Today was amazing. Can I just end my blog post here? That totally sums up the day. It was amazing. It was amazing. It was amazing... Get the picture?
We started off the day by bidding our last farewells to the city of Istanbul. It was bittersweet, but I suppose our adventure must continue. One of the most exciting things about today is that we woke up in Europe and will fall asleep in Asia. Two continents in one day. No big.
After we took the ferry to Asia, we visited the city of Troy. Words cannot convey my excitement. Troy has infected my imagination ever since reading the Iliad in 8th grade. Perhaps today I finally stood upon Priam's tower. The Troy of today is not exactly as Homer described it since it is no longer a harbor, but if you squint your eyes really hard you can still imagine the Achaean fleets in the background. Visiting this city makes everything I've read and studied come to life.
Well if you were to ask me, I'd say that Troy is enough of an adventure for one day, but apparently other people thought otherwise. After Troy we went on to visit the city of Assos. We walked up to the top and climbed upon the ruins of Athena's temple. It was so beautiful. From the top we could see the sea and the island of Lesbos in the distance. The ancients must have wanted to worship Athena is a place surrounded by beauty. While their polytheistic religion is very different from Christianity, after seeing Athena's temple and the churches in Istanbul I can see that there is a common desire to worship in beauty. Humans connect beauty with the divine.
I seriously thought it was the COOLEST thing ever that Istanbul was straddling TWO continents. MIND BLOWING! Plus the panoramic view of the entire city from our hotel wasn't too shabby.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed admiring the beauty of both the mosques and the churches. Both styles of worship are beautiful in their own way. I especially admired how they took arabic writing and made it into art. SO AWESOME. Can't wait to show everyone my cool arabic writing poster!
Yes, so true that they desired to worship in beauty. And what better examples of this than Assos, but also in retrospect now, the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion and the monasteries at Meteora! I think that these places reflect God's beauty and creation. Also, these places constantly remind us of how big God is and how small us humans are in comparison!
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