology and the Acropolis
May 6 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F
This was a two-museum day (museum-feet!), and a lot more walking. We did a morning self-guided tour of the neighborhoods around our Airbnb, by chance catching the presidential guards doing their slow-motion step movements. An arch commemorating Emperor Hadrian is just standing alone alongside a busy boulevard, as are the ruins of Zeus’ temple. Archaeological artifacts everywhere!

The Athens Archaeological Museum is nice, but the audioguide was a little overwhelming, so we skipped it and just wandered around the sculptures and artifacts of offerings from various tombs over various centuries. In the Bronze collection, they featured an object called the Antikythera mechanism, also called a clockwork computer. It was built around 200 BC and is regarded as the first known analog computer! Among the wealth of information it could calculate: the positions of the sun, moon, planets and stars; the lunar phase; the dates of upcoming solar eclipses; the speed of the Moon through the sky; the dates of the Olympic games and so much more. Learn more about it yourself on the Atlas Obscura website.

After a brief break at our apartment, we met our guide for a tour of the Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis site (after days of tantalizing views of the site from below). The museum is fantastic! Recently built in 2018, it is an architectural marvel in addition to housing an extensive collection of the original friezes and statuary from the Acropolis (the parts that weren’t taken away for the British Museum, that is!). The ground floor and entranceway feature glass floors, providing views of the excavation of ancient Athenian neighborhoods beneath the museum.

Our guide noted that the marble architectural elements, as well as the sculptures, were originally colorfully decorated by using mineral pigments mixed with beeswax.

Then it was up, up, up to the Acropolis site itself. It was amazing to be walking among these monuments from the 5th century BC.

We finished off the day with a short mythology theater presentation on the rooftop of a building, with the Acropolis in full view in the background.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Off to Turkey - Topkapi Palace
May 7 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F
After a short 1-1/2 hour flight from Athens to Istanbul, and after a grueling traffic- congested drive from the airport, we just had time to visit the 15th-century residence of Ottoman sultans, Topkapi Palace. For 400 years, the site served as both the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire and the sultan's private home.

We explored the courtyards and outer gardens (tulips!), the imperial kitchens, the library, the treasury and residential chambers—including rooms for the harem, the eunuchs and the head slave. For a must-see sight, it was not too crowded. Many of the tourists appear to be from Turkey.

In the evening, we found a restaurant with delicious food (falafel and kebab-casserole) and watched a fiery performance of table-side cooking for the couple next to us—quite a show. We were tired and ready for our check, but the restaurant insisted on serving us tea and a moist, crumbly cake—very tasty!Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Touring around Turkey: Gallipoli
May 8 in Turkey ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
We’ve started our 6-day tour around Turkey with a small-group local guide company. But first, we needed to drive over 4 hours from Istanbul to the Gallipoli peninsula.

Our starting point was Anzac Cove, where the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps made their landings in the Gallipoli campaign—their first engagement in World War I. We had seven Australians on our minibus, some coming with names or gravesite locations of relatives.

Our tour focused only on the battle sites of the Anzac contingent, which also included Maori people and Indian Gurkha soldiers. The British and French made their landings farther down, at the tip of the peninsula. As most know, the campaign resulted in disastrous bloodshed on both sides—Ottoman/German and Allies. And was unsuccessful from the Allied standpoint —ultimately resulting in evacuation.

Our guide did a great job of providing a balanced insight into the strategies, victories, and challenges faced by both sides. Sometimes walking, sometimes driving, we retraced the footsteps of the Anzac forces as they aimed for higher ground, always under the watchful eye of the Ottoman army.

While we had the beautiful beach landing sites to ourselves, as well as most of the cemeteries, by the time we got to the highest ground, with the largest cemetery (and statue of the Turkish general and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Atatürk), the site was mobbed with children on school field trips.

At the end of this sobering , but informative tour, we took a short ferry ride to get to our hotel in Çanakkale (with massive numbers of schoolchildren!). Another excellent Turkish dinner featuring pastry-wrapped fish and saffron shrimp, was slightly marred by the fact that the restaurant allowed smoking 🙄Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Troy and Pergamon (another “Acropolis”)
May 9 in Turkey ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F
Our day started with a short drive from our lodgings in Çanakkale to the archaeological site of the ancient city of Troy. (Everywhere we go, red poppies are in bloom!)

