Month: April 2014

Spain

OK, so, Spain.  Selected highlights from UNESCO include:

  • Cave of Altamira. Upper Paleolithic cave paintings.  Well preserved.  Mapped. Removed: Northwest.
  • Aqueduct of Segovia. Best-preserved Roman aquaduct on the Iberian peninsula. Mapped. And removed.
  • Asturian architecture unique to the Christian rump pf Spain in the 9th century. Oveido. Mapped. Removed: North-west.
  • Cordoba originally Carthaginian, historical centre has passed from Moorish to Catholic to Islamic to RC… architecture comparable to Constantinople and Baghdad. Mapped.
  •  Gaudi’s works in Barcelona.  Mapped.
  • Old Town of Avila, Castille and Leon.  Best example of 11th century walls in Spain.  Mapped. Removed, northwest. Also, I don’t care about 11th century walls.
  • Mixed Islanic and European styles of houses of worship in Aragon, esp Teruel.  Mapped. Removed because blah.
  • Toledo, in Castille-La Mancha – founded by Romans, capital of the Visigothic kingdom, and briefly capital of Spain.  Mapped. Gotta See. notwithstanding the relationship to a famous knight of La Mancha. Tricky though, it’s out of the way.
  • Alcala de Henares, Madrid. First university city, and birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes. Mapped – but I’ve been to Madrid.
  • Roman walls of Lugo – best preserved in Europe.  Mapped. REMOVED – North-west.
  • Tower of Hercules, A Coruna. Only  fully preserved and functioning Roman lighthouse. Mapped. Removed, northwest.
  • Salamanca, important in Carthaginian history. Mapped.  Sadly, removed.  Won’t work on the trip.
  • The Cathedral of Seville. Mapped
  • Roman influences, aquaduct and ruins in Merida. Mapped. Removed, it’s a western outlier.
  • La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia. Mapped.

 

I’ve noted from wikipedia the stuff I found most interesting, then removed anything which didn’t fit with the geography of the trip.  It’s not that northwest Spain isn’t beautiful and fascinating; but if I spend a month in Spain I’ll never get started.

 

Okay, so the Spanish route is looking like…

  • Seville
  • Corboda
  • Granada
  • Almeria
  • Valencia
  • Barcelona

 

Which means that onto my list of Things I’d Have Loved To Have Seen But Didn’t Have Time goes Toledo, which really is a shame but six cities per country is too many already.  I could miss out Almeria but it’s rather impressive and I’ve never seen the Spanish coast. Okay, good start!!

 

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UNESCO

Brainwave: start with UNESCO world heritage sites to make sure I don’t miss anything stupid.  For instance, I had Rome, Venice and Florence on the list but not Naples, just outside of which is… Pompeii.  Yes, I’m a  mouthbreathing idiot.  So The Map is about to get a lot more densely populated, and then the whittling will start.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites

 

OK. Wow. Shit.  Spain alone has like forty sites.  The map is going to get insane.  There’s no way I can see everything.  But okay, even if I plot it all on a map, and then find like a top 100?  Okay, I’ll just precis and map anything I’m particularly interested in.

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Spanish

Spent a lovely day on Wednesday 23rd April wandering around the Argentinian side of Iguacu Falls with a charming Columbian called Norma

The only exclusively neck-up photo she took all day.

The only exclusively neck-up photo she took all day.

who was kind enough to teach me and let me practice a few words of Spanish.  I’ve subsequently been informed that her “jho” becomes “yo” in the motherland… it’s a South America / Europe thing apparently… but I remembered a good portion of my list and have remembered the translations too.  Here we go:

  1. Hello  . . . . . . Ola
  2. Goodbye  . . . . . . Ciao
  3. Please  . . . . . .  Por favor
  4. Thank you  . . . . . . gratias
  5. Yes  . . . . . . si
  6. No  . . . . . . no
  7. Good  . . . . . . bueno
  8. Bad  . . . . . .  ????
  9. Excuse me  . . . . . .  desculpa me
  10. I’m sorry  . . . . . .  desculpa
  11. I don’t understand  . . . . . .  jho no intendo ??
  12. I don’t speak  [name of language]  . . . . . . jho no ablo espangnol
  13. Do you speak English?  . . . . . .  do ablo inglays?
  14. Pleased to meet you  . . . . . . ????
  15. Where is [this]?  . . . . . .  donday es?
  16. How much is [this]?  . . . . . . ?????
  17. I would like…?????
  18. Help  . . . . . . ?????
  19. Hospital  . . . . . .  ???
  20. Police   . . . . . .  polizia??
  21. Plane / airport  . . . . . .  avion / ???
  22. Train / train station  . . . . . .  traine
  23. Bus / bus station   . . . . . .  bus (estacion)
  24. Ticket
  25. Hostel
  26. Minute
  27. Hour
  28. Days of the week
  29. Toilet  . . . . . .  bayno
  30. Water   . . . . . .  agwa
  31. fruit
  32. bread
  33. ham
  34. cheese   . . . . . . kayshoy
  35. beer
  36. meat   . . . . . . carnay
  37. chicken
  38. fish
  39. salad
  40. wine
  41. 1 uno
  42. 2 dos
  43. 3 tres
  44. 4 quattro
  45. 5 cinqo
  46. 6 says
  47. 7 seite
  48. 8 ocho
  49. 9 nuove
  50. 10 dee-es
  51. 20 benta
  52. 30 trenta
  53. 40 quarenta
  54. 50 cinqenta
  55. 60 saysenta
  56. 70 setenta
  57. 80 ochenta
  58. 90 noventa
  59. 100 cien

