tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2367069306152783422024-03-19T10:26:31.879-07:00FULL FATHOM NONERob Woodard Internet Diary ProjectRob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-46889594272907329222016-01-07T20:34:00.006-08:002016-01-07T20:35:33.328-08:00A New Level Mythos - Finally<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's taken a long time, but I finally have a new site--a new <a href="http://www.robwoodard.net/">LEVEL MYTHOS</a>. It's not quite done yet and will be expanding, but it's now good to go. It will be replacing this site and my old Level Mythos. I will leave this one up as an archive site for awhile at least. Hope to see you at the new place!</div>
Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-54774438719680871842014-03-21T18:01:00.003-07:002014-03-21T18:01:30.762-07:00NEW SITE - LEVEL MYTHOS REDUX!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hi Everyone. I just wanted to let you all know that I have a <b>new site</b>, which has he same name as one of my earlier sites - <a href="http://robwoodardhome.blogspot.com/"><b>Level Mythos</b></a>. It's a combination <b>blog and literary home page</b>. It is designed to replace the earlier Level Mythos site, as well as this one.<br />
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I will be keeping this blog up as a kind of archive site and redirect for the next few months. I hope everybody who has enjoyed this site checks out my new one!</div>
Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-55697928210130597702013-08-02T08:44:00.003-07:002013-08-02T08:44:53.139-07:00A Few More Lendas Photos - Sunset<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em>Just some photos I took on a little hike I did the last evening I was in Lendas ...</em></div>
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Lendas at the beginning of sunset (from the east)</div>
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The east of Lendas at sunset</div>
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Coast east of Lendas looking west</div>
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More of the coast looking east of Lendas</div>
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Crumbling house at the east edge of the village</div>
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Sunset Rob</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-8522618247318392422013-07-30T08:51:00.002-07:002013-07-30T08:53:42.060-07:00Lazy Lendas, Lazy Rob<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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July 30, 2013—Lendas, Crete, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My little trip to
Lendas has turned out to be an extended stay—I'll be leaving Wednesday, which
will make it nearly a full week for me here. I'm feeling a little guilty about
this. Shouldn't I be exploring new places, climbing mountains, engaging in new
forms of cultural immersion? No—that's me turning my life into a job again. The
truth is I am tired and I needed (need) a spot into which I could settle for a
while, do little besides, swim, sun, read, and generally gather myself together
a bit (my illness took much more out of me than I'd realized)—and I found that
here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One thing I haven't being doing here, though, is writing.
This is only the second time I've sat down and put down anything for the blog.
The truth is there's not really much to write about (which is of course a good
thing—that's why I came here: to sequester myself from any drama). So what have
I been doing? Like I said: swimming, lying in the sun (both at the beach to the
west of town, which is much larger and nicer than the one in town), poking
around at the various archaeological sites (the town and much of the surrounding
area is one big site, with components going back to Minoan time up thru Roman,
etc.), and reading, Thoreau's journals and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gary Snyder Reader</i> (I always know I'm coming to the end of a trip
when I feel the urge to start picking up American writers). Since I know that
I'm going to Gavdos next I haven't even been making plans. Again, all of this
is good—I feel much better than when I came here, both physically and mentally:
I feel I've re-established my center in both respects …</span></div>
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Notes:</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This little sliver of
Crete's southern coast, like Gavdos island to the south, is classified by
geographers as being part of the North African climate zone, not the Mediterranean
zone that the rest of Crete falls into. This makes perfect sense. It's hot
here, but it's a different kind of hot than the rest of mainland Crete: it's
drier, starker, more rough and tumble. The landscape also looks different, much
more desert like.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The name Lendas comes
from the Greek term for lion. I read something about the name being applied because
the little inlet in which Lendas if found is supposed to look like a lion's
mane or something. I don't see it. By that logic any crescent-shaped inlet, of
which Greece has a great many, could be called Lendas—we'd be up to our eyes
balls in lions. It explains the name of the Lions bar, though, which is found
right in the village center …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Tanned, lazy, but also
getting a little antsy to move on: that's me at the moment (I actually got
bored at the beach today, which is a rarity).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Lendas from the east</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Where 'm staying. Love the barbed wire in this shot - it makes the place look like a little prison. Actually it's quite comfortable and the woman who runs it is very sweet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Part of a terracotta oil lamp I found on the surface of an archaeological site on the hill east of the village</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Part of a floor mosaic at an archaeological site literally just above where I'm staying</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">History tumbled down ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Less prison-like view of my Lendas home</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3LCK7Ys9eExmtWjH2P7QWF6MuQpKGjo2rKJMarCIAwZPXhf2M8VmVYmha18az5rn03S9vdYi4rFe_Cs-RIIkLJy2UkzTPJVSLmcfvq39-NWZoNyn2uNiwXYhLOCm3T9x80Z_FcGyimvD/s1600/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3LCK7Ys9eExmtWjH2P7QWF6MuQpKGjo2rKJMarCIAwZPXhf2M8VmVYmha18az5rn03S9vdYi4rFe_Cs-RIIkLJy2UkzTPJVSLmcfvq39-NWZoNyn2uNiwXYhLOCm3T9x80Z_FcGyimvD/s320/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+193.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Harsh beauty of the region - Looking east from high up on the hill that marks off the western limits of Lendas</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBxllTJnbPCrmsw-E7upof-ls8z3sE58qTwwBRubf28AobOTJ3wFNtacpXO6IUwxhldn0Xe3wI0AszH0WUCRaiTgaWsj7gdC2qM5T_Ay06bgRdHVwgX4z2_wLaQrmMji4bdFfaxhQImRt/s1600/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBxllTJnbPCrmsw-E7upof-ls8z3sE58qTwwBRubf28AobOTJ3wFNtacpXO6IUwxhldn0Xe3wI0AszH0WUCRaiTgaWsj7gdC2qM5T_Ay06bgRdHVwgX4z2_wLaQrmMji4bdFfaxhQImRt/s320/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+197.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> Lendas from that some hill</o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaSx9_PWnWyw3YVZufKF0H4Hd7PFQaKdE_FKe8YJsngUE_RvhpG5N6_DZ2K9tBq-22YbqqdQBzO9j_pddbXDzIFdEyseHyrjsnCtbzcgKaFj-lWOMZj1m61oOPhTmOl_SgdbjCIgWnndT5/s1600/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaSx9_PWnWyw3YVZufKF0H4Hd7PFQaKdE_FKe8YJsngUE_RvhpG5N6_DZ2K9tBq-22YbqqdQBzO9j_pddbXDzIFdEyseHyrjsnCtbzcgKaFj-lWOMZj1m61oOPhTmOl_SgdbjCIgWnndT5/s320/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+191.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Beach to the west of Lendas</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1HhDoKQvpNXxx0YkXkVJY3F2p4vayOV2YhDIjoNmEBshLVru5QYbEfcGo7X5Wm9mxJfc0UEAAfKJZHTMziBF9a6BPSfhd5SR3heNmVy_Et3_w6bW7hyphenhyphennqUWXEECMEAFSwlD3VQNIRdAD/s1600/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1HhDoKQvpNXxx0YkXkVJY3F2p4vayOV2YhDIjoNmEBshLVru5QYbEfcGo7X5Wm9mxJfc0UEAAfKJZHTMziBF9a6BPSfhd5SR3heNmVy_Et3_w6bW7hyphenhyphennqUWXEECMEAFSwlD3VQNIRdAD/s320/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+023.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Fresh archaeological pits to the east of the village</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9vQnFsMd4WBwtqzjuc8CJ2XTaqNE4gwvL9R6QYNZqGmzg2m8agB6iUiJlZ3B_euHkuzPJbsylrEEcueEmWOsSRYFvAKo6zO8KzOHPIS7JH8i46aS5tkrwmJSXaJUDSWp9m3JRPUWU-hN/s1600/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9vQnFsMd4WBwtqzjuc8CJ2XTaqNE4gwvL9R6QYNZqGmzg2m8agB6iUiJlZ3B_euHkuzPJbsylrEEcueEmWOsSRYFvAKo6zO8KzOHPIS7JH8i46aS5tkrwmJSXaJUDSWp9m3JRPUWU-hN/s320/Lendas_Crete_2013_July+183.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Love the way wave action has shaped this rock - it's turned it into a wave itself</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-5833810930689574352013-07-23T11:25:00.003-07:002013-07-23T11:27:11.231-07:00Plakias Turnaround?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2FHDs4Y6HEn5gdxC764YiUuGvzF8GMgJ8V7i1Hs7wDuP3fk1QjZ9r_WN0aLQYjK4y_kecNpQF88BWXi6sHTBF1pGzIUpBFugjm1h66z5r5wYmT4c-Qs6W7N1Fza1lSdu9N1EoXFzCnOB/s1600/Eastern_Crete_2013_July+083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Tuesday,
July 23, 2013—Plakias, Crete, Greece</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Started moving west for
the final push before I go home. I was planning on going to Lendas, a little
village on the south coast of Iraklio province I like, for a few days. But even
with leaving Myrtos on the 7:00 AM bus I didn't make it to Iralkio in time for
that day's rare bus for Lendas. So I decided to maybe swing back around that
place in my last days here, since otherwise I would have had to spend two nights
in the hated city of Iraklio, which has got to be one of the least attractive
urban areas in the whole Aegean. I'm beginning to think I made a mistake,
though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
ended up in Plakias, mainly because I was hoping to catch a bus from here to
Frangokastello. I quickly found out, though, that bus route has been
eliminated, apparently a long time ago (my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lonely
Planet</i> guide would seem to be way out of date on this one). There's a
little tourist boat that heads that way, but it hasn't been going out because
of the wind. Which brings me to one of the reasons I wish I hadn't come here.
Plakias lies at the mouth a huge gorge, which runs a long way roughly north
south thru the Rethymno province. This gorge funnels all the hot inland air
towards the sea, which means that it can get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> windy by the coast. Since I've been here (I arrived about
thirty hours ago) the wind has been howling day and night non-stop. This makes
doing pretty much anything here a drag: hiking means getting blown off
ridgelines, the beach is a swirling mess of sand, and even sitting in a taverna
with a drink can be challenging (yesterday while having a coffee in a place
just off the main road thru town I watched a gust of wind knock over a nearly
full glass of beer—my coffee was in my hand, luckily). Basically since arriving
I've been hiding from the wind and trying to figure out what to do next. More
on that in a second.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
other main reason Plakias doesn't thrill me is that it's frankly a kind of dull
place. It looks nice and is certainly pleasant enough (the people who live and work
here, as a group, are among the nicer people I've met in Crete), but it's basically
characterless: it exists to serve the needs of tourists and therefore has
little in the way of soul. It's of course also not particularly Greek—that's a
big part of the blandness. It's another example of what I've taken to calling
Beach Vacationland: the holiday spot that could be in any warm beachie place in
the world for all it matters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My
next decision is whether or not I backtrack to Iralkio and hit Lendas (I can
easily make it there in time for the Wednesday bus) or head forward to
Paleohora and then Gavdos. I'm leaning towards to former. Though I hate to
backtrack, I also hate to miss getting somewhere I want to be. Plus, there's something
special about Lendas—it exudes a kind of healing energy—and I'm feeling the
need for some of that. I'm also not quite feeling well enough to tackle camping
on Gavdos, especially since I want to spend four or five days there. I have
ticket for the 7:00 AM bus to Rethymno and I can go either direction from
there. So I may end of making my decision on the fly …</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Health
Notes:</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Feeling a lot better overall,
though still not 100%. I'd say I'm hanging out somewhere in the 85% range. Feeling slightly feverish now and then and I have a
bit of chest congestion, which is new. Still completely confused as to what it was
that knocked me down. </span></div>
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<img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2FHDs4Y6HEn5gdxC764YiUuGvzF8GMgJ8V7i1Hs7wDuP3fk1QjZ9r_WN0aLQYjK4y_kecNpQF88BWXi6sHTBF1pGzIUpBFugjm1h66z5r5wYmT4c-Qs6W7N1Fza1lSdu9N1EoXFzCnOB/s320/Eastern_Crete_2013_July+083.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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Windy Plakias - I love this shot. First off it's so windy they're not even bothering to open the umbrellas. Secondly, those are my footprints. Everybody gets to make a fresh set because the wind just blows the old ones away ...</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-26188818799882525932013-07-23T06:29:00.001-07:002013-07-23T06:29:37.006-07:00Myrtos Love / Ierapretra Bashing - Feeling Better<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Saturday,
July 20, 2013—Myrtos, Crete, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Feeling considerably
better, to the point where I'm getting a bit bored: I'm forcing myself to lay
low because I know I'm not full speed but I'm close enough that doing little
has become a job. I did manage to make it to a new destination at least. I'm
now in Myrtos on the southeast shore of the island. This place is almost
exactly what I expected it to be. But more on that later. I want to say a bit
about the bus ride down here first …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It took a route that sliced thru nearly the center of the
Lasithi province (which geographically amounts
to roughly the eastern fourth of the island. The richness of the valleys and
foothills I saw on Crete's eastern coast increased dramatically as we veered
inland and south; I realized that I was seeing the edge of this part of the
island's very productive<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>agricultural
zone. The olive trees were everywhere of course, as were all sorts of vegetable
plots, plus some vineyards and other kinds of orchards; things were greener
here that on any other part of the island I've been to, including the center of
the Iraklio province, which was extremely productive, impressively so. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A we came out on the southern side of the mountains
things became a bit less fertile, though there was still much more green than
I've seen anywhere else on this island's southern shore. Soon, though, as were
neared the city of Ierapetra, the greenhouses this area is famous for began
appearing. One of the reason this city and the areas around it have such a bad
rep is that these contraptions, frames covered exclusively it seems with
stretched white plastic of some sort, as seen as being a major eyesore. I've
seen these things in other parts of Crete but in nothing approaching the number
they have around here. In small numbers they didn't bother me; I hardly noticed
them, actually. Seeing them practically coating the coast here, though, I
quickly came to the conclusion I agreed with their detractors: these things are
pretty damn ugly. Still, the produce is almost uniformly good here and a lot of
it is grown in these tents. Seeing that I've eaten and enjoyed my fair share of
it I don't feel I have too much right to complain. That doesn't mean that I
have to like looking at the things, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nor does it mean that I have to keep entirely quiet on the subject …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ierapetra itself also has a pretty bad rep: the tour
guides pan it en masse and I've never heard any traveler have a good thing to
say about it—for most of them it was a place you had to get thru to get to
somewhere more interesting. After the bus came out of the hills we hugged the
coast for a while to the east of the city (this area was surprisingly touristy
and built up, like a mini, far less intense version of the coastal tourist
strips in the north). Finally we came around and down a bend and could see
Ierapetra. After being on little island and Crete's relatively empty east coast
it seemed shockingly large. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lonely Planet</i> calls it a dusty agricultural hub, or something to that effect. Later, as the
next bus I took moved thru it to its western outskirts where the number of
greenhouses increased exponentially, I could see where this description comes
from (my guess is that this become even more pronounced on its inland fringe,
which I did not see). What I wasn't ready for was the ritzy, trendy, and
frankly lame-ass fashion tourist atmosphere I also would encounter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I had to wait about two hours before the next bus left
there to Myrtos, so I decided to wander the town a bit and track down something
to eat. I couldn't really get too far, both because I had to stay relatively
close to the bus station and because I had my full pack with me and I didn't
really want to lug it around town (I was still feeling slightly feverish from
the illness of a couple days past). I quickly found myself on a waterfront that
was lined with trendy cafes that really could have been anywhere in Europe.