Anatolian people built a fortified city at the site of Troy around 3000 BC. It was a wealthy city that flourished due to its strategic position on key maritime and land trade routes between Asia and Europe. Following frequent destruction by earthquakes, war and fire, the city was repeatedly rebuilt in the same spot.

There are at least nine distinct archaeological layers (noted by Roman numerals). The Troy VII layer is often linked to the Trojan War—thought to be around 1300–1180 BC. There has been no definitive archaeological evidence of the Trojan War, only accounts in literature (Homer) and other writings, supported by evidence of scattered human remains and weapons. Homer’s account of the war being fought over Helen is widely confirmed as a myth, and the war likely didn’t last ten years either.

One of the reasons it took until the 1870s for archaeologists to discover Troy was that it didn’t match with prior descriptions of its location at the coastline. Millennia of seismic activity has reshaped the landscape, moving the Dardanelles 30 km away.

By the way, the first excavator of Troy was not a trained archaeologist. Heinrich Schliemann was a businessman and an amateur archaeologist obsessed with the stories of Homer and ancient Mediterranean civilizations. We saw where he dug straight-line trenches at Troy, tearing down whatever was in the way! So, while he is credited with validating the historical aspects of Homeric tales, he was criticized for his amateur, destructive methods.

Our tour company has skillfully orchestrated a succession of half-day tours among a range of travelers. We have had a rotating group of passengers along with us—a few on the same track as we are, and some not. Group sizes have usually been fewer than 10.

After this morning’s visit to Troy, only the two of us were carrying on to Pergamon. Lunch (and a sales pitch) was at a women’s rug co-op. We enjoyed watching the process of creating silk thread from silkworm cocoons, and the delicious food, but we did not make any purchases (we did leave a donation).

Pergamon’s Acropolis (“high city”) is perched on a steep mountainside and reached by a cable car (nice change from our minibus!). It
is an ancient city much like the Acropolis in Athens, with partially-restored ruins from the 4th century BC. Highlights include the Altar of Zeus, Temple of Athena, a vast library and a steep, 10,000-seat theater built into the hillside.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Hierapolis & Pamukkale
May 10 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F
Turkey is nearly twice the size of California, and we’re only covering a small part on our tour, but most days have required a 2-3 hour drive between major sites. Today’s destination was another ancient city—Hierapolis—alongside the terraced thermal pools of Pamukkale.

Hierapolis was a spa town in Roman times as early as 2nd century BC. But long before that, it was mythologized as a gateway to the underworld due to gases emanating from a cave located there. On the cave site now is a replica statue of Hades with his dog and snakes seated at the entrance of the cave along “the River Styx.”

We saw well-preserved and partially restored ruins of baths, temples and other Greek monuments. Most impressive is the recent restoration (2009-2013) of the 10,000-seat theater.

From the archaeological site, we were given time to explore the blue waters and limestone formations of Pamukkale. The water was just lukewarm where we waded in, along with hundreds of other visitors, many from Turkey.

Apparently our day is not complete without another visit to a sales showroom. We did get to watch how onyx is carved using a type of lathe. Before returning to our hotel, the two of us wandered the promenade and winding streets of Kuşadası along the Aegean Sea.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Ephesus and Nearby Sites
May 11 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F
Our first stop for the day included a visit to the final dwelling place of the Virgin Mary (believed to be). It was found based on written records of the visions of a German nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich.

But a real highlight of our trip, and a big part of why we wanted to visit Turkey, was Ephesus. It was the 4th largest city of the Roman Empire at its peak, with 250,000 people living in the city. Traders visiting from all over the world swelled those numbers.

The city ruins were found by accident in the mid-1800s by a British railway engineer sent to
design a new rail line. To date, only 18% of the massive site has been excavated.

Many features of Ephesus have been carefully reconstructed, and you can almost get a sense of being a visitor to this great city during ancient times. We walked the great road leading to the center of the city, sat in the small amphitheater where laws were passed, imagined a bustling market in the agora and gazed in awe at the meticulously reconstructed facade of the Library of Celsus.

Near the main entrance to the city (which was our exit), is the Great Theatre of Ephesus, which could hold 25,000 people. They usually hold summer concerts here, but it is under renovation for a few years. Elton John was one of many notables to play there.

Nearby to the city of Ephesus is the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built before Ephesus and destroyed by earthquakes and arson. Unlike Ephesus, there isn’t much left. Only one pillar remains of the original 127. After its destruction, the marble building elements were taken away and incorporated into a nearby church, a mosque and some parts were even shipped to ornament the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Cappadocia: From Above and Below
May 12 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F
Luckily, the weather cooperated for our hot air balloon ride over the unique landscape of Cappadocia. Last night, it was pouring rain with spectacular lightning displays!

