Greece

….a little update

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Well , I feel a little guilty for moaning about being in Greece in the last post…I think in retrospect it wasn’t only the break in our travels that took the wind out of our sails, but also the unhappy sequence of events in Libia, culminating now in a full scale war, it has made our happy memories of less than a month ago seem rather surreal and out of place..

 Ironically it is since we have stopped for a week in a lazy village south of Thessaloniki that we have again found our travelling feet . The spot is not the most picturesque that Greece has to offer, but here we have found an openess and warmth that is now hard to find in other parts of Europe. The children are again on a chocolate binge, we are parked near a kiosk on the sea front and every day chocolates are offered by the various passers by. We on the otherhand have made friends with Georgo, a bar owner who has offered us his hospitality and stories and with whom we have spent many pleasant afternoons discussing all and nothing.( Luca in his enthusiasm, has even lent his hand to serving drinks on the lawn to bewildered Greek clients) Here we have also found a haven to repair (arghhhh!!) our tyres. Yes after  making the wise decision to switch to tubless tyres, we made the (unwise) decision of using leaky rims, which is the equivalento of having tyres with old inner tubes…nevermind i’m beginning to think this tyre business is part of our  travelling ‘karma’ We always seem to meet nice people in the process of repairing them.

So after this refreshing interlude it is time to move east to Turkey to get the various visas…and find a nice spot to celebrate Lusiras birthday (I slipped into my 44th year with extreme ease at the Kentri bar,with ouzo and wine) I have just added a few more photos to keep up to date.

P:S: Sorry about the e mails I haven’t replied too, I will eventually, but am having a hard time finding internet connections, other than stolen moments on other peoples computers.

A quick note to inform that we have in fact left Italy and are ‘on the road again’ in Greece. The pace is slow and uncertain…finding the right pattern in time and space for our wanderings is proving harder than we imagined. Somehow our imagination and expectations seem to have been left suspended in North Africa, with the sound of the moazin, the slight tang in the food , the long robes and dust in the air. Much as they are beautiful i can’t seem to find a logical place in my mind for the snow capped mountains and ever -so-blue sea of Greece. The interruption has somehow taken the harmony out of our travels,  and we will have to work a little to get it back…I suspect that if only we stopped trying so hard ,it  will slide back into place unnoticed, by itself.

On the positive side we have had some interesting  encounters with other travelers and non. Much to the childrens’ delight, we met up on a white pebbled beach,  with Angelica and Peter with whom we travelled together in Libya ( they are now on the way to Mongolia) We met a very modest and courageous young man from Tuscany who hopes to cycle to India (i don’t know why but somehow i think  we will meet again). We met a Brazilian aspirant photographer alone in his mitsubishi van on his way back from Turkey, and of course our good friend Nikos, with whom we have spent the last few days in and around Loutraki.

Sorry only a few photos, but i’m working on getting more.

The route for now is: Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Pakistan…(Kashmere??) we’ll see!!