GREED AND FEAR.

No one is responsible for the Corona Virus. It just happened. People are fearful and hopefully, as I, and others face Isolation things will improve. For the first time since I've been diagnosed with cancer, my Doctor asked me to skip a treatment and stay home. Part of the reason is that I'm doing well and I'm at great risk to have blood work and an infusion at my age with a serious disease.

My grandson,  Stewart and his fiance, Allie,  returned from Europe three days ago. They were immediately quarantined. I asked them what they were doing and they told me they were working jigsaw puzzles and eating a lot of popcorn. Allie is a nurse and Stewart is a tech writer, so he can work from home as long as his services are needed. And Allie will soon be needed with her skills.

My daughter bought me a lot of groceries so I could last a month without going to a grocery store. I'm at risk because of age and disease. I'm being very careful. But, I went to the post office. That is not very careful. I was out for therapy and I convinced myself it was all right. NOT! No one in the post office, not the customers or the workers wore masks or seemed at all concerned. I immediately came home and washed, washed, washed. I shouldn't have gone there.

My son Doug walked in his ankle boot cast to his local grocery and found the shelves quite empty. He has a turkey in his freezer, and was looking to buy some potatoes to go with the turkey. He said, "I can live for a week or more on a turkey. He called me from the market and I suggested he get stuffing mix to go with his turkey, or boxed potato flakes. All gone!  Looking at the emptiness he asked a checker whey the shelves were so bare. She told him that a group of men, swooped in and took everything. She found out they were hoping to sell the stuff on the black market when things get desperate. That is criminal greed.

I was stunned. Doug was too. However, the store had a sign up front that said no returns would be granted on receipts for purchases from March 17th forward. According to her, that put a stop to it. .

Now, let's talk about fear. This happened in a Save Mart, earlier, where Doug went to buy some hamburger and the butcher told him they were out at the moment but he was getting a side of beef in and to come back in about two hours and he'd have some meat in the case.
He returned and a man and his wife took all of the meat the butcher had cut and wrapped and put in the case. The butcher asked the guy to take a package or two. Allow someone else to have a some meat. The guy defiantly went to the check stand. The checker asked him to put some of it back and only take two packages. He growled at her, "Check me out!"
 And she did. I consider that greed and fear.

 I don't know if that Save Mart made it a policy, by posting a  sign, requiring patrons to limit their purchases to what they need immediately.  Doug's truck broke down and he cannot drive anymore and must hobble in his cast to the local market with the empty shelves. Maybe, deliveries will continue and the shelves will have more than bare spaces.

I hope we have leadership in Washington that can get help for everyone very soon. After all this isn't a political issue, it is a health issue and we should all be working together to keep the Corona Virus from spreading. I'm so grateful that I have stupendous neighbors who call and check on me and ask if I need anything. I'm grateful that I don't need anything but resolve.

May we all get through this with a minimum of disease among our friends and families. This pandemic is like nothing we have ever faced as a nation before. It is financially troubling especially for people like young waiters and waitresses who depend on tips to make ends meet and suddenly are unemployed with nothing coming in. And, who will gather the homeless and find treatment and testing for them who can continue to spread the virus without check?

Isolation, though not permanent, can surely slow the spread of this deadly disease. I pledge.

PASABAG VALLEY, FAIRY CHIMNEYS,AND UNDERGROUND CITY.

I've had no signal since Friday, and my Turkey experience is coming to a close. Unique topography called fairy chimneys decorates the Pasabag Valley.

A photo to show you their size. How strange, that this formation stands almost alone.

Mushrooms come more to mind. Some fairy chimneys were made into rooms, and houses, barns and stables, hundreds of years ago. Now this one serves as a modern office.

As we hike the terrain changes. We find ourselves in the same valley we flew over in a balloon earlier in the day.


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We enter a natural cave.

Usla demonstrates by climbing up a the steep back wall of the cave where some unknown hand has carved foot holes in the rock.

Owen gives it a try and realizes it is easier to climb up then down. His butt turned white from sliding on the chalky surface of this kind of stone.

We hike farther and now you can see the "rose garden" we were photographing from the balloon ride. The area looks less dramatic then it did from the balloon.

Higher, we climb.

It is a gentle climb, and fun, too.

Owen tops a crest and behind him...
...you can see the rim of the volcano that formed this valley. And, the obvious topography we flew over in our balloon. You can double-click, once, then again for a better view of the valley.

We press on and find a series of houses, some with ordinary doors and windows. A gentleman drives his car near us and we watch as he makes the long hike to his doorway with an armload of what appeared to be groceries.

It is difficult to reach this cave house, if anyone lives in it.

It began to rain and we took shelter in this cafe and gift shop under the umbrellas.

The shower lasted only a few minutes and we didn't stay for tea.

Everyone noticed the ad mentioning viagra which lead us to ask Usla how Turkish men and women feel about birth control and family size. He told us the government is very interested in limiting population and encourages the use of condoms and other forms of birth control. The people are very responsive to that.


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A vendor offers camel rides.

