Well, I’m the only MC staff left on the B & B and my colleague from IRD has left, so it has been pretty much just me. I usually eat dinner with some of the PSD (Personal Security Detail) guys from Olive Group, but other than that it is me, myself and I.

I was helping my IRD colleague get out of here, mailing some stuff to Spain for her, then I had to move the MC office to her old office and we were transferring some inventory on Weds. On Thursday at lunch we went to the new beauty parlor that has opened to have pedicures. As we sat there and got our feet worked on soldiers kept coming in I thought they would just be getting haircuts, but no, they were having manicures, pedicures and facials, it was a bit funny to watch. Particularly when this mountain of a man, left the facial chair with goo still on his face to have a pedicure. But good for them.

That evening to celebrate my colleague’s departure we went out for milkshakes at Echos, as we were sitting there, the IDF (Incoming Direct Fire) Alarm went off, we immediately dropped to the floor. We weren’t in a very good place, anywhere near the Americans is not a good place when IDF is arriving. But it turned out to be a false alarm, what was weird was watching other people’s reactions to the alarm. Most of the American soldiers and PSDs dropped to the ground, but a group of American soldiers went running out of the restaurant and then a minute later came running back in. I think they were trying to get to the bunker, but you only have four seconds from when the alarm first sounds to get to a bunker and most people are killed when they are running to the bunker. But at least they tried to get to safety. A group of about four PSD guys, not sure who they were with, just kept playing pool. I think they thought it made them look cool. In reality we were all just thinking how stupid they were.

So, Basra remains the same except all the friends that I have made are now gone. But I guess that is the nature of this place, people come and go.

Athens

I only had one day in Athens, because my flight didn’t leave until 8:00 p.m. that evening. So I had decided to see the Acropolis and ancient Agora. I decided to try and be on my way the next morning around 10:00 a.m. At breakfast which was nothing compared to the food I was eating on the Alexandros, I met two American couples traveling together from Portland, Oregon, small world. I also heard about a street market that goes until noon, so I decided to go to the street market then hit the Acropolis. As I was walking out the door two women from India were also going to the market so we made our way there together. The first part of the market was actual store open to the street selling all new stuff, the second part of the market was antiques, and they had vendors selling all sorts of stuff. One vendor had a ton of Olympic pins. I bought a couple of gifts, I was trying to find a bottle opener for my Uncle L.V.’s bottle opener collection, but no luck. After making my way through the market I made my way up to the Acropolis, it was

Street vendors

high on a hill so I figured that I should see it first and then if I was tired I could pick and chose what to see in Ancient Agora. So I made my way up the hill and the site was crawling with tourists, like ants all over a sandwich, they weren’t Japanese, but it was difficult to get a photo without tourists in it. I met a very nice American couple who were traveling with their son and I took a photo for them and then I made my way around the site.

It was hard to get the feeling of ancient Greece, for one because of all the tourists, secondly, because the entrance to the Acropolis and the Parthenon were both covered with scaffolding, which I’m pretty sure the ancient Greeks didn’t use. In addition, there were “guards” all over the place and whenever a tourist was going into a forbidden spot or touching something they weren’t supposed to a whistle would shrill, like a lifeguard warning some obnoxious child at the pool. I’m also pretty sure the ancient Greeks didn’t have whistles.

After I passed the Parthenon, I made my way around to Athena’s temple and ran back into the American family and they took my photo. I then headed back out the entrance to make my way back down to Ancient Agora. The Agora is on the northwest slope of the Acropolis and was the heart of ancient Athens from the lat 6th c. BC onwards. It was a place for political gatherings and debate, for election, religious occasions and trading activities, theatrical performances and athletic competitions.

My first stop was the museum which is housed in the Stoa of Attalos. A stoa is an ancient Greek covered walk or colonnade, usually having columns on one side and a wall on the other. The museum’s main display is devoted to exhibits illustrating the basic functions of Athenian democracy. What was most fascinating to me was the voting shards and the jury selection system. Only landowners could vote and they did it with ceramaic tiles with their names on them, this system was in place around the 300 BC which is fascinating to me. They also had a jury system, the citizens, males over 30 had their names engraved on sheet of metal and they had a selection machine. In addition they got paid to serve on the jury. Amazing. In 300 BC the Greeks were more advanced than a lot of countries are today in 2009. Seriously.

