at Kalikalos retreat center on the Pelion Peninsula

Lots has happened since I last wrote, so I'll have to summarize as best as possible. I had a great time exploring the island of Naxos for a week. From there I decided to go next to an island that was conveniently located on the way back to Athens, so I went to the island of Syros for just two nights and a day. I arrived by ferry early in the evening, and bicycled with all of my things up and over the island to the other side, where there was the island's only campground. This wasn't such a bad ride, despite the fact that it was a lot of uphill the first half, as it only took about forty minutes. I made it down to the campground near the beach on the other side and camped there for the night. The next night I did a bit of exploring by bicycle (leaving my tent set up with most of my stuff back at the campground). Basically I just biked north up and over another ridge to another nice little beach. Syros was great, very mellow and low-key, not too touristy, not spectacular scenery but nice enough. Basically it was perfect as a quick stopover for a little change of scene from the busier and more touristy Naxos.

The next day I had to get up early to bicycle back over the island and catch my ferry at 10 am. Things were rather up in the air at that point. I was headed next for the Pelion Peninsula, north of Athens and there was no way to get there without going through Athens, even though I wanted to avoid it (especially considering that it was on fire for a little while). I wasn't exactly sure if I was going to spend that night in Athens. I was hoping that the ferry would get me there early enough that I'd be able to hop on a bus right away, and make it at least partway to my destination, which was about 6 hours by bus in total north of Athens, including a shorter bus ride to get to the smaller village that I was headed for.

The first complication arose when I went to get off the ferry and my bike had a flat tire. And I should mention that the slow leak I'd had on my bike for the past week or so had actually resulted finally in a flat tire the previous day. So that evening, not having the time to try and patch it, I'd replaced the tube with a new tube. So, the new flat was on the brand new tube. The first order of business then was to get that straightened out one way or another, since I didn't know if I might need to do some biking at some point on my way getting to the retreat center, and of course wanted to have the bike in working order.

The other thing was that I had come into a different port from the closer port to Athens of Piraeus, and was a little unsure how long it would take to get there. And, the ferry had been one hour later arriving at Syros, and then had taken longer than I'd expected getting back to the final destination, so I didn't get off that ferry until around 4 in the afternoon. There was a bus going from there into the center of the city, and fortunately I had no problems with the bus driver stowing my bike underneath the bus. On the bus I was then able to figure out where it would be dropping me off, which very conveniently was just a few blocks away from both the hostel I'd stayed at previously, and the bike mechanic that was right nearby.

So, I got off that bus, pumped up the tire just to get me down the street, and headed down to the bike mechanic. By this time it was getting close to 6 pm so I figured I'd be staying in Athens. The mechanic wasn't able to patch that tube for me for some reason (very little English was spoken there) but they were able to install a brand new tube for only about $7, so I went with that. Now I have two tubes with leaks that I'll have to patch at some point. Then I biked over to the hostel, they had room, and so I crashed there for the night.

Next morning I got up early to catch a bus out of Athens heading for Volos, 6th largest city in Greece and the closest large town to the retreat center I was going to on the Pelion Peninsula. Someone from the retreat center had emailed me saying there was a bus leaving Athens at 9:30. Conveniently again, the bus station was just down the street from the hostel.

I arrived at about 9:15 to get on the bus, but that bus was full. The next one was at 11:00. I explained to the ticket person at the counter that I had a bicycle, and they said that wasn't a problem. So around 10:40ish or so they started loading up the bus. As soon as I pointed at the bicycle the man loading the bus made it clear that he was very unhappy about it and, basically, there was no way in hell he was going to load it under the bus. To make a long story short, a commotion ensued, several English-speaking Greek people stepped in to help straighten things out since the man loading the bus spoke no English, and in the end he very relunctantly loaded my bike in and then piled baggage high all over it. Good thing that I was getting off at the final destination.

That bus ended up being late, and so I missed the last bus for the day that was supposed to be taking me from Volos another two hours to the tiny village of Kissos, which was where the retreat center was. To make yet another longish story shorter, through a lucky set of circumstances I ended up running into Jock at the bus station, who is the manager of the retreat center and who I had been emailing with over the past several months. He was there picking someone else up, and had previously offered me a ride, but then was unable to take me with the bicycle. So he told me about another bus that would take me partway to the village of Kissos. And the good thing was that it took me from Volos (which is by the sea) to the top of a mountain in the middle of the Pelion Peninsula, which is high enough that there's a ski resort there; and then from there it would almost all downhill biking for a good 15-20 miles or so going towards the village of Kissos. The thing is, that bus was leaving in 3 minutes. I rushed to the ticket counter, got a ticket and barely got myself and my bicycle onto the bus (this time there was plenty of room for the bike under the bus). I got off at the village of Hania, which was almost exactly at the top of the ridge. From there I started biking downhill, and it took more than an hour of constant biking down, before I finally hit some uphill and had another hour to get to the village of Kissos. I arrived at the retreat center just in time to take a shower and then have dinner.

