Greece & Eastern Mediterranean

Corfu, Greece:

  Early arrival. Car rental. Sleeping town. All good. But one hour later, say, 10 a.m. the entire island wakes up and spills out onto the streets.  Donkey carts, buses, old men with walking canes, flocks of sheep, and the recycling guy on a bike from the 50s balancing a precarious load of cardboard, at least 6 feet high, all appear out of nowhere and jam up the streets. It's madness I tell you, madness! I haven't driven this aggressively in many years. Those of you accustomed to driving stick shift will understand that you run out of hands in all of this chaos. You need one hand on the wheel, the second on the stick shift, constantly downshifting into 2nd then back into 3rd. Speaking of third, you definitely need a third hand to swat away the mosquito that flew into the car, constantly buzzing your ear and finally a fourth for the most important task of all; alternating between the horn and flipping off everyone within your vicinity. It's exhausting, frustrating, and exhilarating all at the same time.

  I leave the madness of the city and drive to the coast. Small curvy mountain roads that lead through tiny villages...and this is where the sheep appear! (Got a blurry photo to prove it.. just don't ask me where that "5th hand" came from to snap the pic). Now the most terrifying experience in all of this is as I approach the coast. The road doesn't seem to be descending as I start to see the blue of the ocean peek through the pine trees. Now with the road running out before meeting the vertical end of the cliff (mind you, the road is about 300 yards above the beach) it suddenly dives down into a series of switchbacks at an impossible angle. As I hit the brakes, the car stops THEN slides on pebbles and pine needles an extra yard or so before coming to a complete stop. Now that's shear terror! And before all of the adrenaline leaves my body, poof, I'm at the bottom pulling into the last available parking spot in the tiniest parking lot you've ever seen. Lucky all of the tourists are gone otherwise, what? back up that road to find a parking spot?? Yeah, I don't think so. Instead, let's back up a week. 

  Prior to my arrival in Greece, I don't know why but I was incredibly indecisive. I couldn't find an itinerary that I liked. Coming from Croatia where most things flowed smoothly into another, this continuation into Greece was another story. After some hand-wringing I decided to begin in the western islands, the Ionians. I thought I could find a sailboat or motor yacht with an available cabin that would sail those islands, just like in Croatia. Nope, no luck. My luck kept running out on me because now that's it is the end of the tourist season, reaching the islands via ferryboats becomes much more difficult as they no longer run on a daily basis. It's Tue & Fri one way, with returns on Sat & Wed, for example. So if you get to an island and don't like it or say everything is closed, well, you're there for three days!! This then brings in a whole other level of logistics planning and I expended way too much energy trying to crack this puzzle. This then brought me to Corfu, where I decided to stay for a couple of days in order to figure it all out on site. 

  And then, after all this time on the road, about 6 weeks at this point, I get the flu. Seriously?!? First 3 days on the island I spend in bed. However, this actually turned into a positive. In between naps, I was able to focus on my plans for the following weeks. I'm going to sound a bit zen right now but sometimes in the silence things just fall into place.

  I decide to use Corfu as a base and every other day, tour a nearby island: Paxos, Antipaxos (really, that's the name and no, it's not the opposite of Paxos) and the absolute darling port town of Parga on the Greek mainland. Then looking at a map: Hey will you look at that, Albania is only 30 minutes away by ferry. Another country?... Done! I originally thought of going there (Albania) for a few days but after talking to locals, they convinced me into taking a day trip and boy am I glad I listened to them. It was very nice but oh so quiet. It's the "new" undiscovered Mediterranean spot (along with Montenegro) that Europeans are starting to visit during the summer season (mid June to mid September). With all of this money coming in the town of Sarandë has created a beautiful riva. Unfortunately, some of the other towns are so haphazardly built that you can't reach the coast from the road. The beach wasn't a priority during the Soviet era. Everything is built next to or on top of each other with no thought of access. It's all still very "communist era". 

  The rest of the week, as I mentioned, is spent to and fro other islands but now comes the totally unexpected part of this voyage. 

  I check my e-mail one morning and receive a great deal from American Express in conjunction with Norwegian Cruises. [Oops, shameless plug] Curious, I look up their cruises and what do you know, there's one departing Athens next Sunday (the same date of my return flight to Athens from Corfu). I book it. This isn't any ordinary cruise around the Greek isles my friends. No. It's off to Turkey and Cyprus with a 2 day stop in Israel! Off to the Holy Land I go. It's a massive ship with over 2,000 passengers. There are 13 levels to this behemoth with buffets around every corner and at every hour. I vow to never take the elevator. So while my legs are in fantastic shape, my belly.... next topic!!!

