STUCK IN ISTANBUL-- I was to change planes and leave Istanbul the same day, but weather was bad. We were the last plane to land and all flights had been canceled until the next day. So I took a taxi to a hotel. I tried to explain I wanted the clerk to wake me at 5 a.m. the next day and call a taxi so I could go to the airport, He didn't understand English so he got someone from somewhere near by. I tried to explain to them, but they didn't get it, they wanted to know, “Did I speak French?”, "No, I only know English. Another person was called in, “Do you speak German?", “No, I only know English”. Different people were called and different languages were asked, to myself I was thinking, “No, I'm just a dumb American that only knows English”. So out of desperation I turned to gestures. I pointed at the clock at 10 and put my head on my hands as if asleep. The clerk acted like he understood. So I pointed to each hour up to 5 a.m. Pointed at it several times and then pretended to dial a phone & to act like I was waking up. Like saying, call me at 5 and wake me up. Then I pointed at him, made the phone call gesture & made signs like driving to represent a taxi. I repeated the word ‘Taxi” several times. The clerk acted like he had gotten the message through all the pantomime. So I went to bed. I woke at 5:15 the next morning, no call from the clerk, no taxi outside, and no clerk at the desk. I decided my only option was to start walking towards the airport & hope I could catch a taxi. Three taxis went by. I tried to flag them but they went on, the 4th one stopped. I got to the airport in time to catch my plane, but I hadn't started out very confident about it.
A CANADIAN SKIER--At another Asian airport, probably Tehran. A person asked me if I was an American. Since The U.S. is not the only Country in North America I usually answered that question with an answer like, “Yes, I am from the United States”, “Yes, I am a U.S, citizen", Yes, I’m from the U.S.A.’’, or something similar. But I tried to avoid the word “American.” After 4-5 attempts to answer like that to no avail I finally said, “Yes I'm an American.” After I visited with the person awhile another person approached & identified himself as a Canadian that was snow skiing in Asian countries. He admitted he usually avoided American tourist because they were self-centered, snobbish & overly demanding, but said he had heard bits & pieces of my conversation & said I didn't sound like an American tourist. I explained I’d been to India on a Cultural Exchange program. We visited for a while. At this same airport I was approached by another Canadian. He had been in the country for a few days skiing. They had told him he could convert all the Canadian currency he wanted to local currency he wanted. What they failed to tell him was he would only be able to convert a certain amount of local currency back to Canadian money when he left. His flight was about to leave & he was going to be stuck with a lot of local currency that would be no good in any other country or he would have a lot of trouble converting outside the country. I exchanged the limit with some of his money, but when my plane left he was desperately trying to find others to convert money for him before his flight left.
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An Austrian village without the snow
I chose the picture because this looks like the center of the town I visited |
AUSTRIA--In Austria I took a bus out of Vienna where the airport was to a smaller village & stayed a couple days. Vienna was a beautiful city, but I was looking for the quaint village that's always pictured of Austria so I took a bus and picked a village. It was beautiful, just like all the travel posters. There was lots of snow & I took a ride on one of those horse drawn sleighs, the kind you always see in the movies or on films. I looked around the quaint shops at all the marvelous hand crafted items & unique foods. There were some unique statues & sites In Vienna I visited.
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| The canals of Amsterdam |
HOLLAND--I considered getting outside of Amsterdam & staying in a smaller city but it looked complicated. I was surprised at the number of canals in Amsterdam. I had associated canals with Venus, Italy, but not Amsterdam. So I took a lot of boat rides. I took a sightseeing bus ride or two around & outside Amsterdam a short distance & saw the windmills Holland is famous for & discovered Holland had fabulous chocolates. There were lots of statues in Amsterdam & I visited a Museum. Amsterdam was my most inexpensive room on the way home. My hotel room cost $5.25.