I'm going to leave it there for now, so that I can save this post before anything happens since this computer is a bit temperamental. If I don't get the chance to write more tonight, then I'll come back later and explain more about the retreat center that I'm at.

still on Naxos (click here for more photos)

I've had a great time exploring the much larger island of Naxos. The one problem I've had is I keep being completely worn out from all the hiking, biking and swimming I'm doing every day, but I keep not wanting to take a day and just sit around. I met an American woman here, Karen, who is camping at another campground that's just a half mile down the road from the one I'm staying at. Yesterday we went down to a a nice beach, where we braved the winds and flying sand. August is when the Meltemi hits Greece, which are daily winds that can get pretty intense. On Anafi they got so strong, particularly up in the main town perched on a ridge, that you could barely walk into it. A little ironic that this is always when most of the tourists are here trying to enjoy the beach. Apparently September is the ultimate time to be here, when things cool down, the winds die down and most of the tourists are gone.

So today Karen and I took a bus into the interior of the island to a really pleasant little village, Filoti. There weren't any particularly notable sights to see right in town, although you could hike from there up to the top of Mount Zeus, highest point on Naxos and in all of the Cyclades Islands. But that was a 3-4 hour round trip hike and neither of us were up for that. Instead we managed to spend a couple of hours just exploring the winding maze of narrow streets and alleys that make up most of the town, and eventually got up to a small church with an amazing view down to the town and across the whole valley. I've uploaded a few more photos, but am still having some trouble with the videos so will give that a try again later.

on Naxos Island (click here for photos)

I took the ferry today from Anafi over to the much larger and more popular island of Naxos. It's quite a change of scene. Anafi was a relatively small island, definitely small in population, and for the most part off the tourist map. It was very rugged and steep yet barren, and had these crazy winds that would whip through the small town of Hora, that was perched on the top of a narrow ridge. Anafi was more introspective, whereas Naxos is much more of a tourist destination, with crowded beaches lined with all sorts of touristy shops and restaurants.

However, I'm enjoying the change. I realized when I got here today that, having just arrived in Greece still, I'm a little more interested in delving into the culture and mingling with the people than in finding solitude. Although Anafi was still a very interesting glimpse into the culture itself, there's a whole lot more going on in Naxos; plus the simple fact that I'm now staying in an actual campground, rather than sleeping on the beach, so that I've got the usual civilized facilities, such as my first hot shower with soap and fresh water (rather than a dip in the sea) in over a week.

Also, Naxos is much less hilly than Anafi, so it looks like it will be better for bicycle excursions. Speaking of which, I got the bike back up and running. My bicycle pump wasn't working simply because the stem on the tire was at an angle and so it wasn't connecting in the right way. But I got the stem straightened and managed to pump it up. However a couple of days later it was getting low again, so I've got a slow leak. For now I'll just keep pumping it up every few days, and at some point I'll need to either patch the leak, or else replace the tube. But at least it's working. I bicycled from the port to where I'm camping, Plaka Camping, which was a good 5-6 miles or so, and it was easy going because it was almost completely flat. On Anafi I could barely push my bike up some of the hills.

So it looks like Naxos will be good for exploring for at least a few days, if not more. There's certainly plenty to see, that is if my legs are up for it, I'm pretty sore already from the last several days of biking, walking and swimming. So tomorrow just might end up being a bit of a rest day to do my laundry, do some shopping, etc., just depends on how I feel in the morning.

As for future plans, I start working at the retreat center on August 28th, which is already next Friday. That's going to be a bit of a project unto itself just getting there, because I will have to get back to the mainland and then head north up to the Pelion Peninsula. That will either involve leaving with several days to spare and doing a lot of biking, or else catching a bus that will also take my bike. I'm leaning towards the latter. I'd rather leave most of the biking for the islands where things are a little more low-key.

Well that's all for now, I've got a bunch of great videos to upload but the computer here at the campground isn't able to upload them, so I'll have to wait and try another computer, maybe somewhere else in town....Well I'm headed for bed, or rather my sleeping bag.

Anafi Island

I've been on the island of Anafi for about six days now. It's quite a beautiful and peaceful little island. There's only one village of a few hundred people here, although the island isn't extremely tiny, it still takes more than an hour to bike the length of it. But the one road only goes out to a monastery, which I biked to a couple of days ago. There are some videos of the monastery and other views of the island now on facebook.