Acropolis

There were also a lot of statues, burial items, jewelery and commerce stuff. I made my way through the museum, it was just about the right size and just one long corridor. And then I made my way through the burial grounds and bits and pieces of ruins to visit the temple of Hephaistos, built in 5th c. B.C. Sources say it is the best preserved Greek temple and devoted to Hephaestus the patron-god of metal working and Athena Ergane was the patron-goddess of pottery and crafts in general. There are no other buildings beneath it, so it is presumed to be the only structure erected on that site.

After waiting in the lower courtyard amongst the ruins to try and get a photo of the temple without tourists in it approximately 20 minutes, I headed out to find some food, sort of a last supper, before my return to Iraq.

I found a restaurant and ordered a flaky cheese appetizer, it was like baclava but with cheese. I was sitting next to three

Parthenon

American girls who interjected the words “you know” and “like” into their sentences about every three words.

After my snack I did a little more shopping and finally found my Greek frog to add to my collection and some olives to send to Grandma and then I headed back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and take the bus to the airport.

I was a little late catching the bus and was worried about catching my plane, but it turns out the flight was cancelled and instead of arriving in Kuwait around 9:00 p.m. I took a flight through Turkey and got in at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, luckily my friend Marcy who I was staying with was a good sport; unfortunately we had so much to talk about we stayed up talking until about 4:30 a.m. in the morning. I just had to catch another flight, but she had to go to work.

I ended up sitting next to a woman from Georgia, Russia, who didn’t speak any English. She handed me a note that said

Temple of Athena

she didn’t speak any English and could I help her get to her next flight. I pointed this out to the airline stewards, but they didn’t care, so when we landed in Turkey I took her to the transfer desk and made sure she was taken care of and then had to book it in order not to miss my flight.

It was great trip and I highly recommend Anko Yachting as a way to see the Greek Islands.

Temple of Hephaistos

Jury selection device

We had incoming direct fire last week, with no casualties or deaths, but last night we took IDF at 9:15 p.m. and three American soldiers died. After the troops pulled back from the towns I thought that we would see an increase in violence and IDF, but it has been surprisingly calm down here until last night.

It seems that there has been an increase in violence in the North, but not so much in Basra; however, all the PSD guys I talk to are expecting it to go “t*ts up” any moment. I’m moving to a hutch that is basically in a bunker, which is good because it means I won’t have to run for the bunker anymore. The Basra airport has been handed over to Iraqi Security Forces and now our vehicles are checked for bombs when we enter through the Alpha Gate. The PSDs are reporting difficulty getting in and out the second Alpha gate controlled by Iraqis. The Iraqis have been refusing to let them in and or out and they make them go through the Delta, they have been asking for bribes, telling them what weapons they can and cannot carry. At the airport they won’t let them bring their radios into the airport and make them move their cars because they can.

The American Ambassador to Iraq was targeted by a roadside bomb, it exploded as his convoy was driving through Thi Qar province on Sunday, July 12, no one was injured, but the attack occurred two weeks after the withdrawal.

Not sure what is next.  But don’t worry I’m ducking and covering every chance I get.

On the way to Lefkas

My last day on the boat.  When we arrived at Lefkas at around 3:00 p.m. I would be getting off the boat and catching a bus to Athens.  After breakfast and Alicja’s morning swim we took off to check out Aritotle Onassis’ private island Scorpios for our morning swim.  This actually ended up being the best swim.  We couldn’t set foot on the island, but we could swim all around it.  There were lots of little fish, and some star tube worms, orange that when I moved to touch them they would retreat back into their white tubes.

I swam around a little jetty on the island, staying close to shore on the way around and further out on the way back.  The rock formations were intesting and in addition there were fish, that rest on their front fins on the sand and move very quickly when you approach them.  As I was headed back towards the boat, I almost collidied with Alicja who was headed around the jetty the way that I had come.

After we swam for about an hour and a half, we set sail for Lefkas.  The island of Lefkas is where the Alexandros

Floating mountain

normally moors and departs from, this trip that departed from Athens was a special trip offerered only once in the summer.

I had some wine that I had purchased and hadn’t finished so before, during and after lunch Alcija kept the wine coming.  I had been given a small bottle of red wine by the owner of the pizza palor where I had eaten on Meganisi and after it was finished Alcija reminded me that  I had wanted to do a message in a bottle.  So I wrote my message, corked it and threw it into the Ionian Sea.    As we sailed closer and closer to Lefkas it seemed like we were surrounded by islands and that they were close.

