http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Mad Greek/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Mad Greek en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:15:10 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:15:10 BST All God is one GodAll Creation is one CreationAll Life is one LifeAll People is one PeopleAll Faith is one FaithAll Tradition is one TraditionAll Love is one LoveAll I have isA body A mind A soul A patch of Earth A Bible A drum A family A community A history A future A Prayer. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/U-District/blog-268768.html Yeah I know that blog title sounds like it came off a movie poster but hopefully my new homepage can be at least as entertaining as a trip to the theater. Go see for yourself www.nicnakis.com A lot of big things are brewing. I'm going back to Kenya for example. But most of this has been written about on the new page or will be so friends and family of the Mad Greek should probably bookma http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-183086.html These are the last things I put down in my journal before moving on. Not a complete cycle of thoughts but a good time capsule showing the status of my ideas just before leaving Africa.MusingsLet's start with the recapitulation hypothesis that Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny. This is the notion that the development of the individual reflects or imitates the development of it's entire ancestry. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Nairobi-Province/Nairobi/blog-145315.html Surprise Most of you must not know it but I'm back in the U.S.A. I say you must not know it because almost everyone I run into here is shocked to see me. Guess I didn't give enough solid info in my preceding blogs. So. Here's the current update Chelly is in Kenya taking care of her family and gathering paperwork for her visa interviews. Word is she's also been practicing her sewing and http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/blog-144891.html On SafarinbspAfrica raquonbspKenya raquonbspTsavo National Parks E W By Mad GreekMarch 15th 2007Nicholas John Nakis My folks arrived around 400 AM on a Wednesday morning and we only had three days to show them Kenya. We started in Chelly's original hometown of Voi. Voi is a foothills town in the Taita Taveta corner of Coast Provincenoted for its access to Tsavo East and Tsavo West http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Coast-Province/Tsavo-NP/blog-141481.html Chelly and I met on the Khao San Road in Bangkok way back at the end of October. I moved in with her at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo the very next day and we spent Halloween night in our apartment watching The 40 YearOld Virgin. That month we fell in love. My Thai visa expired so I took a trip into Cambodia for two weeks. During that time I decided that I never wanted to see another new place witho http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Coast-Province/Mombasa/blog-141480.html Wednesday March 14th We were up at 300 AM and in a cab by 400 headed out to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi to see my parents. Nairobi is wicked cold in the mornings and I was shivering all wrapped up in nerves while carrying my nowmassive backpack into the airport. I saw my parents through the floortoceiling windows of the arrival terminal and I was hit with a new loa http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Nairobi-Province/Nairobi/blog-141479.html I'm writing this entry just a few hours before I get onto an airplane for that last stretch of travel which ends my trip. I'm in Greece and I've had an amazing day with my parents and some longlost newlydiscovered cousins. I'm painfully missing Chelly and we'll have thousands more miles between us soon. In short there is a lot going on inside me as I write this last live blog from the road. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Thessaly/Meteora/blog-141458.html Since Crete was the main focus of my trip to lovely Greece it's only fitting that Crete be the place I stretch my legs and find the pulse of this country of my ancestors. Chania It all went down in a place called Chania we didn't spend every day there but it was our homebase and the place where we got to be lazy. Chania is an old old town. Inhabited by ancient Greeks Romans Byzantines A http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-141457.html The blazing beams of the sun shine across vast space and a crystal blue sky bathing me in heat and light while wave after wave of cooled air molecules roll in from the Mediterranean smash across my side and tangle with my blowing hair. I'm standing on an Athens rooftop in the early morning breathing and meditating after some long Hatha Yoga practice while the sweat dries on the Kenyan cloth L http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-139830.html Steve is a twentysomething Kenyan acrobat a Rastafarian worldtraveller with a wife and 7month old baby. Just off the highway between Mombasa and Malindi in the growing suburban settlement of Shanzu Steve has setup an amazing homemade gym. We met each other in my first week in Kenya and we really saw eye to eye on this whole fitness thing. Since then we've been training teaching and http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Coast-Province/Shanzu/blog-136984.html Go past the alleyway filled with metalsmiths their handtools clinking like a percussionist orchestra wallless bays of them sprawl out on either side. Follow deep into where the wooden shelters and workshops turn into mud huts and homes. Get into the dark part where the ground is black from wastewater and the shadows of the taller buildings cover the street. You start to smell the aura of http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Coast-Province/Mombasa/blog-135908.html Sometimes it seems like we're living in a fairy taleor at least on a lovely long vacation. Then the pendulum of reality comes swinging back and knocks us off our unicorns...K1 Fiance Visas Dealing with the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi was a nightmare. A NIGHTMARE. Truly some of the most painful frustrating shit I've ever had to go through. On our last trip there I caught a really bad headcol http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Coast-Province/Mombasa/blog-135272.html Today is Chelly's 24th birthday and it also marks the end of our first full month in Kenya. It's hard to believe that we arrived all the way back on January 24th with a little money in our pockets and a lot of hope. The place looked beautiful then but a little scary for me. Now I feel like I've been here foreverand the family is really helping me to belongbut most of our hopes have been http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Nairobi-Province/Nairobi/blog-132366.html We have a friend here named Steve who is a Rastafarian acrobat with a homemade gym in his backyard. Steve has been friends with Chelly for years and for a while they were both working at zoos in Thailand. I only met the guy a couple weeks ago but we really have a lot of similar passions and beliefs so I'm sure he'll be a friend for life. After workingout at his gym last night I started th http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Coast-Province/Mombasa/blog-129673.html Wow. I have a birthday this month so does Chelly. After weeks of scraping by on borrowed money chasing after visa info on slow computers and crackling phone lines banging heads with awful embassy personnel and riding busted buses on broken roads we might actually get to enjoy them stressfree. It has really been fantastic thoughmost of the time. We've balanced the unparrallelled headac http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Coast-Province/Mombasa/blog-127250.html Chelly and I are still adventuring and doing alright. I know it's been a long time since you've had an update from us but don't worry. I can assure you that even though we are in a big mess we will survive it and be happy to tell the tale.I called this post House of Cards because our plans have totally collapsed around us. Oh well you know what they say about Mice and Men. Sad thing is http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-121621.html It's a good thing we started our Indian Immersion in Kolkata. 1. Kolkata is simply the craziest thing I have ever seen. A family friend upon hearing that I was flying to this city said that I was in for a heavy dose of humanity. He was deadon. Kolkata is peoplepeople everywhere jostling and shouting and sounding like they're shouting even when they aren't because most of the city is at l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Kolkata/blog-119579.html RangersWe left Calcutta in the back of a madman's tourbus. It was cold it was night it was the impoverished uppereast corner of India. We didn't expect it but we got it ten hours of the worst discomfort either Chelly or I had ever imagined. The road was barleypaved and full of holes. Our driver bombed across pits and jumped the speedbumps weaving between both lanes of traffic and tear http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Orissa/Puri/blog-119568.html I've now spent more time outside of India than I spent in the place. The thing about that is I still remember all the places and characters and major events but I've forgot most of the details and especially all those little emotions. Anyway I can still write about it. Looking back I can even say conclusively that India is the perfect place for someone in search of that shocking cultural imm http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-119567.html