Another serendipitous encounter. We were sitting by the promenade in Izmir when two women approached us. They are two Jehovah Witnesses who, with their husbands, are on a specific mission to approach the many Iranians who have come to Turkey looking for work. They wanted to know about our faiths, while I was way more interested in hearing about their experience preaching the gospel in this part of the world. Coincidentally, I’m in the middle of an interesting book by Philip Jenkins, which detailed the long, yet often forgotten history of Christianity in this part of the world (i.e. Christianity is actually not a ‘European’ religion) and that it had flourished in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, before being replaced by other religions in the last 4-500 years. In a way these missionaries are more than proselytizing. Re-seeding is perhaps the term?
Alas, the cold evening wind picked up, and we parted ways, but not before one of the women suggested that we checked out Pergamon. “It’s another ancient city not far from Izmir,” she said. “But less crowded than Ephesus.”
Less crowded? Sounds like something we would enjoy…
So the next day we figured out how to take a combination of the commuter train and bus to Bergama. From the bus terminal in town, we walked uphill to the site of the ancient town, passing old neighborhoods with their bright yellow-colored walls. I joked that they must have a sale on yellow paints not too long ago.
When we reached the bottom of the ancient acropolis, we decided to walk up instead of taking the cable car, which proved to be a good thing since we managed to find a free entrance into the site. It seemed that most tourists are only interested in the upper part of the agora so they only put a ticket station in the upper entrance.
We were the only visitors in the lower agora, and were able to explore the old gymnasium and sanctuaries, which are starting to be overgrown with weeds. No ropes or barricades to prevent people from walking all over the ruins. It looked as if a restoration was started at some point and then abandoned.
The scene in the upper agora was not as serene. The place was filled with tour groups of all nationalities, taking pictures in front of every pile of rock. We took it as our cue to wrap up our visit and made our way back to town and caught the bus back to Izmir.
I keep on walkingwith you both… such wonderful trip. I am in Pergamo todat and here in Tabio tomorrow will be Christmas. I wonder where you are celebrating, perhaps Africa, maybe somewhere in an island far from any known place. Have a wonderful time together while we are with Pilar and family here in Los Nudos. We comment the amazing leap year, wish you love and to be well.
Many lots of hugs!!!, desr Selina and Gabriel and FELIZ NAVIDAD!