 

A few more to add, but I’m increasingly pleased with the list itself and hopefully my time here in Arraial willl give me space to learn a little more Spanish and maybe get one other ticked off as well.

 

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Saying Hello

Okeymadokely.  Gonna have to understand and make myself understood, and the only languages I speak – English, conversational French and passable German – are no bloody use whatsoever.  Well, that’s not true; I have to work on the assumption that English will suffice in most places, otherwise I’m entirely screwed.  But as my current experience in Brazil has taught me, being in a country where you don’t speak a word of the language is a very different experience to more recent excursions to, for example, Burgundy, New Orleans and Vienna.

 

So, need a phrasebook and a language list. The latter should be straight forward enough:

  • Spanish
  • Italian
  • Greek
  • Turkish
  • Hebrew
  • Arabic
  • [French]

That’s six new languages, including two entirely new alphabets.  So probably can’t aim to commit to memory that many words and phrases in each.

 

From previous experience in Tunisia I’m hoping that my French will suffice across North Africa, but some Arabic will be necessary for Jordan, Lebanon and the Territories.  I’m not expecting to learn how to read Arabic or Hebrew, but to learn a few key words and phrases phonetically. Romance languages will be easier, God only knows what difficulty Greek and Turkish will represent.  Looks like this might be a good starting point: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/turkish/guide/phrases.shtml

 

So here’s a skeleton for my phonetic phrasebooks, which will follow in other posts:

  1. Hello
  2. Goodbye
  3. Please
  4. Thank you
  5. Yes
  6. No
  7. Good
  8. Bad
  9. Excuse me
  10. I’m sorry
  11. I don’t understand
  12. I don’t speak  [name of language]
  13. Do you speak English?
  14. Pleased to meet you
  15. Where is [this]?
  16. How much is [this]?
  17. I would like…
  18. Help
  19. Hospital
  20. Police
  21. Plane / airport
  22. Train / train station
  23. Bus / bus station
  24. Ticket
  25. Hostel
  26. Minute
  27. Hour
  28. Days of the week
  29. Toilet
  30. Water
  31. And then some food-related words, because the biggest pot luck here in Brazil has been trying to order from a Portuguese-only menu.  I’m eating a lot of frango [chicken], but how it’s cooked or what it comes with is anyone’s guess.  I sat down for what I thought would be a classic Brazilian-style rice/beans/mandioca with some chicken… what arrived was deep fried breaded chicken breast with fries.  Humpf.  But at least I knew what frango was.  So even if I can’t read a menu in Hebrew, I can at least order something from a waiter.  So let’s choose ten words: fruit, bread, ham, cheese, beer, meat, chicken, fish, salad, wine.  That’ll keep me going.
  32. Numbers (1-100 preferably, but certainly 1-10 and then 20 30 40 etc)

 

So all in all that’s about fifty words, plus about thirty numbers, once you’ve allowed for repetition. (Please let there be repetition… there’s gotta be, right? Our whole number system was founded in Arabic wasn’t it?  “Thirty-seven” in Greek or Turkish or Hebrew surely has to be made of the words for “thirty” and “seven”??? … Fingers crossed.) So eighty words or short phrases, in six languages.  480 little quanta of information to absorb.

 

Easy peasy.

 

Eeeeek.

 

Spanish and Italian are the first I’ll need and the ones I’ll find easiest, so I’ll try to get Spanish out the way by the time I’ve come back from Brazil – perverse, but there are a lot of Spanish speakers here who might be able to help – and then it’s a language a week basically.  To know these eighty words and phrases would have made me a lot more comfortable here in Brazil than the mere half-dozen I bothered to commit to memory on the plane over here, and less dependent on the kindness of strangers.  Better to be self-sufficient in case of necessity.  And it’s a fun party trick.  Oh, on the subject of which, an eighty-first word to add to the list: cheers!

 

 

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Visas and Vaccinations

Gov.uk and Nathnac have between provided pretty comprehensive info on what I’ll need for the trip, and I’ve tried to collate that on the Route page.  But it seems sensible to put it all together here then update this post as I get stuff sorted. So…

 

Health risks and vaccinations

Diptheria – not needed but had as combined on 02/04/2014, lasts 10 years

Hepatiitis A  –  Had in 2000, lasts 25 years

Hepatitis B  –  Will cost £150 and take 21 days to administer.