  First stop is Kusadasi in Turkey. It's the gateway to the Roman city of Ephesus, which at one time in history was the 2nd largest town in the Roman empire after Rome. This place is huge and impressive. Spent the morning touring the ruins. It's still being excavated with only 15% so far having been unearthed. It's an active dig site so much more work is being done with lots more discoveries to be had. Now that I've seen just a bit of Turkey, I definitely need to return. 

Next stop: Israel 

  Yep, lil ole me went to Jerusalem! I start off with an overlook of the old town from the Mount of Olives. From this spot you can see the entire city with the gleaming golden Dome of the Rock in the foreground to church spires in the background. The ancient walls encircle this 1 sq kilometer city (about 1/3 of a mile). So it's small. Really small. Then I enter. I see the sights; walk in the footsteps; touch "The Wall"; eat a kebab; and even dance with a rabbi!!

  However, in the following description, you'll understand why I won't be invited anytime soon to write Jerusalem's new tourism travel campaign because, sadly, overall, it's a big mess. I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is ground zero for all things Jesus and Christianity as a whole. The crucifixion and resurrection happened here, well technically underneath as this Church was built over them. The term "church" is used loosely because this place is more of a religious complex. It's shared or rather divided into 7 (I think) different sections, each of which is affiliated with a different Christian sect. The Copts have a section as do the Armenians. The Catholics are over here, the Greeks & Ethiopians over there. The entrance is a small, nondescript door that leads into a very dimly lit domed nave and from there it's to the right, left, straight ahead, stairs up and stairs down. There's no order... not even organized chaos. It's nook upon nook with a niche here and a chapel there. And don't get me started on the people! The place is packed with everyone jostling for place and position to see a part of "the cross" or "the slab" where the body was anointed or "the burial crypt" and they won't think twice of elbowing you in the gut or in the back to get in front of you. Not very "Christian" of them. What happened to "love thy neighbor"? [That was a lot of quotes.."sorry"]

  Then I go to the Wailing Wall. Not as impressive as you would think. In writing this, I now realize that what bothers me is that none of these sites have a lead up to them. By this I mean, there's no anticipation; a glimpse from afar; a tease of what's coming up. No, it's simply turn a corner and bam! there it is. Back at the wall: The vibe of the worshippers here goes from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other: either incredibly serious with the praying, crying and bowing or extreme joy with singing and dancing (this is where I join a rabbi in a quick jig... round and round). That was fun! As you can tell, I was under whelmed by the whole experience which was sad because I was really looking forward to Jerusalem. Oh well, c'est la vie.

  Before returning to Athens, there was the obligatory stop at the island of Santorini. It's a remnant of a volcano with only the edge of the caldera emerging from the sea. If you were to look from above it would look like a 3/4 moon. There are 3 towns built atop, one at either end and the capital in the middle. As there isn't any horizontal coastline on the inside of the crescent (i.e. it goes from water to straight up) this is where you used to ride a donkey or walk up 600 steps to get to the town. My legs are ready. Been training all week on the boat for this. Mercifully, a cable car has been installed that wizzes you right up to the top. There you encounter the stark white painted buildings with the famous blue roofs all clinging precariously to the cliffs. The views are spectacular!

  Now comes the scientific section of this narrative as I quote Newton's 1st Law of Motion. Loosely, a body at rest stays at rest while a body in motion stays in motion. In relation to this trip, it was hard for me to start. The routing, the planning, the scheduling, the reservations of planes, cars, hotels and so forth, it can all overwhelm. But once in motion, I didn't want to stop. To wit, after the cruise returned to Athens, I was seriously eyeing Egypt since I had a couple more days before my return flight. But no, I'll save it for another time.

  So that's it! I'm now heading home. It'll take a while for me to process and digest all that I've seen and experienced. From the divine and sublime to the mundane, it was all there. And after being frozen at home for almost 3 years it felt great to be back on the road, on the boat and in the plane. I hope you enjoyed my rants and musings. So until next time. 

Oh wait, one more thing:

  One of the cutest stories I came across was while I was in Plovdiv (Bulgaria). The Old Town streets are strewn with strings of colorful lights that run off of the hospital electrical grid. Whenever a new baby is born, all of the lights flicker for a few moments and everyone cheers and claps..awww!