5 places i love - #2 stobi

i could have called this week "my favorite ruins," since it's quickly becoming all about ruins. and i actually wrote a little bit about stobi before. but since it's one of the places i love, i simply must write about it again. 

it's an old roman town, first mentioned in writing in 197 BC, that's located in central macedonia, and while once it was just off the via egnatia, now it's just off the big north-south highway leading from central europe through serbia and macedonia, down to thessaloniki. 

when i first visited back in '97, there was no visitor's center, just a shack where there might or might not be an attendant that you should pay your 20 dinars to in order to go in. it's not fenced off and you can wander at will among the baths, basilica, necropolis, aqueducts, pillars and on over to the amphitheatre. when we returned last summer, there was a visitor's center, thanks to a USAID project a couple of years ago. they sold a few gift items and cold cokes and snacks and were very kind and friendly.

we have a habit of visiting ruins during the heat of the day. it tends to be a good way to have it to yourself, as all of the others have the good sense to seek shade during midday. for me, it's the best way to feel the winds of time blowing over you. it's somehow just best if those winds are heated to 40 degrees.  

stobi is blissfully undiscovered. when we were there last summer, we shared it only with a handful of workmen who were setting up the amphitheatre for a concert later that week. i think it's wonderful that they actually use the amphitheatre as a venue for such things. how fantastic to listen to music in such a setting, although we didn't get the chance, as we had to meet our plane home from istanbul and we were still far from there at that point.

there are a number of mosaics at stobi, the best one is this one in what they call a baptistry. but there are others and you can get very close to them and even walk on the mosaic floor of one that must have been a church. i've often thought that these beautiful animal and plant images would be great to reproduce in my own garden or on a table for the garden. i haven't done it yet, but i will eventually.

one of my favorite bits is this example of greek graffiti that you can find on the steps in the amphitheatre. i suppose it's someone's name, but i absolutely adore the thought of some young man (because in my head it must have been a young man) sitting there, etching into the stone. now that's some seriously enduring graffiti.

it's a marvelous place. totally off the beaten path. i like it much better than the more systematically excavated heraclea lycenstis in bitola, macedonia. it's so abandoned and yet so persistently enduring. if you're very quiet, the murmurs of the life that walked the streets and paths are still there on the wind. husband and i once roughly sketched out a screenplay that takes place there. it's a place that provokes the imagination. what more can one really ask?

sources of inspiration

as i've struggled with my blank canvas (which is currently still blank, by the way) the past few days, i have been seeking sources of inspiration and thinking about what it is that does inspire me. it's things like:

1. colors--rich oranges and reds or deep turquoises and teals.


2. textures--like indian or moroccan or turkish textiles.


3. traveling--memories of the quality of the air and the light of the sunset over the agean with a plate of icy, cold melon and a glass of chilled white wine in front of me.


4. patterns--mosaics at a ruin, the lamps in the grand bazaar in istanbul.


5. hand-crafted items incorporating colorful beads or driftwood.


6. maps.


7. icons. or paintings that in some sense pay homage to icons.


8. symbols.


9. rocks that have been rolled smooth by the waves.


10. music. at the moment, chick rock that borders on folk and a bit of jazz. (yael naim, feist, leona naess, regina spektor, kate nash).


11. helleristninger (nordic petroglyphs).


12. ancient graffiti.

lamps in the grand bazaar in istanbul


contemporary rug design in the grand bazaar in istanbul


a mosaic at stobi in central macedonia

longing

i feel a strange sense of melancholic longing...for a ruin. one of my favorites is stobi, in central macedonia. there is just something about walking among the ancient columns and crumbling walls during the heat of the day, with the hot wind blowing across my face. the wind brings with it a sense of the timelessness...how those rocks and columns have stood and will continue to stand long after i leave.

when i'm in a place like that, where it's quite deserted and one has it to oneself, i feel that if i listen carefully enough, i can hear the whispers of those who lived there. the echo of their footsteps and of their voices. the bustle of the activities of their lives. filling their jars at the communal fountain, praying in the temples, bathing in the baths. all of the flurry of activity that must have been a roman town in the first and second centuries. i feel all of that whispering there in the timeless winds and the relentless sun.

i feel the same about ruins in turkey...troy, pergamon, alexander troas, the athena temple perched high on a hillside overlooking the aegean, ephesus...i hear the whispers of those who were there and can very nearly feel their robes brush against me as they make their way past, i hear the roar of the crowd in the amphitheatre, i feel the wisdom of sophia gazing down on me. i long for that feeling right now...to feel connected to the past and a part of something larger and more enduring....