All around me I saw the same, featureless, chalky blue void. If it weren’t for the bubbles coming out of my regulator and rising toward the faint silhouette of the boat above me I couldn’t have even told you which way was up. I sank deeper into the gloom with each passing second. As I went, I carefully equalized the pressure in my ears as I scanned the slightly darker blue below me. My depth gauge read just over 10 meters, so I knew that the bottom was getting close. A few seconds later several shadows materialized out of the void below me, slowly taking on the jumbled shape of a boulder field. One of the objects on the bottom stood out from the rest. Its surface was hidden beneath thousands of years worth of crust ... read more

The thought of sailing down the Nile on a felucca has always evoked romantic images of the past for me. Their broad triangular sails have been part of the Nile landscape since the time of the pharaohs. For thousands of years feluccas were the main mode of transportation along the Nile. Their importance waned only after the British pushed the steel rails south into the desert during the nineteenth century. Now they are almost exclusively reserved for the tourist industry. Many of the guidebooks list cruising on a felucca as the ultimate Nile experience. I have heard travelers call their felucca journey the highlight of their trip in Egypt, but I have also heard the voyages described as boring, uncomfortable and painfully long. I love boats, especially sailboats, and everything to do with being out on ... read more

Everything was going exactly how I had planned. I effortlessly breezed through the passport control station - Not really surprising considering that I was in a region that had been on the tourist circuit for over two thousand years. I found my backpack exactly were it was supposed to be on the baggage carousel and I didn’t even get a glance from the customs man as I walked past him, out into the scorching desert heat. I boldly pushed my way past all of the eager taxi drivers that were lined up on the curb vying for my business and then I walked down the entrance road to the airport, following a long line of baggage toting locals. Eventually I found the dusty curb on the big round a bout where I was supposed to catch ... read more

I was headed into an inferno, at least, that was what the news story on the Internet led me to believe. It was old news really, I remembered first hearing about the fires burning across the Peloponnesian Peninsula when I was in Rhodes a few weeks before. I had never even considered changing my plans due to the fires, though. After all, I had lived for many years in California where forest fires were commonplace and I was only going to get one chance of ‘seeing’ six of the Seven Wonders of the World before it was time to go home. I figured that as long as the transportation was still running I was going to stick to my plan. My bus ride out of Delphi went flawlessly. We descended the slopes of Mt. Parnassus to ... read more

I woke with a start. Where was I? What was going on? It was clear that I was still in my tiny sleeper car on a Greece-bound train, but there was no sound. The rhythmic clacking of the steel rails, the grating, high-pitched squeal of the big wheels, the low rumble of the diesel engine - They were all silent. A glance out my window revealed deep blue skies over a stunning, green countryside with a few farm buildings and a distant ridgeline. It really was a perfect view to wake up to, but it was unlikely that the engineer had stopped the train for us to see it. I looked up and down the tracks as best as I could from my window. There were no official looking structures and no station, just green. I ... read more