Polio – Had on 02/04/2014, lasts 10 years.

Rabies  –  Will cost £150 and take 21 days to administer.

Tetanus  –  Had on 02/04/2014, lasts 10 years

Tick-borne encephalitis – vaccine not deemed necessary

Typhoid – Had on 3/5/7/04/2014, effective 17/04/2014 for 3 years

Tuberculosis – vaccine not deemed necessary

Yellow Fever – Had on 02/04/2014 effective from 12/04/2014 for 10 years, have certificate.

 

Visas

Turkey – get it in advance for $20 here

Lebanon – get it on arrival (may be problems if passport contains Israeli stamps)

Jordan – get in in advance from the Jordanian embassy in London, (3 working days)

Egypt – get it on arrival

Algeria – get it in advance from the embassy (can take up to four weeks) UPDATE: the webpage says 10 working days. So allow four weeks for Algerian and Jordanian visas is probably fine.

 

So the biggest determinant factor in when I can leave is how long it takes to get an Algerian visa.  Algeria and Algiers aren’t the most important parts of the trip… but in addition to Algeria (and the familiarity of being in a French=speaking country) it would be a shame to miss the Tassili n’Ajjer… so I think I’ll go straight to the embassy when I get back from Brazil.

 

I don’t think I’ll need a second passport though.  Lebanon can give you grief if you have an Israeli stamp, but I’ll hit Beirut before Jerusalem.  They reckon Jordan won’t give you a problem as long as you have a visa in advance (since none are issued on the crossing from Israel) and that’s what I’ll have.  So, only reason to get a second passport is in case one gets stolen; but  then the second wouldn’t have visas in in any case.

 

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Getting started

Okay.  So, I’ve decided to do some travelling this year, and I’ve settled on a plan which allows me to see a number of beautiful and ancient sites I’ve long wanted to explore, while threading them into a semi-sensible route and even giving the trip a theme.

Starting with the Alhambra in southern Spain, I’m going to see with my own eyes some of the great cities, and some of the truly significant historical and cultural sights of southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, encompassing territory which largely corresponds to the reach of the Roman Empire in the first century CE; hence the deliberately- and solipsistically-ridiculous name of this blog.  For a rough birds-eye view, try this:

map-Roman-Empire1

This is not a tour of just Roman sights or exclusively of Roman lands and certainly it is not an attempt to explore the whole of what constituted the Empire.  Nor is it only a tour of ruins and temples: the beaches of the Med and the Red Sea, the islands of Greece, the bars of Casablanca will certainly get their fair share of attention too.  But be it the Alhambra, the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Parthenon, the shrine at Delphi, the walls of Dubrovnik, the birthplace of Alexander the Great, the Hagia Sofia, the souks of Beirut, the temples at Petra, the Wailing Wall, the Temple Mount, the Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, the Casbah at Algiers, the ruins of Carthage, or the walls of Marrakesh… this is a world so rich in great art and architecture, and so deeply connected with the birth and growth of the great civilizations of Europe, the Middle East and Africa that it is a connection to those civilizations, past and present, that I’m hoping to discover.  In the course of finding and exploring those sights of the ancient world I will walk in and hopefully discover a little about the modern one and my place in it, or rather in the many different modern worlds which constitute this unique section of the globe.

Over the next month or so as I plan and prepare for  the trip, which I estimate will take between four and six months, I will be fleshing out the sights and destinations (and budget – a challenge as anyone who knows me will attest) for the trip.  Hopefully, if I get my finger out and do this properly, this website will grow to include maps, photos, links to hostels and tour operators, wiki and journal articles on the places and worlds I’m going to explore, and maybe even a rough itinerary; all before it then turns into a travel journal and a safe cloud-based repository  for thoughts and photos from the trip.

Anyone I know and love is more than welcome to accompany me on any section of the trip which takes your fancy, should you have the time, wherewithal, and patience with me to do so.  Given that I’ll be doing everything from backpacking the hills of Sicily to (hopefully) scuba diving the red sea, there should be something for everyone :-).  So drop me a note here or to joel.s.adams@gmail.com if you fancy joining me- especially once some of the more obvious sections of the trip are scheduled.

As I write this I sit beneath the whirring fan in the staff apartment of the Books Hostel in Rio de Janeiro, guest of the irrepressible Andy Hortor, with the sounds of this hot and happy city reaching me from the street below.  I’m here until the end of April, then of no fixed abode throughout May (a situation I should probably address before boarding the plane home on 28/04) so I hope that I can fly to Grenada on 1st June.  Notwithstanding a pause to attend my brother’s wedding in Jersey in late July, that should allow me four months even if the Next Step after that is to return to academia at the end of September.

Or then again, I could revert to Plan A, move to a garret room in New Orleans, marinade myself in rum, and spend the summer toying with becoming a writer.  We shall see!!

 

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