Backing these were the same silly tourist shops one can find pretty much
everywhere. The place was completely characterless: it reminded me of certain
sections of Iraklio, which has got to be one of the ugliest cities in the
entire Aegean. I was starving so I picked a café (they all looked pretty much
the same, so based my choice mostly on which one seemed to have the cutest
servers working there). After eating a boring club sandwich I walked around
some more and, yep, everywhere I went reminded me of a lower-key Iraklio. I got
so annoyed that I went back to the bus station a half hour earlier than planned
and waited things out there …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Myrtos is <em>far</em> more pleasant. As I said, it looks pretty
much exactly as I thought it would. It's a semi out-of-the way little beach
village, moderately touristy, but with a bit of a Greek feel to it still. It
reminds me of a bigger version of Lendas, the little beach enclave on the south
shore of the Iraklio province where I more or less ended my trip last time thru.
Houses climbing up fairly steep hills. A small flat coastal strip. Restaurants,
shops, but real places too, like an actual Greek bakery and some shops where
everything seems written in Greek only. A decent beach, not very crowded
because this place it a touch off the beaten path. Little to do in town do besides
swim and eat and decided when and where you next want to swim and eat. It looks
like it will be a nice low-key place to wind away a couple of days, to finish
healing from my illness. As of right now my impression of the place is that
I've been to similar little beach towns I like a bit better (such as the
aforementioned Lendas). Still, I do like this place a lot—it's got a really
good vibe and is definitely pretty (it's also on a beautiful stretch of coast,
now that most of the greenhouses have been left behind). I'm glad I've come
here …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I didn't get into town until about one this afternoon. By
the time I got a place (a nice room with a kitchen nearly on top of one of the
hills that backs the town—I have a fantastic view—for fifteen euros a night
less than I was paying for basically the same thing in Kato Zagros) and
explored the town a bit all I was really up for was a little beach time.
There's a Minoan site I want to see here that's back up in the hills a ways and
another hike thru this cool looking gorge I want to do, so that will be my day
tomorrow (plus a little more beach time). And then I'll be off the next
morning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Suddenly
feeling a little tired. Thinks I'll call it a night on this writing.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Myrtos from above</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Myrtos from my Balcony</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Myrtos waterfront</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Beach at Myrtos</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Greenhouses on the shore</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The steps up to where I was staying</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Minoan site above Mytros</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-57797162366016237662013-07-18T09:22:00.002-07:002013-07-18T09:22:34.047-07:00Crash and Burn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Thursday,
July 18, 2013—Kato Zagros, Crete, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What a difference a few
days makes. I don't feel like writing (again—you'll see) about what's been
going on, so I've decided to just cut-and-paste from an email I wrote my sister
and a few close friends.</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I'm writing a joint email because
I'm hoping one of you might have some useful info for me. Something truly scary
happened to me starting yesterday morning and I'm still trying to piece it all
together. Yesterday I woke up with a rash on a big chunk of my body. It was
especially bad on pelvis and the back of my thighs. It looked just like the
reaction I get when I've run into poison oak (though it wasn't as itchy—at
first). I've never noticed any poison oak here and the day before I was just at
the beach with some friends of mine I met here two years ago—I was no where
near any plants that could have done this to me. <br />
<br />
I noticed, though, that the lower sheet on the bed I'd been sleeping on had
pulled up and about half the mattress was exposed. I concluded that there must
have been something in the mattress that had produced this reaction. This
seemed to make sense for two reasons. In the cheap places in which I usually
stay the beds are old and have had God knows how many people sleep on them;
they could harbor all sorts of things I could have reaction to. Also the rash,
though worst where I previously stated, also was found on patches of my arms,
hands, etc., as if only the parts of my body that had touched the mattress had
been affected. Thinking I'd figured things out, I took a hot shower to get off
whatever it was that was messing me up and went on with my day. A few hours
later it appeared my guess was right—the rash seemed to be going away.<br />
<br />
Later I got on a bus heading south. Other than the rash I felt fine (I was
actually feeling a touch run down, but I'd been feeling that way for several
days). Later that afternoon, though, I noticed that the rash seemed to be
coming back, on other parts of my body. Then that evening, while I was sitting
in the room I'd just gotten, I started feeling feverish. By the time I'd made
it back from getting something to eat a few hours later the rash had spread to
about 75% of my body, was incredibly itchy, and my fever was raging. Soon I
couldn't stand up without feeling like I was going to both heave and fall down.
I also couldn't eat or drink anything, even water—I knew it would come back up.<br />
<br />
It's very hard for me to describe the rest of the night, mainly because I've
never felt so bad before and I've never felt bad at all in this particular way.
I don't know how high my fever was, but it had to be way up there. It was also
a weird fever, in that it was dry as hell--I couldn't perspire at all. The only
way I can think of to describe how I was feeling is to say it felt like my body
was going explode into dust and blow away. Added to this was an exponential
increase in how itchy I was. I know I can sometimes be a bit of a wus when I
get sick, but this was of an entirely different order to anything I've ever
experienced. For several hours straight last night I really thought I was going
to die by myself in a little room in eastern Crete. I couldn't have even <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">crawled </span>for help if I'd had to ...<br />
<br />
This morning at about five the fever finally broke (though it hasn't left me
completely) and the rash has be slowly diminishing, though it still covers at
least 40% of my body. By about nine I could finally walk short distances
without feeling like was going to throw up or land on my face. I've slowly been
feeling better since then, though I still feel l worse than I've ever felt in
my life outside of last night. <br />
<br />
The question I've been asking myself and now you folks is what the hell
happened to me! My only symptoms were the high and very strange fever and the
rash (the off stomach is probably just a byproduct of the fever), so I think
this rules out any kind of virus or bacterial cause. The only thing I can think
of that could cause this would be a severe allergic reaction, probably to
something like a bug bite. I've been researching on-line, though, and Crete is
very benign in this area--there are no spiders or insects I can track down that
would likely to be able to do this, nor anything else I can find (there aren't
even any poisonous snakes here—plus I think I’d <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>remember if I got bit by snake). Does any of
this ring any bells with any of you? Any insight you can give me would be
greatly appreciated. I need to do whatever I can to make sure this doesn't
happen again: I honestly don't think I could make it thru a second night like
last one.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">My
recovery turned out to not quite be as abrupt as this letter made it sound: the
fever came back strong the next night and throughout the day the rash came back
and spread, to many parts of my body untouched before, like my lips and face.
Last night, though, was different than the previous one, in that I could feel
myself healing. This morning I woke up and 98% of the rash was gone and so was
most of the fever (though I still feel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ferverish</i>).
I'm still week and I have the chills, but I know I’m moving passed it, whatever <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">it </i>was …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What happened between my last entry
and my illness? A lovely day and a half hanging out with my friends from Paris.
But that seems hardly worth reporting at the moment: this illness has so
scrambled me, so thrown me off stride that nothing else seems all that
important. Going to stay here until the late morning bus to Sitia comes
tomorrow. I've hardly seen any of this place and Xerokambos down the road will have
to be skipped (it's a 10km hike there and that is not going to happen in my
present condition). I'll probably head down to Myrtos and heal for a few days.
Then I'll try and put the pieces back together and finish out the last couple
of weeks of my trip at least somewhat as I'd planned …</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-32623563237939797702013-07-18T08:43:00.000-07:002013-07-18T08:43:04.518-07:00Back on Crete - Pigadia Notes / Sitia Interlude<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sunday,
July 14, 2013—Sitia, Crete, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sitting in the bus stop
in Sitia. It's 2:40 PM and I'm waiting for the 4:00 PM bus south, to Palakasto;
I just got off the ferry from Karpathos, hit the ATM, got a little bite to eat
on the run, and then<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>headed over here on
the chance that I could catch a bus without too much waiting. I was planning on
spending a couple days in Sitia, checking out some things I've missed around
here, but I got a message from some friends of mine from Paris that this is
there last night in Crete before heading home and that they were just down the
road. So I thought I'd hang out with them while I have the chance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I suppose I should backtrack a
bit, as I haven't made an entry since I was in Diafani. After my time was up
there I caught the tourist boat down to Pigadia in the south of Karpathos.
Because of the times the ferries run I was stuck there for about two-and-a-half
days. I wasn't in the mood for a little solitary time so I didn't do much
beyond taking a couple of short local hikes and reading. This was just as well,
given that there really isn't that much on that part of the island that really
interests me that I haven't seen yet. Pigadia itself is a pleasant but fairly
bland little tourist town (that seems to be getting more upscale—there are some
fancy-ass hotels popping up just outside of the main part of town, along the
beach). It's got pretty much all the same touristy stuff going on that other
towns of its kind practice, but it's low-key about them and overall it was a
nice little rest stop for me (though I wish it could have been just a day or
so—I'm entering the last three weeks of my trip and time is starting to seem
quite precious. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Pigadia does have a pretty decent little archaeology
museum, which I checked out. As island museums go it's definitely not in the
league of, say, Nisyros', but it does have a nice amount of Minoan and Mycenaean
stuff, both of which really interest me. There explanations are pretty good
too. The museum was just a bonus, though. Like I've said, I really just needed
a little bit of down time (I seem to hit these walls about every three weeks).
What made this work out especially well is that Pigadia is cheap: rooms there
go for nearly half of comparable places in other part of the Dodecanese (I
saved ten euros a night from what I was paying in Diafani for a bigger place
with a kitchen, which my digs up north lacked). Now that I'm feeling refreshed,
though, I'm glad to be out of there—I'm really itching to explore some new
places in Crete, to be back on the road in a more proper sense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Speaking of which, my itinerary for the last few weeks
suddenly took shape in my head while I was hanging out in Pigadia. I’m going to
spend the next seven or eight days exploring some fairly far-flung places on
the east coast, Kato Zagros (which also features a major Minoan archaeological
site) and then Xerokambos a little out there beach area that I'm going to have
to hike 10km from Kato Zagros (the busses don't run that far). My only goals in
these place, besides checking out the Zagros archaeological site, is to swim
and maybe to some light hiking (my ankle and knee really need some time off); I
really just want to get very laid-back for this coming week. After these two
spots I'll do one of two things. After hiking back to Kato Zagros I will catch
the bus to Ierapetra a city on the southeast coast. If the busses don't run
that way (and I don't think they do) I will head back to Sitia and get the bus
to Ierapetra from there (if I do this I will probably hang out a day or so to
check out the aforementioned places around there I still would like to see). I
have no interest in Ierapetra itself, but I need to get there to catch a bus to
Myrtos, a little village to the west of their that sounds really cool. I want
to go there for the place itself, but it also sounds like it will make a good transition
into the next part of my final Cretan dash, as it’s not back-of-beyond like
Kato Zagros or Xerokambos, but it's still a relatively small settlement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After this things will get far more crowded, I'm sure. I
plan on heading over to the region north a Matala (a very busy and touristy
beach area) mainly because clustered there are several of the island's most
important archaeological sites, none of which I want to miss. Not sure where I'm
going to base myself there, probably inland a bit at a place called Kamilari,
which sounds pretty nice and should be a lot mellower (and maybe cheaper) than
the beach towns just to the west of there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Once I've had my fill of archaeological sites it will be
back to the beach. I'm determined to make it to Frangokastello (the high-season
south-coast busses are running now so I should be able to get there from either
Hora Safakion to the west or Plakias to the east. After this time will be the
biggest arbiter as to how I end things. If there's enough of it left I'll be
heading down to Gavdos. The problem is I have to allow a few extra days if I do
this, mainly because if the seas kick up I could get stuck out there; you can't
plan on hanging out there till the last minute without taking a chance of
missing your plane home. If I don't think I have the time for Gavdos I'll
probably just camp on the beach in Sougia or something, until the day before I
fly out, when I will head up to Hania. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not a bad sounding three weeks, if I do say do myself.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrS0G6jNgs21iwAmLZhjYUDoIl-oC-DMGVoVf2JZgzQxtDuSIyPEy9GkHNYQSeDednBaCzgApPfSmaLMDtWFXnbx9WW8t7HTouMYwoIf8TMBVkQSB1tjzX6cbQ1VjXLFFVTyf3LpduDkwh/s1600/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+099.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrS0G6jNgs21iwAmLZhjYUDoIl-oC-DMGVoVf2JZgzQxtDuSIyPEy9GkHNYQSeDednBaCzgApPfSmaLMDtWFXnbx9WW8t7HTouMYwoIf8TMBVkQSB1tjzX6cbQ1VjXLFFVTyf3LpduDkwh/s320/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+099.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Road to Pigadia - The last time we saw Rob happy (see following post)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Pigadia</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5P50uE2hkbGBjzEZyGVjpYwcXO9ymTSxEOSJaKaNQyyfiBvEtrySnYILfIcVb-dIKwkwpVZcXBBAQukdzbDu-o3c3zbOCt6wnUuwbyMZ_8KjqiGIrhJErvZYjRJHSFRJVHdec5TzpZg_m/s1600/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5P50uE2hkbGBjzEZyGVjpYwcXO9ymTSxEOSJaKaNQyyfiBvEtrySnYILfIcVb-dIKwkwpVZcXBBAQukdzbDu-o3c3zbOCt6wnUuwbyMZ_8KjqiGIrhJErvZYjRJHSFRJVHdec5TzpZg_m/s320/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+100.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Weird "ranch" I found just outside of Pigadia</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-38415578177215409222013-07-18T07:39:00.001-07:002013-07-18T07:39:44.651-07:00A Few More Northern Karpathos Photos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3J5XD678wtI6oTzUwbzPNardBNNgi8fW2GJJ0dqr1zteChbY5kAMErR4fqiSBCjvg3Fc-AckC02Rpno48Lq-OOyEdVwLjmdZ9WG9oZGMUhy7OLX2Lql1zGTOsmGxAhM5rQejU5io1dY2/s1600/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+073.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3J5XD678wtI6oTzUwbzPNardBNNgi8fW2GJJ0dqr1zteChbY5kAMErR4fqiSBCjvg3Fc-AckC02Rpno48Lq-OOyEdVwLjmdZ9WG9oZGMUhy7OLX2Lql1zGTOsmGxAhM5rQejU5io1dY2/s320/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+073.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My beach (from the water)</div>
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Into the pines 2</div>
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La Gorgona Restaurant - My Diafani hangout</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-13646400226494645632013-07-18T06:55:00.000-07:002013-07-18T07:15:14.679-07:00Northern Karpathos - A Darkness on the Edge of Town?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Tuesday-Wednesday,
July 9/10-2013—Diafani, Karpathos, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Back in Diafani. This
is one of the odder places I've been to in Greece, which is part of the reason
I made sure revisit this place this time around—even though it<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>disturbs me in certain ways I'd really like
to figure this region out. I'm not sure overall how much I like it here, by
which I mean northern Karpathos. A part of me is drawn to this place, while
another part of me feels a bit trapped once I'm here; it feels like a place
ruled by the past, a past that hasn't served it all that well then or now, and
when I'm here I feel partially forced into this past. OK, I realize that what
I've just said might seem more than a little bit cryptic (and tangled grammatically).
