U2's trip (con't)
Topic: Travel
Once again I'm diverging to my good friends travels, enjoy!

... I saw some restaurant or something called Fifi recently, which of course made me laugh.

I won't be back until the end of July, so no 4th for me. Maybe I'll go to one of the popular "Yankee go home!" rallies instead.

Well, I probably have quite a few stories to tell so far, but I'll tell you about this afternoon. I decided to drive back to Trabzon from Erzurum early in the afternoon, to get over the coastal mountain range that gave me so many problems last week. Well, I was on track, when I picked up a farmer hitchhiker just outside of İspir, who then convinced me to stop and have some tea at his destination, which was no more than two or three kilometers from where I picked him up.

Well, over the next two hours we ate a huge pile of cherries from his trees, ate tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers, a couple of eggs, bread, all along with a lot of tea. He and one of his sons then picked another few kilograms of cherries for me, and then if that wasn't enough, started shaking mulberries out of one of their trees for me. The only thing that stopped them was a thunderstorm that rolled into the valley. Anyways, he then took me up on my offer to drive him to his village, about two kilometers up the hillside. Just as it seemed I'd be on my way, he again convinced me to have "just one more glass of tea", so I ended up meeting his mother, wife, younger son, and daughter. Of course, the whole time I was grilled over my education, work, parents, their jobs, their parents, marital status, age, and the current ecomomic conditions in Canada. They found the word "okay" to be hilarious, because I apparently use it a lot. Well, with evening approaching, I again headed for the mountains, this time one pass east of the last one I went over. I thought I was homefree, when I came around a bend and saw the wall of fog ahead. This time, though, the road was fine all the way, with a few exceptions, and the biggest problem was looking out for the cows in the mist, trotting up the road out of the fog, then disappearing again into the ether...

I'm back in İstanbul tomorrow, thankfully for my pocketbook. Gas is USD 2 a litre here; did I mention that before? That explains the lack of cars on the highways here.

Nobel Prizes
Topic: History
While in Oslo we happened to arrive at the opening ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. While there we listened to a few speeches by the director and I think members of the royal family. It was interesting and the web page is interesting as well. Compare the two pics. Which one did I take?






Anyway, the interesting thing in all of this is that many of the peace prize awardees haven't been so successful at creating peace, only fighting for it. That is most illustrated in the peace prize for the end to fighting in Israel. Anyhoo.

I have been to the mountain top and it is owned by Alfonso Bedoya.

U2's trip
Topic: Travel
Okay, I'm posting today for someone else. I should add, I haven't gotten permission but I think that it is worth putting this online for the friends of his who care about him and want to know how he is doing.


Hmm, at the moment I'm in Artvin for the night. spent the day first walking to some remote castle near ?amlıhemşin, then spent the first half of the afternoon hanging out with this retired guy hitchhiker, who wanted to show me the local sights. I thought he was going somewhere, but he was just killing time. Interesting conversations ensued, and the guy wants me to come back next summer to hang out at the local spa and the nomadic pasture lands up in the mountains above town. He made me drink a glass of the local water, and I am eagerly waiting to find out if it gives me dysentery.

Yesterday evening, though, I think I set a new record in crazy driving. I got caught after nightfall in a fogged-in mountain pass, on a totally crappy dirt road. I couldn't see more than six feet ahead of me; at one point, a stream crossed the road, and the road made a ninety degree turn right there, so I started driving up the stream by mistake... didn't look very different from the road, but after ten feet or so, I had a bad feeling and spotted what turned out to be the road. Of course, as I was reversing back, the car stalled, and I thought that I was a goner. Got it going again, though, and was able to continue on the road until it was blocked by snow drifts. Had to backtrack to the last split, about ten km back, to take another route down the mountain. Damn, the thing was marked as a major road on my map, but it had grass growing on it. Anyways, I don't think I saw another car for about 2 hours in total. If they could make a video driving game that wild, it would be amazing.

Funny though, and hour before that all happened, I was drinking tea with a bunch of ladies and their kids on the side of the hill outside Bayburt where the Bayburt fortress is. They were knitting lace, and as I walked by, they enthusiastically called me over for tea. They proceeded to quiz me about my life... I followed that up with running along the rampart of the fortress... the only person up there. It was amazing.

Tomorrow I'll make it to Kars (also),which isn't that far a drive, but the highway may just be a dirt road, so it may take a while to get there, who knows. My major goal for this trip are the ruins of Ani, just beyond Kars, and then if I have time, a castle at the foot of Mount Ararat, where Sultan Beyazıt the first was held captive by Tamerlane.

My last hitchhiker this evening told me, whatever you do, never drive at night, and don't pick up hitchhikers...

This is fascinating stuff. U2 is in the region below circled in blue. Our thoughts are with you my friend!

Justice
Topic: Racism
Finally, Edgar Ray Killen is going to jail. This man has escaped justice for 40 years and he is finally going to jail. I think the only sad part about this is that the media is focusing on the killer (ironic last name!) and not the victims. I'll try to add something to this but you should have some web surfing yourself. First, here are the victims:

The two white men, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, were intended to spend the summer of 1964 as part of a movement by CORE called 'The Mississippi Summer Project', organized to ensure that blacks in Missippi registered and excersized their right to vote along with just trying to help educate people about the process. The simple idea was turned out to be not so simple. The Klu Klux Klan, abbreviated as the KKK, is a violent hate group that is organized with the goal of complete racial segregation and the return(?) of America to its 'White, Protestant roots'. They suck, but in the 60s in Mississippi they were powerful and dangerous. Michael and Andrew were on a mission to investigate a Klan church burning and beating of the congregation that was a symbol by the KKK to punish the church members for aiding the CORE movement. They were joined by a young activist local, James Chaney, and were arrested by the local sheriff. The sheriff, a Klan member, held them without any means of outside contact and then released them in the middle of the night to face the whims of Killen and his cohorts. That was their last night on alive.

