| Turkey is a
wonderfully hospitable country, steeped in religious history. It
is a country at the crossroads between historical Islam on one
side and historical Christianity on the other. Turkey has adopted
a secular public life to a degree that is considered apostasy by
many in the conservative Muslim world. It is a middle ground that
begs to retain the cherished traditions founded by Mohammed while
promoting open philosophical inquiry and the diversity of opinions
which result. Nearly everyone belongs to one of the several sects
of Islam, but many people I encountered were happy to discuss
questions about the Koran in much the same secular way non-devout people
in the West discuss the Bible... as literature, as history, as an
ethical guide, as the foundation of a social order, and to
entertain the proposition that it is something other than the
infallible word of God. In my opinion, Turkey dividing East
from West in this next century, will be the World's
most important Green Line!
I expect I will be in Turkey about a
month before finding a way down to north Africa and perhaps
another month in Egypt. Here I'll just be a tourist before making
my way south into black Africa, possibly by freighter along the lengthy
east coast of the enormous continent. With three times the land
mass of continental United States, distances are immense and
travel is slow, often difficult by all accounts. Eight to ten
months seems like a long time to be traveling, until the
vastness of the region is considered... and the lack of
transportation infrastructure away from the main cities of the
fifty countries on the continent.
I will work my way south at least as far
as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, eventually heading back north
and into Portugal and Spain where I catch my flights back home
toward the end of the year. The dates on my initial set of tickets
represent only the earliest dates I can use them. I will most
likely return later... |
| Metrolink trains leave the L.A. Union
Station for the hour and a half run to San Bernardino at the
following times: 06:17 08:58 11:30 13:25
15:50 16:40 17:00 17:30 17:50 18:55 19:50 and 20:50, but only the
08:58 and 13:25 arrive in time to catch the MARTA bus back up the
hill.
The MARTA bus leaves the San Bernardino Metrolink station for Big
Bear Lake about 11:00 and 16:15 everyday except Sunday. Going down
the hill they meet at the RiteAid store at 08:00 and 11:15,
arriving at the Metrolink at 10:00 and 15:20 respectively, for the
11:00 (arv. LA 14:24) and 17:00 (arv. LA 18:45) train connections.
|
It is to be a year with no fixed itineraries. Even the airline
reservations are subject to change and indeed most likely will be changed
as serendipity guides me in unexpected directions. Like my sojourns
of the past, this year's wanderings should take me to places few normal tourists would find appealing, places where the human condition has been
tested severely, places where opposing belief systems are so deeply
imbedded in the social fabric they literally tear the earth along well demarcated
"GreenLines."
Fred Bellomy