Let me see if I can explain what I'm trying to get at …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Karpathos is a pretty big island, but I think what
determines certain aspects of it culturally is not its size but its shape: it's
a long island, with a wide southern end that more or less tapers after a
certain point as one gets farther north and then starts to widen again at the
top; it's a bit like a vase with a fairly fat base and a bell top. The southern
half has always been more open to the rest of the world, whereas the north has,
until relatively recently, been cut off from, well, most things; the road that
now runs north south has only been completely in the last several years, and
I'm not sure if it is yet completely paved. The people up here are different
from those I've met anywhere else in Greece. The local dialect is different
(I'm told it still contains remnants of ancient Doric Greek, but I know nowhere
near enough Greek to know if this is true, though the way people speak up here
does seem to have a different flavor than in any places I've been in this
country). People dress differently here as well, in that, with the older women
at least, the old-fashioned country dress of black dresses and head scarfs accompanied
by more colorful embroidery is still quite common. This is no quaint backwater,
though, as the tourist guides say—there's a darkness here, which is connected
to the people's past, as symbolized by these types of traditions. The trouble I
have is putting my finger exactly on what this darkness is—it comes to me thru
a vague, yet complex set of feelings that I can't quite account for materially.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>First off, northern Karpathos is a wild place: big rough
pine-covered mountains meet the sea with coastlines of few beaches, let alone
much in the way of substantial inlets or safe harbors: the mountains generally
just disappear under the sea. Traditionally it's been a place for farmers and
fishermen. Both are still here, but trips into the hills reveal how much of the
land has been abandoned—miles of old field terraces dominate whole valleys,
which are now home to little besides the inevitable goat flocks (wild goats too
are found in the high hills, living a life that's so much more beautiful and
I'd argue worthily than that of their domesticated lowland cousins). Now this
describes a lot of Greece I've seen and even more that I've read about, and it
alone cannot account for what I see and feel with the people here, the
vibrations I've run into here and nowhere else in this country . There's a loneliness
I've felt while hiking the mountains of this part of the island, a loneliness
which seems to have seeped into the villages, like the mist that sweeps across
the mountains even during the warmest months. It's more than loneliness,
though. There's an undercurrent (at times slight, but always present) of
hostility here, maybe even contempt. There are far fewer of the warm smiles
here that I routinely encounter in other parts of Greece, the open-hearted
curiosity that seems to be a general hallmark of being Greek seems to have been
stunted and replaced with a suspicion that I hate to say seems to dovetail all
too easily into a kind of dull meanness, into a stultified clannishness. What
this all comes down to, I suppose, is that the people I meet here, the locals,
as a group, seem very unhappy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can't say why this is for sure, but it's as
if their exposure to the outside world has left them in a cultural no-man's
land. By this I mean, knowledge of what's out there, coming back here from
people who have emigrated to America and other places and brought in by the
relatively small numbers of travelers who find their way up here, has left the
old ways exposed and vulnerable to the new ideas coming in. But the people have
neither taken up the new ideas in force, integrated them into what's best of
the traditional ways to create a vibrant hybrid (which is what I've run into in
other formerly isolated places in Greece) nor have they rejected them to
celebrate what they have always been …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
just read over what I've written. Intellectually I can tell that it's too harsh
and sweeping; I know I haven't been here long enough and certainly don't have
the information to make such big damning pronouncements. But on the other hand
I feel no need or desire to take back anything I've said. What I'm working with
are my feelings—everywhere here all I've said seems to come at me, thru the
people's faces and actions, thru the general vibe that runs thru the culture,
that seems to hang in the air even when there are no people around. Over my
life I've learned to trust my feelings—I'm generally perceptive and I tend not
to react to that which I don't at first understand. Because of this, I know
that my what I'm feeling is fundamentally correct—there is a darkens here,
something very unhealthy underpinning this place culturally. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There's something going on here that just
ain't right …</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That said (like I can just walk away from such
statements) … Why am I here? I'm not sure. Like I've said, I feel drawn to this
place: there is something fascinating about northern Karpathos, even if many
aspects of the place trouble me. Since I've arrived I've most been getting into
the backcountry; there's is some of the best hiking in Greece here (or at least
the parts I've been to). I've also met a lot of people here, returning locals
and travelers, I really like. Actually that's one of the weird things about
this that fascinates me. Many of the people who come here, both outsiders and
returning Greeks, seem to have an almost religious devotion to this place—I've
met numerous people who have been coming here, sometimes for weeks at a time,
for ten, fifteen, twenty straight years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And
there really isn't all that much to do here, besides hike (like I've said, the
hiking is great, but also very challenging—there's no one some of the older
people who are so enamored with this place can participate to extensively in
this activity). The beaches are small, stony, and windy (with one little
exception, which, for reasons I haven't figured out, few people besides me seem
to bother with) and there's nothing in the way of museums and the like. In
Diafani itself there's really little to do besides sleep late and hang out in
the tavernas. But again people keep coming back. I sense a little why this is,
though I can't really explain it in any reasonable fashion. Basically, northern
Karpathos exudes a kind of narcotic affect. What I mean by this is that there's
something about this place that just captures and holds you, even when your
experience here is troubling—you just can't break away. I've been feeling this.
I know I need to get out, that I have other things I want and need to do more
than hang out here. But a part of me is always manufacturing excuses as to why
I can't yet leave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">OK,
none of this is working: I know I'm not explaining anything about this place
properly. Partially this is because I've left out its lighter side. I've met
some wonderful people here. The beauty of the countryside is staggering. The dark
feelings I get, which, as I've said, seem to come from the land itself, are
definitely not shallow: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whatever is going
on here it definitely has meaning</i>. What that meaning is, though, I have no
idea. Maybe I will become one of those people who just keeps coming back. I
feel the pull. I, as of yet, though, do not consider this necessarily to be good
thing …</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">[Onto
lighter things, stuff I've been doing …]</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Yesterday
I took a coastal trail high into the mountains heading north (I did it last
time I was here and was so blown away by it that one of the reasons I came back
was to it again). The trail actually is a huge loop heading inland and then
across the island to its west coast. I did that one last time thru and it took
me like thirteen hours or something. My ankle (though is it improving) won't
let me do that kind of hike right now so I settled for about a six hour
turnaround, which took me thru most of the coastal part of the trail. It was
just as spectacular as I remembered. Being up there on that rugged (but surprisingly
well-marked trail) so high above the ocean below is remarkable. So is the
countryside. This island is so green and piney, which makes it a lot different
from a lot of Greek island hiking. The only negative is that I went down hard
on the trail when I was heading back. I went down a couple times on my first
hikes this summer on Crete, but haven't had it happen since. This one was an
odd one too, not really my fault, I'd say. All of a sudden the trail just
vanished underneath me: a big chunk of it just crumbled away down into a deep
drainage (I was lucky I didn't go at least part way down the drainage with it).
Without warning my feet completely went out from underneath me and I went down
hard on my right side, half into the stones and half into a thorn bush. Though
I’m still pulling out thorns I was actually lucky I landed on them. Even with
the half cushioning (if you can call an armful of little spikes “cushioning”)
of the bush my arm hit the rocks hard and I ended up with a big welt that feels
like it goes all the way to the bone. If I'd landed just on the rocks I might
have broken my arm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Today
I went inland to the agricultural village of Avlona, which is a truly beautiful
hike, thru surprisingly dense pine forests, which give way to rocky highlands
half shrouded in mist that surround a surprisingly productive little
high-altitude plain. I've been to Avlona before, so I didn't linger there
(there's not much to do there anyway, besides hit one of its two littler
tavernas and be stared at by the locals—few travelers make it up there besides
those brought in on day trips by tourist company out of the south of the island
and those who do are interesting enough to warrant eyes peaking out from behind
curtains, etc.). But instead started back on a slightly different, more rugged
trail that eventually linked back up with the one I'd taken in. The hike took
about six hours and that was all I could handle for the day. It was definitely
a good day on the trail, though …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Tomorrow
I leave, head down on the tourist boat (the one that brings the day-trippers
up). The boat doesn't head out until about four-thirty, though. So I think I'll
beach it in the morning and hang out in a taverna in the afternoon. A part of
me want to stay another day (there's that narcotic affect), but I know it's
time to move on—I'm not going to be sucked any deeper into this place on this
trip: I have too much more of Crete I want to see, too many places that make me
feel lighter (if not better) than I do when I'm here …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Diafani (from the boat)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Trail heading south</span></div>
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Inland into the pines</div>
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East coast from the trail</div>
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My own private beach</div>
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Misty mountain hop</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-70715415245761480112013-07-12T09:19:00.000-07:002013-07-12T12:13:41.432-07:00Some Halki Photos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Just thought I'd throw out a few Halki photos. I've actually been on Karpathos for 5 days but haven't felt much like writing. Expect a text post from here in the next day or so ...</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeSHaN9FxuKNDU9HFx_XZrvR-7O9NRpqawYklIAORjDJVXaI38AT6wy_i1GaGAQ8MxDQN9swuD_75RcS8Kdp2tXLWs5ZsZwFx8kxE1gI2ofOWq0yPq1p_QCBuGdqamZeCPBRxDlJaZJlYl/s1600/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeSHaN9FxuKNDU9HFx_XZrvR-7O9NRpqawYklIAORjDJVXaI38AT6wy_i1GaGAQ8MxDQN9swuD_75RcS8Kdp2tXLWs5ZsZwFx8kxE1gI2ofOWq0yPq1p_QCBuGdqamZeCPBRxDlJaZJlYl/s320/Halki_Karpathos_2013_July+003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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House in Halki for sale that I was checking out</div>
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Inside my comfy house</div>
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Mr. Kanny Cornflakes - A weird (looking and tasting) Italian brand</div>
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Knights of St. John castle remains</div>
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Cool twin beaches below the castle I couldn't get to</div>
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Crumbling Horio</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-48814291285949329532013-07-08T15:31:00.000-07:002013-07-08T15:31:36.389-07:00Halki and Parting Halki<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Friday,
July 6, 2013—Emborios, Halki, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A little after nine at
night. I'm sitting on the balcony of my room. I've just watched the sun finally
set (or the light from the sun slowly fade, to be more accurate—the sun
actually sets behind me). It's hard to describe the peace of this vantage point
at this time of day. The rugged hills of Halki and the uninhabited island that
protects its little port look both unbelievably substantial and somehow unreal
at the same time; they're like rock as mist and mist as rock. The wind has died
down so even at the top of the hill (where I'm at) I can hear the water lapping
against the dock and the boats. I can also hear the motors of the little
fishing boats that head out each night. There are also the sounds coming from
the restaurants and bars that line the waterfront: gentle sounds: people
talking and laughing, not blaring music or anything even vaguely rushed.
