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Gamarjoba

Tbilisi – 31th May 2023

Gamarjoba (Hello) from Tbilisi, Georgia … where on the 26^th of May Independence Day or ‘Freedom Day’ as the locals call it was celebrated. A day back in 1908 when The Democratic Republic of Georgia was formed, freeing it from Russian rule shortly after the Russian Revolution. However, this freedom was short lived as in 1921 the Soviets took back control, until 1991, when Georgia again declared independence … But that is not all, as my pharmacy receipt reminded me; in 2008 the Russo-Georgian War saw the Georgian Provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia return to Russian control. Probably explains why there are so many Ukrainian flags flying in Tbilisi. Will cover more about Tbilisi in the next post but for now it’s back to France.

Claremont-Ferrand, France – 12th – 18th December 2022

Claremont-Ferrand is arguably the location of the world’s longest supermarket cheese counter. This world class attraction that due to a cyber glitch doesn’t rate a mention in the Claremont La Grande Brochure de Tourism was introduced to me by Charles and Maru. The combination of catching up with Charles, an old school friend turned full time French cheese expert (part time geneticist) and my attempting to speak French triggered a distant memory of ‘Mr Prouse’ or ‘Sir’ as he was known; our high school French teacher who in the late 70’s had the unenviable job of teaching me French. During one lesson in an attempt to catch the classes attention he screened the film ‘Les Vacances de Monsieur de Monsieur Hulot, by Jacques Tati. The film describes a holiday season at a French seaside village featuring the quaint, clumsy misfit, Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati) and his interaction with a buffet of characters, very few of whom find him amusing other than the pretty blonde Martine. The film like all of Tati’s has no plot but ambles along weaving visually simple but rich images with exaggerated sounds and simple joyful music.

This prompted me to look at what else Jacques Tati had created, and I discovered Mon oncle a truly masterful piece of film making much evolved from Mr Hulot’s holiday. A comment on the relationship between the social structures of traditional French tenement living and that of the new modernist machine living theory proclaimed by Le Corbusier. A debate that’s still as relevant today.

It’s a not a film to hurry, wait until you have two spare hours with a cup of tea and/or bottle of champagne … it’s a very special film that apparently has been inspiration to many filmmakers and comedians including Rohan Atkinson and David Lynch. Tati not only was owner of the production company Cady Films and played the lead role of the uncle but also designing the modernist building set. Tati nails the French love of tenements which in many places in France have changed little since 1958 when this film was released. Here’s a little taste below, with the full film here. The full film has English subtitles which may require turning on.

Now … if you can see the appeal of Mon Oncle you may be ready for ‘Play Time‘ I think his best, no plot, just exquisitely composed stripped back visual images that render Tati’s vivid off beat observations of social absurdity.

Silver and Orange

Orange, France – 19th – 23rd December 2022

Just before leaving Scotland, I ventured to Borrowstounness, known as Bo’ness to meet a sea captain, the original owner of ‘Silver’ the fold up bike. For the very reasonable sum of £100 ‘Silver’ who had had a life at sea became my secondary mode of transport, not only allowing me to explore further but unlike a standard bike, could be taken on any train or bus without issue, a lesson learnt when Scotrail allowed Callum and my standard bikes on the first leg of a epic train journey to northern Scotland but disallowed them on the second leg leaving us with no option but to lock the bikes up and come back and get them a week later!

Orange, located slightly north of it’s more popular neighbours Avignon, Arles and Marseille which Maryke and I had visited in the 80’s was a pleasant surprise. A quaint town in full swing with Christmas Festivities with its very own 1st Century Roman 7,000 seater and an Arc De Triumph!

Christmas

Falkirk, Scotland – 24th – 30th December 2022

Took a return flight from Lyon to Falkirk to spend Christmas with Callum which meant leaving Silver in the safe hands of the Lyon railway station baggage storage department. Lots of cooking feasts, walking and bicycle riding and a smattering of snow made for a very special Christmas. Callum and I are getting together with Ellen in Amsterdam for a week in early June before I start moving east of Tbilisi. The opportunity arose as Ellen is currently gallivanting around Europe after being selected as a winner of the Australian Institute of Architects’ Dulux Study Tour. Pretty proud of them both!

Warm weather at last!

Pozzuoli & Naples, Italy – 2nd – 10th January 2023

The main reason for heading to southern Italy was to escape the cold but an added bonus was it gave me an appreciation of the areas where Ellen’s partner John’s parents had immigrated from. I would have stayed longer if I could but unfortunately by the time I left Syracuse my 3 month Schengen visa permit was about to expire.

