While working on an article for d-Infinity Online magazine ("Monsters Among Us"), I tracked down the pictures I had taken during the trip my wife Diane and I took to the Mediterranean in 2006. Our first stop ahead of boarding a cruise ship for 12 nights was Athens, where we spent a couple of days, September 26-27, exploring the historic heart of the city.
One thing that struck me about this trip was how relatively few photos I took, and I probably take anywhere from five to even 10 times as many a day when I travel these days. (I also shot them at a much smaller size than would be the norm for me now, which limits what they can be used for and their viability for print). It is easier, after all, to delete or ignore them later, but it is truly said that one never knows if they will pass the same way again and once you have left a place you might never have a chance to take pictures of it again.
A highlight for us was a visit to the Acropolis of Athens, site of the Parthenon and other temple structures, which Diane had never before visited and which I had not been to since 1981.
Above are three views of the Parthenon, dedicated to goddess Athena Patheneos, patroness and namesake of the city. From the left are a view of the main entryway, Diane in front of renovations that were ongoing while we were there, and one from the base of the rocky hill. 
Above are a closeup of the main entrance during a rare and fortuitous break in the crowds and a very touristy one of me in the foreground taken from the ruins of the nearby Roman-era temple. 
While the Parthenon and the Acropolis are so associated with each other that people often mistakenly use those terms synonymously, another impressive religious structure on the site is the Erecthyon, above. Its most characteristic feature is a ceremonial porch that has a roof supported by six Caryatid columns, pillars carved in the forms of robed women. 
Many of the artifacts excavated on the Acropolis are on display at a small museum there, which bears visiting by anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the site. Shown here is lord Hermes, god of communication among other things. Above left is a view of the Parthenon from the rooftop bar of our hotel. 
One site I have seen from a distance and wanted to visit every time I have visited Athens but, for a variety of reasons, been unable to is this beautiful 5th century B.C. temple of Hephaestus, god of craftsmen. This is a view of it from the mount of the Acropolis. 
Good views of many other interesting things can be viewed from the centrally-located Acropolis. Above left are the ruins of the massive and beautiful Roman-era temple that we explored while in the city. Above right are the remains of the theatre-temple of Dionysus, god of wine, drama, and madness. 
A sense for the titanic size of the Roman temple can be seen here, with Diane standing in front of it. Some the inhabitants of the temple ruins sleeping in front of an overturned column capital are a further indicator of the site's monumental scale. 
We also spent some time walking around the Syntagma Square area of Athens and visited Greece's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, above left. Above right is one of the Evzone ceremonial soldiers who stands guard in the area. 
On the afternoon of our second day in Athens we took a cab to the port of Piraeus and boarded the Norwegian Jewel. A few hours after this picture was taken we sailed westward, to the Peloppenese and Olympia!
To
anyone who followed my travels over the summer, particularly the Aegean Odyssey
that took me to Athens and five islands of Greece in August, it might seem that
I have been uncharacteristically quiet for the past few months. Amid a particularly busy year of travel, conventions, and speaking appearances, however, I have been working to finish up my Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country, the latest title in publisher Clerisy Press's America's Haunted Road Trip of guides to reputedly haunted places people can visit. Anyone interested in the fascinating history and ghostly lore of this area should be sure to pick up a copy of this book when it comes out and in the meantime can find previews of most of its chapters at the site dedicated to it.
As of this writing I have submitted all the chapters and most of the front and back matter to my editors and have just two miscellaneous sections to finish up for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country.
I
have organized the 27 feature-length chapters into four sections, San Antonio,
which includes downtown and everything within the 1604 Loop that surrounds the
city; Greater San Antonio, which includes sites in the counties surrounding the
city; Austin, which covers sites in the state capitol; and Texas Hill Country,
which covers sites in the wooded highlands to the north and west of the city.
In addition to its 27 feature-length chapters, it was also important to me to
include a robust section of Additional Haunted Places that has brief writeups
on another 60 sites throughout south-central Texas, which helps give this book
a comprehensive nature. I will also support it indefinitely through
the Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country blog, which
will include things like historic images of sites, new things I learn about
places covered in the book, additional haunted sites I discover, and my ongoing
paranormal adventures in the title area.
As
things stand now the release date for the book is set for September 24, 2015.
That might sound like a long time, but a lot of editing, layout, design,
promotion, and marketing needs to take place between now and then. I have also
got an exceptionally busy new year scheduled already, to include a roadtrip from Chicago to Washington, D.C., in March — which I will, of course, cover here with articles and photos!
Top, the entrance to what is now the giftshop of the Alamo, which has long been believed to be haunted by the spirits of its slain defenders. Above, the sumptuous lobby of the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, which has a ghostly history going back to the middle of the 19th century.