Earlier I got to watch Rhodes bathed in this vanishing light. The mountains in
the area of Rhodes facing me are very green (especially by Greece standards),
but the tops appear to be completely devoid of plant life; they are vaguely red
crowns of dirt. When the sunset hits these bald tops this vague red becomes
soft and luminous, which give them a strongly painterly feel … Turner meets
Greece, something indescribable like that …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hiked down the coast a bit today (my ankle hurt, but not
as bad as I feared it might). I made it to this nearly deserted town called
Horio, above which is yet another Knights of St. John castle. The town's
fascinating because here and there people are restoring houses. Most, however,
seem to have been crumbling for decades. I'm not sure of the dates, but this
island was almost abandoned at one point. Apparently the water just ran out. A
few people hung on. A lot bailed out, many to Florida (there are little plaques
commemorating work done on the island as gifts from its Floridian offshoots and
I keep hearing conversations between Greeks that go back and forth between
Greek and American English—Greek Americans coming “home”). It wasn't till the
tourist boom of the 70s this place came back to life. It's hard to believe that
anyone would want to recolonize the interior here, though. It's some of the
harshest, driest areas I've run into on any of the islands I've visited; it's
amazing that the (many) goats here can even eke out a living. But a few people
at least want their old homes back (or maybe to resurrect their ancestor's old
homes). I wish them luck, even though I don't fully understand their motives …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hiked up to the castle. It's in the process of being
restored. Still, after scrambling up stone paths, temporary wooden walkways and
some trails of my own making, I found a way to the top. It's pretty much like
all the other Knights of St. John castles I've been to, but the views were
spectacular. Especially interesting were these two really cool little beaches I
could see, which existed back to back on a little neck of land that let out to
a big round peninsula. I decided to try and get down to these for a swim, but I
couldn't figure out how. I took a dirt road out of the town that looked
promising but it just shunted me off down the coast. Heading down directly from
the castle was a non-starter: it was perched on nearly sheer cliffs. I looked around
in search of some trails with no luck. So instead I just hiked back towards
Emborios and went for a swim at the touristy Potamos Beach, a great strip of shelving
sand, but a touch too crowded for me (I went there the day before
and felt kind of like I was in a place that was being slightly overrun).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Tomorrow (at four-thirty in the morning!) I'm catching the
ferry south, to Karpathos. The person I was supposed to meet there, an Italian
friend of who until recently lived in Istanbul, isn't going to make as it
looked like she would (all the crazy shit going down in Turkey has thrown her
life well off stride). So I'm not quite as eager to get their as I was before.
Still, there are things there I missed last time thru and a few things I'd like
to experience again. It's interesting, but this trip every time I'm getting
ready to leave an island I feel sad (even if my experience there wasn't
anything special). Each island in Greece is to some extent a world unto itself.
So I really feel as if I'm leaving something important behind, something I
can't experience anywhere else. There's also a feeling of … mortality … that
comes over me at these partings. I'm beginning to realize (with my heart as
well as my head) that I will never make it back to certain places in my life,
which brings a finality to these partings that is a bit painful. These feelings
largely go away as soon as I hit the next island: the hope of new discoveries
takes over and the loss of the previous parting is converted into a pleasant
memory, something from which I can draw strength. But that will come later for
this Halki parting. As of right now I just feel like I'm losing something,
something, as I've just said, I'll never get back …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let's make this
simpler: I need to remember that Greek ferries not only take <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">from</i> islands, but they bring me <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to</i> islands as well …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">*</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My
first morning here—some semi-poetic reportage …</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I left the doors to the
patio open and even the dawn sun was so hot that it woke me up. I stood up,
walked naked out onto my balcony and saw the sun as a perfect orange-red ball
coming up over the mountains of Rhodes. It was amazing. This blazing ball, the
raw mountains, on Rhodes and especially here, and the light glinting off the
blue-green waters around this island combined to be one of the most powerfully
beautiful things I've ever seen. Then something weird happened. Suddenly I felt
the craving for an ice cream cone—not just ice cream, but specifically an ice
cream cone. I have no idea what this means (the Freudian implications are just too
obvious to be any fun to explore in this case), but that's what happened. I
don't even eat ice cream anymore and I couldn't say when the last time was I
had it in cone form. But there is was …</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_hHAZprK2dBQsyDObZqWVi2UO2MEdLlFmMZJjkRCMZxxAAr3LBnguO0VuhLt61qPwDDxsCd2Ne13QmvXKvWgpPxzZFbY5junRKrgCBZ_qHawWnCiJosryyTCagpfCxbR2cOi7x11Hy6Tn/s1600/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_hHAZprK2dBQsyDObZqWVi2UO2MEdLlFmMZJjkRCMZxxAAr3LBnguO0VuhLt61qPwDDxsCd2Ne13QmvXKvWgpPxzZFbY5junRKrgCBZ_qHawWnCiJosryyTCagpfCxbR2cOi7x11Hy6Tn/s320/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+094.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Harsh interior Halki</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyldcMkXlRDn8gSDE9Pl9Ii8orwpBco42PBPC3DdQ4MriKTohoddNdICY5RObGXHogqsyJwI9gDLGOWsSoGnSPRaISckIXr5EdIstHHdayhLTmixQI_iX3ER85Mnvte_9RgjjB0TayBqBu/s1600/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyldcMkXlRDn8gSDE9Pl9Ii8orwpBco42PBPC3DdQ4MriKTohoddNdICY5RObGXHogqsyJwI9gDLGOWsSoGnSPRaISckIXr5EdIstHHdayhLTmixQI_iX3ER85Mnvte_9RgjjB0TayBqBu/s320/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+087.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Potamos Beach</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSAFG2It2avVvnMyw80okwsmLGenmp-NspQUdo-jWMihkGDHhg4tNvwBoF5Du4jTKOEBHYUZQTvmiTW3ULfft5VafHUJykI5ZQCCCzA5p24LWm7bOQhxfbvTpj_EuIT1r946WLqsUGfdN/s1600/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSAFG2It2avVvnMyw80okwsmLGenmp-NspQUdo-jWMihkGDHhg4tNvwBoF5Du4jTKOEBHYUZQTvmiTW3ULfft5VafHUJykI5ZQCCCzA5p24LWm7bOQhxfbvTpj_EuIT1r946WLqsUGfdN/s320/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+092.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Knights of St. John's Castle above Horio ("Is there anyone else up there we can talk to?")</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-60574510339113891382013-07-08T14:57:00.001-07:002013-07-08T14:57:50.147-07:00A Little Niche Called Halki<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Thursday, July 4, 2013—Emborios,
Halki, Greece </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Left
Nisyros. The boat stopped at Tilos. The island was drier than I expected; it
looked liked a differently-shaped Leros. I hate leaving an island unexplored
(I'd probably stop at all of them if I had the time and the money). But as I've
said, the main reason I would be going there would be for the hiking—and the
mountains there looked very challenging. Given that the current state of my
ankle makes stairs a challenge the gnarly ridgelines I saw from the boat are
out of the question.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now I'm in Halki, a little rock of
an island off the west coast of Rhodes. What can I say about this place? Not
much so far. All I've done is find a place to stay (more on that later), wander
around the port, and find a place to eat dinner, which I'm doing now (in an
Italian restaurant, for a change). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">OK, what I do know. This island is
small, a big rock with a village. Emborios, the village, is picturesque to the
point of being ridiculous.: it's like they created a postcard of it first and
then built the town to match it. A crescent of brown, scrubby, desperately dry
hills. A little port town clinging to their base. Boats of all sizes in the
water, bobbing gently thru the perfect summer air, in the blue-green water, so
striking against the brown hills that surround it … Rhodes, massive Rhodes
looming in the distance …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Halki is a hip day-trip from Rhodes,
but once the transport boats have gone home it's just a relative handful of
travelers and the locals (fishermen and the people who work in the restaurants,
guest-houses, etc.) Tomorrow I'm going to explore the island on foot (ankle
willing)—there' really no other way to get from point A to point B on this
little place …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I'd heard that getting accommodation
here can be a bit difficult this time of year: there aren't that many places to
stay and they tend to be booked in advance. Like I do everywhere, though, I
just came in cold. Still I managed to quickly get a place, which has turned out
to be a good deal (considering what I' getting for my money). I was wandering
up the hill from the port with my pack on, looking slightly bewildered (which
I've discovered is a great way to attract the pension owners) when a young
Greek-Swedish guy (yes, such creatures exist) came up to me and offered me a
room in his family guest-house. The deal I got is more evidence that tourism is
really down here. Basically I'm renting a really nice two bedroom house(!) for
only thirty five euros a night. Normally I'd guess they could get between
seventy and a hundred for this place in good times. I'm spending more than I
like to for a place, but like I've said, I'm getting more than my money's
worth. Plus, with the kitchen its got I can eat in a bunch and make up a lot of
the money there. So all in all things have worked out really cool in this
regard …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Don't know how long I'm going to be
here. Tomorrow will determine that—if I still believe there's more to see after
that I'll hang around another day. The length of my time here also depends on
the ferry schedule and my next destination, which is either back to Rhodes or
down to Karpathos. Fate and the ferries might have more of a say in this than I
do …</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgSACdyVB-r8qUb2ANq6vcHff9DGj7AnBS8LeI7tz83N0RmmoqWukiaLKhGJtdcShrjjiv3_1NLcLriHTIbPqeEbhGYoT1NDG3nq1XgMQVjTVBu8hNexlB72xF8AnI5jMAeVDCAQ7Gqqm/s1600/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgSACdyVB-r8qUb2ANq6vcHff9DGj7AnBS8LeI7tz83N0RmmoqWukiaLKhGJtdcShrjjiv3_1NLcLriHTIbPqeEbhGYoT1NDG3nq1XgMQVjTVBu8hNexlB72xF8AnI5jMAeVDCAQ7Gqqm/s320/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+065.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Emborios, the port at Halki</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhTivdD5Gj0AYZwXq8Q_oZlGqO1hZfycigvGzkWTQznS_8ZS5ljUtWmjMKiXX4PIi5uLvYKkj84Xxb5z2_zbkRpu_I5X1-utmrr1PfQfQ73rDFxO9Xu4y__w03WV0LJR3hFryheLUENbX/s1600/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhTivdD5Gj0AYZwXq8Q_oZlGqO1hZfycigvGzkWTQznS_8ZS5ljUtWmjMKiXX4PIi5uLvYKkj84Xxb5z2_zbkRpu_I5X1-utmrr1PfQfQ73rDFxO9Xu4y__w03WV0LJR3hFryheLUENbX/s320/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+062.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Emborios - View from my balcony</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfqNILTaBecPIgGIKnFbPRERuFAMBGPa6KWfeqnDv2lFHE9AZs_80qqnpJ4Iks7z4VmHL828T4jIDQvy5WSKbP_FchJBAnTpz6Bv1YzsLwa_JoAcTxMAqI8SOqAp0FzdYqvmlsdu9raaeM/s1600/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfqNILTaBecPIgGIKnFbPRERuFAMBGPa6KWfeqnDv2lFHE9AZs_80qqnpJ4Iks7z4VmHL828T4jIDQvy5WSKbP_FchJBAnTpz6Bv1YzsLwa_JoAcTxMAqI8SOqAp0FzdYqvmlsdu9raaeM/s320/Nisyros_Halki2013_July+076.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Research materials</div>
</div>
Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-87004282572681669572013-07-06T09:54:00.002-07:002013-07-06T09:54:48.889-07:00Nisyros - Simply Wonderful<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Wednesday,
July 3, 2012—Mandraki, Nisyros, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Took the boat over from
Kos to Nisyros two mornings ago. It was a good move: I had pretty much had my
fill of Kos. Nisyros has turned out to be quite a nice stop. I came here, like
most people do, to check out the semi-active volcano at the island's heart
(which I did—it was interesting, if not mind blowing), but I'm glad I've stuck
around. It's a truly beautiful place. Due to the the rich volcanic soils the
island's very rich—its inland areas are teaming with plant life, both of the
wild and the domestic variety; it's even more lush than Kos. It's also got a
great climate. Due to it's small size (it's probably only around a quarter of the
size of Kos) even inland you catch the coastal breezes, which are pretty strong,
to the point where my first night here, when I was eating at a little restaurant
right on the water, I felt the need to throw on a pullover because things were
getting a bit chilly. It's also a very rugged island. I went hiking yesterday
and found myself in an absolutely beautiful gorge, which, despite its rugged
nature, was also one of the most fertile places I've been to in Greece. The
hills there were lined with very productive terraces and on the way there I
passed all sorts of different types of crops growing (plus of course many goats and
sheep).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The town I'm staying in is the island's capitol,
Mandraki. It's one of the cooler little towns I've run into in Greece. It
clings to a very narrow, mostly rocky, coastal strip and climbs a fair way into
the mountains. In regards to its layout it's your typical windy Greece village,
but there's just something really nice about the place—it gives off a wonderful
vibe. It's got its tourist shops, but not that many of them and the restaurants
attract as many locals it seems as they do travelers. It's especially nice here
in the evenings. Each morning/afternoon day-trip tourist boats come in from Kos
so people can see the volcano. Once that's done they hang out in town for a few
hours before they go back. For these hours Mandraki becomes a bit of a zoo,
crowded with all the tourists who don't have the imagination to come here on
their own, minus a tour company. When these uninteresting people bail out in
the afternoon, though, the town becomes the laid-back, good vibe place I've
been describing. I like it so much that I've been considering staying another
day. But other destinations beckon. Besides, it's better to stay somewhere too
short of a time than be there one day too long …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><em>Nisyros Notes:</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This island has THE
best regional archaeological museum I've ever run into. Fantastic displays,
well explained—I walked out of there (after two hours, even though it's not that
big) really feeling that I had a pretty good handle on the prehistory/ancient
history of the island (and to some extent the region). I'm thinking of going
back again today while I'm waiting for the afternoon boat …</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Also, above the town, there are remains of the ancient
wall surrounding ancient Nisyros, which goes back to classical times. It's reputed to be the best preserved city wall from that time in all the islands. Cool stuff
…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Yesterday,
for the first time on this trip, I had to abort a hike about halfway thru
because my left ankle was hurting too much for me to continue. I have had
problems with the ankle for years, but yesterday was one of the worst flareups
ever. This concerns me because my next stop is supposed to be the island of
Tilos, which I'm going to mainly because the hiking is supposed to be great.
