Jason Kintzel, Nicki Clark, Karen Dodge, Ashley Wells, Teresa (Stewart) Simi, Maggi (Domke) Cassell, Holly Edde, Ingrid Johnson, & Richie Boulet in Istanbul
1991 - Trip Highlights
- sleeping a couple of nights in Stockholm in a tall ship
- the run through the green fields
- the burial mounds of their kings
- the music from “dances with wolves” and incredible beauty and we drove above Upsalla and into the lake country
- the wonderful forest run
- a Freudian moment as Spring burst forth by an ascending sail
- Boulet sets meet record in Copenhagen
- Berlin rental company says “no” to driving to Poland and Rumania
- scratch those countries from itinerary; “car theft rings” the reason
- carrying the U.S. flag at the Budapest track meet with thirteen nations competing
- two future Olympic gold medal winners in junior competition
- Yugoslavia at war
- the border crossing with ethnic movement due to the savage war of genocide that was just beginning in Croatia to the west
- the daring passing of hundreds of cars and finding friendly people willing to let us in by the crossing
- a drive in the heavy fog after Teresa ran us into a ditch
- we were some nineteen hours in travel to a vacant lot in a village on the way to Varna
- big rooms, red roofs
- Arete swims in the Black Sea
- Teresa challenges the Turk on the highway to Istanbul; sets man off in rage
- bright lights at the ancient gates, people in various ethnic dress at pulsating intersection
- Maggie asks to play tape; the usual “no” is “okay” and we came alive to “Istanbul is Constantinople, is Constantinople”
- the Guest House by the oldest mosque is home
- Maggi plays her violin before some fifty or more interested Turks by Blue Mosque
- Boulet engages shop keeper by Agios Sophia in chess
- funeral games for Mr. Taylor’s former teammate, Olympian Max Truex, on battlefield of ancient Troy
- Mozart, readings, running, red flowers on the mound of rocks
- our amazing discovery of the altar of Artemis at Aulis after a fruitless search on the hill above, Mr. Taylor said “poo EE nay” to workmen by a railroad track, and also imitated his throat being slashed); “NAY, NAY, NAY,” so we were sent down a dirt road and did find the altar where the daughter was sacrificed so that the ships might sail to Troy; the altar was in the midst of weeds, the archaeological site unattended, which made it all the more interesting
- theatre of Dionysus in Athens cast Richie, Holly and Ingrid in dirty play by Aristophanes
- Nemea and the tunnel of gay love
- Miller, Boulet and Taylor toe the starting grooves with cigars
- Ashley’s flying hat off the ruins of ancient Mycenae
- Jason goes looking for bakery for bread at Delphi
- to Italy by sea, some lightning and rain
- Rome and a birthday dinner by night; another cigar
- Jason calls Mara for the 42nd time
- Bruno and dinner in the Campo di Fiori
- an evening of chess in a farmer’s field in Austrian Alps
- the pilgrimage to Freud flat continues
- Maggi plays from Beethoven, then Mozart, where each died in Vienna
- Richie and a flower in outdoor restaurant
- the harshness of the death camp at Mauthausen along the Danube
- gas chamber discovered by some of the students