Cats wander among the tables ringing the moored boats and calm waters of Skala Sikamineas harbor. The cats come in every variety of mange, scruff, scar and distemper, and a great many of them crowd around anyone eating at an outdoor table. They’re the only thing unkempt. The carefully cobbled stones of the harbor, the […]
Read More Surreal CalmAs of this writing my first week at Korakas lighthouse draws to a close. The day before I arrived, six Afghans landed on the rocks east of Korakas in the boat pictured here. No-one has landed on the North shore since. I don’t have a count of exactly how many boats have landed here this […]
Read More Held Breath and RubberDeparture in the early hours, before the sun rises, has a special smell which to me is one of the treasures of living. This morning I stepped out onto the road. No sooner had a grey dawn risen over the Eastern Iowa Airport then I had my first “oops” moment, when I realized I hadn’t […]
Read More Grey Airport DawnBelow is my original post for why I’m spending the month of April volunteering in Greece. The situation has evolved since I wrote this, but I’m moving it here for context. I go on April 1st to spend one month on the Greek island of Lesvos. This is not a vacation. In the past year […]
Read More A Reason to GoIt is amazing, certainly amazing, how many people have told you that to travel with these chests is impossible. On the third train out from Nice, crawling across Italia via the walking speed regionals that are the only ones the chests fit on, all alone in the last car on the train, the ticket man […]
Read More Trunks of This SizeTrain station, somewhere between France and Spain. The air is hot, dry, heavy, bright, and still as a desert night. Everywhere the sun hammers down on the dry sand and rock of the rolling almost desolate hills, reflecting and refracting and slowly boiling away any sense of comfort. The only mitigation to the unrelenting brightness […]
Read More Dali, dumdrum, britons, and brokeIt was day before yesterday that you left Cape de Agde for Barcelona, and you’ve seen a few things since. The first train slipped from the station without you, it´s doors were too small, an ongoing problem. But as those minuscule doors closed others opened, namely the doors of the local cathedral wherein a local […]
Read More Agde DepartureThe internet cafe in Cap d’Agde smells of the Mediterranean sea. This makes sense as it is no more then a hundred tourist swarmed shop filled yards away. It took you two days to find this place, granted that you didn’t spend too many of the sun baked hours in the balmy sea-side air looking. […]
Read More Cap d’AgdePrepare yourselves for a real treat. This narration will be glorious and exotic and marvelous and that’s just the narration! I will tell you of events such as you can barely imagine, except I only have about ten minutes worth of internet time and the elephants haven’t gotten here yet. So instead of all that […]
Read More Paris Fireworks