There. Hardly seems any point in heading that way if I can't hike, though …</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Later in the day on Nisyros …</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Bought
a ticket for Halki. No point in going to Tilos if I can't hike. There's
supposedly not much to do on Halki except relax—the island's so small there's
little temptation for me to do much hiking. I'm a little bummed out at missing
Tilos. But I wasn't planning on going to Halki and I've since decided that I'd
like to see it. So I suppose everything in the end equals out …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Noticed
that I'm going back and forth between islands/parts of islands that are crowded
and those that are more tranquil and less visited. I guess this is healthy,
that I need both experiences, in reasonable doses …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Trying
to put my thoughts together as to why I like Nisyros so much, but the specifics
are just not coming to me. There are just some places whose vibes meld with
your vibes to great a special combo. Wish I could stay a bit longer here, but
the way the boats run I'd have to wait till Tuesday to get a ride going where
I'd like to be—and I can't stay here that long. That would ruin things. It
would be like seriously over eating a dish you love. The old cliché about leaving
the table a little hungry is probably a good metaphor here …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hard
to believe that a laid-back place like Nisyros can exist just a short boat ride
from the tourist craziness of Kos … </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Kos
is easily visible from the south coast of Nisyros, as is the coast of Turkey.
There are also some small, uninhabited islands just off the coast here. Two
feature massive mining operations. One is for obsidian and I forget what
they're after on the other island. From here it looks like these islands are
being dismantled piece by piece. It must be weird to live here and watch an
island be carted a away. I wonder if it's noticeable or if it's such a slow
process you loose track of what things used to be like without the aid of
photographs. Mining of course goes on over the world. But when an island
vanishes thru it it brings home how destructive the process is, the price we
pay to live or burn-it-all-up-now lifestyle; it becomes so obvious how little
respect we have for the land—we use it, we do not live with it. Shit, don't
want to preach here. But this scene really bugs me. I wonder what I'll see in
regards to these two islands if I come back ten or twenty years down the road …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Volcano Caldera</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here come the day trippers!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhJPyvkodGrL6t1SF5iVe9BmI09L3gBn5mib7Lp58xj1l-sduMFhCPSAZq_1NJzYKAYUOYZ0xVkHzt45vPc8qHds_mzO81GCpzyOakPkk0t71mndN8hNYuMK6vRyEYBLp-EPN6Yanjhyphenhyphenm/s1600/Kos_Nisyros_2013_July+031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhJPyvkodGrL6t1SF5iVe9BmI09L3gBn5mib7Lp58xj1l-sduMFhCPSAZq_1NJzYKAYUOYZ0xVkHzt45vPc8qHds_mzO81GCpzyOakPkk0t71mndN8hNYuMK6vRyEYBLp-EPN6Yanjhyphenhyphenm/s320/Kos_Nisyros_2013_July+031.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Volcano Rob</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mandraki Paths</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mandraki meets the sea</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I just found this incredibly beautiful ...</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-38639394359488086002013-07-06T09:27:00.000-07:002013-07-06T09:27:30.111-07:00Kos - A Final Fragment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Monday,
July 1, 2013—Kos Town, Kos, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Made it to the beaches
on the southwest coast of the island today. They are nice—they are big by
Greece standards), sandy on go on forever (12 km, according to my <em>Lonely Planet
</em>Guide). They were also pretty touristy, 5 euro umbrellas everywhere. It wasn't
as bad as I thought it would be, though. Description made it sound like it
would be a like a smaller version of the north coast of Crete: endless
restaurants, hotels, and tacky souvenir shops. It was much wilder than that,
though. Basically the beaches were backed mainly by fairly rugged scrubby
mountains, featuring large swaths of junipers; the beaches reminded me of the
much smaller ones on Gavdos. As I feared, though, the wind was up a bit, which
made things a touch less enjoyable than they'd have been on a really good day.
Still, I enjoyed myself. It was nice to get out of town, if nothing else …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Overall, though, I'm burned out on this island. It's just
was too touristy here. It's been an interesting experience (which I've handled
a lot better than I thought I would), but this is not why I come to Greece ...</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">[I
got side-tracked and never got back to this entry—so I'll leave it a it
stands.]</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Paradise Beach, Southern Kos</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Walking east (more or less) from Paradise Beach</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">While hiking in Kos I came upon this derelict Jewish cemetery. It obviously hasn't been looked after in a long time: it's full of weeds, headstone have fallen or been knocked over, etc. I have run into several of these in Greece and they never fail to tear at my heart. The reason of course why they're abandoned is that the Nazi killed or drove off most of Greece's Jewish community during World War II. The sorrow of these places is immense to me. I really don't know how to deal with it: they simply represent too much pain and loss to be processed ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">(Really) Creepy statue of Hypocrites I ran into on Kos</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-52698316279680333862013-07-05T06:29:00.000-07:002013-07-05T06:29:12.323-07:00Map<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This might help orient people reading this ... I'm on Halki (just above Rhodes) as I post this.<br />
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-44482461511186946672013-07-05T06:23:00.000-07:002013-07-05T06:25:28.274-07:00More Kos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sunday,
June 30, 2013—Kos Town, Kos, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Didn't get out to the
beaches today like I planned, for a couple of reasons. First off, I forgot that
it was Sunday, which means a restricted bus schedule. I also wasn't feeling so
hot when I woke up. I drink so little these days that my big night out—three drinks—actually
left me with a mild but very persistent hangover, which meant that I got a late
start and was moving pretty slowly. I decided instead to hike 3 km inland to a
famous archaeological site called Askipieion, which is associated with
Asclepius, the god of healing. It was also the site of a medical school where
Hippocrates’ teachings were followed. It was a pretty interesting place. It was
very hard to understand what I was seeing, though. Greek archaeological sites,
even big important ones like this, tend to be very poorly explained. The site
goes back to Minoan times and was used for various purposes right up until the
early Christian era. Mostly what I was seeing was a jumble of material going
back to the 2<sup>nd</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> centuries BC to later Roman times;
like I've said, though, untangling what I was seeing was pretty difficult. I
did get a lot of good pictures, though, to use to try and figure things out
later. I also can use some of the shots in my archaeology class this coming
semester …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The site aside, I glad I went there for the walk: it gave
me a chance to explore a tiny bit of this island's inland areas, which are
considerably different than those of the other islands I've been to. Like
Patmos, this is a very rich island; it obviously has a lot more water that most
of the Dodecanese. Other than this generally richness, though, it doesn't look
at all like Patmos—the landscape is softer, more rolling and the colors are
different. Patmos has the orange pinkish hue about it, whereas this place is more
about saturated yellows; it reminds me of deeper, more intense version of parts
of coastal central California (it's as if this place demands to be painted in
oils whereas watercolors would render California more accurately). Like Patmos,
though, light is a huge factor here: in both places it seems to have substance
all its own; it's almost like another thing, trees, water, light … It seems
like something you can reach out and touch, feel slip thru your fingers …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Since it has a lot of water it's not surprisingly more
wooded than other islands. Even on my short walk today, which only got into the
foothills, I was running into pines, cedars, junipers and other species I
wasn't sure of. There are also more wildflowers here than other places in these
islands (I bet this place is amazing in this regard in the spring when
everything is in bloom). There also just more plant coverage in general. No
place here I've seen (and I've seen a lot of the coast from the boat that
brought me here) has that scrubby patchy look of Leros and so many other Greek
islands I've been to. Though I've only seen the edges of the island's
agricultural regions, based on what I have seen, this looks like a great place
to be a Greek farmer. My guess is that the agricultural productivity here has
got to be many fold a lot of the other islands …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(More on this subject later. Tomorrow I'm going on my
beach trip, which will have me cross a big chunk of the island. I should have
much more info by tomorrow evening …)</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Notes:
Tourist Crowds of Kos</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Last night I ate dinner
at an outside table at a restaurant that was in the very heart of the tourist
region, in one of the narrow twisty alleys of the old town. The tourist throng
was amazing, in both their numbers and their movements. Only in Waikiki at the
absolute height of summer have I seen that many vacationers in one place (that
many in relation to the size of the place—Waikiki's considerably bigger). What
I found most amazing was their interest in the banal shops that are everywhere
here: except for some of the teenage girls looking at clothes, most of the them
seemed interested because there was nothing else for them to do really but
check them out: it was like they had to be interested or there was no reason
for them to be there (of maybe here in general). I wonder if they ever wonder
why they came here, if they ever wonder if they're really having fun or not …</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">General
Notes:</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Bought a boat ticket
today to Nisyros, the next island to the south. It's going to be the exact
opposite of this place: it sees only a fraction of the tourism of Kos. The main
reason people go there is that the island is basically an active volcano and it's
possible to hike right to edge of it. This is the main reason I'm going there,
that and I hear that there are some other good hikes there as well …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">After Nisyros I'll be
heading to Tilos, mainly because it's supposed to have some of the best hiking
in the Dodecanese. It's also supposed to be pretty far off the beaten path,
which is definitely is appealing to me after the tourist crush of Kos …</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXAkyXx8Y4RQe2cMTGI8PbZ6PhzeGdn2o43FNQ_PatCZdElIgLQuUs1NzFgkMQ76kGErU74yJeElXjqQuaXelHscxPCjRK9kAESTr5i1MuGakpQVmy9JaNnx9NNCEsGML9ZmVS8UZ231G/s1600/Kos_2013_June+068.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXAkyXx8Y4RQe2cMTGI8PbZ6PhzeGdn2o43FNQ_PatCZdElIgLQuUs1NzFgkMQ76kGErU74yJeElXjqQuaXelHscxPCjRK9kAESTr5i1MuGakpQVmy9JaNnx9NNCEsGML9ZmVS8UZ231G/s320/Kos_2013_June+068.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Part of a reconstructed Roman Villa - Kos Town</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My main Greece guide meets Ancient Rome - Just thought this would be a cool shot</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFk0N-7lulUnnlXDse5dlMWvzI6y5tGxpXViuCiZwmxAiLtjzy_BDDMIwpbwkBL31olIHGKUiKBynRFP6wjY5yUPulFNBTWLRGsaf4HmUxR0IcqVkDeV02oZPqE0EmzjUjtSOrkWsfOLG/s1600/Kos_2013_June+153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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Part of a Roman floor mosaic - Hard to get all of it in one shot, but it's really cool</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCnolYWUjieij7umT76zpY_LFDSsvc_dmNQb_9ZTUOLaIWr36cEcLx_JOFjua9iO8KmwNCIwPPfrgnHvRZmzMMOht-rnt-myPTn4kybw4QIXDaBfU-PVMYH7RhhtQfGvRPE768WY8HA37N/s1600/Kos_2013_June+153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCnolYWUjieij7umT76zpY_LFDSsvc_dmNQb_9ZTUOLaIWr36cEcLx_JOFjua9iO8KmwNCIwPPfrgnHvRZmzMMOht-rnt-myPTn4kybw4QIXDaBfU-PVMYH7RhhtQfGvRPE768WY8HA37N/s320/Kos_2013_June+153.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Interior of Kos - Reminds me in places of Central California</div>
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Kos Town - From the ferry</div>
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Not a good photo of me on the Ferry off Kos (I look like The Dude on a bad day)</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-59971874237903153282013-07-05T05:47:00.000-07:002013-07-05T06:00:47.207-07:00Kos - First Impressions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><i>Note - I'm posting from cafes etc. with Internet connections that are slow - too slow for pictures, for the most part. I'll post a mess of photos as soon as I stumble upon a better connection or someplace where I can plug in and my lame battery is not an issue.</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Saturday,
June 29, 2013—Kos Town, Kos, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Took a hydrofoil here
today. Those things are fast!—I made it here, even with a stop in Kalymnos, in
only about an hour and a half (they're also kind of expensive, 21 euros). I
found a room just off the main part of town for thirty euros a night. This
price includes breakfast. Given this, it's not a bad deal, especially
considering how expensive this island is reputed to be. Even so, I will no
doubt be spending more money here than I want to—the island just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exudes</i> expensiveness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Back to the place I'm staying. It's one of those
wonderfully weird Greek guest houses that can only be stumbled on by accident
or by its proprietress (it's always older women who run these things) coming
and grabbing you when you at the docks (which is what happened to me here). My
room is this tiny little thing with two double beds a wardrobe and an old TV
jammed into it. It's little balcony opens out onto the balconies and back
windows of several other buildings, all of which are closely packed together.
The bathroom is down the hall—and it's pretty amazing. It a combo
bathroom/laundry room. Next to the toilet and the big American-style tub (huge by
European standards) is a large washing machine. What's really bizarre it that
they've got the washer draining into to toilet—there's a pipe with soaping
water attached to the bowl (they've actually altered the bowl so the pipe can
sit in it when the cover's closed). The place has also got thin walls and the
rooms these odd doors, the top of which are smoked glass. When these doors are
shut, even as quietly as possible, the whole building seems to be rattling.
Added to this, the walls in the hall, the laundry room, etc. are adorned with Byzantine
religious iconography. Almost as a kind of counterpoint, my room features an
erotic photo of a pretty model-type couple embracing (so tasteless that it's
almost pornographic). On the wall across from this is a needlepoint of young
lovers embrace with a sunset backdrop. Amazing …<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> got in pretty early today, a little after noon. So I've had plenty of time to
wander the town. It's a typical Greek island city, pretty, but really not all
that different from, say, Hania or Rhodes Town (structurally it's nowhere near
as interesting as those places). It is newer. A big earthquake leveled the
place in 1933 so it lacks a lot of the old Venetian architecture and twisty
alleys found in other Greek cities (though it does have the remains of a
Knights of St. John Castle right in the middle its waterfront). Because of this
is feel more spacious and relaxed. Still, it's filled with stalls selling the
same old stuff you can get anywhere in these islands, as well as tourist
restaurants that might as all have the same menu. The town is loaded with archaeological
sites (two of which I explored today), but it's beaches look very mediocre
(they're also fairly crowded—I seem to be back into the German tourist zone).