We floated above the valleys in baskets that held 30 people—it was like a stand-up bus. But everyone had enough space and good viewing. Our pilot gently sailed us above small olive groves and eye-level with the “fairy chimneys” or hoodoos. It was magical!

The landscape was formed by successive eruptions of volcanic ash and minerals, creating a layer cake of soft material protected by hard basalt. Later, a huge lake developed, and when that subsided, wind and rain gradually eroded the area, leaving columns, cones and mushroom shapes.

The crazy thing is, these structures have been used as living spaces since the Bronze Age. The relatively soft rock was hand-carved into homes, monasteries, and vast underground cities. These ancient dwellings offered security from invaders and insulation from extreme temperatures. They have windows and doors, and sometimes chiseled cavities in the rock face for a ladder entry.

We’re staying in a cave hotel, a very popular form of lodging in our town of Göreme—we don’t need to use a ladder though! There are no windows in our room, but various terraces on the property give it an airy feeling.

A really impressive site we visited today was the Underground City of Kaymakli, a vast, 8-level subterranean complex dating back to the Hittites (~3000 BC). It was used by Orthodox Christians for safety from a succession of invaders.

Other than having no access to daylight, it appeared to have all a civilization could need—water cisterns, kitchens, grinding stones, food storage spaces, wine cellars and livestock stables— all protected by large rolling stone doors (like in Indiana Jones!). Small holes in the walls provided access to ventilation as well as communication between rooms. The city could house up to 3,500 people, with tunnels that were very low and narrow in places!Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Cappadocia North
May 13 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F
It was hard to beat yesterday’s introduction to the Cappadocia region, but our guide still had a few highlights to share with us. We were driven to several sites where we could independently wander and scramble among the rock formations and climb to lookout points over the unusual landscape .

A visit to a small, family-run ceramics factory explained the techniques for making vibrant plates, cups and wine vessels. The collection spanned from very expensive art pieces to items for daily use. We were not ready to carry any of the more affordable pieces around for the rest of our trip.

The Göreme Open Air Museum is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed complex of rock-carved monasteries, churches and cave dwellings. It features colorful Byzantine frescoes dating from the 10th to 13th centuries. It is considered the birthplace of the region's religious education, with chapels for “classrooms” and monasteries for boys and girls.

Our 6-day tour arranged by Travel Store Turkey agency has come to an end. We want to give a shout-out to Crowded House Tours, who were contracted to take us around the archaeological sites and everywhere other than Cappadocia. The guides had deeply researched their subject areas and were so passionate about teaching us, as well as hearing our questions and impressions.

A short flight brought us back to Istanbul, where we’ve met up with Sande and Nance and her cousin and his wife from Boston. More exploring ahead!Read more
This looks so fun to explore! - Erin [Erin]
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Back in Istanbul
May 14 in Turkey ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
Returning to Istanbul from our week-long tour around parts of Turkey, we visited iconic mosques and went below ground to the Basilica Cistern.

Nance & Sande had been here before, so we set off with cousin Doug and his wife Chris to visit the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, familiarly known as the Blue Mosque, was constructed between 1609 and 1617. The walls inside are decorated with beautiful blue tiles in an array of patterns reminiscent to us of Turkish carpets. We arrived fairly early and it wasn’t too crowded to wander around with our audioguides and absorb the ambiance and the architecture.

Taking a cafe break, we each got our beverage of choice, and shared a warm drink called sahlep. It is prepared with milk and a flour made from the tubers of orchids, a little sugar and lots of fresh cinnamon—delicious!

Hagia Sophia is much older, originally built as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral in 537 AD. Over time, it has served as a Catholic cathedral, an Ottoman mosque, a museum, and since 2020, an active mosque. The site was a bit disappointing because it is undergoing significant renovation, requiring a great deal of scaffolding inside and out. We were able to walk the upper gallery and view most of the features, though somewhat obscured. The restoration is focused on earthquake strengthening and repairing the six minarets. The effort could take up to 10 years.

We found a nice outdoor lunch spot and shared chicken dőner wraps, dolmas and hummus. Back at the Airbnb apartment we’re all sharing, we met Nance and Sande after their walking tour and set out together for the Basilica Cistern. It is the largest of many cisterns in the city, constructed in 532 AD to supply fresh water to the Palace of Constantinople.

