Flashback to 1994

Today as I was looking for a picture of my sister Vanessa when  she was a little girl, I came across some old pictures of a trip our family took twenty years ago in 1994. This is my journal entry for a scrapbook I am doing.


A memorable trip took place in the summer of 1994. My parents took me and Cristi when she was only 12 to our first trip to Europe. My mother wanted to go on a cruise to the Greek islands and Istambul, Turkey and for me it was also my first time at an Arab nation of Turkey.

The trip didn’t start off on a good note: The plane was late arriving from San Salvador to Guatemala City and missed the connecting flight to Los Angeles where my parents and family had to take the next flight to Madrid.  I was coming from Salt Lake to Los Angeles to join them on our way to Spain but when I got there, I learned that they had missed their flight L the connection was too close and as their plane was landing in Guatemala City, their connecting plane was taking off. This is before cell phones and internet but somehow I got word that they were not going to be joining us in Spain.

 It was also before 911 so they got them into some type of a tunnel and had them take the next flight to Amsterdam.  Our next stopped.  In Madrid Cristi were welcomed by some guy who had a melt down and kick the phone from the wall. This guy was at the counter greeting people if you can imagine that! We checked in and made a plan to make the best of it so we were encouraged to see a bull fight since it was going on that weekend and we were closed to the arena. I had no idea what this experience would be like so I thought they would kill one bull and that would be it but no, they went on and on and on kioling six bulls. One of those experiences you do when you are there but once in a lifetime is enough. I didn’t enjoy it one bit. I felt it was so barbaric and dumb. Next day we just went shopping. 

Somehow we made it ok to Amsterdam the next day and there we waited at the airport for them to show up. This was a little tricky not speaking Dutch. It took a lot longer for them to come out because my mother’s luggage didn’t arrive.  So we get into a taxi cub to take us to the Hotel and my father gives him a bill and this guy does not give him his change back and keeps a tip of $100 because he figures we don’t know any better because we are some dumb tourists.  Rats!! In Amsterdam we got to see the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank’s house and tour the city in a sort of a boat ride. It was weird to see the notorious red light district. The Hotel was closed to many gift shops so we went shopping some more, especially for my poor mom who had no clothes.  

The next stop was Athens a third world country type of a city but someone they manage to get tourist in to see their ruins and those were truly amazing. We went to see all the ruins and somehow my six grade Social Study class of Greece made perfect sense. In There we were a little lost because of the language barrier. My parents and Manuel Jr. spoke Spanish to everyone they met and my sisters, Cristi and I spoke English but it was so hard to communicate to get around. We stopped at a place to get pizza and ice-cream and somehow we don’t know how but we were charged over $80.00 for one pizza and much more for ice-cream. Again dumb tourists people take advantage of. I can honestly say, to this point I was not too impressed with Greek hospitality.

In Athens we took our cruise to the Greek Islands and Istanbul. This is was the reason for this trip anyway so we were ready to start our journey. I loved Santorini, Crete and Rhodes the best!

A visit to a seven wonder of the world!

The purpose of this trip also was to see one of the seven wonders. The Colossus of Rhodes!!    
This was a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC. It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colossus of Rhodes in ancient Greece was said to be the only statue larger than the mighty Zeus at Olympia. But this statue didn't last as long as Zeus -- at least not vertically.

In the third century, the Greek island of Rhodes was confronted by angry Macedonians. They wanted the Rhodians' help waging war against Ptolemy I in ancient Egypt. But the Rhodians didn't want to get involved in the conflict. They resisted the Macedonians, and the warriors eventually relented. The Macedonians left behind all of their supplies and equipment.

The Rhodians were so thankful for their safety that they decided to honor their patron god -- Helios, the sun god -- with a statue. They sold the Macedonians' cast-off goods to earn money for it. Around 294 B.C, the sculptor Chares of Lindos began work on the colossus. Using bronze, iron and stones for building materials, it took him 12 years to complete the statue. It measured nearly 110 feet (33 meters) high when finished -- that's about the height of a 15-story building [source: Hillman].

An artist's rendering of the Colossus of Rhodes shows the statue straddling the island's harbor, circa 250 B.C. No one knows for sure what the colossus looked like or where it was located on the island. Judging from written accounts, scholars have proposed that it was a standing figure holding a torch in one hand. And some accounts testify that its face was modeled after Alexander the Great's [source: Smithsonian]. Legends say that he stood over the harbor, one leg on either side forming a majestic tunnel.

While there are plenty of accounts and illustrations that support this theory (some suspiciously from the Middle Ages, centuries after the statue had been destroyed), it's unlikely that the colossus would have stood over the harbor, no one really knows. The colossus stood strong for 53 years until an earthquake struck Rhodes in 225 B.C.

An odd place to find John the Baptist remains.

Istambul was our next stop. The highlight of this city was going inside several mosques where men were praying and the visit inside the Topkapi Palace Museum where the arm of John the Baptist remains is showcased. The arm of St. John the Baptist and its case belonged to the Byzantines prior to the conquest. In 1484, Bayezid II (1481/1512) send it as a gift to the Knights of Rhodes. It was later discovered in Lefkose Castle in Cyprus and brought back to Istanbul in 1585. Another thing I would never forget on this trip to turkey is the concept of hard sale. People coming from nowhere selling you stuff. I went inside a rug shop and low and behold, bought a couple of very expensive rugs and by some miracle they actually got to my home on Diana Way in Utah. These 20 year old rugs are on my City Creek  apartment.  There I discovered I needed to plug my nose. The odor was grotesque. Like no other, not one person there was wearing deodorant and was so hot outside.  Yuck!

Well we all enjoyed the wonderful food of the cruise ship and the company. It was an eventful trip. One of the things we were aware was the soccer world cup going on at this time too. It was hosted by the US in nine cities and the last game was Italy against Brazil who won the world cup that year. As if nothing else could go wrong when we get to the airport, Mari’s camera bag is missing and all the wonderful pictures she took were lost. All we got are some spare pictures here and there but she had the bulk of them. The interesting thing is that even when so many things went wrong on this trip, we only remember the good times and all the fun we had. There are wonderful memories of a more innocent time for all of us. No hassles at the airport. People even got to meet you at the gate as you came off the plane. You could buy a two way ticket and sell the return if you didn’t use it. No one checked your name on passports to match your ticket. How it all changed!