So far I'd say this place is a mixed bag …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
feel like I've pretty much seen everything that interests me in town
(unfortunately the archaeological museum is closed down, indefinitely). So
tomorrow I think I'm going to take a bus to check out the beaches of the
southwest of the island, either that or one on the north coast. I'm going to be
here for two more full days, so I'll probably end up hitting both places either
way. So far I'd say this place is EXACTLY what I expected it to be: pretty,
touristy, and ultimately an island worth checking out for a short period, but
not my style for any length of time. The main thing that bugs me about these
kinds of places is that they really could be any beachie place in the world.
Kos Town, for example, might as well be Rhodes Town or Biarritz or even Waikiki
… I’m in Greece, but as long as I'm in this town that doesn't really matter:
I'm in Beach Vacationland—that's the fundamental baseline I'm dealing with …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Since
I've be eating in the last two nights I'm going to splurge a little bit on
dinner tonight. There's a place called Elia's that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lonely Planet </i>raves about, an oasis in the middle of the tourist
district. I hunted it down this afternoon (it blended in really well—I passed
it three times before I figured out it was the place I was looking for). It
looks ritzy, but the prices weren't too bad. Then I plan on heading over to
someplace called the Bittersweet Music Bar (or maybe it was “Lounge”). Mainly
because it looked like a pretty cool place to hang out and I like the
minimalist drum-and-bass tracks they were pumping out (it's Saturday night,
though, so I may find a way less mellow scene tonight).</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Notes
on Leaving Leros:</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As I watched Leros flow
by me on my way to Kos I learned a lot about its geography. It's a harsh
looking place. High mountains coming directly out of the sea, featuring almost
nothing in the way of coastal flatlands or even beaches: surf striking rocky
shores for miles. Dry landscape, scrub vegetation, which looks like it would
even have a hard time supporting much of a goat population. Little in the way
of settlement. It looked like it would be hard, unrewarding hiking. Kalymnos,
the island just to the south of Leros, looks like an extension of this
landscape. This makes me think that I made the right decision in exploring
Leros lightly and skipping Kalymnos altogether. I only have so much time and
money and I can't do everything. So far my instincts seem to be spot on …</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">General
Notes:</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My ankles and knees are
really sore. I need to stay off my feet for the next few days, as the next two
islands I'm planning on heading to—Nisyros and Tilos—are back-of-beyond places
that are going to be all about hiking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The wind that came up
in Leros yesterday is blasting a way here as well. It's keeping things cool,
but kind of screwing up the beaches. Hoping tomorrow won't be a windy, sandy
mess.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Been having lots of
weird intense dreams the last few nights, about nothing that at least directly has
anything to do with Greece, featuring people from back home, in some cases
people I haven't really thought much of in years. Have no idea what's causing
them. Not too concerned.</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-69469763813403505092013-07-05T05:34:00.001-07:002013-07-05T05:34:47.001-07:00Leros Thoughts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Friday,
June 28, 2013—Alinda, Leros, Greece </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Realized today that
I've hit a bit of a wall. Like I mentioned in my last entry, yesterday I felt
like I really needed a day to recharge. Today I've been feeling the same way. I
woke up today, after about nine hours sleep, feeling totally wiped out. I knew
it was going to be a minimalist day from then on out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
did manage to climb the hill up to Pandeli Castle, which looms above the over
side of Alinda Bay. It was interesting. The bulk of the castle was destroyed at
various times, so most of what's up there is a reconstruction but it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">felt</i> pretty authentic. More interesting
than the castle itself was the museum next to it. The museum is culturally only
tenuously connected to what had gone on with the castle. Mostly it houses
examples religious iconography, which were quite interesting, mainly because
the guy working in the museum explained them really well. He was a Greek-American
from Texas, so he understood how to translate Greek Orthodox traditions for
outsiders. Other than the museum all I managed to do was buy a boat ticket for
Kos (I leave tomorrow at 10:20 AM).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
really haven't seen much of this island, just the castle and the towns strung
along this part of the coast. Normally this would bug me, but I hadn't really
planned on coming here anyway. Also, based on descriptions of this place and
what I have seen there's really not that much that interests me here: I'm using
this island mainly as a relatively inexpensive pit-stop. That said, if I had a
bit more money to burn, I wouldn't mind staying here a couple more days, mainly
because I haven't quite figured the place out and I don't like leaving
mysteries behind me. That said, I do think I get why this isn't exactly a hot
destination: it doesn't have the wildness and breadth of someplace like Crete,
while it also lacks the glamor, facilities, and style of places like Rhodes and
Kos. It feels off the beaten path, but not necessarily in a good way … </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today the wind kicked up, making it a pretty lousy day
for the beach (which is mainly what this place has to offer). Because of this
there hardly seemed to be anyone around. Or at least that's what I thought was
going on. To save money I ate in again tonight, taking advantage of the rarity
of having a kitchen. After eating an early dinner and then taking an unexpected
nap (I just crashed), I decided to head out and get a drink somewhere just to
get out and mingle. Alinda, though, was empty; it's a Friday night and
virtually every restaurant and bar was deserted or nearly so—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and this is the tourist center of the island</i>.
I'm beginning to think that a lot of the people I saw on the beach yesterday
were local Greeks who didn't come out today because of the wind. If my observations
are correct, this place is really dead. I wonder if this is because of the
state of the European economy or is this place always like this (I doubt the
latter seriously: there are too many restaurants, hotels, etc. to have arisen
for no reason). Some of the businesses here are closed. Maybe this place is
really hurting. Or maybe things don't get going here till later in the summer.
It was so dead that I decided to buy a beer and head back to my guest house. I
didn't want to sit in some bar literally by myself …</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Onward
to Kos …</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsGpzds93Ks4Evi2S0X39mMfcRx12fUdtZ-4iRszzbWnPglFQfyTheHQLdEAazEiIyu0ayXpE4vTpkwzos3d-gc6Nq87jP-Bbrcv8ekrEVhmO3uYqNMNJ3vYQX89_n5Jj1N991Im2qQyda/s1600/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+064.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsGpzds93Ks4Evi2S0X39mMfcRx12fUdtZ-4iRszzbWnPglFQfyTheHQLdEAazEiIyu0ayXpE4vTpkwzos3d-gc6Nq87jP-Bbrcv8ekrEVhmO3uYqNMNJ3vYQX89_n5Jj1N991Im2qQyda/s320/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+064.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Pandeli Castle (or maybe the Castle Anthrax - "In the name of King Arthur open the door ...")</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-82971622983844609702013-07-01T09:48:00.003-07:002013-07-01T09:49:50.557-07:00Patmos From Leros and Leros<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Thursday,
June 27, 2013—Alinda, Leros, Greece</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Left Patmos at about
two this afternoon (it’s a little after five now), on a local catamaran, (as
opposed to the big inter-island ferry). Still annoyed by Patmos. As I've
mentioned there was just something a little off-putting about the place, despite
its great beauty. Spend my last day there hiking up to the old acropolis (of
which there’s almost nothing left except some fragments of square-cut stone
block walls). Then I hiked up to Hora, a town over-looking the port of Skala.
It’s mainly famous for an old, massive monastery (which looks more like a
Knights of St. John castle than a religious building). It was a great walk,
fascinating environmentally: it’s such an abrupt rise in altitude that only a
few minutes into my hike (which I did partially on trails and footpaths and the
main road) I found myself in a forest, which was dominated by pines and
featured cedars, scattered junipers, and eucalyptus (dumb imported Australian
trees)—it amazes me how quickly the plant communities can change on these islands.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The monastery turned out to be closed by the time I got
there. This didn't bother me too much, as religious stuff interests me almost
not at all (though I would have liked to examine the architecture of the monastery,
which looked really cool from the outside); I mainly went for the hike. I did
wander around the old twisting medieval streets of Hora for a while, which was
interesting. The place was a touch too touristy for me, though, so I was only
there for an hour or so before heading back down to Skala.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Overall I'm pretty torn concerning my Patmos experience.
On one hand, it might be physically the most beautiful Greek island I've been
to. But culturally it had almost nil to offer. Greek, British, French, Italian,
and some American tourists crowding narrow town beaches. Over-priced mediocre restaurants—nothing
original about any of them (they might as well have had the same menu). Scooters
and cars forever zooming past you (lay your head on a town beach and they move
by literally feet from your skull). It’s almost as if the place culturally
cancels out its immense environmental </span></span><span style="line-height: 32px;">pluses</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> …</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">* </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">OK, Leros. Like I said, I just got here a couple of hours
ago. All I've done is find a place to stay (a really cool place, big, with a
kitchen for only twenty-five euros a night) and wander around town, and get
some stuff at a supermarket to make some dinner). Basically this town is one of
three that hug a little section of the island’s coast. Alinda, in fact, might
be the narrowest Greek town I've been to: it literally clings to the marginal
beach that rims Alinda Bay. Though it’s just the next island over,
environmentally this place looks much more like Crete than Patmos: the lemon
yellow light has returned, as has the drier, more rugged landscape. The town
feels a little like a low-rent version of Patmos, though: the same narrow strip
of sand, basically interchangeable nightclubs and bars, traffic forever zooming
by … <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There’s not all that much I came here wanting to see.
Apparently this island has one of the cooler medieval castles in the islands
(which is saying quite a bit, because there are a lot of good ones around
here). I plan on checking that out tomorrow. I’m also going to look over the
towns to the south. I may stay another day or so after that if I can find some
cool, more far-flung beaches. If not, I’ll be off the following day. To where
I’m not yet sure. I will keep moving south, though (I've decided to give the
smaller islands up here—Lipsi, Arki, etc.—a miss, mainly because up close they
don’t seem all that interesting, and also because I know they’ll be a bit
expensive) …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Notes
from the Northern Dodecanese:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">As soon as one gets
north of Karpathos prices start getting higher (and higher). The islands also
seem to lose that wonderful semi-</span></span><span style="line-height: 32px;">anarchic</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> quality that Crete has: there just
seems to be more rules up here. Beginning to realize that I like Greece, but I </span></span><i style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">love</i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> Crete; it really has everything I
want from Greece: sun, sea, great (challenging) trails, interesting culture … And
again, it’s also a lot cheaper than up here. Glad I’m heading back there,
perhaps sooner rather than later … <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Noticing that there’s a
nationality change </span></span><span style="line-height: 32px;">among</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> the tourists here compared to Crete: the Germans
largely drop out and are replaced mainly by English, French, Italians, and, to
a much lesser extent, Americans. Coming to the conclusion I like Germans the best
of this lot. They may be taciturn, frowning bastards, but in their own weird
way they’re freer. Plus, if nothing else, they’re unobtrusive: they blend in
with their environment better than the English do, who tend to English-up every
place they go. French and Italian people mostly just seem to want to hang out
with their own kind, which makes then almost non-factors, except that they’re
taking up space that could go to less ethnocentric travelers. Some of the more interesting
travelers I've met in Greece have been English, French, and Italians in Crete:
it’s almost as if that island attracts the rebels, the more interesting
offspring of these countries …<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Now
that I've got a nice place to stay I’m going to have a off night, I think, a
night to be alone and recharge. I need to read, write, watch bad Greek TV …
Writers have to get away from people to get closer to them, pointed out
Lawrence Durrell. At least for short periods here and there that is very true …</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiofFUyNsmLfg9E-wRWQPoP2qaNO7fYEcj62y_AsBLCMYk1nW8lhPiJjNjoTAmFA36a9nBzajUIBfz1OQoR9_TelHwWdyq9eZr3ltW1B8GyPuvK57kUeIIKNQcruCAhpz0JixTeD7W2bD9a/s1600/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiofFUyNsmLfg9E-wRWQPoP2qaNO7fYEcj62y_AsBLCMYk1nW8lhPiJjNjoTAmFA36a9nBzajUIBfz1OQoR9_TelHwWdyq9eZr3ltW1B8GyPuvK57kUeIIKNQcruCAhpz0JixTeD7W2bD9a/s320/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+023.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Beach out in front of where I was staying ion Patmos</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhuvpWmfb-uo-YltUiQ_jViji0IDqtLB-4_ip3VdnqgWG2iSOGNvi6Soz63UDdfF_8XWsDpCxEq26PyN9ozmz1A11SBNqry_MH5OpcMShss2FEneLDUzY3H9w6y1YDD1d2MoKI4mrDjVN/s1600/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhuvpWmfb-uo-YltUiQ_jViji0IDqtLB-4_ip3VdnqgWG2iSOGNvi6Soz63UDdfF_8XWsDpCxEq26PyN9ozmz1A11SBNqry_MH5OpcMShss2FEneLDUzY3H9w6y1YDD1d2MoKI4mrDjVN/s320/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+028.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Skala, Patmos</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hrOjk8tK1DK2Z7jj_UluuPKiQ8j_5B-cOb_rq47wsbgWXLL17I4gyU1aHpWgSFL9zgPa9YGjV-KFoKZ_yDovzmQ7dCdLgDO-guw9fDB1l0a96JhsEvMI1oVxc6EHvQEd478unRUZx38_/s1600/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hrOjk8tK1DK2Z7jj_UluuPKiQ8j_5B-cOb_rq47wsbgWXLL17I4gyU1aHpWgSFL9zgPa9YGjV-KFoKZ_yDovzmQ7dCdLgDO-guw9fDB1l0a96JhsEvMI1oVxc6EHvQEd478unRUZx38_/s320/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+040.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 48px;">Forested Area Above Skala</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-4351777793733628002013-06-30T07:40:00.001-07:002013-06-30T07:40:09.729-07:00Patmos - Double-Edged Beauty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wednesday,
June 26, Skala, Patmos, Greece</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Patmos. Still air,
humidity. Heat. Kind of like a cross between the Island Greece I've been
experiencing and what I've always imagined Mississippi would be like in the
summer (but not quite that oppressive).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm camping at a campground called Stefanos, just outside
the island capitol/port of Skala. This is easily the hottest, most consistently
humid place I've been in the Greek isles; it doesn't really even cool off that
much at night. I woke up this morning at around six and for a while just lay
there atop of my sleeping bag looking out thru the white mesh of my tent. A lot
of the camping spots are separated by stands of bamboo. Between this and the
hot still air (no morning freshness at all), the place seemed swamp-like,
malarial (adding to this feeling was the slight head cold I've picked up).