In the narrow canal to get to the Lefkas port, a  ship had gotten trapped in the shallows, we watched several ships pass it by and then we stopped to help.  The woman on the other boat came over in the dingy and gave us a rope and we rocked it off the shallows, after they were unstuck she came back with a bottle of wine as a thank you.  It was surprising to me that the ships coming from the other direction wouldn’t help.

Message in a bottle

As predicted we arrived in Lefkas around 3:00 p.m. Alcija and Thanos, went to stock up on supplies for the next trip around the Ionian Islands, Malcolm and Debrorah who were staying for another week hung out on the boat and I headed over to a cafe to see if I could get internet and download the weekly reports so I could write my weekly report.  I couldn’t get internet on my computer, but the cafe worker had a computer and I was able to access my e-mail on his computer I then downloaded all the reports onto flash and started my report.  Thanos said that he would come get me at the cafe around 4:15 or 4:30 p.m. and take me to the bus station, my bus was at 5:00 p.m. but as it neared 4:30 I got antsy and headed back to the boat where he was just finishing unloading the supplies.  Alcija had bought me olives and muesli, yum.

Thanos dropped me off at the bus station and right as the bus was taking off I started looking for my camera and I

Message away

couldn’t find it.  I was a little bit panicked.  I didn’t want to be without a camera, luckily the bus went right by the boat and I was able to convince the bus driver to stop.  I got out and told Malcolm and Alcija that I thought I had left my camera and they did a mad search for it, but didn’t find it;  Alicjia however, did come out with the cherries that I had bought in Ithaca.  I climbed back on the bus went through my bag completely and found my camera.  I didn’t share that news with the bus driver though.  It was a five hour drive to Athens with several stops to pick up people and one stop for a restroom break and  dinner.  I spent most of the ride working on my weekly which I almost finished.  When we stopped for dinner I sat with two young girls who were attending school in Athens, one was studying music, their English was very good.

Lefkas

We arrived at the bus station and I caught a cab with a young man, I started to get nervous when he put another guy in the cab with me and then as we were under way I asked him how much it would cost to get to the hotel where I was going.  He said 25 euros, I said bullshit, let me out.  He dropped me at the hotel and I paid him 7 euros, I should have reported him to the police, but when I went inside to check in he had dropped me at the wrong hotel.  The woman at the desk was very nice and said the ride should have cost about 5 euros so I didn’t feel that bad, but I had to go out to the taxi cue and catch another cab to the Acropolis House where I was staying.  He had dumped me at the Acropolis Hotel.  The next cab ride cost 3 euros and the Acropolis House was located in an area where he couldn’t drive so I had to get out and walk a bit.  I finally got to my hotel at midnight.

After settling in my non air conditioned room I finished my report and sent it off.  I finally made it to bed at 2:00 p.m.

Small church at the first swim stop.

I woke up on the morning of the 19th to a commotion.   Someone yelling wait, wait!  As I made my way on deck Nicole was running toward the end of docking area yelling at the water ferry that had left without them.  The ferry normally leaves at 7:00 a.m., but this morning it had taken off 10 minutes early and the girls had missed it.   When they went running after it the people on the ferry just waved.  So Thanos went to find alternative transportation for the girls they ended up taking a water taxi it was a lot more expensive, but less expensive than Nicole repurchasing her ticket to Australia.

I went back to bed for a little while and then got up for breakfast a little later.  I had never been a muesli and yogurt fan until this trip, but the muesli that Alicja served was delicious and she serves it with a thick yogurt, add honey for sweetner and voila breakfast.  I didn’t eat it at first, but then I tried it and now I’m hooked.

We took off from Kastos after Thanos got the girls taken care of, Deborah and Malcolm finished their morning walk,

The goats

Alicja finished her morning swim and we all had breakfast.  Our first stop was a small bay with three other boats, a small church and some goats.  At first we couldn’t see the goats, but it sounded like the baby had been seperated from its mother because it was bleating and bleating, and bleating.  I got out the binoculars to see if I could see them, but I didn’t catch a glimpse until they came down to the bay for a drink.  It seems odd that they would drink the salt water, but it didn’t seem to bother them.  They were dark brown with white stripes on their faces so I think they were Toggenburgs.  (That’s left over from my 4-H days when I showed goats).  I tried to communicate with them, but once the kid found it’s Mom, they weren’t very talkative.  They walked a little ways across the beach and then headed back for the hills.