Views of Pozzuoli and Naples – 1. Pozzuoli harbour, 2. Pignasecca Market & spotless washing, 3. Discussions on Spaccanapoli Street, 4. Spagnoli Quartieri, 5. Galleria Umberto, 6. Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco da Paola, 7-8. Galleria Umberto, 9. Pozzuoli street.

Dionysius 1 & San Sebastian

Syracuse, Sicily – 11th January – 9th February 2023

Syracuse was laden with buildings from the past but probably the most intriguing to me was the Ear of Dionysius below. A cave hand cut around 4-5th century BC originally used as water storage for Syracuse until an earthquake rendered it useless. The caves name was coined by the painter Caravaggio while he temporarily lived in Syracuse and painted ‘The Burial of St Lucy’ in 1608. Dionysius 1 was a tyrant ruler of Syracuse in the 4th century BC and so the legend goes used the cave to imprison political dissidents where the whispers of prisoners could be overheard due to the cave’s acoustics. Interestingly of the numerous acoustic studies that have been carried out, all concluded that due to the high reverberation time in the cave, whispers would be intelligible. Damn acoustic engineers! … spoiling a perfectly good legend!

At the end of the street where I stayed in Syracuse was the Church of St Lucy that still houses Caravaggio’s painting. The location of the church was on the spot where St Lucy the patron Saint of Syracuse had been fatally stabbed in 304 AD. Keeping an eye on the painting was a monk, which was not surprising as another of Caravaggio’s paintings ‘Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence‘ was stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo, Sicily in 1969 by the Cosa Nostra (Sicilian Mafia). Reportedly the painting with an estimated value of $20m surfaced at a number of important mafia gatherings with some saying it was later damaged and destroyed?!

1. Inside the Ear of Dionysius, 2. Church of Santa Lucia (St Lucy) with Caravaggio painting adorning the alter, 3. The burial of St Lucy by the painter Caravaggio is noteworthy for it’s powerful emptiness, 4. Monk reading the bible while keeping an eye on the Caravaggio.

Views of Syracuse – 1. Only one way and its up, 2,3. Old Town, 4. Harbour separating the old town and mainland, 5,6. Narrow street typical of the Old Town, 7. Communal water fill point as the tap water is unsuitable for drinking or cooking, maybe due to the ash from Mt Etna?, 8. Local 3 wheel transport, 9. Greek Theatre 5th century BC 15,000 seater overlooking Syracuse, 10,11. Tenement housing north Syracuse. 12. Mt Etna viewed from the Rail Trail – Etna erupted on 21st May 2023, closing the Palermo airport and covering nearby houses in ash. On arrival to Syracuse I was warned by the Airbnb host not to put my washing out on a northerly as it could get covered in ash!

The second day I ventured into Syracuse’s old town coincided with the Festival of St Sebastian. The following clip will give you an idea of the pageantry and deep religious devotion surrounding the event.

Kicking a goal at the Schengen exit

Bari – 10th February 2023

With 2 days to spare on the Schengen visa it was time to find a warm town in a non Schengen country. A train from Syracuse to Bari, overnight ferry to Durres, bus to Istanbul and then Izmir for the month of March to wait for spring to emerge before heading to Georgia. Arriving in Bari after being in Pozzuoli, Naples and Syracuse was a bit of a change in landscape. Bari was well maintained and the underside of balconies weren’t clad with shade cloth to prevent fretting concrete (presumably because the Mafia controlled concrete industry was not up on the latest Quality Assurance procedures) hitting pedestrians below, no more footpaths with open manholes, and an absence of washing hanging on balconies which I sort of missed. A more prosperous town on first impressions, but still with plenty of character.

As anyone that has been to Bari would know the top must see attraction is the San Nicola football Stadium, home to the Bari football Society, SSC Bari. For those with a good imagination, the stadium’s design resembles a flower with 26 petals, each petal separated by an 8-metre empty space, presumably to stop fans jumping from one petal to another! The key designer Rob Donnan (of Cairn’s ARUP fame) was assisted by Ove Arup & Partners and Starchitect Renzo Piano to produce this exquisitely beautiful structure.

Some say it rivals the world’s longest supermarket cheese counter. in Claremont-Ferrand as one of Europe’s most impressive sights … Nice work Rob!

Footnote re the cheese counter: After emailing Alex from ‘The Online Wine Tasting Club’ in Tring, UK to let him know I had ripped off his cheese song video sound track, he responded by saying “No worries at all and thanks for letting us know! One of my friends went to that shop and told me about it – it looks epic!” … So that proves it’s world famous!

