The last few weeks we've been hibernating, emerging from our chilly den only when absolutely necessary for work or shopping. Today was finally a little warmer, with temperatures in the low teens, and I felt like a walk.
Some time ago we heard that there was some Roman pavement visible where the Sunday and Wednesday market happens not far from us. I saw on the map at the Agora that the Roman city's southern gate, the Ephesus gate, was somewhere close to us. So I decided to head that way, hoping to catch the Wednesday market as well.
The market was finished, but the pavement was there.
These large stones may be the remains of the road leading to the Ephesus gate of the old city.
Note the chickens. They're all over town in the less affluent areas. These are the closest to our house I know about. If Turkey tries to control chicken flu by eliminating flock they're going to have a real challenge.
Anyway... I found the pavement. And it struck me that there's probably always been a market there, since there were town walls and long after. Thousands of years people have been selling things on that spot.
It also struck me that the part of town we live in, the old Jewish quarter (where some of my Jewish relatives fled when the Spanish suffered an attack of insanity and threw them out), was outside the wall when there were still walls. We're in the ancient suburbs.
So I walked some more and saw these flowers,Some flowers think Izmir's cold season is the ideal time for blooming. Flowers like these have been around for a couple of weeks. They're just the same as the ones that are blooming in the courtyard next to us. These are blooming in the middle of the main street (Inönü Caddesi) near us.
I discovered a mother-daughter pair of cats peering our from underneath a corrugated roof at me. You can tell it's an old house from the bricks used in its construction. Most modern Turkish houses are built on hollow bricks covered with cement. This house, and many of the ones in our district, is built of solid bricks. It probably dates from before the destruction of Izmir in 1922 at the end of the war with Greece.
Back at home, I fed my cats. I have quite a little family now. There's beautiful grey-tabby MomKat and her surviving son, Bebek; black-and-white MomKat2 and her surviving daughter Karaburun (Blacknose), and a new young tom who's so pretty I thought he was female. He's even clean, and he's very smart. Bebek's mom seems to be thinking he'd make a suitable father for her next kittens, but he's not interested yet. He's still too young, I think.
I'm afraid my little Bebek is not long for this world. He has an infected eye, a big bald patch on his hind quarters, and he's sneezing and shaking. He's not very hungry, but when I hold food out for him he takes it and purrs. He still won't let me pat him, but he wants to be close to me. I've never seen feline distemper, but it sure looks like something serious to me. I wonder if he'll be around when I look for him next?
We're taking off again for a few days. This time we're going to Italy - Pompeii and Rome. Ron has a couple of days without teaching, so we're going to take the chance to try to find someplace warmer and less smoky. He has a terrible cough. And we both really want to see Pompeii.
So next time I'll have something about yet another country.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment