Onions, Sultans, and Serpent Heads
Zack has been our deckhand/steward for many years on SwimVacation. He has thrown lines, chopped onions, cleaned heads, served drinks, and driven dinghies, all with style and a devotion to the comfort of our guests. He’s a naturally great swimmer, and while he has occasionally jumped in to guide with us, it’s always been squeezed between his other tasks. So in appreciation for all of these years of deckhanding, we’ve asked Zack to be a swimming guide this week in Turkiye, and to start it all off, a 30 hour tour of Istanbul.
Speaking of onions, Istanbul has a dizzying number of layers. The history is so rich and so ancient, with millions of stories and world-changing people and events that it would be ridiculous for me to attempt any kind of summary here. Zack and I had a guided tour of the city, 10 hours of walking that felt like 15 minutes. Our tour was arranged by the amazing Iffet of Peten Travel, our ground partners here. I’ll use the story of just one relic we saw to try to create a thread through the millenia: The Serpent Column.
In the year 479 BC, the Greeks beat the Persians in the battle of Platae. To commemorate, they collected the bronze armor and weapons from the battlefield, melted it down, and sculpted the Serpent Column, a 26-foot tall monument. It is formed by 3 snake-like beasts, upright, intertwined, with their heads sticking out of the top.
In 324 AD, the emperor Constantine re-imagined the ancient city of Byzantium (soon to be Constantinople) as a major world power, and built a proper Roman-style city here. Of course he had a massive Hippodrome constructed that could hold about 100,000 people, and to decorate that he had the Serpent Column (along with dozens of other ancient monuments) moved here. But here's the craziest part: the column is still here. After almost 2500 years of wars, plagues, sieges, plundering crusaders, lightning strikes, and earthquakes, it’s still here. Only the column remains intact, but one of the serpent heads is in the archaeology museum here, so we had to go check that out, too. I could go on for page after page about the ancient cisterns, churches, city walls, Ottoman palaces, the wonderful people of Istanbul and the food…….. but we have a trip to run. Let’s get to it.
Zack and I flew to Dalaman from Istanbul yesterday, and caught a ride to Buzborun, a charming little town on the Mediterranean, near where it meets with the Aegean Sea. We were warmly greeted by the family who operates the Gulet (traditional Turkish sailing yacht) from which we will run this adventure. It’s a beautiful boat. We took a walk to check out the town, little hotels on one side of the waterfront street, the other dotted with charming little restaurants. Young couples buzz around on mopeds, breeze in their hair. Old men sit at tables near the sea and gossip. That kind of place.
After another night of not sleeping much (jet lag persists!), we walked back through the village to purchase liquor and sunscreen, the only things this boat does not come fully stocked with. Cats lazed around on shop steps, Gulet crews along the shore were busy flipping boats on this turnover day. Finally, our guests arrived. First Tracy, then Debbie, Andrew, Erika, Karen, and Bill. We got them settled in their rooms, had “tea”, which is really a table of delicious pastries that could ruin your dinner but you eat anyway, then jumped in for a swim.
The water feels like a perfect 79 degrees. Saltier than my home Atlantic waters. We planned a short swim, just to get a feel for things. I can’t help but pick up shards of Amphorae from the bottom, and wonder how old they are, what they held, and who held them. We are still fairly close to civilization here, so there are a decent number of boats around even here at the end of tourist season. But it all has a sleepy, chill vibe.
Back on the Gulet we enjoyed Bozburun Sparklers (1 part Campari to 5 parts Prosecco, or so, to taste) then a Turkish seafood dinner of fish, calamari, shrimp, and another half dozen dips and salads. Uh-oh, we miscommunicated on who was going to buy the beer and wine! There is none on board! No worries, before we finished dinner, cases of beer and wine were delivered to us by Captain's orders. Evening rescued. A fruit plate to finish.
This is the first trip I’ve kicked off without Heather in the past 15 years, and though Zack is an excellent teammate, we’ll both be relieved when she arrives tomorrow after running 2 weeks in Greece. I’m currently devising a plan for this group to explore some ancient Greek ruins tomorrow at the end of a swim. Closing thought - even if it’s not for one of our swimming vacations, visit Turkiye. You’ll be better for it.