Finally, Killen is going to jail. Most of the other people involved did some jail time or have since died. None received appropriate jail time and Killen had escaped justice altogether. No longer. Finally the families can feel that justice is done. Hopefully Killen will get great medical care so he has plenty of time to regret the life he has led.

Here are the celebrating families. James' brother and Michael's wife.

To get some more history lessons check out a Google
on the victims.

Finally, things in the world are getting a bit better. Caltech is finally desegregating.

Boston
Topic: Travel
Okay, we started the morning in T?rnby, a section of K?benhavn near the airport there in glorius Denmark. We had booked a hotel 'near' the airport, and in fact it wasn't too far, the problem was that it looked good on the internet but it turned out to be somewhere between a hostel and a real hotel. The room was really small. We had our own toilet and shower; however, the two were the same meaning that I could use both at the same time. Maybe it was cool.

Next we took the train (didn't buy a ticket) to the airport. Got on the plane and headed to London. Heathrow was a short stay and now we are back in Boston. Goodnight and god bless america.

Final Update
Topic: Travel
Well the wedding was fantastic. We had a wonderful time in the north of Denmark and enjoyed watching the ceremonies of our friends. Although we missed out on all the speeches (in Danish) we did still enjoy all of the customs that surrounded the wedding. The ceremony started at 2pm and we got back to the hotel around 2:30am. The sun was coming up.

Our trip has been a success and we are now in the train station in Kobenhavn preparing to go to our hotel. We have been measuring our days in beds and we only have one more left.

Next update in Boston.

Copenhagen
Topic: Travel
The weather has been great. We are having a wonderful time. I've been hosted by a friend for a seminar at Carlberg Brewery. We are actually living in the brewery and get all the free beer we want. It is amazing.

Copenhagen is a nice town so far. We have had a chance to visit Elsinore as well and got to see 'Hamlet's' Castle. Nice. We also ate dinner in our friends garden which was about as lovely a way to spend an evening as one can enjoy. The long evenings here really allow one to enjoy a nice day.

Okay, I'm off to Tivoli gardens and the rest of the city. Tomorrow, we head north to Frederikhavn (not pronounced as it looks) and then Saturday, Wedding! We're excited and our livers will be ready.

In-Laws
Topic: Travel


The last two days we spent with my wife's parents. We had a nice visit although it is still hard when I don't speak the language.

Yesterday we again saw the royal family, go figure, and witnessed the opening of the new Nobel Peace Prize center. It was an impressive showing. Music, navy men, etc...

The rest of the day we spent touring different parts of the city. The town was having a celebration about Oslo but also celebrating the 100th anniversary of independence from Sweden.

Today we rented a car and headed south. Unfortunately it rained nearly all day so we spent most of the day in the car. We did get to a point called Verdens Ende where the rocky coast met the sea and we walked on the rocks out to the waters edge. The weather had finally let up and we enjoyed it a lot. See pick on the right, very nice.

Norway and Royalty
Topic: Travel
Today was a good day. The weather was perfect. It is now about 10 past midnight here and it isn't completely dark yet. Really wild. Not sure it will get dark but I guess I won't stay up to see, still I am curious. We saw some cool things today. Went to the island of Brygdoy and visited a Viking Ship Museum, finally, some stuff about Vikings. Saw some ships that originated around 900AD. So cool. Also went to Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki Museum and saw the Ra II, the reed ship he took from Africa to America. It was interesting. Then we saw some works by Munch at the National Museum. The coolest was 'The Madonna' and, of course, the remaining copy of 'The Scream'. It definitely seemed like security was low-key but we are finding that to be a common Scandinavian trait. People here have better things to do than steal.

That being said, the prices are crazy. Spent over 40 bucks on a very simple lunch. Hard to keep the prices down. No beer for us. Should get in another update before we leave here. Tomorrow, the in-law day.

Science Day part II
Topic: Travel
Wow, the weather has really turned for the better. We woke up to a day of fantastic sunshine and clear blue skies. The temperature hadn't climbed too high but it was definitely nice to be outside.

Unfortunately (?) I spent the day inside. I use the question mark sincerely because I had a wonderful day visiting the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department at Stockholm University. It turned out to be very beneficial because I was able to learn about their methods for high throughput protein overexpression. They have used some ingenious techniques that I will hopefully be able to use at home. Additionally, I had the chance to talk science with some real experts in my field which is always a pleasurable experience. I learned quite a lot.

This leaves me with a thought for the day. It is common knowledge (?), look up the refs., that GFP does not fold in the periplasm of eubacteria and therefore does not flouresce. The question is, why?

We are off to Oslo tomorrow morning taking the train with a change in Gothenburg. Hopefully the weather will hold. Oslo, according to the news, has been warmer than Stockholm over the past week so we will get to have some T-shirt weather (fingers crossed).