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Annual Letters
Map of 2002 Route
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We have exceeded our own expectations having keyed most of this annual missive before the end of the year. You, dear visitor, are reading it on line. We are doing our (near) best to print and distribute it off line to those who don't know where to find an on ramp for the digital information highway. As a recap, in 2001 we spent 3/4 of the year in South East Asia and the last quarter in Britain and the USA where we caught up with family and friends. For more details see our 2001 letter. This year, 2002, the pattern was much the same, but the foreign places were the Mideast and Eastern Europe. For those who would like something even shorter than this web page (in print it is five pages) see our 2002 Summary.
ENGLAND to EGYPT January We ended 2001 and started 2002 in England with family; our first Christmas and New Year's Celebrations with them in a very long time. Then, wanting to get to Israel for February, we found a cheap package holiday to Sharm-El-Sheikh in Egypt’s Sinai Desert. We spent a week there sampling the pool (ouch! it's freeeezing!) and the snorkeling at Ras Mohammed was spectacular. We finished up the month being bowled over again by mainland Egypt, seeing Abu Simbel and Philae from Aswan, then returning to Luxor to see Karnak and Luxor temples and the Valley of the Kings for the second time. A brief stay in Cairo to be awed by the Cairo Museum again and then off to Israel. We found clear and heartening signs of economic and social progress in Egypt compared to our last visit in 1986. ISRAEL February & March After a long day’s security hassles in getting to Israel by overland bus we moved into Naama’s Garden Apartment in the heart of the new Jerusalem. We stayed two months and thoroughly enjoyed it (except the bitter cold our first two days until the heater warmed up). We were an easy walk from most of the major sites and visited them all; including the old city at least a dozen times. For Gerry’s birthday we hired a car and drove through the West Bank to the Golan Heights and then across to Zfat (aka Safat) for the night then down to Haifa and back to Jerusalem. A few weeks later we found the Komisars, Gerry’s long lost relatives, and had a moving reunion. Yes, we found it tough sometimes turning on the TV to find there had been yet another bombing, and even worse when we actually heard one of the blasts from our apartment door. But no, we didn't seriously consider turning tail. Yes, we could have been killed, but in spite of the awful toll it was less likely than being killed in a traffic accident. TURKEY April & May The one way in which we gave into Middle-east dangers is that we skipped Jordan, where we had planned to spend a month on the way to and through Syria (if we could get visas.) Instead, we flew straight to Antalya on Turkey’s Tourist Coast, not knowing anything about Antalya, hardly even knowing where in Turkey it was. We just assumed that we could get from there to someplace else and it turned out that way. On our way to Iran in 1975 we had stopped only in Istanbul and Ankara for any length of time. This time we devoted ourselves to Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean coasts. The scenery is beautiful, the ancient sites numerous and fascinating. We visited Aspendos, Perge, Antioch ad Cragum, Phaeselis, Ephesus, Pergamon, Troy, and may more evocative and wonderful places. Accommodation and transportation is reasonably priced and of a very high standard. We loved them! Go if you haven't and go again if you have! The furthest off the beaten track we got was to drive into the mountains northeast of Antalya and to hitch from Datca (pronounced Datcha) to Knidos; that day we were prepared to beg a bed if we couldn't find transport back to our hotel. We crawled along the coast to Cannakale and the Galipoli peninsula where we walked the WWI battlefields; it is hard to say if the scenery or stupendous bravery of both attacked and attacker impressed us more. With a few days left in May we finally crossed the border into Bulgaria. We spent two nights in Sofia, where we saw the Pope, and got bedbug bites, but liked it nonetheless. From Sofia we headed for the border town of Ruse by bus and saw a town that is just waiting to take off touristically.
We ended up crossing into Romania by train and going straight to Bucharest, where we fell into the capable hands of Elvis’ Hostel; how strange to be old and bearded (Gerry, at least) among the young. At least we were young at heart (as long as it wasn't too noisy at night). We spent enough time in Burcharest to procure ourselves a Ukrainian visa (our main goal), to know it is the Paris of the East , to dislike the taxi drivers there, and to want to go back for a longer swig from the spigot. On we went to Brasov, the capital of the Transylvanian Alps, which is a jewel. We spent five days (vs 3 in the capital) and could imagine living there. The town retains much of its 19th century charm and is surrounded by lovely mountains. Our next to last stop in Romania was perhaps our favorite because neither of us had heard of it, and it struck us as a treasure trove of beautiful churches. The name is Iasi (pronounced yassir, in the English fashion) and we can highly recommend it. From Iasi, we took a bus to Suceava and spent just enough time to run around the painted monasteries (very unusual but already quite a tourist trap) and buy a bus ticket for the cross-border bus to Chernavitsi, Ukraine. Ukraine had been our destination since finding out from some of Gerry’s long lost relatives in Israel the name and location of the village where Gerry’s mother was born. We spent a few days en route to Kiev, stopping by Vinnitsa the town where the two Soviets we hosted back in 1990 came from. It is undoubtedly a pretty town set on the Bug river but the almost constant rain while we were there didn't help us appreciate it; then a grungy hotel put Jan completely off the place. Kiev was a big success story. We stayed there twice totaling two weeks and found it a worthy capital, with lots of interest to do and see, although the rebuilt central square could do with a bit more minimalism. Jan got to practice and study Russian, forced by circumstances into being a translator. Necessity is certainly the best teacher. (In fact, she voluntarily bought copies of the magazine Correspondent, published in Russian in