Jordan and Petra

Let's get this out of the way right off the bat.

This most famous site in Petra is the Treasury, and they really make as much of the Indiana Jones link as they can. I was a bit disappointed to learn that there is only a single room inside this structure, but most of the structures in Petra were only facades. The ones with anything more also only had a single room. Granted, it couldn't have been easy to carve those rooms out of the stone. Maybe one room was enough.

This is the Monastery, and I was much more impressed by this structure than the Treasury. You can see how much bigger it is, but the Treasury is much more intact. The Monastery has a big crack running horizontally and some signs of erosion, but it's still in remarkable condition.

I had no idea how enormous the Petra site is and the wide variety of structures in it. There were quite a few carved into colorful stone that were simply amazing.

The dry climate no doubt helps preserve the site, and you can even see the remains of the original piping that brought water deeper into the site. The tiles and mortar are still in place.

Something that didn't survive so well...

Sri Lanka

It's great to have friends all over the world thanks to my job. In March, I visited Sri Lanka to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in several years, and we went to a mountain-top (hill-top? not sure how tall something needs to be to qualify as a mountain) ruin called Sigiriya and cave temples at Dambulla.

Ruins of the villages formerly surrounding the fortress are all around the main site. After climbing about halfway up the left-hand side of the mountain, we found an imposing set of feet, making one wonder what the original visitors used to be greeted by.

The cave temples were similar to ones in Thailand and Southeast Asia, but I hadn't seen any with such reverence for snakes. I don't know that I'd want to be sitting on a giant cobra.

Stop in the Maldives

While visiting friends in Sri Lanka, I was happy to learn that the Turkish Airlines flight had a required stopover in the Maldives. I figured why not get out?

Christmas and New Year's in Malta

With so many places in Europe that I haven't been to, I probably should have found another place to spend Christmas and New Year's, but I really enjoyed Malta the first time I went. I was only there for a couple of days that time, and this time, I spent a week and got to see a lot of what Malta has to offer.

I can't believe that I didn't see the Co-Cathedral of St. John on my first trip, and I was more disappointed when I saw how incredible it was.

I learned that the Maltese cross has eight points because there is one point for each of the eight "langues" of the Knights of St. John. Each langue came from a different geographic area of Europe, and each one had a specific alcove inside the cathedral. Nearly all contained crypts of Grand Masters from that langue and impressive displays of paintings and sculpture. Each of the rectangles on the floor of the cathedral represents a knight buried in the cathedral. Simply amazing.

The altar was beyond belief. The light level in the cathedral was quite low, and I'm glad the camera in my phone can take such great pictures. I may finally have been convinced to give up the separate camera and only use the phone.

On my previous trip, I spent a day on a hop-on hop-off bus that went through a fishing village called Marsaxlokk. I wanted to see other places on that trip, so I didn't hop off, but I spent a couple of hours this time. Enough time to learn how to pronounce the name -- Mar-sa-shlok.

The village square:

This time, I also really got the sense that the norther end of the island was almost entirely fortified against attack. This picture of Birgu is a good example.

And there was a nice sunset:

Thanksgiving in Prague

I spent a few days in Prague several years ago, and I thought it was one of the most beautiful cities I'd ever seen. The Thanksgiving holiday coincides with a couple of local Albanian holidays, providing an easy way to have a short holiday, so I went back to Prague. It was cold, but very enjoyable.

One thing that was important to do was to buy a new t-shirt from the Kafka museum. Naturally, I had to check out the museum the first time I was in Prague, but the shirt I bought shrank in the wash (intentionally?). Also, strangely (or perhaps not?), the Kafka statue is nowhere near the museum.

The Prague castle has one of the best museums I've seen, describing the history of Prague from the first settlers, and the Cathedral of St. Vitus is incredibly striking.

The Christmas markets opened the weekend of Thanksgiving.

This is the main square in Prague's Old Town.

This time, I also visited several of the synagogues in Prague. They were organized so that each one told a different part of the history of Jews in the city. This is the Old Synagogue.

