Travel journal

A Day Out of the City: Walled Streets and a Church

The other half of that visit: old stone streets, a market run, a church, and the small things in between.

19 February 2019

A long stone city wall with a tall tower behind it running along the far side of a road, cypress trees in front of it and a wide cloudy sky above.

This was the other half of that visit: one afternoon out of the city. Walled streets, a church, and a market on the way. Here it is in the order it happened.

The afternoon started at the wall. Big stone blocks, cypress trees standing over them, and a flag on a pole above the whole front.

A long front of pale stone blocks with cypress trees growing above it, a flag on a pole at the top and rough rocks along the foot of the wall.

Then the place's own sign, carved into a stone and set upright against the wall. I read it, took it in, and kept walking.

A tall carved stone panel standing against a stone wall, its face covered in dense lettering, with a smaller panel fixed to the wall beside it.

A little further in, I looked back over the stone fronts and the tops of the walls, with cypresses up on the ridge.

A view over old stone buildings and wall tops from a raised path, cypress trees along the ridge and a metal railing across the front.

And then the wall itself, the big one, with folded paper notes pushed into the cracks between the stones. People leave the smallest things behind.

A close view of a huge wall of weathered stone blocks with small folded paper notes pushed into the gaps between them.

Down into the market after that. A stall of pickled vegetables, bright pinks and greens and olives, with the scale sitting on the counter.

A stall counter covered in trays of pickled vegetables and olives in bright pinks, greens and yellows, with a scale at one end.

Next door, the butcher's window: the cuts hanging up on their hooks and the price cards taped to the glass.

A shop window with cuts of meat hanging on hooks behind the glass, small cards taped to the pane and tiles on the wall behind.

Across the lane, mounds of spice and dried herbs heaped up in open boxes, and the man running the shop looking up as I went past.

Wooden boxes of ground spices and dried herbs heaped high in a shop doorway, packets stacked on shelves behind and a man standing at the counter.

Lunch in the middle of all of it: grilled meat, salad and lemon, and I ate the whole plate.

A white plate of grilled meat skewers with chopped salad, purple cabbage, pickles and a lemon wedge.

Then the church. A stone front with rounded arches and two rows of windows, and everybody going in through the doors below.

A pale stone church front with paired rounded arches over the doors and a row of arched windows above them.

Inside, a wall of tile going up out of the frame, every inch of it patterned.

A wall covered in patterned tiles in gold, cream and blue, rising out of the frame with painted lettering along the side.

And then the big room under the dome. Galleries all the way round, lamps on their long chains, and the light coming down from the top.

A round domed hall seen from the floor, with arched galleries running around the walls, lamps hanging on chains and daylight coming in at the top of the dome.

One of the walls in there is done in gold, figures the whole way across it, with people standing along the bottom looking up.

A long gilded wall covered in painted figures behind a row of hanging lamps, with the tops of visitors' heads along the bottom edge.

Back outside after that, down a stone lane with steps worn into the paving and old walls on both sides.

A narrow paved lane running away between stone walls and buildings, worn steps across the paving and a clear sky above.

The gate at the end of it: an arch with a cross above and a dark doorway underneath.

A stone gate with a deep arched doorway, a cross on the wall above it and a narrow window in the stone beside it.

And the best thing of the afternoon: a cat asleep on top of a blue box out in the street, going about as unbothered as a cat can be.

An orange tabby cat asleep on top of a blue metal box standing against a stone wall.

Walled streets, a market, a church, and one cat asleep on a box on the way back.

Every photograph in this one is mine, from that day. The city pages live under Cities.

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