It’s all Greek to me

” ‘I would be glad to know which is worst, to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, to have one buttock cut off, to run the gauntlet among the Bulgarians, to be whipped and hanged at an auto-da-fe, to be dissected, to be chained to an oar in a galley; and, in short, to experience all the miseries through which every one of us hath passed, or to remain here doing nothing?’
‘This,’ said Candide, ‘is the grand question’ ”

-Voltaire, Candide

Hello, all. Well, I haven’t done anything to top skydiving in the last week, but I thought I should write nonetheless. Currently, I am in Athens, and place of obsession for me as I am immensely intrigued by ancient Greek culture, mythology and above all, architecture. Needless to say, the past two days have certainly quenched this and moreover, destroyed my poor feet which I chose foolishly to arm only with flip-flops. Other than that, I’ve passed my time here talking for hours on end about American politics (which I am in no position/inclination to defend) with my French and Hungarian roommates. Last night, I found a coffee shop and had a delicious chocolate banana crepe…and a coffee. Being that I do not drink coffee that often, it tends to have something of a notable effect on me. Last night it caused me to stare at a wall for approximately 30 minutes and then write furiously…pure nonsense…into my travel journal. (Thank you Tigs). I wrote many many pages of this nonsense, and thought to favor you with a sampling here, so that you may see why I generally opt for tea.

“Society is like a hair-do. All separate pieces attached to the same scalp. In a more liberal society, they may be different lengths and hues–cut and dyed that way. In a more traditional or constricted society, they are all encouraged to grow to the same length–or at least to have that appearance, lest we forget that hair ‘level’ on the bottom consists of longer hairs from the top, shorter from the bottom. Either way, unique or familiar, all the hairs grow at the same rate.”
-Me.

See what I mean? Below it I wrote, “The first pyramid was built because_____ ” and then seem to lose my train of thought, moving to another subject some lines down.

Since my last posting, I’ve spent time in Venice and Florence. Upon my arrival in Venice, I was met by a man in a suit at the train station who gave me a card for a hotel at a good price. So, instead of waiting in the line to see my other options, I just go there. It is actually a quaint little hotel, right off one of the canals. I pay the lady at the front desk and she takes me to my room…..or rather, the attic. Yes, my “room” is in the attic of the hotel, cut off from other beds by sheets hung on some rope stretched the length of said attic. (See picture on webshots) There is surprisingly a bathroom, but since the roof slopes, there is exactly one place I can stand in the bathroom without hitting my head. The good news is, directly above my bed, there is a skylight. So, with nothing better to do that evening, I crawl through the two foot space allowable and on to the roof to look at the people, moon and stars, unnoticed by all three. Unfortunately, the tiles on the roof are not secured, but I avert danger by crawling VERY SLOWLY upwards. It was lovely. The next two nights, I stayed with a woman who bid me call her, “Mama Rita” in her private home. The nuns told me to. Florence was also very amicable to me, though I upset to find the gellati was pricier there. I’ve also since spent a night on an overcrowded train where I was forced to lay on the floor , ew, and a very exciting 7 hours in a ferry port in Bari, neither of which I can really feel comfortable complaining about while reading about the horrors of the Gulag.

As alluded to earlier, my pictures are now on webshots and can be found at http://community.webshots.com/user/blairnlampe if’n you’re so inclined. They’re basically up to date minus a few more from Athens, coming soon.

Really, I’ve nothing else for you. Seek entertainment elsewhere.

Blair