The Spanish Synagogue was spectacular for the amount of artistic detail and craftsmanship. It's called Spanish, but it's possible to tell that the style of design is Islamic. I've seen similar architectural details on buildings in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey.

Gjirokaster

I see now that almost all of my post titles are the same. Trying to change it up here.

Gjirokaster is a city in southern Albania that has UNESCO World Heritage Site status. A large part of Albania's history was under the rule of the Ottoman sultans out of Istanbul. Across Albania, there are remnants of that history in the architecture -- in particular this style of house:

This is a single house, separated into two sides -- one for the men and the other for the women -- to comply with Ottoman Islamic custom. Gjirokaster is known for these houses, and this picture shows a few on the hillside (click on it to see a larger version):

Several of the houses are being renovated.

Gjirokaster also has a large castle overlooking a broad valley.

The south of Albania is rich agricultural land, so the castle has a very strategic location. The clock tower is the most recognizable feature:

The castle has lots of nooks and crannies to explore and some impressive views of the land around it:

The castle also houses an armaments museum:

Visit to Kiev

I had the good fortune to participate in some training in Kiev a few weeks ago, so I got to see some of the city and see some old friends.

The first thing I saw was this guy driving down the highway...

Click on the picture to see a larger version. Hopefully, it's possible to see that the car has protective (I assume) metal tubing wrapping all the way around it. I asked our driver if cars like this were common in Ukraine. He said no.

On our way to the hotel from the airport, the driver took us to see this impressive statue. The Soviet Union sure knew how to do monumental statuary.

The training didn't allow for much time to see the city, but during a walk, we came across the funicular that saved people from having heart attacks climbing a hill.

Kiev also has many Orthodox churches, painted in beautiful bright colors and usually gold trim. This one was really nice.

Visit to Berat

Actually, I've been to Berat one time before, but I guess I never got around to posting any photos. I wasn't all that happy with how they looked. Taking advantage of the long weekend, I went back. Berat is one of the oldest cities in Albania, and it's fascinating design and architecture enabled it to become a UNESCO World Heritage site. The main attractions of the city are its whitewashed houses built onto the side of two hills on opposite sides of the river, and the castle at the top which is still home to dozens of families.

Return to Tetovo

After seeing how Struga has changed since I left Macedonia in 2007, I wanted to see if Tetovo had changed in the intervening years. I didn't notice too much change -- a few more buildings between where my apartment used to be and the university, and more coffee bars along the river, but not much.

This is an old Turkish bath that was converted into a museum not long after I left. There were only a few items hanging on the walls on the day that I went.

The Painted Mosque has defied my many attempts to take a good picture of it. At least the sun was cooperative this time, and you can get a sense of the colors.

Trip to Armenia

Over Christmas, I visited a friend in Yerevan, Armenia. One of the benefits of this job is having friends in interesting places all over the world. The city of Yerevan was typical Soviet-style architecture, but outside the city were two amazing historical locations. The Geghard Monastery was originally established in the 4th century, and you can easily feel the history of the place. Even newer construction is still hundreds of years old. We arrived at a time when the lighting was great for taking photos, and the incense from a service was still hanging in the air when we were able to go inside the main chapel. Simply beautiful.

On the road up to Geghard is another fantastic piece of ancient history. This Greek temple is the only one I've seen that is still completely intact. This is the back side of the temple, and it was too dark to photograph the other side, but it is so well-preserved that it was possible to imagine that it could still be in use today.

Overlooking the city of Yerevan is the massive statue of Mother Armenia. The way she holds the sword is meant to make the statue resemble a cross. A bit of a poke in the eye to the Soviets from the oldest Christian country in the world.

Trip to London

Over Thanksgiving, I went to visit a friend in London. The trip was short, but I did get to see some interesting things. Like Big Ben...

Buckingham Palace...

And Trajan's Column in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I'm not sure this photograph really captures how enormous this thing is. It's a reproduction of the original, split into two parts to fit inside the building. Carved into the column are pictograms showing Trajan's victory over Dacian tribes.