had enjoyed my time in Troy for many reasons. The first was my taste for Ancient History and Greek civilisation. The second was the Helen myth; the Spartan princess over whom kings and princes fought. My own name is Heleny, so, out of curiosity, I searched for the meaning, and, of course, the answer was: Heleny is a variation of Helena (Greek). Following the trail on the Internet, the next aspect to discover was the meaning of the name itself. Some scholars consider Helena a variant of the Greek word that means “torch”. A further possibility is Helena derives from the Greek ‘Selene’, goddess of the moon. I definitely preferred the latter.
 
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2018/08/22/ottomabridge-greektemple-baklava/

Parchment, Zeus, and meeting Fırat relatives.

A Tale in Red results from spending a further nine months actually ‘living’ in Turkey – from January to September 2011. Most of those nine months were spent on the road, visiting cities, monuments and archaeological sites, but, most importantly, meeting everyday people. Through 27 thousand kilometres, I immersed myself in the Turkish culture, adapting my behaviour to their traditions. I involved myself in close contact with different people – teachers, doctors, farmers, public servants, authorities, artists – and what I listened to from them was a mix of pride and shame, belief and disbelief.