A big trip like the one my wife and I have just returned home from makes me contemplate, for good reason, the purpose of travel. To me, it is to learn about the world and better understand one's own place in it; to make connections with people from other lands, both natives of the areas visited and fellow travelers; and to share ones' experiences with others, both in person and through venues like this. Ideally, a person will come back from a trip of this sort with new ideas, a new perspective on their old ones, and a reinvigorated sense of purpose. Suffice it to say that we accomplished with our Aegean Odyssey everything we might have expected.
In the ancient world of the Mediterranean, hospitality and how people treated strangers was extremely important and was, not to put too fine a point on it, integral to the continued existence of civilization itself. Commerce with other lands could not take place if travelers were subjected to theft or violence or were not able to obtain from their journeys things commensurate in value to what they had expended on them. People like our friends Dimitri Kremmydas in Athens and Michael Townsend in Crete may just be mortal people but, in that they invited us into their homes and made our journey more fulfilling, they follow in the steps of paragons like Aeolus, who used his winds to carry travelers on their paths across the wine-dark sea.
Many other people bear mentioning here and they include friends Richard and Laura Allan, who journeyed from their home in Scotland to spend six wonderful days with us in Santorini, our fourth reunion since we met them on a Nile River cruise in 2006; my friend Brendan Cass, who made monumental efforts to come to Kos Island for just a day-and-a-half so that he could experience it with me; Nathan and Alison Richards and Toni Symonds, who along with Michael Townsend made our time in Crete much more enriching; the staff of the Atlantis Hotel in Santorini; Stamatis Patiniotis at the Asimis Kolaitou Art Gallery and Giorgia at the Lignos Folklore Museum in Santorini; Mary, Voula Mavrea, and the other staff of the Small Village resort on Kos Island; teacher and caretaker Julie, who shared her knowledge of the Hippocrates Garden with us and her friend Dora, an archaeologist who discussed history and mythology with me; and Sophia Stavrianou at the Porfyris Hotel, who provided excellent advice that helped us make the most of our time on the island of Nisyros. Thanks also to Tracie Conner for getting us to the airport on our way out and to Karen Holmes for picking us up there and to Taylor Conner for taking such good care of our cats while we were on the road. And there are undoubtedly other deserving people I may have neglected to mention in this quick recap of our trip and I beg their forgiveness and will be sure to add them as I update it!
We encountered villains in the course of our travels as well and, while their impact was much less than that of the good people we met, they bear mentioning. These scourges of the Aegean include the swine
that lurk at the port of Santorini and other islands and will not answer polite
questions while trying to sell overpriced shuttle rides; the many shiftless taxi
drivers of Rhodes, who will drive past visitors hauling luggage up the street
in favor of giving ride around town to cruise ship passengers; the gypsies
who create distractions with their drugged and abused children while their
compatriots pick traveler's pockets; and the restaurants that provide substandard service and food to strangers because they do not think they will have to deal with them again or prefer to deal only with those who speak particular languages. Heracles, Theseus, and the other heroes of
antiquity would certainly have wreaked a terrible vengeance on them all.
Many friends followed our journey, commented on it, and provided encouragement to us during it and I would like to thank them for that. Interestingly, a number of friends commented in response to my posts during this trip about how I don't stop working even while on vacation, which points to the fact that of all the things a prolonged trip like this is to me a vacation is not really one of them. Yes, a journey like this can and ideally should have elements of fun and relaxation, but our four-week odyssey through the Aegean was often physically demanding, was expensive, and was attended by elements of uncertainty and hazard. If we just wanted a vacation we could have much more easily, inexpensively, and quickly gone to Port Aransas on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Disney World, or a hundred other places.
So this trip was much more than any mere vacation could have been, I achieved my goals with it, and, while I am physically exhausted, I have been mentally stimulated -- and am hitting the ground running with an eye to finishing up projects I set aside when we went overseas and to jumping into ones that are exciting and altogether new. And being inspired and invigorated by a trip is, I think, the most someone can expect from it.
Took an early morning flight from Kos to Athens, checked into the Sofitel at the airport, and spent the afternoon with friend Dimitri Kremmydas discussing everything from culture, politics, and religion to wargaming and learning how to make phyllo dough and spanokopita!
More to come!
Arrived on Rhodes after an overnight Blue Star ferry from Santorini. No taxis at port and just one overtaxed city bus and, like dozens of other people, we had to drag our luggage up to the main road and then, after getting rudimentary directions, along the irregular sidewalk in the direction of our hotel; very tough on Diane in particular.
More to come!
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ATHENS, GREECE -- Landed here about 8:30 a.m. local time and then fairly quickly collected our luggage and cleared customs. Almost always struck when coming in to a major European port of entry how much easier and less stressful it is then coming back into the United States. Then walked across the street to the conveniently-located Sofitel (the lobby of which is shown at right). Staff was very friendly and gracious and let us check into our room at 11 and then had our stuff hauled up to it for us.