Unlike Cairns

Durres – 12 – 14th February 2023

A short stay in Durres, Albania left me with mixed feelings. Not unlike Bulgaria, Albania up until 1991 was an independent communist run county but unlike Bulgaria had its boarders closed to the outside world. In that way Albania had further to jump to a free-market democracy than Bulgaria and it shows. Great effort has been put into multi storey and commercial developments like the pier pictured below but unfortunately the plethora of abandoned incomplete buildings and monuments indicate the transition hasn’t gone smoothly. You may be thinking how lucky you are living in Cairns and not Albania, well think again as they are way ahead of Cairns in one aspect. Unlike Cairns with its flocking ineffectual crusty old mayor, in 2019 the people Durres appointed a very experienced female architect, Emiriana Sako as mayor … go Durres!!!!

Ottoman

Istanbul – 15th – 28th February 2023

While reading this bit about the Ottomans you are welcome to listen to competing prayer calls recorded midway between Sophia Hagia & The Blue Mosque.
Keep the volume down as you wouldn’t want to mislead any nearby devotees of Mahammad by making them think its prayer time.

Suleymaniye Mosque – The highlight of Istanbul for me was visiting the Suleymaniye Mosque, commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent and completed in 1557 at the height of the Ottoman Empires power. Designed by architect Mimar Sinan who considered the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne as his foremost masterpiece, the Suleymaniye mosque is regarded his most famous. Sinan headed an extensive governmental department and trained many assistants including Sedefkar Mehmed Agha who went on the design the Blue Mosque , the more brash but smaller mosque some 60 years later. Given Mimar Sinan is considered the greatest architect of the classical period of Ottoman architecture it was a real treat to visit Suleymaniye Mosque which unlike Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque was void of tourists.

The Suleymaniye Mosque above is part of an integral social complex which includes a medical school, Quran recitation school, elementary school, Turkish bath, public soup kitchen, asylum, bazaar and tombs of Suleiman the Magnificent and Hurrem Sultan, his first wife.

1 & 2. Bustling Streets behind the Faith Mosque.

Ottoman Traditions – When walking the streets of Istanbul and Izmir you are greeted with laid back stray dogs and cats with little fear of humans. In addition, there are kennels and feeding bowls everywhere in the parks and on footpaths. The bowls are cleaned and filled regularly as part of a tradition that stretches back to the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire.

The following film by ilmfeed.com explains the Turkish tradition and it’s origin.

Home delivery

Izmir, Turkey – 1st – 30th March 2023

Although Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey it isn’t a tourist town other than a stopping place on the way to Ephesus, which I’ll cover in the next post. What fascinated me about the area where I stayed was a continual parade past the front door of people from all walks of life selling essentials, giving away food, playing music and singing. While there it was Ramadan which added an additional layer of visitors, such as a donut van parking next to the apartment, cooking up fresh donuts and giving them away. A singing drummer passing the house at 4am in the morning singing and a clarinet player passing at 1am in the morning accepting gifts of cigarettes handed down in a bucket on a string.

1. Greengrocer #1, 2. Baker #1, 3. Greengrocer #2, 4. Milkman, milk hand poured from stainless steel urn on back of his ute, 5. Baker #2, 6. Free meal of pork, rice, gherkins prepared in the street, for all the street.

Public Transport?

Calais to Izmir

The following clip is Part 2 of the journey so far.

Time to move west and east

Tbilisi has been a treat but, it’s time to move on or I’ll never get back to Cairns. The plan after Amsterdam was to return to Tbilisi for three days, then catch the train and boat to Aktau in Kazakhstan but unfortunately the land border between Georgia and Azerbaijan is still closed officially due to Covid but there is press speculation that the real reason may be security???

So, I have booked a flight on SCAT Airlines from Tbilisi to Aktau and from there hopefully catch trains thru Central Asia investigating the architectural works of the Timurid Empire and visiting more countries that separated from the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s.

The world has changed from pre covid days when an overland trip between Europe and Australia was possible without flying. Like Azerbaijan several other boarders have closed and not reopened or have ‘do not travel’ travel advisories including those of Iran, Russia and Myanmar.

A week ago, I applied for a Chinese visa in Tbilisi and had it denied despite paying for a 6 day tour from Osh in Kyrgyzstan to Sost in Pakistan with a Chinese Travel Company and having a ‘letter of invitation’. In disbelief the agent spoke with both the Tbilisi and Tashkent Chinese Embassies’ who confirmed that even though China has reopened to tourism they have changed their policies and no longer accept applications from non-residents under any circumstances. So, the latest plan is to fly over China to Deli and enter Pakistan from India … we shall see?