Strange feelings. Not particularly happy ones. This was the first morning I've
woken up and really didn't want to be where I was …</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All of this ties into my generally confused feelings
about this island—it's not quite what I expected and overall I'm not enjoying
it all that much. It's a beautiful place, greener than all of the others I've
visted. The light is different here too: it's richer, more varied: hues of pink
and orange crowding out the lemon yellows that dominate places like Crete, for
example. It also has nice beaches, still as ponds, tucked deep into inlets,
rich pale greens, deeper blues … But there's a cultural vibe here that's
rubbing me the wrong way—the place is a little snooty, while also being a touch
conservative. There seem to be more rules here than other places in Greece I've
been too (when I'm saying this I'm not quite sure what I mean—I'm dealing more
with general vibes more than anything I can quantify). There seems to be too
much money here, both local and imported (it reminds me a bit of a little Greek
Santa Barbara). Fancy yachts in the harbor poking my inner Marxist. Cruise ships
anchoring off shore, dumping off tourists (including many Americans, who I
otherwise rarely run into in Greece) so they can shop in town, buy the same
crap they can get pretty much anywhere (is this all these kinds of travelers
experience of the islands they visit?). Bah! …</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yesterday I had what turned out to be terrible idea. I
decided that it might be interesting to explore the island on bike, so I rented
one (for 4 euros a day). I quickly discovered, though, that the mountains I had
to cross were way too steep. This combined with the heat made things pretty
miserable. Including about an hour and a half stop at a beach on the north
eastern shore, I was out with the bike for about six hours. Despite the fact
that I drank a lot of water, I was completely dehydrated by the time I turned
it in. I was also exhausted. The dumb thing is that the inclines were so nasty
I probably ended up pushing the bike for a bout a third of the distances I
covered—I paid money for the privilege of pushing a bike! Still the downhills
were stunning and it was a good work out (both the hills I rode up and those
where I had to push). I WILL NOT be doing that again, however. Not unless I
find myself on a relatively flat island …</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Leaving here tomorrow, beginning my southward trek. Not
sure where I'm heading yet. Leros, the next island to the south seems interesting,
quiet, laid back, comparatively empty to what I'm experiencing now. I'm also
thinking of just plunging into the touristy aspects of these islands, just to
experience it full on, which would mean going directly to Kos, which looked
ritzy, but also absolutely beautiful from ferry (it stopped there on the way to
Patmos).</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not much planned today. Think
I'm going to hike up to the old acropolis above the city. Maybe I will also go
to an inland town called Hora, which looks like it could be interesting. But
again, the heat is making me lazy: I could just find a cool place and hide
today …</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh
yeah, I forgot to mention the stupid night I had in Rhodes Town on the way
here. The ferry from Kasos got in at about two in the morning. It was a
Saturday night and Rhodes Town (on the northing tip of the island of Rhodes),
which is a major party destination, and it was going off: bad, Euro-electro
disco was pouring out of bar after bar and drunk people were staggering
everywhere. But every potential place to stay was locked up tight. So I ended
up hanging out with this Chinese-Australian girl (very cute) who came in on the
same ferry, mainly because we both just needed someone to kill time with.
Forever it seemed we tried to hunt down places to stay and then we finally
settled in at an eatery that stayed open till four. After that we just hung around
the town waiting for daylight, for something open up (which didn't happen till
even later than usual because it was a Sunday). I didn'</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">t get to bed until about
nine that morning. Long, weird, sleepless night. Half fun (because of its
weirdness factor mainly) and half annoying …</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0SH4R16ZLm7LY9foEuqQQ9lFW8paGM0Q64tdPzELrmn7gTERok9RceK8q60cN-PegFdGPBOzCVAGd_uTId3XG2ICOZW4_snTm-DMXP8hS5Y8BZkCiDJ-Jyf-pBWaUnwkMIaavZEoruFl9/s1600/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0SH4R16ZLm7LY9foEuqQQ9lFW8paGM0Q64tdPzELrmn7gTERok9RceK8q60cN-PegFdGPBOzCVAGd_uTId3XG2ICOZW4_snTm-DMXP8hS5Y8BZkCiDJ-Jyf-pBWaUnwkMIaavZEoruFl9/s320/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Around the Harbor in Patmos</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQDSgiJ0PrVrgqMuZtNSbdstlLH6zF9oe05q-R-_DPltQEVtnkZaqiCvR_gfKB-HgBsZJb6o3f4Ea0rSbPsYrunX4nPkvppYn9FGa0knLIBC8OJN1bl-RAym_9TJJOYmMnKjTe29Ej5tx/s1600/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQDSgiJ0PrVrgqMuZtNSbdstlLH6zF9oe05q-R-_DPltQEVtnkZaqiCvR_gfKB-HgBsZJb6o3f4Ea0rSbPsYrunX4nPkvppYn9FGa0knLIBC8OJN1bl-RAym_9TJJOYmMnKjTe29Ej5tx/s320/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+020.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
Home Sweet Home<br /><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOyIJjWvOs2Gc4fRGhoi9zidC5W32YWZoADosGzD9Dbjo6KsFSezkKqlLAG5IEp821pxsG5MVnx2jkwlFx_H-JKynTrHC48rxAcPHLiYFjszD2Y_wV6PpIo028CuPFeee9l0I00Cz4__GG/s1600/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOyIJjWvOs2Gc4fRGhoi9zidC5W32YWZoADosGzD9Dbjo6KsFSezkKqlLAG5IEp821pxsG5MVnx2jkwlFx_H-JKynTrHC48rxAcPHLiYFjszD2Y_wV6PpIo028CuPFeee9l0I00Cz4__GG/s320/Crete_Rhodes_Patmos_2013_June+021.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My Patmos Rest and Recreation Area</div>
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<em>More Patmos Photos later. I'm doing this on battery power and I'm almost out of juice ...</em></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-33123760871051358212013-06-23T03:09:00.001-07:002013-06-23T03:11:17.880-07:00More Kasos - Impression Improving, Field Notes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Friday,
June 21, 2013—Fry, Kasos, Greece</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I almost made it to the
top of my mountain. I carried out my plan of going straight up the drainage I
tested out yesterday. This turned out to be surprisingly easy: it only took me
about an hour to reach all the way to the rock dome which topped the mountain.
The reason for this is there weren't really any tough spots—there were plenty
of toe- and foot-holds and the drainage really never got very steep, even as I
neared the top. Once I got up to rock dome the drainage petered out. After that
I couldn't go much higher. I tried a number of different routes but I kept running
into sections that would have essentially had me doing free rock climbing. I
wasn't quite prepared for this for a couple of reasons. First off, the routes
up I saw that might have worked would have been mighty sketchy if I tried to
head back down them. Secondly, I was on my own: if I injured myself up there I
had no one to help me. If I'd had a climbing partner I probably would have
tried for the summit. Fifty-fifty as to whether I would have made it (I
couldn't see what the final ascent would have been like from where I ended up).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Once I made it back down I saw that the drainage just to
the east the one I tried might have given me a better chance to make it to the
top. It petered out into a saddle between peaks and might have provided me a
more do-able way to the top (it might have also been a dead end, though, which
would have left me topping out at a lower elevation than I made using the drainage
I'd chosen). All in all I'd say today's hike was a great success: It was a good
work out, I got some great views, and I showed, for the second time this trip,
that my back country knowledge is still sound—I know how to go off trail safely
and efficiently. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All this said, the countryside here isn't anywhere near
as interesting as what I've hiked on other islands (Crete, Gavdos, and
Karpathos): it was very dry and uniform, and unlike Crete (especially) the
plant communities didn't change much as the altitude increased—there were
mostly just changes in the percentages of what I'd been seeing down the sea
level. As with everywhere else I've hiked in Greece there was also very little
in the way of animal life. There were insects of course—including a species of
dragon fly I don't think I've run into before—but not much else. I did see a
few legless lizards, though. These are such weird animals. You'd think you
might mistake them for snakes, at least at first glance. But that's not really
the case, mainly because they are shaped and move like lizard—it's only later
that you notice that they don't have legs. I tried to get a picture of one of
them, but they were too quick: even though I had my camera handy they were gone
long before I could get my hands on it, let alone set up a shot. I saw one of
these lizards on Karpathos my last time thru. But I think the ones I saw today
were of a different species: their coloring was different and they were a lot
faster than the one on Karpathos (I could have touched that one if I'd wanted,
it moved that slowly). I need to learn more about these creatures when I get
home—they intrigue me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Getting to the point where I'm almost glad I came to
Kasos. I still think if I had it to do over again I would have given this
island a miss, but I think I've managed to have a pretty interesting time here.
As I've said before, the people are awfully sweet (if a bit reserved) and when
I combine this with a good hike it's hard for me to complain too much. Still,
I'm looking forward to getting to Rhodes. I don't plan on spending much time
there: it's too expensive, big, and touristy for my tastes (I'm mostly heading
there to get a ferry connection farther north).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I really would like to see Rhodes Town again. Last time I was there
I was having massive social anxiety problems and really couldn't take the place
in right. The Knights of St. John castle was pretty amazing, as was the
medieval architecture in general. I'd like to wander thru it in a better frame
of mind than last time. The town also features what may be my all-time favorite
restaurant It's a touch more expensive than I'm accustomed to, but I get way
more than what I pay for—the food and atmosphere are thoroughly wonderful. I'm
not very good at spending money, but I have no qualms occasionally throwing
down some bucks for top-flight eats: life's too short to be a cheapshit when it
comes to this sort of stuff …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Not sure where I'm going from Rhodes. I will check if
it's possible to go straight to Patmos from there and if so how long that would
trap me on a ferry. If that's not feasible the island of Symi will be my next
destination …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Beginning to wonder if there's an unacknowledged bedbug
problem in Greece. I'm being overcharged in this hotel, but one of the good
things is that I've got an air conditioner, which means I can shut the room up
at night and avoid the mosquitoes that have been attacking me since I got here.
The problem is I've been waking up all bit up, mostly on my back; to the point
where in some places I have so many bites that these areas have become defacto
welts. The windows are shut tight, so I don't see how this could be mosquitoes.
I had a similar problem last time thru, when I was in Lendas, in Crete. Tonight
I'm going to try wearing a t-shirt to see if that helps. Whatever is going on
it's unpleasant: I scratch the bites so much in my sleep that I'm bleeding in
several spots. No fun …</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Notes:
</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I've all but stopped
drinking beer at home (gluten issues, plus I'm just kind of over it). I'm
noticing that after a hike I crave one of the light, salty lagers that are
pretty much the only type of beers this country produces. I had one after my
hike today, Hellas Pils. It's a brand I haven't run into before and it's
definitely the worst beer I've had in Greece: it's a little harsh and has a
kind of weird aftertaste. Still it was cold and tasted damn good after several
hours hiking up and down a mountain in the hot sun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Reading Lawrence
Durrell's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reflections on a Marine Venus</i>,
his memoir of his time spent in Rhodes. I read it years ago and really liked
it. I brought a copy with me and have been saving it till I got closer to
Rhodes; I'll still be reading it when I get to that island tomorrow evening.
It's interesting what reading material works on the road. A Durrell book on Greece
is of course an obvious winner. But I've also been reading (and just finished)
the first two volumes of W. Somerset Maugham's collected short stories. He's a
writer I probably wouldn't touch at home, but his breezy tales of far-away
lands (far away from his homeland of England) work really well when traveling.
Been seeing Penguin paperbacks of Homer in the mini-marts and souvenir shops.
Seems a little spot on to read (or in my case reread) Homer here, but I could
definitely see myself dipping into the Odyssey (if not the Iliad—too dark and
sad) soon …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As I've mentioned my room has a TV (a real rarity for me,
given the types of places I usually stay when in Greece). I've been playing
Greek soap operas, <i>Oprah</i> type shows, and news programs in the background (I
have the volume really low) when I've been in my room, mainly because
since I feel I'm getting overcharged I want to get my money's worth. Plus it's
fun. It reminds me of Mexican TV back home: bleached blondes in ugly obvious
clothes who look more trashy than pretty leading gossipy discussion about
celebrities. It's like being home, except it's been translated into Greek.