Kiev, as her study texts.) From Kiev we made a two-day, 300 km circular excursion to Narodichi, the ancestral Stotland family home. The place makes Fiddler on the Roof even more approachable. We tracked down and met some Stotlands who were the last Jews to live in the village; they might be distant relatives of Gerry. We completed our Ukraine visit by spending a few days in the lovely Lviv (Ukrainian; it was Lvov until Stalin kicked out the Polish in 1945 and before that it was Lemberg). Another city, like Kiev, with a storehouse of 19th century and earlier buildings that survived the 20th century because of the inefficiency of the Soviet economy. For us that meant that we could stay in the St. George Hotel on the main square in town and enjoy 12-foot ceilings and palatial-size rooms. Here, we went to the opera and saw a lovely production of Verdi’s Nabucco. Here too, Gerry lost his shirt (all of $1) playing lightning chess. POLAND early-mid July We began our return to prosperity and the sense of being in a developed country by crossing into Poland. Our first stop, first class and first-world city Krakow, won our heart, as it has so many others. We went to the opera and just enjoyed wandering around the old town and sipping beer on the old square, admiring its wonderfully restored beauty, visiting both churches and medieval squares and fortress walls, the synagogues and museums of the ancient Jewish district of Kazimerz, and even wandering across the river into what was the Jewish ghetto. It will be the next Prague in our view, so go and see it before it gets too busy. From Krakow we made a day excursion to Auschwitz-Birkenau, sad but enlightening. On the advice of Jan's friend Anna, which we are glad we followed, we went south for four days to the the Tatra mountain resort of Zakopane where we had two wonderful hikes that stretched (half of) our muscles almost to breaking point. And then it was on to Wroclaw (pronounced Vraswav, believe it or not, aka Breslau in German) which is bisected by a lovely river of which we got lovely views atop the Church of St. John. CZECHIA* late July Then, squeezing in all we could before heading for home, we spent a working week (5-days) in Prague. Jan had first visited as a student in 1969; although her memories of the place were quite vague, the city she found bore no resemblance to the grim, dark, Sovietized city of yore. Prague is now a budding Paris. Fashionable, chic, and endowed with a wealth of tourist sites: the castle (Hradcany), the old castle, the old town with its mechanical clock and of course the churches and synagogues. As we had in Sofia and Kiev, here in Prague we found someone willing to sublet their apartment to us at a very reasonable $30 per night. We were shocked on arrival to find little available at less than $50 per night. We were there just a week before the major floods that took so much headline space. We were glad to get to see the sites untouched by the sad damage they so soon after endured. * Yes, we know the official name is Czech Republic, but Czechia is a lot simpler and used in some other languages.
BRITAIN Late July through September We got to England on July 19, just in time to make our own minimal preparations for our nephew's wedding. Chris married his longtime girlfriend Sam in a charming old church. That started two months of expanding our waist lines, so often did we party and celebrate with family and friends, including an unanticipated two day hen party in conjunction with the marriage of the daughter of another friend. We tried to counteract these nefarious influences and improve our fitness level by biking as much as we could, but never quite managed to reach our goal of 30 miles in a day. Our stay ended as it began, with a wedding bash in London — this time the conversion of a 20+ year engagement by Dinah (Jan’s college friend) and Mick. Our other London high point was a ride in the London Eye. Incidentally, we left Darlington just in time to get out of the way of Dave and Jhap, the co-owners of our house, who just wanted peace and quiet so they could paint a few more rooms and put up some new bookshelves. NEW YORK, NEW YORK! October & November October brought us across the Atlantic to New York City for yet another, you guessed it, wedding. This time it was our friend Moshe marrying his Brazilian girlfriend Cristhiane (pronounced Crischeeanee). We stayed well past the wedding, fulfilling a long-time dream of being resident New Yawkers because, thanks to a friend of a friend of our friends Susan and Jemma, we sublet a lovely fourth-floor walk-up on the east side of NY at 55th. We walked the city from end to end, up and down Central park, back and forth and around Times Square and Rockefeller Center and on and on. We went to a half dozen very interesting (and free) lectures (some, even better, with accompanying free meals). We revisited some favorite museums and found some new ones. Amazing for these non-church goers, we went to a half dozen church and synagogue services, which we enjoyed for themselves, their music, and their cultural and artistic sides. For Jan the best was getting to see a very nice performance of LaTraviata at the City Opera and a stupendous performance of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met. WASHINGTON D.C. December TThe end of the year finds us in Washington D.C. where thanks to our friend Juniata from Lucent days and a friend of Jan’s friend Paloma we found a place to stay in Georgetown for two weeks and then in Rosslyn VA for the next six weeks. We have just moved from one place to the other and are well-pleased with both. We've already been very busy seeing one family, two Supreme Court sessions, three museums, four public policy talks, taken five long walks, and await six geese alaying in the Congress.. A Holiday Season full of Joy and a Healthy and Happy New Year
Jan
and Gerry
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From
January to July we made a "circle" starting by taking a bus from Darlington
to London; flying from London to Sharm El Sheik, Egypt; and ending by taking
a bus from Prague to London and another on to Darlington.
The map shows our non-flying route: orange is bus in Egypt and Israel; green is flying
from Israel to Turkey; more orange is mostly bus, with a few train trips
through and from Turkey to Prague; yellow is two bus trips that together
took 24 hours and took us from Prague to Darlington.
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