Even the camel wears a God's eye.
After lunch, we visited the underground city. During the Hittite era, armies swept cross Asia Minor and this underground city was built to be a very defensible community. Some "houses"  are eight stories high. I stayed above ground, drank a fresh squeezed orange juice and caught up on my journal. Owen visited but didn't bring his camera that day. The passageways are narrow, often sloping but the rooms are well ventilated by air shafts to the surface. Underground cities have cisterns and this one has  homes with enameled food storage places,  next to kitchens. Other areas serve as stables. The underground city is no longer occupied but at one time thousands of people lived in the place.
For a slide show of our balloon trip and hike, click the picture below:

2014-Turkey-5-3-Cappadocia-Balloon,UndergrundCity,FairyChimneys Hike

TAKSIM SQUARE, TURKISH BATH, FUNICULAR,TRAM

Our bus takes us to the Eastern part of Istanbul and from the window, I catch this picture of a Henna dyed sheep. It has some significance in weddings, and I can’t remember what. I thought it was a pet, but instead it is a tradition of some type.

At Taxsim Square stands the Statue of Independence. Behind is a green area where the city decided to cut down the trees and build a shopping complex and new apartments. The people of Istanbul have very little green area and people protested the idea of cutting down their park and people organized a protest in May. The City sent troops to pepper spray and teargas the crowds that reached 10,000 people. Four people were killed and the citizens are still aligned against the project. The anniversary of the protest was imminent, and the statue was taped off with yellow tape when we were there. The government is expecting trouble, but the trees remain. People hated the imperialistic manner in which it was done. The problem is still not resolved. Usla believes strongly in speaking up for what you believe or you will soon have everything taken from you. Thus he spoke loudly that folks around the square could hear him.

The square is an important cultural part of the city with an opera hall and a place to gather and hold huge outdoor events and meetings. The nearby park is treasured and the people do not want to give it up.
This section of the city is where a lot of the Kurdish people live. Renovated buildings show a layer of history built during the European Art Noveau movement and the area is central to transportation throughout  Istanbul.

Pigeons seem to define places like this all over the world.
We walked to the Tram Station then fanned out to pick a place to have lunch on our own.
Owen had chicken shish, the rest of us tried various dishes, pizza, and an eggplant salad for me.
They offered a special sticky rice type pudding with cinnamon that was quite good.

Usla warned us to line up for the tram ride to the funnicular or we wouldn’t get a seat. Our group practically filled the tram which is an old fashioned electric trolley similar to San Francisco’s famous cable cars.
A grandmother got on holding a heavy toddler and I offered to have him sit on my lap, which she gratefully accepted. He rode to our stop on my lap without any hesitation. Other’s of our group gave up their seats to others.
Joan Zucker, from our group, and Maria and Owen in front of the colorful street cars.

We walked and admired the art noveau buildings.
A little grafitti, no city escapes its taggers.

Beautiful wrought iron balconies.

Beautiful carved facades.

Though European influenced, a blend develops,  window grates with the Turkish tulip motif.

Traffic control is amazing. Lighted pillars electronically pop up or retreat with the press of  the engineer’s button.

We waited for the funicular.

Owen likes to challenge his balance. It was the longest tunnel I’ve ever ridden through.

Beautiful tiles in the station, with the tulip design that resembles the Moslem writing of the word Mohamed.
Beautiful tile mosaics of the street cars and other scenes around town decorate the station.

We got off next to the river where a tobacco salesman was hawking a device to make loose tobacco into a filtered cigarette, instantly.

It was very clever, but we Americans are so anti-smoking and we see most Turkish men smoke cigarettes or cigars.

At least the Turkish Government makes them label their tobacco products clearly.

Our intended destination is the fish market, which also has a smaller vegetable market with it.

There were many kinds of fish.
Right next to the river, they keep the fish freshened with buckets of water and ice.

Like Fishermen’s Wharf in San Francisco, you can pick what you want, someone will cook it for you and you can eat on the spot.
The only fish I recognized.

The gulls and this ibis aren’t choosy about the kind of fish they eat. Just bring it on.

We walked over this bridge to another section of town. This boy was picking up mussels.
Usla took us to a district where various members could buy walking sticks quite cheaply for hiking. They fold and fit into a suitcase. Then we went to what Usla pointed out is the only baklava restaurant in the world. They only serve baklava which is considered the best baklava anywhere.

This is the size baklava you order for a party or wedding.

A Flag motif.

Different types of baklava.

Some traditional, but for me, I find it too sweet for my taste.

I skipped but for a tiny bite of two pieces. Owen, of course, loved them, but even he couldn’t empty the plate shared between six of us.
Before leaving Istanbul, we told Usla we wanted to try the Turkish bath. Of course, you can’t bring a camera to the baths. But, this is a description. You are given a key to a locker room where you undress and leave all of your belongings except the key on a board. Then you are escorted to a sauna which is a huge marble, heated round dais where you place your towel and lie on it and people come and splash you with warm water. Faucets are around the dias and mother’s with their young children are seated, bathing them and getting them used to the public bathes as a treat.
The heat is intense. Five minutes was enough for me and I was up and splashing with cooler water.
In fifteen minutes we were led into the scrub room with our towel we lay upon a marble slab and the masseuse scrubs you with a sack filled with a foaming type of soap. Then they use a luffa to scrub you from head to toe to remove dead skin. You are rinsed and sent to the next room where you get a massage in olive oil. After that, wrapped in your towel, you relax and enjoy a rocking chair and some apple tea. Then you get dressed and pay and leave. Men are separated from women, of course, but you feel wonderful after leaving the bath.
Turkish people are very clean and they have ritual baths at time of wedding, funerals, circumcision, birthdays, engagement, graduation, for whatever reason. They are an important custom that formed from their own sense of cleanliness and a modification of the Roman baths. Wonderful. Owen resisted at first and then decided to go and was very pleased with the experience.  Me too.
More tomorrow.