The end of day found us enjoying a rooftop dinner overlooking the Bosphorus to celebrate Nance’s birthday.Read more
Love seeing the architecture! Since Hagia Sophia has been on my list to visit, good to know maybe hold off on that until renovations are done. [Erin]
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Eating All Day, Cruising the Bosphorus
May 15 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F
Today we went on a six-hour(!) walking food tour in Istanbul. It was recommended by Doug and Chris’ son, and it did not disappoint! We started with a traditional Turkish sit-down breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomato, a selection of cheeses, olives, bagel-like bread and sweet and savory spreads for the bread. All topped off with Turkish tea (strong black tea).

After our meal, we walked to the Rustem Pasha mosque, with its beautiful blue Iznik tiles. The unifying feature of the tiles is a tulip motif. Tulips were first cultivated in Turkey, and later introduced to Western Europe and the Netherlands. Women are required to wear head coverings while in a mosque, and everyone must remove their shoes.

From there, we wandered through the spice market with artfully arranged spices, teas, nuts and more. Next up was a short ferry ride across the channel that separates “old” Istanbul from a newer part of the city. Over there, we really got into the small bites: Turkish coffee (and reading the grounds, like tea leaves), lamb döner, several things in wraps (including bulgur with pomegranate and very popular mackerel), stuffed grilled mussels, and later finishing with Künefe and tea for dessert. We DID walk around between all this noshing, and our guide was so informative and fun to be with.

We ended the day with a 2-hour small-boat cruise on the Bosphorus with just the six of us. It did not include food, luckily! We were told that 60,000 vessels transit the Bosphorus Strait annually, which is several times higher than that of the Suez or Panama canals.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Arriving in Almaty, Kazakhstan
May 17–18 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F
We are in Central Asia! Our Road Scholar trip leader, Abdu, and local city guide, Anna, are so personable and have already been sharing a wealth of information. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world, by land area. It is more than four times larger than Texas. The country is the biological homeland of both the modern apple and the tulip (so not Turkey, after all). All domestic apples and over 30 tulip species originate from the mountains of Kazakhstan.

From the 7th century, the people led a nomadic lifestyle, until it began to decline in the late 1800s under the Russian empire. Nomadic life ended altogether in the 1930s under Stalin’s Soviet policies—specifically through forced land collectivization and resettlement campaigns. Because nomads were forced to surrender their livestock and take up agricultural practices they were unsuited for, it triggered a devastating famine. The region lost roughly 1.5 million people (nearly 40% of the ethnic Kazakh population).

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the former Soviet states had to start from scratch. Kazakhstan is fairly resource-rich (oil, uranium, gold and rare earth minerals), and has been navigating a trading and political balance between the superpowers it is physically wedged between (Russia and China), while establishing trade relations with the European Union and recently the United States.

We are staying in Almaty, an immaculately clean and modern city of over 2 million people. It lies in an arid climate, but thanks to the natural runoff from nearby mountains, a well-planned irrigation system and a deliberate urban forestry policy, the city is full of green spaces.

We had a packed day: a walking tour of Panfilov Park, with its war memorials; a visit to a wooden Orthodox church built at the turn of the century; a tour of a museum on the history of Kazakhstan and its people from the Bronze Age onward; lunch and a Kazakh folk music performance in a large yurt; a demonstration of the nomadic practice of using hunting birds at a sanctuary for birds of prey; and finally, a cable car ride up Kok-Tobe, a 3,800 ft hill, with a great view and recreation area (alpine coaster!).Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Ottoman Architecture Tour
May 16 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F
We had arranged a private Context Tour (company) with Nance and Sande to learn about some of the iconic mosques other than the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The tour focused on three mosques, all designed by Mimar Sinan. Sinan was the Chief Architect and engineer for three sultans, and lived to the age of 80 (or 100, according to some sources). He had a prolific career, constructing or supervising over 500 buildings, including many large mosques and even designing his own tomb, which we saw in Istanbul.

The three mosques we visited were:

Şehzade Mosque: in honor of Sultan Süleyman’s favorite son, who died of disease before he could become his father’s successor. Completed in 1548.

Süleymaniye Mosque complex, containing schools, public kitchens and a hospital, commissioned by Sultan Süleyman. Completed around 1557.

