Feral and Superb

i am moving ahead and so is my blog. i think that greece was the first time that i really took the time to keep a record of my activities and so i am going to try to continue as i move ahead. the new site is for the next stage of my adventure and you can find it at www.wvfas.blogspot.com, so go and check it out. please. and if you don't have a google account to leave comments then e-mail me or use skype.

peace
ian

There and Back Again

well . . . this is officially my last post from the european continent. i am currently back at gianluca's house after a wonderful romp through pisa, florence, rome, barcelona, and madrid. i have had a wonderful trip and i will admit that it is a bit sureal to think about coming back to the states, but i am sure that things will be fine once i get off of the plane.

i thought that i would take the opportunity to answer the title question; Aristotle said what?

it is a bit difficult to answer such a questioning considering that he said so much, but i have been searching and reading and i think that i have found the quote that is most pertinate to my situation. the quote reads as follows, "for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." perfect i think. this applies to teaching as well as it applies to train stations. the quote is self explanitory and to the point.

as for the fate of this blog and its upkeep, my experience in greece has not ended it is only on a hiatus. so upon my return i will try to find interesting things to add to keep you all entertained. i look forward to seeing everyone and answering all of the questions that i can.

peace love and happiness
"fight for every breath and tell death to go to hell" che

ian

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plains

the world past time. here played in rome.

the roman palintino. this is the old game field.

the vatican.

this is the fake that is in the plaza where the real one used to be. The real one is pretty amazing but i think that i like the "prisoners" even better. florence.
crazy statue in florence
gardens in florence.
gardens in florence.the collosseum.

the duomo in milan. the largest gothic cathedral in italy.
over looking torino.
little red bicycle. pisa.
the leaning tower.

over athens.
kalymnos sunset.
greek island.
oh the climbing. kalymnos.

*if you are trying to figure out a time frame for the pictures, the top ones are the most recent and the bottom are the oldest. the list of locations that i have visited is posted in order in the message below.*

time continues to move as i sit back and watch it pass. i now find myself with 9 days remaining in my trip across the ocean and it is a bit surreal to think about coming back to the states. i am very excited to see everyone, but . . . i know that within about two weeks i will be ready to move around again. well, i am sure i will have the opportunity. i am headed back to w.v. for the summer to work at the new and will try to stay there (work permitting) throught the end of september. from there i don´t really know; there is talk about heading up to stay with keith and sarah for a while or i might try to go out west and see adam and leanna (i have not asked them yet).

for now though we will live in the present. i find myself in madrid at the moment staying with a bunch of my friends from greece. though it is late spring in an area where the temperature should be scorching it has been pretty cool (15-17º) with quite a bit of rain; however, i have been having a wonderful time just relaxing; traveling is hard work. i have officially been to athens, kalymnos, patras, brindisi, milan, torino, pisa, florence, rome, civitavecchia, barcelona, toledo, and madrid since leaving thessaloniki. i head back to barcelona on friday morning and will stay until saturday evening when my ferry leaves. i am going to see a flogging molly concert while i am there so it should be a wonderful stay (not to mention barcelona is sick). then i head back to italy to stay two night in torino and one in milan; my plane leaves at around 9 in the morning on the 28.

i am trying to think of a good story to tell . . . let´s see . . .

in rome i was waiting in line to see the palatino (the roman forums) as i had decided to splurge on the ticket that cost 11 euro (it included the palatino, forums, and collosseum) when from in front of me i heard the distinct sound or american english. now here we must stop for a second. it is not unusual to hear english in tourist areas however, the number of american tourists is way down and most of them are obnoxious college students looking to party or older individuals in guided tours. the rest of the tourists are other europeans, chinese, japanese, or aussie´s. all of this coupled with the fact that italians do not speak much english it was a rare occurance. so . . . i looked around and sure enough there was a couple standing in front of me, about mom and dad´s age, waiting in line for the same attraction. i don´t remember now how the conversation started but we were soon into the wirl-wind of conversation that occurs when you meet someone familiar in an unfamiliar place. they were a couple from florida on a last minute vacation to see some of the sites in italy. i am not sure how it came about, perhaps i was looking especially pitiful that day, but they invited me to join them to walk through the the ruins. as i had been on my own for 4 or 5 days i graciously accepted and we began to chat further. there are 3 or 4 different subject areas that you talk about with strangers and these include things like family, the weather, work, polotics (only comfortable strangers) and food. we of course covered all of these on our walk and found many things in common. ellen is a teacher and bill is a computer guy, they are the parents of boys, and very kind. upon leaving the palantino they offered to buy lunch and i of course issued what has become my standard line, "i will not ask for anything, but i am in no position to refuse your generosity." they took me to an italian restaurant (the first time i had eaten out since kalymnos) and proceded to buy me a wonderful lunch of bruschetta, ravioli, and beer. we split company upon leaving the restaurant and i have been in touch with them since. i have found numerous cases of sincere generocity as i have been traveling, and though i still believe that the human race is mainly a large, violent, distructive force, at least there are a few bright spots left.