After observing the goats for a bit I headed for the water.  Alicja took off swimming toward the church and I took off in the opposite direction towards the goats.  The water was lovely, but the bay wasn’t as interesting as the swimstops the day before, there was a lot of garbage in the bay.  I sort of wished that I had a garbage bag to pick some of it up.  It seems like that might be a good trip, an enviromental trip through the Greek Islands where you snorkle and dive to help clean up the bays.  Not that they were super dirty, in the first bay on the first day I what looked like floating toilet paper, which was a bit disconcerting.

After the first swim stop we sailed a little bit and then stopped by these baby islands to snorkle.  I thought I could swim

The ruins at the goat swim stop

around the larger of the two, but it was a little bit too large and I didn’t want to hold everyone up.  The only thing on the islands and you could see all of the island from the boat was a beacon I assume to warn ships away from it at night.  Once again Alicja went off to the left and I went off to the right.  I dove down through an arc in the water and there were a ton of nooks and crannies all along the island, some of them were a bit dark and I was afraid to go into some of the dark places.  I really wanted to find an octopus, but I was a bit cautious of what else I might find, Moray eels like dark places also.  It felt like I spent an hour to an hour and a half exploring, not sure how long I was in the water.  I think I made it one-third of the way around the island before I turned around a came back.  On the way back I tried not to go through the arch, but was trying to take a more shallow path when I got beached.  I stood up and the water came to my mid-calf, so I had to abandon that route and head back to deeper water.

Baby Islands swim stop

Back on the boat we had lunch and then headed for our island overnight Meganisi.  We arrived at Meganisi fairly early and I was desperate to find internet so that I could get the weekly report done.   There was a tavern right next to where we docked and I went to look for internet, they had, had it, but it now wasn’t working for whatever reason.  Rather than fret about it I just went back to the boat dropped off my computer and headed for town.  I’m not sure why but I took the long road to town.  There were two ways to go by the road and then up a steep flight of stairs, I opted for the road, but on the way back took the stairs which actually ended up being not that bad and would have been a better choice, oh well live and learn.  Oh my way up to the town the road curved and I met a few bicyclists coming down and a few chickens on the way  up.

The Chickens

I had given up looking for internet and instead stopped at several touristy shops and a couple grocery stores.  The first shop had beautiful dark blue opals, but the earring settings were pretty gaudy.  As I was preparing to leave the shop a couple from the U.K. came in panting and complaining about hiking up the stairs.  I then checked out the grocery store and bought some more cherries.  I went in another grocery store and bought cherry foaming shower gel, it smelled good enough to drink.   Finally I stopped in another tourist shop that was quite quirky they had very cute wraps, but I opted against it.

My next stop was a bar overlooking the bay.  They had a cocktail list a mile long.  So, I sat there sipping a pina colada looking out over the bay.   Overlistening to the conversation of two British couples next to me.  I was there for about an hour.  They had a book exchange and I found Jean Auel’s “Shelters of Stone” which I hadn’t read yet.  I had reread the entire Earth’s Children series last year and I had always wondered when the next book was coming out, well it came out in 2005.

The town - I finally reached it.

Now I wonder when the next book is coming out.  I mean when is Ayla going to go back and find her son Durc? (For those of you who read the series.)  So I know I didn’t have a book to exchange, but I had been leaving books all over my travel destinations.  It’s my new modus operandi, wherever I finish it I leave the book with a note in it about where it was purchased and where its been so I figured it would be o.k. to take the Jean Auel book.  I took the book and then headed out to find some food.  I thought about heading back down to the tavern by the dock, but then noticed a pizza place.  MMMMMMMM pizza, so I opted for pepperoni pizza instead.  It was a great choice, the pizza was delicious and a change, but I ended up sitting next to the Wragg family from England.  Mr. and Mrs. Wraagg their daughter Jane and a friend.  They were lovely and we talked, ate pizza and drank good wine.  They were actually staying on the island at a lovely resort that I had passed on my way up the long, winding road.  At dinner I found out that the resort had internet, but at that point I didn’t care.   I hung out with the Wragg’s until about 10:30 p.m. when I started to make my way back down the long steep staircase; however, my descent down the staircase took about 30 minutes where I’m pretty sure it took at least an hour and 15 minutes to walk up the road.  There were lights along the way, but I stepped carefully.  After all how ironic would it be to work in Iraq and then die falling down a steep staircase in Greece.