Rustem Pasha Mosque, which we saw yesterday on our food tour, but happily returned to admire the colorful Iznik tile-work (you can tell by all of our photos). It was completed in 1561.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Almaty Morning: Music and Market
May 19 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
This morning we walked through more of Panfilov Park, with a few more war memorials. We arrived at the Museum of Musical Instruments (we must have been a little early, because the rooms were dark and the staff were a little disorganized). All was soon remedied, and we were able to enjoy a performance by a professional musician playing dombra and clay flutes, and to ask her questions.

Next up was the Green Bazaar, an indoor farmer's market lined with stalls selling meat, spices, vegetables, cheeses, fruits, nuts and herbal remedies that extended to “witchcraft,” according to our guide, Anna.

Then we started our 5-hour drive to Kyrgyzstan (2 hours of which were spent in terrible traffic). As modern and successful as Almaty has become over the past 35 years, its infrastructure is struggling to adapt to its rapid rate of growth.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
In the Kyrgyzstan Countryside
May 20 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
We arrived last evening in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, a country similar in size to Nebraska. New country, new local guide—Farhad. He was an exchange student after high school in Texas (Austin!), and had a perfect American accent.

On our way out of the city this morning, we saw endless lines of trucks on the road carrying Chinese electric vehicles (and other goods) to other parts of Asia and to Russia. Once we cleared the city limits, we were rewarded with green farmlands and distant snowy mountain peaks. Our goal today was to get to know Kyrgyzstan rural life. Land is government-owned; there is no privately owned land. Farmers arrange long-term leases and can pass it on only to family members. No foreigners can lease land.

A real treat today was a visit to a family farm, where we got a demonstration of felt-making and the crafts they make from felt in their co-op. It takes a lot of labor to go from newly sheared sheep wool to layered flat pieces of felt that can be turned into rugs, seat cushions and other items: pounding, soaking in boiling water, rolling tightly in bamboo mats and repeating over again.

The family has been successful with their rural tourism. We were not the only group being served a farm-fresh lunch consisting of several salads, mixed vegetables, beef and potatoes, fresh spreadable cream, raspberry sauce and breads.

Before we left, there were a couple of games to play—sort of a bocce game with small animal vertebrae bones and also trying to sink a nail into a stump with the fewest number of hammer strikes. All good fun!

But the games were not over yet. We were driven to a field to watch some horse games dating from the 10th century, and still played today. The country name, Kyrgyzstan means “40 tribes united.” Back when the tribes were not united, these horse games were a way of solving conflict between tribes.

There was a red-jersey team and a green team and a referee. A young boy dropped packets of stones wrapped in fabric in the middle of the field and each team had to trot by on their horse, lean over and try to scoop up some of the packets. It takes a lot of balance and dexterity! Many were not successful, but one guy was especially good. Next up was a game we’d heard about (Kok-Boru), played with a dead goat carcass weighing about 50 pounds. Again, the players have to scoop up this heavy and unwieldy object, trot down the field and try to throw it into their goal. Opposing players try to wrestle it away from them and block their access to the goal.

By the way, this wasn’t just a show for us, the two teams were playing a match, and ultimately preparing for a tournament. There is something called the World Nomad Games, and in 2018, a U.S. team from Wyoming (cowboys) came to the games and did very well.

Later, we climbed around the archaeological site at Burana Tower, one of the only existing watchtowers on the Silk Road, and visited its small museum of artifacts.

We wrapped up the day with a beautiful drive through the mountains, then dinner in a yurt restaurant with a traditional musical performance.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s Capital City
May 21 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F
After independence in Kyrgyzstan, it was decided to keep some of the Soviet monuments in the parks. Not because people agree with the politics, but to preserve some of the history. A locally controversial monument we saw was inscribed: “Eternal glory to the Soviets”—where they kept the monument, but turned off the eternal flame as a symbolic gesture.

Statues of Stalin have all been destroyed, but some Lenin statues remain. Some people believe things would have been different if he hadn’t died and Stalin come to power. Under the Soviets, people had jobs (maybe not the ones they wanted), Islam women gained emancipation, most living expenses were covered: housing, healthcare, education, utilities; and food was plentiful up until near the end of the era. After the USSR collapsed, there were food shortages, people couldn’t get work, and radical Islamic gangs took over during a long transition period. So, there are many older people in the Central Asian countries who are nostalgic about the Soviet times.

