Where am I? Hint: it's not Kars.


Answer: it's Kars. That is, my parents live outside the tiny village of Kars on the Rideau in Ottawa - the other picture. It was named in 1856 for this Kars, the ancient city in Eastern Turkey after the Siege of Kars, during which the Nova-Scotian-born Sir William Williams led the Ottoman contingent. He capitulated but survived to etc etc. Look him up if you care.

This Kars has muddy streets, rustic tearooms for men only, lots of dirty cats, and a filthy layer of coal-smoke lying over it. Also this 10th c Armenian church, the Cathedral of the Apostles, which became a mosque under the Selcuk rulers in 1064, butwas abandoned when they retreated, then subsequently was an Ottoman mosque, then a Russian Orthodox church, then a Turkish mosque, then an Armenian church again briefly, then a mosque again, then a petrol depot, then the museum until a new one was built, then it was left derelict (what??) and now it's the Kümbet mosque. It feels more like an Orthodox church inside.

More tomorrow.