I made it back to the boat around 11:00 p.m., everyone was already in bed so I hopped into bed; tomorrow would be my last day on the boat.

The Wraggs, my adopted family.

Atokos

The morning before we set sail, I took a short jaunt into town trying to locate a shop I had seen the day before, I can’t remember what in particular I was looking for possibly a Greek flag pin for Nicole.  As I was limping down one of the side streets a little old couple were walking toward me, they both had hunched backs from old age and they were carrying a watermelon between them.  Each of them had a cane in their outside hand and with their inside hand they each gripped the handle of a plastic sack with a fairly hefty watermelon in it.

Whatever I was looking for  I didn’t find it instead I found fresh cherries. Yum.  I bought a couple of kilos so I could take a break from planted olive trees in the Ionian Sea and plant cherry trees instead.  We had difficulty getting out of Ithaca, because the boat next to us had haphazardly thrown its anchor out instead of anchoring straight out from where it was moored, so a bunch of shouting in Greek occurred on Thanos’ part, I think they were German, but they pretended they didn’t undertand English.  Alicja said now that we were in the Ionian that it would be a regular morning show, because so many amateurs sail.  Thanos and Alicja expertly untangled us and after a few more mutterings about I think “idiots” I don’t speak Greek we were on our way.  I believe the issue is that when anchors get entangled they can break.  That and it’s just not proper mooring ettiquette.

We made our way to the deserted island of Atokos for our morning swim, it was the best swim/snorkle spot to date on

The Adventure

the trip.  The bay water was crystall clear and although there weren’t a lot of fish, there were a lot of little caves to explore.  It was here that we started seeing puce green coral or sponges and we also saw a giant purple starfish.  I spotted it and called Juliette and Nicole over and after checking him out, Nicole surfaced spit out her snorkle and said “It’s Patrick!”  You know Patrick from Sponge Bob Square Pants.   She then proceeded to try an pick him up and she ended up dropping him deeper in the water where he landed all cattywampus.   We spent a good part off the morning in the bay.  Enough time for the girls to engage in a mission.

They decided they wanted shots from the island looking out.  So first they decided whose camera would make the trip.  Then they procurred a yogurt bucket from Alicja to keep it dry and then Nicole climbed on the pink styrofoam noodle and went noodling across the bay to this little beach where she could climb up and take photos.  After Nicole was done taken photos, Juliette joined her on the beach and then accompanied her on her noodle back to the boat.  It was a beautiful bay.

Kastos

After our swim we had lunch.  I got lazy and quit taking notes on what Alicja fixed, but I didn’t have a bad meal on the boat, they were all excellent.   Because it was the girls last day we made a second swim stop in the afternoon in another bay.  I made a tour of a wall on the opposite side of where we were moored.  I saw lots of the puce green sponges or coral, some tiny quick moving fish that rested on their fins froglike on the bottom and another big orange starfish.  It was beautifully bright and stood out from the brownish, grey walls.

We arrived at the small island of Kastos after a very leisurely day of sailing an swimming.  We arrived just in time to watch a man dive nude into the water on the opposite side where we were moored.  Alicja and Thanos advised us not swim where we moored, because in Greece the waste from the toilets pumps directly out into the water.  We obeyed them because the thought of coming face to face with a brown trout just wasn’t that appealing.  We were moored right next to a large catamaran and recieved repeated moonings from the men on board who were showering off the back on the steps.

Kastos is a very small island the harbormaster also owns the one tavern in town, there is one large grocery store that

The anything you can think of from any era grocery store

looks like you could find items in it that expired in 1950 and a smaller convenience store.  Not much in the way of tourist shops.  Because I was still on tap for the weekly report I set off to find an internet cafe.  There were none down near the harbor, but a very helpful woman who was selling handmade jewelery said there was one up the hill.  So I made my way up this super windy, steep road.  They told me it was just past the church.  When I got up there I found the cafe and there was a man on the internet, but he told me they didn’t have any internet, what?  I didn’t argue with him, but made my way a little ways down the road to see if it was wireless and could illegally hook into the connection.  I couldn’t.  Not even with the aid of a helpful one-eyed cat that stopped to see if he could help me in my illegal pursuits.

