"Oh yes, there were changes to be sure, too many changes to possibly fathom. The Renaissance marked the emergence of the empowering engine of youth and their thirst for change, but I am a youth no longer and care not for their change."

"Is change really so bad?"

"It is not change per se, but the heated, cavalier manner in which it comes. It is the same story told time after time. A new generation is always coming to power in the world. They live their lives and achieve all that they can, but when their time wanes and they see the coming generation eager to step into their shoes they become alarmed at the prospect that this approaching legion will not respect the standards and traditions which they had so painstakingly established. Thus begins the eternal conflict between the old and the new.

“These untiring youthful legions are full of enthusiasms and dreams and they rebuild the world anew in their own image, not caring if the standards of those who came before are swept asunder. The older generation invariably cries out with concern, but the new one will say it is necessary to raze the dilapidated, out of fashion structures, to begin anew on the same foundation. To the new, there is no loss, only progress, but what they do not realize, what they cannot realize is that their sword of progress has two edges, the second of which awaits them in the hands of their successors. So the question presents itself, who is right and who is to be trusted? Dreaming youth, eyeing the future or the preservative elderly, casting a lingering glance at what once was. For me, I chose not to live in that world of tumultuous change and came here. I have been very lucky in that time barely touches this land. I should think the Bulgaria of your youth must have been much the same."

I nodded. "It was. That's why Istanbul was such a shock, but not necessarily an unwelcome one."

"That is why I said it is a matter of perspective."

I took several wooden spoonfuls of the cooling stew. "Why here Clovis, why this place?"

"Fate brought me here and asked that I stay."

I remained expressionless in the hopes that he might elucidate on his cryptic answer.

"You see, I built this tower. One might say it was my penance."

"What do you mean penance?"