In My Sister's Place

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Austerity measures? What the hell is that. Apparently it's the reason why there is a 24 hour all purpose strike scheduled during my first full day in Greece. With this, the possible collapse of the eurozone, not to mention today's recent anti-American protests by Athens's Muslim population, show that tomorrow's trip to Greece should be interesting to say the least.

I am heading out once again to discover a new corner of the world. This will be my first big trip after my sister's death in June. I always feel like foreign travel forces you to look at things from a new perspective so it will be good to put some new thoughts in my head. Since I am using some of the money that my sister left me I wanted to choose the destination carefully. My sister always wanted to go the Greek Isles. We grew up on stories of idyllic Greek trips taken by family members and we had close friends of the family who were Greek. My sister had been planning to go during a European vacation with a friend years ago. However, her friend got tremendously sick on the boat over from Italy and once they got to Athens was unwilling to leave the mainland. Before her life was cut short she had put a Greek Isles trip near the top of her to do list. Unfortunately, she never made it so I will make the journey in her place.

I have five Greek islands on my itinerary, Santorini, Syros, Kos, Patmos, and Rhodes. Some will be long stays other just short stops on my way to somewhere else, but hopefully each will be memorable. It will be interesting to see if I am down to go crazy Tommy No Papers style or if I will be in a more contemplative mood this time around. I have got all accommodation booked. I will be living the good life early on before I descend into the hostel life on my return to Athens for the last leg of my trip. Will I get swept up in some great protest chaos? Will I fall in love with the island spirit and wine dark sea? Who knows....time to find out.

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Photos

Before the Digital Age
An old photo my sister took while traveling in Greece.
(circa 1996)