So I headed back down the steep, windy road and was dripping sweat by the time I reached the bottom.  I had spent the afternoon, sitting on the bow planting cherry trees and I was now out of seeds, so I stopped at the find everyting all they way back to 1940 grocery store to see if they had cherries. They did, but they didn’t look so good, so instead I bought red wine.  Alicja usally serves white because it’s served chilled and it gets fairly hot in the afternoon, but I prefer red so I kept trying different types.  After my shopping expedition, I met the crew at the tavern

The long winding road

.

Most of the group ordered the lamb, I ordered garlic shrimp that I had to pop the heads off and peel, I hate working for my food.  They were o.k., but not nearly garlicky enough, but the tavern served very good red wine and for dessert won the award for best bacalava.  It was difficult to find places that served bacalava so we were plesantly surprised and even more pleased when it arrived.  It arrived accompanied by two scoops of ice cream, with cherry sauce.  It was the best bacalava of the trip.  I even thought about seconds.

After dinner we headed back to the boat at around 11:30 p.m. because the girls had to be up and at the ferry stop at 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

Commandeering the dingy

No not Ithaca New York, Ithaca the Greek Island. Once we reached the Ionian sea our days were more leisurely. On our way to Ithaca we made two swims stops; one in the middle of the ocean and one in a bay where the white sand peeked out from the seaweed.  During our first swim in the middle of the sea, we had to swim in front of the boat so we didn’t get too far behind.  Out that far there isn’t a lot to see.  But the best entertainment was when Nicole commandeered the dingy and then Juliette tried to join her.

Swimstop number 2

Me and my red belly, poor sunscreen form

We actually arrived in Ithaca fairly early in the afternoon and it was one of my favorite towns, the main part had plenty of restaurants and some touristy shops.  After looking around a bit the girls and I set up shop in one of the cafes to take advantage of their internet, check e-mail etc.  We spent the afternoon just hanging out and making little trips to check out some shops, then Deborah and Malcolm arrived with 1 kilo of baclava, seven different types, one piece for everyone.  Lucky for us, because we had completely failed in t he baclava mission on Ithaca.

Ithaca

Baclava blow out

When Malcolm and Deborah arrived with the baclava of course the girls had to try it immediately.  We hung out awhile longer at that cafe, before we moved to the outdoor patio down the street, for the “best Gyros” according to Thanos.  While we were sitting there eating our Gyros Thanos and Alcija arrived.  Then we had another unexpected guest a giant grasshopper, he landed on Deborah’s shoulder, she squealed and started batting at it, she batted it into Malcolm’s eye, he then batted it back at her and she was finally able to bat it away.  The poor grasshopper must have been traumatized.  We finally made it back to the boat around midnight.  It was interesting in the islands because it always seemed like it was earlier than it actually was.  We would normally wouldn’t eat until around 8:00 p.m. and I would think it was 6:00 p.m. and then by the time we got back to the boat it was around 10:00 p.m. it was actually midnight.

The girls were supposed to leave us after Ithaca, but they were loathe to so after much deliberation, talking and figuring out the details they decided to catch the boat taxi to the mainland from Kastos, our next stop and it was a good thing they did, because the best baclava was yet to come.

Sleepyheads

It was the second longest crossing of the cruise, we had a couple hours left in the Gulf of Corinth and then from the Gulf of Patra 35 miles to the Ionian Sea. So the day in pictures.

The girls always got up last so Alicja and I got in a couple of photos in the morning. They complained during their naps when the boat was listing due to strong winds that it was difficult to stay on the top bunk.

We stopped for a swim near the mainland close to the town of Nafpaktos, which is only accessible by small craft and home to a castle. In Greek legend, it is the place where the Herclidae, the descendants of Hercules, built a fleet to invade Peloponnesus. In reality it was the Athenians chief naval station in Western Greece during the Pelopnnesian War 431 – 404 BC. After being held by numerous different people the Venetians took control over it in 1401 and fortified it so well that it withstood a four-month siege by the Turks in 1477. It was sold to the Turks, recaptured by the Venetians and in 1829 returned to Greece. The castle was built by the Venetians.

After our swim we entered the harbor of Nafpaktos to explore the town. I searched high and low for baclava, but my mission was unsuccessful, who would have thought that it would be so difficult to find baclava in Greece? I did however, find Gelato.

Nafpaktos - Note the castle that takes up the top of the hill.

Alicja checking the defenses

Nicole the forward scout - Yes that is a cannon.

