Euro-Venture

On principle, I dislike travel blogs. They seem rather self-important to me. However, I have promised several people who I think might actually care that I would keep one. So, against my better judgment I will. I will try not to be too long-winded and only write about interesting things, but I cannot make any promises.

Sasha and I are in Athens right now having just returned from Aegina on the ferry this afternoon. We are leaving Greece tonight for Barcelona. We spent our first few days puttering around Athens. Mostly sweating, drinking lots of water and looking at really old archaeological ruins. It is too too hot in the city (33 c according to the weather widget at this computer) and the ruins are all roped off to avoid tourist wear and tear, so in the afternoons we bused it to the beach and had delicious greek food and cheap wine in little beach towns like Glifadda.

We met a really nice Slovakian architect named Lukas at the bus stop and toted him along with us one day. He spent the last year studying abroad in Athens and reccommended the island of Aegina as a good close place to escape for the weekend.

Spent the past few days there in a cheap hotel one block from the beach after meeting up with sasha's friend. A few highlights: 1. We rented scooters in Aghia Marina -- the village where we were staying -- for only 10 euro/dayand busted ALL over the island. Visited a gorgeous Greek orthodox church, some ruins, every village on the island, got lost countless times, traced and retraced our routes. It was decidedly one of the best days of my life.

the island was relatively empty-- supposedly they are having a bad tourist season and everything was really cheap. especially food. restaurants were deserted but ADORABLE and delicious. Ate delicious seafood (swordfish souvlaki, octopus, sardines, herrings, calamari, plenty of Greek salad, etc etc) scrumptious pocket pastries and baklava. The part of the beach in town is very touristy, but it doesnt take long to escape the countless hordes of european vacationers and on the scooters we wound up in some very remote places.

Last night I went for a walk along the coast while everyone else was showering and came upon a horde of local young greek men riding their horses into the water. a little further along the coast I came upon a little cove where someone was obviously squatting. A few grocery bags were hanging from the tree branches, and a little blue duffel bag was perched on the beach. I was standing on a rock overhang at the edge trying to decide whether or not I should walk through what was obviously someone's little beach home, when i happened to look down and realize there was a naked man crouched over a fire right below the rock where I was standing. I was so shocked that I banged up my toe when I turned around to go. It's now swollen and a little black and blue. Hopefully it will improve before we start the camino. I'm hoping it is just jammed. Hiking 20 km/day with a broken toe could prove difficult.