Kyrgyzstan has had six presidents since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Three of its leaders were ousted by public uprisings—one resulting in killings of protesters ordered by the president. The early leaders of the new country all came from the Communist party under the USSR, and democracy was truly a foreign concept. Nepotism, corruption and crime were out of control. The current president was released from prison by protesters, appointed Acting President, and officially elected president in a landslide in January 2021. He is expected to be reelected at the next election.

Many new, post-independence monuments have been added to Bishkek’s green, expansive parks. Abdu did an excellent job of getting us out walking when the weather was nice, and inside museums while it was raining:

1) Victory Square, dedicated to the memory of soldiers who died in WWII. The Soviets called it “The Great Patriotic War,” and the date didn’t start until they joined the conflict. Central Asian countries suffered great losses fighting the Germans during this war;

2) Oak Park, with its open air sculpture garden of founding leaders and intellectuals (post-Soviet, of course);

3) Ala Too Square, where the protesters died in 2010 under the second president. We watched the changing of the guard at the “Manas on a Horse” monument here (epic war hero);

4) The newly-opened State Museum of History, with colorful textiles and artifacts up through independence

5) State Museum of Fine Arts, with Soviet period art and an exhibition on Kyrgyz folk art.

After all that, we took an evening flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
May 22 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F
We are in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan and home country of our trip leader, Abdu. We walked and bused all over! Today’s highlights:

A park dedicated to the Uzbek citizens who suffered political repression from the late 19th century through the Soviet era, particularly those executed during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. It features gardens and a domed rotunda bearing the words, “May the memory of those who have fallen for freedom of their country live forever.” The words are written in English and Uzbek, not Russian, which was the dominant language during the Soviet era, and is still widely spoken today. The site was chosen because mass graves were discovered there during the construction of a TV tower.

The Center of Islamic Civilization, which opened less than two months ago. It houses a 7th century Koran, the world's oldest surviving manuscript. There was a cool light show there too and beautiful stone mosaics.

Taking the Metro (very fancy stations) to the Market, and getting fresh-from-the-oven “non bread”

The Museum of Applied Arts, with a very manageable collection of the craftwork in Uzbekistan—embroidered wall hangings, plasterwork, metalwork and more.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Tajikistan: Ilhom Tells A Story
May 23 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F
We are taking a brief side trip from Uzbekistan to spend an overnight in Tajikistan, a few hours’ drive south of Tashkent. We met our new local guide, Ilhom, and drove another couple of hours to the city of Khujand.

Ilhom was a only a toddler when the country officially declared independence in 1992, but because the country was immediately plunged into a devastating five-year long civil war, the events of that time are etched in his memory. The country changed presidents twice in the first year. Corruption and crime were rampant, and because the country shares a large border with Afghanistan, Islamic extremist groups wanted control over the new country.

Gangs set up checkpoints within the city, making sure people were conforming with radical Islamic practices. Women were at risk of being attacked and raped on their way to work, because women were not supposed to go out unescorted by a man. Ilhom’s mother was a farmer, and had to leave the house at 2 in the morning to get her goods to market because the gangs weren’t so active at that hour. He talked about 12-hour lines for bread, if you got it at all. We know it was hard for him to talk about it, and we appreciated him sharing his heartfelt story.

During the civil war, 100,000 were killed in the fighting; more than 10% of the population fled to rural areas, becoming refugees in their own country; and half a million residents fled the country altogether. The country’s third president was able to eventually broker a ceasefire in the country, making an agreement that the Islamic opposition could share 30% of government control, and Democratic leaders would have the rest. In 2015, the opposition was officially banned and designated as a terrorist organization, stripping Islamic groups of their legal political standing and government positions.

Ilhom gave his talk in Khujand’s Arbob Cultural Palace, where independence from the Soviet Union was declared, and where the civil war agreement was brokered 5 years later.

The president who brokered the civil war peace agreement is still in office today, 34 years later. The Tajik people like the peace and stability they have enjoyed, and are afraid of what they will get if they have an open election. It is expected that the current president’s son will be his successor.

A side note about the border crossing: We had to walk with our bags through open land on broken pathways to several checkpoints. I think we showed our passports four or five times on the way. One of the passport control officers wished Diane a happy birthday! (So they really do read them!) We saw cars and trucks leaving Tajikistan to enter Uzbekistan being thoroughly inspected and washed. We wondered if that’s because Uzbekistan is concerned about drugs or weapons or other smuggling. We didn’t ask them :)

After our group dinner, Abdul came up to Diane with the cake that would be served for dessert and said he was sorry that they couldn’t sing happy birthday—it is forbidden by law!Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Driving Over the Mountains to Uzbekistan
May 24 in Tajikistan ⋅ 🌧 46 °F
Despite taking a “shortcut” through the mountains, we still had about an 8-hour drive today to go from Tajikistan to the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Over 90% of Tajikistan is mountainous . On the drive, we saw small farms and villages wedged on any plateau or steppe available.