After leaving Nafpaktos we sailed under the longest suspension bridge in Europe the Rio-Antirrio Bridge planned in the 1990s and built and finished just in time for the 2004 Olympics it connects Greece to Peloponesse. It is 9,448.82 feet in length (2,880 meters) and has six lanes. Finished August 7, 2004, one week before the opening the games the first official people to officially cross it were the Olympic torchbearers.

The Longest Suspension Bridge in Europe

After Nafpaktos we had lunch, Greek salad, an eggplant dish with zuccinin, after we met up with Thanos’ brother we had zuccini at almost every meal and an egg dish that was very interesting.  We caught quite a good wind so although we could be up on the bow for a bit, we were running at about 6 knots so we had to stay in the back part of the boat.  We had left the town around 2:00 p.m. and we sailed until 11:00 p.m.

Alicja driving

On the night of June 16, we were scheduled to stay in a bay near the deserted island of Oxia.  The last part of the journey we were going very quickly and the boat was listing far to starboard (right) I had to sit port side and brace my feet against the other bench.  Actually we were all port side with our feet braced and then when we tacked and changed direction we had to shift sides and brace the other direction.  We sailed into the sunset and then into the bay where we had dinner and where we would stay the night.  It was very dark and you could see the stars perfectly.  The bay was home to glow in the dark plankton and while I was downstairs Thanos stirred the water to make them glow.  But the girls had decided to go swimming and when Nicole jumped in it was like she was surrounded by this glow.  When she moved her arms like she was making a snow angel it looked like she was angel.  They said that when they saw them through their masks they it looked like they were surrounded by glitter.

Sailing into the sunset

I was waffling back and forth about whether or not to go and see the ancient ruins at Delphi, but since it was really the last island that boasted ruins I thought I should take advantage of it.

Renting a car was $50, so I had decided to take the bus. I woke up around 6:30 a.m. and headed to the coffee shop up near the town square to buy my buss ticket. I had a coffee with all the old Greek men who get up early to have coffee and gossip. The bus was supposed to come at 7:30 a.m. it ended up arriving closer to 8:00 a.m. so I read my book as the sun infiltrated the square. The bakery next door was doing a booming business.

The bus which I paid four Euro for, took me on a 20 minute ride to a neighboring town. At the neighboring town, I had

Delphi

another cup of coffee while I waited an hour for the bus that would take me up the mountain to Delphi. The bus switchbacked up the mountain and after about an hour Delphi was announced. It was 9:00 a.m. and the next bus down was at 10:30 a.m. and there wasn’t another bus until 1:30 p.m. I knew that Thanos was only planning on us being in Galaxidi in the morning so I decided to see what I could see and catch the 10:30 bus back to meet the boat no later than 12:30 p.m.

At first I couldn’t find the ruins, but some helpful townspeople pointed me in the right direction. From the bus stop it was about a quarter of a mile walk. It turns out the museum is closed on Monday mornings and there was no way that I was going to make it past the front entrance in the amount of time I had. So I saw the ruins perched precariously between the mountains, but I didn’t see them. After about spending a half an hour just looking from the outside, I booked it back to town. It was quaint town designed for tourists with lots of shops, but I didn’t have time to stop. I made it to the bus station at 10:20 a.m., purchase my ticket and then waited for the bus, which of course arrived 15 minutes late at 10:45 a.m.

I took the front seat in the bus next to a charming French couple, he was an Opera singer and she was . . . I can’t remember. They were ferrying about the islands and said that Delphi had been very interesting. I had been the only one on the boat to go, because Nicole said, she wasn’t really interested in seeing ruins that were really ruined and Juliette couldn’t go without Nicole. I advised Nicole not to go to Chinese museums which are for the most part due to the cultural revolution a collection of shards.

Not more than 10 minutes into the bus trip, a women with a slight beard and mustache got on the bus. It was nearly empty, but she wanted to sit in the front also, so I gave her the inside seat where she proceeded to carry on a very loud conversation, so loud I could barely speak to the French couple, with the bus driver. Thank goodness she got off a couple of stops later. As we made different stops, the bus gained more and more passengers, the bus driver would occasionally crack the window and smoke his cigarette or talk on his cell phone, but what was really scary was when he passed other vehicles and it looked like we were headed for a head on collision. At least we were the biggest thing on the road.