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| Acropolis Hill-Parthenon |
GREECE-- I stayed in Athens. I visited all the old famous Greek buildings. Full of Greek Statues. I learned that the Parthenon & many other buildings were not destroyed by age but that Turks had stored ammunition in them during a war & it had gotten blown up, destroying the buildings. The thought was infuriating. At one famous place they had replaced a destroyed female statue using modern material rather than the original stone the other ones were made of, the original statues would shed rain in a way you could see it, but the new l statue didn't. So tour guides had a comment about the old statues crying for their sister. I decided it was a good thing I had been in Turkey before I learned that information. Had I known before I would have approached Turkey with a very negative attitude. Even though Athens was cold there were a few hardy spring flowers in bloom.
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| Temple of Athena |
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| The crowed street of Glasgow |
SCOTLAND--I was planning on spending two days in Scotland. I arrived in Glasgow and saw nothing but soot, & houses crammed together. As we circled the city in the plane I didn't see any grass or nice sites. No out lying cities had looked any better from the plane, so I checked the Glasgow phonebook for the name Paxson & found only a lot of Paxton's & decided to go on to Ireland a day early. A very wise choice.
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King John's castle & bridge over the Shannon River,
at Limerick, Ireland |
IRELAND--was beautiful, I was surprised that Shannon, Ireland only consisted of the airport & an Industrial Complex. I'd been told all the shops in the Shannon Airport were duty free so I bought a $350-400, 35mm camera for about $200.
I went a few miles to a town of Limerick. It was beautiful & old world. I rented a bike for 3 days & each day peddled out a different direction from Limerick. I stopped at many thatched shops just to buy a drink or some food & visit with people. I marveled at the quaint cottages as I peddled along the roads. I stopped & went out and snooped in the old castle ruins in the cow meadows. The grass was really green & a variety of spring flowers were starting to bloom everywhere. It seems there is a warm trough that goes through Ireland and Spring comes a little earlier to Ireland than other European countries. I did visit on old castle that was a tourist attraction & there was an admission fee. I loved Ireland but found no trace of the Paxson name so concluded that it's origin was Scottish.
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| An Irish meadow with blooming bushes |
LEAVING SHANNON -- I was getting ready to board my flight to New York in Shannon, Ireland and I took a seat in the Airport to wait awhile before the flight. A group of 5-6 U.S. citizens sat down in the same area & started talking of their experience. They obviously had traveled Asia together on a package tour. They were laughing & telling stories. Some of the stories were personal experiences & I suddenly began to feel uncomfortable, like I was eavesdropping or hearing things I shouldn’t, although that wasn’t true. In India only one or two people could speak English in my family and there would be a limited number of people who spoke English in groups where I showed slides and gave talks, so I had not been around a group where everyone spoke English for a long time. As they began to tell more & more stories. Some sharing personal things others hadn’t realized had happened on the trip, I became so uncomfortable I got up & moved to another area where I could not hear their conversation or where a group was speaking a language I couldn’t understand. I seem to remember moving more than once.
A STOLEN CAMERA---I had heard of emotions making people sick but had never experienced it till New York City. Mom had wanted me to call as soon as I was back in the U.S. so at the airport I found the pay phones, which were next to the men’s restroom. I put down my luggage & put my new camera in the middle. I called home & talked for quite awhile, turning & leaning up against the pay phone box. When I finished talking & started picking up my bags the camera was gone. Someone had apparently come out of the restroom when I had my back turned to my luggage & had the nerve to grab the camera & walk off with it. I had planned & looked forward for a year to getting a new camera. As I thought about it I didn't really get angry I just started feeling sick. I decided I was going to forget I had even got the camera. About 6 months after I got back home I got a really nice 35mm camera in Wichita. Not as fancy as the one I’d got in Shannon, but a really nice one.
BACK IN THE USA--We had been warned in D.C. of the culture shock we might expect in India so whenever anything weird happened in India I blamed 'Culture Shock' & went on. But no one had warned us of the change that would take place in us & our attitude upon our return home. So I was totally unprepared for how I saw America & Americans when I returned to Kansas. I had lost 30 pounds on the primary diet of rice in India. So I went to Wichita to buy a couple of shirts and pants. I went to the West Mall in Wichita. I shopped & watched people. I became so disgusted with the attitude & actions of shoppers I left with only one shirt.
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