Bits and pieces...

---

People travel for different reasons. I think I travel to feel complete. I found bits and pieces of myself in these different countries, in different cultures, in being lost and not understanding any words, in trying to figure out how the simplest things work, like buying a cheesepie, it's like being born again. Mostly I found them in the countryside. Away from the city and the hardened people, away from the crowd and the long lines. They say in the cities you see the backbones of a country, but to experience the soul you have to go the countryside. Either in Scotland, or in Greece, or anywhere for that matters, that's where the magic is.

I think I ate more meat than I've ever had in the last 7 years. I have yet to learn how to say, "Does it have meat in it?" in Greek. I would order something that sounds totally innocent like stuffed tomatoes, or spagheti napolitana (spagheti with tomato sauce, it would say on the menu), and I'd end up glumly picking away bits and pieces of minced meat cheerily looking at me from between the rice in the tomatoes or from the tomato sauce. Even when I thought I knew how to ask the question in Greek, the owner/waiter/whoever, would say something in Greek, smiled warmly, and walked away, and I thought, "Well, I think I just ordered something. We'll see what comes out." And so far, except for the minced meat incidents, they never disappointed.

I think I might go look for stuffed tomatoes again tonight *crossing my fingers*

---

Photos

Meteora
Our car, the "Blue Dolphin".

Switzerland?
Nope, Greece, complete with the bells too!

Meteora
Can you see the monastery? It's on the top of the rock pillar. There are 24 more of those, all located in similarly inaccesible places (back then at least). They had to haul the monks up with pulleys.

Climbing among thistles...
Crazy, spiky, ugly, thistles...hate them.