We stopped at a few lookout points along the way, including one strategically located produce stand where we picked up dried apricots and almonds.

While on the bus, we learned a bit more about Tajikistan:

Unlike the other Central Asian countries we’ve visited, most of the Tajik people were not nomadic. The majority were settled farmers and traders on the Silk Road, with roots dating back to ancient civilizations 5,500 years ago.

The city name, Khujand, translates to “farthest reach,” referring to the farthest extent of Alexander the Great’s conquest. (The Tajiks call him Alexander the Invader.)

The Tajik language is Persian/Farsi. It isn’t Turkic-based, which is true of the other four “Stans” we’re visiting (and other countries, including Turkey—they can all generally understand each other’s language—it’s more like dialects of the same language).

While most people are Muslim, the country is not entirely Islamic—an array of religions are practiced.

The main source of income for families is through what they call migration (family members leave to work in other countries, mostly in Russia, and send money home). Tajiks who do this get Russian citizenship. That was no problem until the Ukraine war; then Tajiks could be drafted. The Tajikistan president said anyone who participated in the war would be imprisoned for 35 years. So, many started leaving Russia, and it helped that the UK and Europe offered work for 6 months at a time, offering good wages. However, this practice has tapered off in recent years.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
On the Silk Road in Samarkand
May 25 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F
We are in Samarkand, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. Settled around the 8th century BC, it rose to prominence as a vital trading hub on the Great Silk Road.

Skip forward to the mid-1300s, when Turco-Mongol conqueror Amir Timur (Tamerlane) chose Samarkand as the jewel of his empire. He brought in scholars, artisans, and architects from across his conquests. He ruled over vast territories: modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia. He is widely regarded as one of the most brutal and ruthless conquerors in history. Nonetheless, he is recognized as a national symbol of Uzbek statehood, strength, and cultural achievement. There are many statues of him around the country (one of the few Lenin statues was removed and replaced with Timur).

Timur’s grandson inherited the governance of the empire beginning at age 11, upon Timur’s death in 1405. While his grandfather conquered empires, Mirzo Ulugbek built a scientific renaissance, constructing a massive observatory and measuring the solar year with incredible precision.

We visited the observatory he built, as well as a cluster of three universities he founded. Ulugbek composed a star catalogue consisting of the coordinates of 1,018 stars, which is eleven fewer stars than are present in the star catalogue of Ptolemy.

We walked through the narrow avenues of Shah-i-Zinda ("Place of a Living King"), a carefully a restored complex of tiled mausoleums, holding the tombs of Timur’s family and nobles of the time. This led to a 6th century hilltop archaeological site that is still undergoing excavation (although there was no evidence of active work).

Other stops on our walking/bus tour included: mausoleums for Timur and Bibi Khanum, a wife of Timur; the Samarkand History Museum; the studio of a musical instrument craftsman (and performer); and Registan Square, the historic heart of Samarkand, and a landmark along the ancient Silk Road. It was the last day of school and the high school seniors were gathering in their dressy clothing to celebrate.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Leaving Samarkand for Bukhara
May 26 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F
We continued our journey on the Great Silk Road network, with an 8-hour bus ride to Bukhara (still Uzbekistan). Of course there were some stops along the way to keep us entertained, and Abdu shared lots of information about the region and about his experiences.

From Samarkand, we were entering an area that was historically desert, but since Soviet times, has been kept artificially green. In the early 1960s, water was diverted from rivers and the Aral Sea (Google “Aral Sea disaster”) to grow cotton—a crop that needs a lot of water.

By the early 1970s, almost all arable land in Uzbekistan had been transformed to cotton farming; very little land was used for edible crops for the people—Abdu has very dark memories of this time. It was all part of the Soviet government plan for cotton to become a major export. Strict production quotas were imposed (from a government far away in Moscow), and upon meeting the quotas, the level would be raised next year. It became physically impossible to do so.

Even after independence in 1991, Uzbekistan maintained its reliance on cotton production for export—well into the 2010s). As a college student, Abdu, who is 41, had to pick cotton between classes, and if he refused, he would have been expelled. Eventually, the government stopped this practice and gave people a plot of land for them to grow their own vegetables. His family is now working on getting permission to build a school for entrepreneurship for girls on the land his family received.