Friend Dimitri Kremmydas met us at the hotel and then took us downtown via bus, allowing us to see the orchards and farm plots that provide much of the produce available in the markets of the city. We then spent several hours exploring a number of downtown neighborhoods, from some of the most chic to ones that have fallen on hard times but still have a great degree of local charm. Highlights included walking through the traditional open-air produce, meat, and fish markets (some glimpses of which appear here); a look at some of the outdoor exhibits at the War Museum and Byzantine Museum; a walk past the parliament and brief stop to pay respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (some of the evzones guardsmen from the site can be seen patrolling below); and a visit to a subterranean archaeological site inside a metro station (also below).
In the course of all this we had lunch at a traditional Pakistani street food vendor, not what we had expected for our first meal in Greece but delicious and a nice surprise. We enjoyed beef kebabs, samosas, salads, wonderful flatbread hot off the grill, and a very spicy dish of minced organ meats (which Diane would not touch but that I thought was great).
We also had an enlightening conversation about U.S. and Greek society, history, politics, religion, and related matters. And, as we are both wargamers, we also talked about that a bit as well!
Got back to the hotel and, after resting a little, walked across the street to the airport to see where we needed to check in for our 7:20 flight to Crete in the morning. Then, each had a Hellas Fix draught beer and a much-needed glass of water in the Artemis Bar and picked at the snacks that came with them (including, much to Diane's amusement, a little dish of bugels!).
I went up to the sauna and pool for a sweat and a dip and watched the sun go down over the hills surrounding the Messoghia Valley. Then, came back down to the room, made a cup of espresso, and updated this blog and did a little other work before turning in.
Today's vocabulary:
efcharisto = thank you (a good first word to know wherever one is travelling)
kalimera = good morning
That's it for now. More to come!
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- At San Antonio International Airport getting ready to board our flight to Philadelphia, the fist leg of our journey to Greece and more than three weeks in the Aegean! Will be keeping a running log of our odyssey here and posting interesting and useful information at once a day, Internet access permitting. So, come along and enjoy the trip with us!
There are a few things to note already:
* TSA recently implemented "Pre-Screening" for some travelers and apparently my wife Diane was approved for it (she is not sure how, as she never applied for it, but is assuming it is in part because she is retired U.S. military; I suspect it involved some sort of background check by TSA). Both of us therefore got moved into the pre-screened line, which meant we did not have to remove our shoes or belts -- I did not wear one anyway because I did not know about this -- or have to remove our laptops from our carry-on luggage. This made our trip through security the quickest and most painless one I have experienced in about 13 years. Suffice it to say, this is probably the smartest, best thing TSA has done in more than a decade, and certainly the one that will improve quality of travel for the most people -- and even people who are not pre-screened benefit because there are fewer people waiting in lines with them.
* Don't be fooled by airport bars that are open when you are waiting for early-morning flights, because you cannot get a drink at them! They are not permitted to serve alcohol earlier than 7 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. on Sundays. Suffice it to say that those of us who have no values at all are not particularly tolerant of those who turn theirs into legislation or presume to dictate when other people are allowed to have a drink. If we had recalled this from the last time we experienced it we could have brought a couple of vodka minis and used them to spike some "virgin Maries."
* San Antonio International Airport has free Wifi! This is nothing new but a real plus for me and goes a long way toward making them traveler-friendly so it bears mentioning.
Above are three views of the Parthenon, dedicated to goddess Athena Patheneos, patroness and namesake of the city. From the left are a view of the main entryway, Diane in front of renovations that were ongoing while we were there, and one from the base of the rocky hill. 
Above are a closeup of the main entrance during a rare and fortuitous break in the crowds and a very touristy one of me in the foreground taken from the ruins of the nearby Roman-era temple. 
While the Parthenon and the Acropolis are so associated with each other that people often mistakenly use those terms synonymously, another impressive religious structure on the site is the Erecthyon, above. Its most characteristic feature is a ceremonial porch that has a roof supported by six Caryatid columns, pillars carved in the forms of robed women. 
One site I have seen from a distance and wanted to visit every time I have visited Athens but, for a variety of reasons, been unable to is this beautiful 5th century B.C. temple of Hephaestus, god of craftsmen. This is a view of it from the mount of the Acropolis. 
Good views of many other interesting things can be viewed from the centrally-located Acropolis. Above left are the ruins of the massive and beautiful Roman-era temple that we explored while in the city. Above right are the remains of the theatre-temple of Dionysus, god of wine, drama, and madness. 
A sense for the titanic size of the Roman temple can be seen here, with Diane standing in front of it. Some the inhabitants of the temple ruins sleeping in front of an overturned column capital are a further indicator of the site's monumental scale. 
We also spent some time walking around the Syntagma Square area of Athens and visited Greece's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, above left. Above right is one of the Evzone ceremonial soldiers who stands guard in the area. 
On the afternoon of our second day in Athens we took a cab to the port of Piraeus and boarded the Norwegian Jewel. A few hours after this picture was taken we sailed westward, to the Peloppenese and Olympia! 
