I saw Michael Palin go to Turkey on TV today. Turkey is interested in joining the EU, and that seems like a cool thing to me; for one, Turkey has long been a buffer between the eastern portions of the EU and the Middle East, and the idea that the Middle East might be just a little culturally closer bears some thinking about. For another, it's always nice to find out about the country that might soon be a neighbour. Finally, Turkey is a tobacco producing region, producing, unsurprisingly, Turkish Tobacco. I like a pipe, and I love a cigar. The possibility that a tobacco producing region nearby, and within our easy-international-trading area, seemed like an interesting one. It's far fetched to imagine that tobacco products will grow cheaper, or more varied, or easier to find, but it was an amusing fantasy.
But that wasn't the coolest thing on that program. There were things that I saw that amazed me a great deal. For example, I wouldn't have thought that it would snow in Turkey, which lies between the EU and the Middle East. I would have thought that it would be, almost entirely, a warm place - if not outright hot. But there was Michael Palin, standing proud and cheerful in the snow amid some truly bizarre volcanic geological formations called 'fairy chimneys' in a place called Cappadocia- and yes, you can go and stay in one. They're made by wind and precipitation weathering of soft rock (is soft volcanic rock a common or uncommon thing? I would love for a geogeek to tell me).
Another thing that Michael Palin went to see was an event called the 25th Annual All-Turkey Camel-Wrestling Championship (I may have taken some licence there, but that is about what I saw on a banner).
A hot, coppery sun glares down on a bowl of dusty sand, as a heavy, balding man swaggers into the demarcated arena. His skin is oiled and slick, and he spits the dust from his mouth as he sizes up his opponent. Fuelled by chilli sauce and kebabs, and absolutely hammered, the man takes off his hat and places it ceremonially on the ground to his side. He is the champion. In this arena, he is God. He will not lose. He must not lose. Not to some obstreporous quadruped.
After all... he's got a reputation to maintain.
That didn't really happen. Instead, Micheal Palin sat in a crowd that watched starved, randy camels wrestle each other whilst the locals consumed raki and kebabs. It was rather sad, and smacked a little more than faintly of traditional animal cruelty crudely disguised as a cultural rite. Michael was unflaggingly and immaculately polite, as ever.
If it had been the former version of events, I would be the first to give Turkey the fist-bump that welcomes them into the EU.
A hot, coppery sun glares down on a bowl of dusty sand, as a heavy, balding man swaggers into the demarcated arena. His skin is oiled and slick, and he spits the dust from his mouth as he sizes up his opponent. Fuelled by chilli sauce and kebabs, and absolutely hammered, the man takes off his hat and places it ceremonially on the ground to his side. He is the champion. In this arena, he is God. He will not lose. He must not lose. Not to some obstreporous quadruped.
After all... he's got a reputation to maintain.
That didn't really happen. Instead, Micheal Palin sat in a crowd that watched starved, randy camels wrestle each other whilst the locals consumed raki and kebabs. It was rather sad, and smacked a little more than faintly of traditional animal cruelty crudely disguised as a cultural rite. Michael was unflaggingly and immaculately polite, as ever.
If it had been the former version of events, I would be the first to give Turkey the fist-bump that welcomes them into the EU.
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