And so, the long drive passed pretty quickly, with stops at a family ceramics workshop (and lunch restaurant combo), and the archaeological ruins of a caravansary. Caravansaries were fortified lodging stops along the Silk Road, situated a day’s ride apart.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Bukhara and Surroundings
May 27 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F
It has gotten quite warm in this region now (temps in the mid- to high-80s). We used the air conditioned bus to see some sights outside of the city in the morning, had lunch and some siesta time, then set off on foot in the late afternoon for exploring some of the crafts in the main part of Bukhara. Abdu is determined to take us only to true family-run traditional craft businesses, and not to resellers out for the tourist trade. He’s always being greeted on the street by locals passing by.

Bukhara was a critical trading hub in the Silk Road for merchants traveling between China and the west. The region is famous for centuries-old artisanal traditions, particularly gold embroidery, knotted carpet making and pottery.

There are a number of “trading domes” in the center of the city that functioned a bit like small shopping malls during the Silk Road era. A single industry would be featured under each dome, which has separate rooms for multiple merchants. The idea was to create competition so no single merchant could have a monopoly on money exchange, textiles, jewelry other necessary goods and services. Now, multiple merchants are operating for the tourists under these domes.

For our dinner, we walked down a narrow, nondescript alley to a nice restaurant where we learned how the traditional dish of “plov” (pilaf) is made. It is cooked over a wood fire using carrots, meat (usually beef), spices (including cumin seed), barberries (a bit like raisins), chilies, chickpeas and a special kind of rice. Delicious!Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
Bukhara Old Town
May 28 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 91 °F
The last emir of Bukhara came to power in 1911, when Uzbekistan was under the Russian empire. The Uzbek emir couldn’t show the public that he was essentially a puppet of the czar, because it was important to show his strength as an independent ruler to the people. So, when “auditing” delegations from Russia would come to Bukhara, they would be hosted at the Summer Palace of the emir built outside of the city limits. Now the palace is a museum complex exhibiting textiles, period costumes and ceramic vases given as gifts to the emir. There are a lot of European architectural details meant to appeal to the Russians.

Other highlights from the day include:

- A Sufi shrine, the mausoleum of Bakhaudin Nakshbandi, who lived in the 1300s.

- Lunch at a local restaurant featuring a hand-pulled noodle dish (originally from the Uighur).

- A visit to some craft shops, including: knotted rug-making; “miniature” painting, which refers to the size of the brush, not the size of the art piece—very fine detail; and a puppet making shop.

We ended the day with a “fashion show,” of costumes of fabrics in traditional patterns accompanied by a traditional music ensemble.Read more
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Athens, Turkey & the Silk Road Diane and Darryl
The Walled City of Khiva
May 30 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ⛅ 102 °F
Yesterday was an all-day drive from Bukhara.

But it was worth the wait to see Khiva, a 2,500-year-old oasis city near Uzbekistan’s border with Turkmenistan. It was once a crucial trading post on the Silk Road. Its walled inner city is a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with restored architecture, minarets and palaces. We felt like we were walking in a movie set.

Today was a no-bus day, so we were able to spend the whole day wandering through the narrow streets of the walled city. We visited a couple of museums that were once mosques or schools; had a mid-morning cold beverage break from the 90/100 degree heat on a terrace overlooking the inner walled city; spent time in a royal residence; and spontaneously stopped in to a wood-carving workshop where Abdu knows the family.

We also learned about Ármin Vámbéry, who was a 19th-century Hungarian explorer who traveled through the territory of modern-day Uzbekistan in 1863. Disguised as a Sunni dervish, he was one of the first Europeans to explore the closed khanates of Central Asia. He couldn’t be caught making notes, since discovery as a European or a spy meant almost certain imprisonment or execution. So he had to memorize an immense amount of religious, cultural, and linguistic information before he could publish his findings upon his return. His book provided the Western nations with vital geographic, political, and cultural insights into the region.

As we walked along the mostly pedestrian streets, we came across a couple of women making large, flavored flatbread (tomato, herbs and onion) for their family in a communal oven. They insisted we stop to watch them make it, and gave us one to share. They also whipped out tea cups and started passing tea around to us. It was very kind and generous of them. Abdu left some money for them under a pot on the counter, as they never would have accepted payment.Read more
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