i suppose that that is all for now i have to buy a ticket for the concert, the ferry, and reserve a place to stay in barcelona so i have to warm up the credit card. talk to you all very soon and i will see everyone before too long.

peace love and happiness
ian

Happy Mother's Day

well . . .

i now find myself in roma italy after leaving greece about two weeks ago; i have been to athena, kalymnos, patra, brindisi, milano, turin, pisa, firenza, and now roma since my departure from thessaloniki. it is sunday morning here, almost 10 oclock. I am almost ready to start my day which will consist of walking around rome and getting as many pictures as i possibly can (i love digital cameras) all the while spending as little money as possible; i call it the 5 euro diet and it does wonders for your hips. unfortunatly i do not have a usb port here at this hostel and so i am unable to post pictures but perhaps when i get to madrid in a few days i will have an opportunity to post some of my pictures ( church, church, church, old building, church, pile of rocks, church . . . .).

the purpose of this post is to wish all those back home (really only moms) a happy mother's day. i know that my mom is traveling to this weekend; hopefully, she will get this at some point. maybe g'ma harrington, cressman, and rockwell will also get the chance to see this as well. so happy mother's day to all; i miss you and can't wait to see everyone.

peace love and happiness
ian

Ahh Vacation . . . Wait I'm not relaxed!

Hey everyone,

I have left Thessaloniki . . . at least for now. I found myself in Athens at six a.m. on Easter Morning; not good. I have decided that Easter is the most inappropriate time of the year to be traveling in Greece as the Eastern Orthodoxy has made it a pretty big deal; thus everything is closed, not only on Sunday, but Monday as well.

So, yesterday I spent my first 3 hours in Athens sitting in a chair reading outside Everest (no, not the mountain, but rather the Greeks answer to Mc D's). At nine I was allowed to check in to my room at the Hostel Aphrodite, a very nice place, and drop my luggage. After answering a few e mails I was off and running. I have some theories about traveling that, when I have a bit more time, I might expound upon the masses; the most important of these theories however, is that the first day you are in a new city you should spend your day wandering, put your map away and wander. Thus, after leaving my things at the hostel I left and wandered for about 7 hours (2 of those were spent on a park bench napping; that is another one of my theories). I walked all over, the weather was wonderful, the streets were quiet, and best of all there were not too many tourists. I saw the Acropolis, Pan's Cave, the Olympic Stadium, and many other sites that make 1492 look like it was a week ago. Athens is an impossibly large city, as you will see when I have an opportunity to post pictures. It sits in a basin with the Acropolis as its center point. There are old things everywhere; above the city, below the city, and built into the city. I am however, a bit disengaged from all of this; by this I mean that I feel like I should be more relaxed.

So, Ian, why are you not relaxed? Well . . . I am trying to schedule my days so that everything will fit; this, by the way, goes against everything that I believe in as a traveler; unfortunately, I do not have the funds to be spontaneous and free spirited. I have my credit card, but, as you all are well aware, I will have to pay that also. And it is not the money that is stressing me out it is the need to look ahead and figure out what I will be thinking in five days so that I can contact the right people so that I will end up in the right place, at the right time, with the right connections, places to stay, train tickets, ferry tickets, whew . . . .

I suppose though that I should not complain. I am leaving in about three hours for Kalymnos. A small island in the south Aegean, near Kos. Every time I tell a Greek where I am going they close their eyes, tip their head back, wave their hand, and say, "Poh Poh" (this is the most awe-inspiring of reactions). Kalymnos is an unspoiled island that is known for its deep-water, free-diving, sponge-catching fishermen; more importantly, for me, is that within the last few years it has become one of the premier sport climbing areas in the world. I checked the weather and for the week it is in the low 70's with full sun. So. . .

Where to from there? Well I am back in Athens for a night, then to Patras, from Patras to Brindisi Italy, and on up to Milan where I will drop my luggage for the remainder of my journey. I will move on down through Italy for about a week and then over to Madrid for about ten days, maybe a day or two in Mallorca, and finish the trip out with a Flogging Molly concert in Barcelona. I fly out of Milan on the 28th of May to complete my four months on the east side of the Atlantic.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. Please leave your comments, as I love to read them, and I will try to post pictures and such when I reach Milan. Thank you for all of your support and I will catch up with everyone soon.

Peace, love, and happiness
ian

Ok Ok only a few more. . .

This is my flatmates picture. I thought it was kind of cool.
This is what I want to do when I get old. Sit around with my friends grumbling about how messed up the world is and discussing the spoiled, out-of-control younger generation.

A couple more pics.

The road, or rather rail, to Thessaloniki
The old wall, Anapoli
So many people to miss
Me trying to dance to traditional greek music. . . oh yeah that is my director

The Inner Circle (and I'm a member!).