After we wound down the mountain we picked up a hunk of people in one town and I ended up next to a Grandma with big dyed blond hair, nicely styled who tried to make conversation with me. She did offer me gum and managed to teach me the correct pronunciation of Galaxidi after making me say it about 25 times, but she was elderly I had to; by the way it’s Galax CD, with a little bit of a “th” lisp on the C.

I made it back to town right at noon. The night before when I had been peering in shop windows I though I had found my Greek frog. I have a frog collection and it is usually what I try and find for myself in a country a unique frog. So I entered the shop and checked out the frog, which there was a price on, but it was actually an Italian frog venetian to be exact. It was quite ornate, sort of like Greek Orthodox churches, but nope it wasn’t Greek, instead I purchased two antique picture frames.

My next stop was a small shop where I bought a box of baclava to share with the girls and a bottle of red wine. Alicja mainly serves white wine because it is so hot so it is more refreshing, but I wanted some red before I went back to the prohibition land. Finally, as I was walking back to the boat I saw the cutest dress in the window and knew that I needed it for my baby’s around the world outfit collection. Amelia, who my friend Tami gave birth to is actually my baby, or at least I call her that. Due to the fact that her husband Chris has one brother, I get to be her Aunt. It will be perfect for Greek Easter. My shopping actually took me 15 minutes, it would have taken me less, but I think the man in the antique shop was actually watching the shop for his wife and it took him almost 10 minutes to find out the price on the frames, which hadn’t been marked.

I made it back to the boat by 12:30 p.m. and we got underway. The gang had been a little worried about me, so I felt relieved that I had decided to take the 10:30 a.m. bus back rather than the 1:30 p.m.

Shortly after we got underway, we had lunch, toast pizza, delicious and green peppers stuffed with feta, Greek salad and of course baclava for dessert, it was soooo good, dripping honey. We had other baclava from the island of Ithaca, but it didn’t compare.

Nicole's Water Entry

The girls and I headed out to the bow, Thanos warned us that it was going to be rough, but it wasn’t and we were disappointed. There is something about the spray splashing up that is really refreshing. The only excitement was that Deborah was driving the boat and she’s a bit short, so we kept on getting yelled at to get down because she couldn’t see over our heads.

Nicole and I had a big conversation about her future plans, our beliefs and our lives, I was very impressed with the maturity of both Nicole and Juliette and it was fun just hanging out and talking with them. Nicole has two sisters and one brother and she is the oldest. She also owns a motorbike that she loves to ride. She and Juliette have been friends since childhood. She talked about studying aviation, sibling issues, parental units and her love of aviation. I always feel like I’m doing the world tour thing about 10 to 12 years too late, but then again I’ve always been a late bloomer.

Late in the day we stopped in a small bay off the mainland for a swim. We dropped anchor in a small bay inbetween the mainland and a small uninhabited island called Glaronisi Island or Seagull Island. Alicja and I swam out to the island, once again I saw a ton of sea urchins and sea cucs, all the color of purple. Once again Alicja washed her hair and Juliette did also. It’s really very practical, but then it seemed like almost everything Alicja does, except her collection of sea items, is very practical.

We arrived in Trizonia, a little bit before sunset, it is a very, very small port. But it has three places to eat, an internet

Trizonia

dessert cafe and a Greek chruch, the entire tour of the town took about five minutes, well a little more because we peeked in the church windows.

Thanos’ brother and his girlfriend joined us in Trizonia, they had brought a ton of zuccini, other vegetables and stuff from Thanos’ parents. It seems that his father, who is a doctor, likes to garden, so as passengers on the Alexandros we benefit from his hobby.

I loved Trizonia, we ate together as a group in one of the taverns, I had a very large piece of sole, split a Greek salad with Nicole, but believe it or not no one served baclava. It’s almost like you have to buy it at the sweet shop not the bakery, but a different type of shop and most restaurants don’t seem to serve it. Of the 10 or 15 restaurants that we had looked at on Galaxidi not one of them served baclava, who would have thought that it would have been so difficult to find.

Nicole was cold during dinner so she hibernated into her sweatshirt. After dinner, Thanos and Alicja saw his brother off and the girls and I went to the local dessert/coffee place, which once again did not have baclava to use the internet. So we checked e-mails, responded and ate very dry cake until we returned to the boat, where we had baclava at about 1:00 a.m.

Peepers, Nicole was looking too until she noticed my camera.

Nicole's dinner attire