Watched some Greek comedy show last night. There wasn't an audience or a laugh
track, though, so I wasn't quite sure even when I was supposed to laugh. Seemed
annoying, kind of </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">like a Greek version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hee
Haw</i> or something …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Looking Down the Drainage I just went up</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Just before my upward progress was stopped</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir5-VT3hoPbpaZlTtU7APVy2Rsrtn_w3ETuTFY5ENmxeqdqXEWIRKwXbI4-rYy9k-Pqbxwmg4UqWPH65smI-HarZJmOXZKWe8vU3g7gwIMVlHHEKBUnm03AFy3HxtZcTaOoVvX2sbee_Xt/s1600/Crete_Kasos_2013_June+036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir5-VT3hoPbpaZlTtU7APVy2Rsrtn_w3ETuTFY5ENmxeqdqXEWIRKwXbI4-rYy9k-Pqbxwmg4UqWPH65smI-HarZJmOXZKWe8vU3g7gwIMVlHHEKBUnm03AFy3HxtZcTaOoVvX2sbee_Xt/s320/Crete_Kasos_2013_June+036.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">View from above</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Noticing a trend here</span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-3868065776193665982013-06-23T02:52:00.001-07:002013-06-23T02:52:20.578-07:00Kasos Thoughts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thursday,
June 20, 2013—Fry, Kasos, Greece</span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kasos. The
southern-most island of the Dodecanese, just north of eastern Crete. I got here
last evening. I've purposefully have delayed writing anything about this place,
mainly because I was feeling very reactive when I stepped off the ferry—I felt
as if I'd made a </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">big</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> mistake by
coming here. I decided that I wanted to get to know the place a bit before I
said anything. I've been here almost twenty-four hours now, though, and I think
it's time to put down some of my thoughts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I got off the ferry last night here in Fry (pronounced
like “Free”), the island's capitol (population 270, according to </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lonely Planet</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">) and my first instinct was
to jump into the harbor and make a swim for the ferry that was pulling out. The
place looked sleepy in all the wrong ways, run down, drab, lonely. There aren't
too many places to stay here, so I grabbed a room at the Hotel Annagennisis
(their spelling, not mine), which is right on the waterfront and I thought
pretty decent looking. Like I said, there's not much in the way of accomodation
here, so not surprisingly, the place is a touch expensive (thirty euros a
night), especially considering it's way off the beaten tourist track. But it's
turned out to be a pretty good place, luxurious by my standards—I have air
conditioning and a TV.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After dropping off my bags I began to explore the town.
There isn't much two it: a handful of homes and businesses, and a small port. I
immediately felt there to be a mournful quality to the place. Abandoned
buildings in the middle of town, including one that I could tell used to be a
school house. Broken windows. A tiny little beach next to the port strewn with
trash. Brown harsh hillsides surrounding the the town—none of the olive groves
of Crete; old field terraces, long-since unused rising two-thirds of the way to
cloud misty mountain tops. Heavy, hot air, despite the ocean breeze …The only
good thing, I thought, was that the ferry would be back to take me away from
here on Friday, less than forty-eight hours away. Then, later, the woman who
runs the hotel I’' in told me that it wasn't actually coming until Saturday,
that the information I'd gotten back on Crete was wrong (a common occurance in
Greece, I've discovered, which sometimes can be charming, but in this case felt
tragic).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To distill all this, I wanted out of here from the word
go.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But I was stuck here for a while and so I decided to make
the best of it. I cleaned up a bit and headed over to Mylos, a taverna right
next to where I am staying that </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lonely
Planet</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> said was pretty good (like accomidation, there’' not much in the way
of eats here). The food </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> good and
people who ran the place turned out to be quite nice. Actually most of the folk
I've dealt with here seem quite nice: they're pleasant, if a bit reserved: it's
like they’re really not used to outsiders here and don't know quite what to
make of people like me (I think I was the only non-Greek to get off the Ferry,
though I've seen a handful of tourists here since then). After eating I went
back to my hotel feeling a bit better about the place.</span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My guide book said there really wasn't much to do here,
that it was just a kind of quirky out-of the-way spot (that's why I decided to
come here—I've had good luck in Greece when I've gotten a bit out of the main
travel routes). They did mention that there were a couple of beaches on the
north coast to the east of town. So this morning I decided to check them out.
The coast here is mostly sandstone outcrops being eroded by some surprisingly
strong wave action. Once I got out of town and passed the island's little
airport (which for some reason was surrounded by a high barbed-wire fence,
which would look quite Soviet in a cooler environment) the road began to run
right along the coast, along a sandstone shelf, which was strewn with garbage.
Past this a ways I came to the first beach. What a depressing sight. It also
was strewn with trash, along with a handful of sad looking chaise lounges and
umbrellas, which seemed to be thrown out there kind of randomly. Next to it was
a little stack shop. The snack shop was open, but there was no one on the beach. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I kept walking until I got to the other beach. It was a
little cove that one had to hike down to a bit from the road. It also had a lot
of trash on it. The water was also too rough there to safely swim (I could see
the undertow and a rip current from the cliff above the beach). I kept walking
to till the road ended a little ways away. There I found a monument, it seemed
to war dead. The plaque was all in Greek, but there were two dates on it: 1824
and then another one in the 1990s. I assume that the first date is what's being
commemorated and the second the date when the monument was erected. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All long this walk, to the inland side of me, I passed
ruins of old buildings farm terraces, churches, etc. That's what gives this
island (or at least this part of the island) such a down vibe. At one time this
place was very successful, with a large shipping fleet (so large that the Turks
felt the need to crush the place before going on to take over Crete) and a
strong agricultural base. Now, though, most of that is gone—this place is
almost the definition of a depressing backwater. I'm not sure exactly what
happened here. Did they never really recover from the Turks all those centuries
ago? Did there used to be more water here? Were there political or
environmental changes elsewhere that left this place off the main economic
lines of the islands? Again, I don't know. But what I feel I'm seeing is people
who have regrouped into something without much future. This place is too dry
and beachless for any kind of tourist trade and a whatever allowed it to create
all those now unused farming terraces (be it environmental or poltical) is long
gone and not likely to come back. As I took all this in I began to decided that
this is the first spot I've been to in Greece that I truly wished I'd avoided.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Still, I had to make the best of it, I told myself. I can
just hole up in my hotel room and catch up on my notebook, read, make plans,
relax for a couple of days. It wouldn't be exciting, but it would be restful
and with air conditioning I could shut up the place each night (like I'd done
the night before) and not be eaten alive by mosquitos for a change (I'm really
bitten up right now). I came up with an idea beyond this, though. I decided
that seeing if I could summit one of the island's little misty peaks might be
fun, and would certainly take the better part of the day. So I decided to do a
little test hike on my way home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I just had my Tevas on, I had only a little water on me
and no food, and had started too late in the day for a hike of any
significance, so I wandered up a little dirt road that let up into the
mountains, just so I could get an idea as to whether or not such a hike was
feasible. There really are no trails, but there are lots of old farming/goat
paths that lead pretty high up. There are also some rocky drainages that make a
relatively straight path up the mountains that look pretty do-able, at least at
low altitudes (I went up one of these for about twenty minutes just to see how
it would go). Long story short, I think I'm going to spend tomorrow trying to
get up a mountain. And if I can't do that I should have an interesting hike at
least. It's something do, if nothing else, on an island that features precious
little entertaining.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Self Explanatory</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One long, hot-ass road</span></span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-4393862181506039872013-06-23T02:03:00.002-07:002013-06-23T02:52:42.822-07:00Sitting in Sitia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Wednesday,
June 19, 2013—Sitia, Crete,</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Catching up . For
whatever reason(s), I haven't felt like writing anything lately, not even quick
notes. I think this is a healthy sign. I have a tendency to turn everything in
my life into a job. During my last Greece trip keeping a diary essentially
became another form of work for me—I began to feel that I </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">had</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> to do it. Maybe my current attitude means that I finally am
beginning to</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">learning how to relax a bit
…</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">OK, a fair bit has
happened since I last wrote. First off I'm now all the way in Sitia, in
northeastern Crete. I'd been planning on coming here to catch the ferry to
begin the Dodecanese part of my trip, but I've made it here a bit earlier than
I'd planned. Why this is so is a fairly long story. I'm not sure how
interesting of a one it is, though.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was hanging out in Sougia relaxing a bit and getting lazy
even. Because of the later, I was also feeling like it was time to move on. My
plan (which was changing almost from hour to hour, so don't try and figure it
out from my previous posts here) was to get down to Gavdos for a few days, come
back to mainland Crete, and then start heading east to Frangokastello, an area
I missed my last time thru Greece. But I fucked up, mixed up the boat times,
and missed the boat from there to Gavdos. There wasn’t going to be another boat
going from there from Sougia for another week and the ones from Paleohora and
Hora Safakilon arrive at Gavdos in the middle of the night. Now Gavdos is
backwoods—it doesn't really even have much in the way of lighted public
spaces—and setting up a camp there in the dark was not something that thrilled
me. So I decided to hit to head for Frangokastello and hit Gavdos on my way
back home (I fly out from Hania).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've mentioned that Frangokastello is one of those places
that I can never seem to get to from where I am. It's outside the south-coast
boat routes, so my options were to go Hora Safakilon and then hike there (about
five or six hours on the trail, I estimate), or go to Hania, from there get a
bus to Rethymno, and then take a couple more busses from there. I choose going
to bus route, mainly because, even though it would have me covering more
ground, between the time lag on the boats and the hiking time, the busses would
be quicker (and easier). So I made my way to Paleohora, crashed there for a
night, and then caught the 7:15 AM bus to Hania.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By late that morning I was in Rethymno. Then things got
confusing. It turns out that my guidebooks are grossly out of date when I comes
to the Frangokastello bus routes. Apparently the only way I could get to there
by bus involved heading back to Hania and taking a couple more buses from
there. I won't go into the details—I’m not even fully sure how it happened—but
apparently the people at the Rethymno bus station sold me a ticket to a route
that no longer exists. It took me about three hours there to figure this out.
By this point I was over it—I had no interest in heading back to Hania and
trying to sort things out there. So I decided to deal with pesky Frangokastello
on my way home. Then I bought tickets to Iraklio and then Sitia. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I ended up getting in here about ten o’clock last night
(I left Paleohora at 7:15 in the morning). So it ended up being a long annoying
day, a slowly unfolding, but ultimately minor glitch …</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Some other changes:</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My original plan upon
heading into to Dodecanese was to go straight up to Patmos, the farthest north
island I want to visit, and then island hop my way back down to eastern Crete.
The problem is there's no airport there and taking a ferry straight up would be
long boring haul (if it's even possible—I’ve yet to track down this info). So
I've decided to island hop my way up, hitting the islands I for sure want to
visit (and those I have to because of the ferry connections) and then hit
secondary places on the way back down (if there's time and I have the money). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sitia. An interesting
little town. Very much a locals town: it revolves around the needs of the
locals, not travelers. Most of the travelers that are here seem to come from
other parts of Crete. Non-Greek tourist sprinkled in lightly, like salt. But
the people here treat travelers well—they're polite and helpful. A healthy
situation here over all, I'd say …</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I also like the size of this town—it's big enough to be
interesting, but is nothing approaching overwhelming. If I were ever to come
here and live for say a year, to write a book or something and learn Greek, I
might pick this place as a base. The only problems would be that it's a bit
isolated and eastern Crete in general, for reasons I can't really explain,
seems a bit lonely to me, like it's outside the mainstream of the rest of the
island. Or maybe I just like the vibe of the western part of the island better,
where I've spent most of my time here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every thing you need while waiting for a Greek Ferry</span></span></div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236706930615278342.post-51699393453147505952013-06-15T09:48:00.001-07:002013-06-15T09:50:53.545-07:00Hiking Around Sougia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Sougia's another one of those little southwest coast towns that are nestled into the surrounding mountains. It's more my speed than Loutro - it's got a tourist infrastructure, but things are far more laid back and ragged here. The beach is pretty nice - though the sand-to-stone ratio could be better - and there's some great hiking.<br />
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Yesterday I went on a pretty gnarly little hike. I started off on the E-4 to Lissos (an archaeology site). Then I noticed that I'd actually jumped from the E-4 to a local trail (the trail markers went from the black & yellow of the E-4 to red). The trail wasn't in my book and I had no idea where it went, but I decided to stick with it, just for something different. It ended up going inland, more or less north. It was pretty challenging to begin with, then it got really hard when it basically shot straight up a high ridegline. This turned out to be really cool, because once I made it about halfway up there I started seeing endemic Cretan mountain plant species, some of which are pretty rare (I wish I'd have thought to take pictures of more of them, for identification purposes later).<br />
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Like I said, the terrain was pretty tough, but the real problem was that the trail was poorly marked once it started to rise and for big patches really wasn't a trail anymore - the rare trail markers were really marking a theoretical trail at this point. I've discovered that in this part of Crete it's really easy to go off trail - but this was especially bad. As I went up I kept losing the trail and had to spend a fair amount of time reestablishing myself. I hadn't really planned on a long hike that day (my left ankle, always a problem, was pretty sore from the hiking I'd just done out of Loutro), and I could tell that the trail was either going to keep going inland, maybe deep into the mountains or it was going to curve around the big drainage I started off in and descend into it from the other side. If it did the later that probably meant at least an eight-hour trip. I definitely didn't want to do such a major run (like I've said, my ankle was hurting and I also didn't have enough water with me for that). So I decided to double back.<br />
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This turned out to be a problem. The trail was marked in ways that were designed to be seen going up, not down; it became impossible to stay on the trail. The main issue in these situations in Crete is that there often isn't really any difference between the well-established parts of a trail and the many goat paths that criss-cross the mountains. Even if you're really paying attention it's almost impossible not to get sidetracked on them. Well that's what happened to me in a big way. Somehow I <i>really</i> lost the trail, to the point where reestablishing it might have taken hours.I decided the best and quicker thing to do would be to just go down the ridgeline off trail and head for a side drainage that I'd been more or less running parallel to throughout the whole ascent. From there I could make it back to the main drainage where if nothing else I knew I could eventually pick of the E-4. Back in California I probably wouldn't have tried this, mainly because drainage bottoms tend to have so much biomass they're often impassable. But there's so little water here I didn't think that would be a problem.<br />
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I turned out to be right: the drainages were pretty clear and it took me less time that way than trying to find the trail again. But, man, it was a total bitch getting thru the scrub brush and, especially since it was a steep run and underfoot was mostly broken stone; I went down four times, once really hard into a very prickly bush. All in all it was fun, a neat little adventure. My legs are a bit scratched up and my socks were so filled with prickles and the like that I decided to just toss them out - they weren't worth the hassle to clean. But other than that no complaints.<br />
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Lower Drainage - West of Sougia</div>
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Beginning the Ridgeline Ascent (It was tougher than this looks)</div>
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A Species I want to Identify (Plus it's just a pretty shot)</div>
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Looking into Sougia from the West</div>
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Rob Woodardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149555875908581176noreply@blogger.com1