So I've been camping on a small beach that's just a 10 minute walk from the port, and just a few minutes from a little restaurant called Margaritas, where they have free wireless access. I'm using the computer of someone else who is also camping on the beach.

Yesterday I went to take my bike out for a ride in the evening and discovered that the front tire was very low on air, not flat at least, but then I couldn't get the bicycle pump to work properly. So today (it's about noon right now) I'll have to get that worked out one way or another. Hopefully I'll get the pump working, otherwise there's a gas station not too far away where I can fill it up, and then see what happens over the next couple of days, whether it holds air or goes flat again. If it doesn't hold air then I'll have to make use of the one spare tube that I have. Other than this wrinkle, the bike has worked great though.

Other than biking around I've mostly been checking out the many great beaches on the island, none of which are too crowded during the day, but all of them seem to have at least a few people camping on them. I don't think that's the case everywhere on the Greek islands, however. On the more popular islands, for one you probably wouldn't feel as comfortable camping out because there would be too many random people around, and more chance of thieves, and also there might be police making sure people aren't camping. On the island of Naxos, where I plan to go next, I'll camp at a campground since it's a much more popular island. Each island is quite unique, just depends on the people and how crowded and/or friendly it is. And each one definitely has its own personality and different aspects to it.

The one village on Anafi, called Hora (which simply means capital city) is amazingly beautiful. All of the buildings are the classic white and blue, and it's perched on a ridge that looks out over the Mediterranean Sea. It's a very steep 20 minutes or so bike ride up there from the beach that I'm on. There's also a bus that covers the few miles of roads (it's about six miles from the village on one side to the monastery on the other, and I think there's another short road that I haven't explored yet). So I've made use of the bus a few times to go up to the village for dinner and shopping, etc. I've been hanging out with a small group of other folks who are also camped on the beach, an American woman who is about 40 from Minnesota, two Greek girls and an 18-year old from Germany.

Well I should probably publish this while I can because the internet here is pretty temperamental. I've managed to upload two videos to facebook so far, and am trying to upload a couple of others. I've also uploaded some new photos, which you can view by clicking on the subject line above. It's a link to facebook, but you should be able to view them even if you don't have a facebook account.

Take care all and I'll be in touch again pretty soon...

going to Anafi island (click here for more info)

I managed to get my bicycle put back together today. It was a fairly greasy experience but not too bad, except that once it was basically back to normal I discovered that one of the bolts for the front brake had been stripped, making it useless. And the gears were shifting pretty rough, leaving it clicking a lot. So I asked at the hostel about a bike shop, they gave me some very general directions and I biked off to find it. Almost all of the shops on that street were closed because it was Saturday afternoon; but (very) fortunately the bike shop was open and there was a mechanic on hand. Otherwise I would have been stuck waiting around until Monday. The part probably needed to be replaced (not just the bolt but the whole mechanism), which they most likely didn't have. But he managed to jerry-rig it in a way that works fine and seems pretty reliable. And then there are always the back brakes. Also he fiddled with the gears and got them working properly.

So with that out of the way, I then headed for a travel office to inquire about ferries, since I'd heard that most of them were booked getting out to the islands. There was one seat left on a boat to the island of Anafi, leaving late Sunday night and arriving Monday morning, so I got that one. Anafi sounds pretty sweet, one of those places that's just as nice as other much more popular places, but somehow gets overlooked. I'm not exactly sure what sort of services there will be there, apparently there isn't a bank but there are small villages with hotels, restaurants, etc. And I guess you can camp near some of the beaches without any hassle and without worrying about your stuff, since there are so few people. The bike might not be especially handy there, since apparently it's mostly walking paths to get around, but that's fine. It sounds like there's some good exploring with secluded beaches, a monastery and ruins. I can't wait to take a swim in the Mediterranean. (Click on the subject line above for a link to more info about Anafi.)

Videos (click here to view)

I've just uploaded some new videos to facebook. The computer I'm on doesn't have the software needed to view them myself, so I can't confirm that they're uploaded properly, but hopefully so. You can check them out on my facebook page. Just click on the subject line to this entry above.

the Acropolis in Athens, Greece

I hiked up to the Acropolis today. I didn't actually pay and go in to see it yet, however. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get up earlyish in the morning to see it in the morning light tomorrow. But from the spot where this photo was taken there was another amazing view in the opposite direction, looking out over the city of Athens.

arrived in Athens

I'm going to keep this short, but I made it to where I'm staying in Athens, the Hostel Aphrodite. Things all went pretty smooth getting here until it came to navigating the metro system. It turned out some of the trains had different routes because of construction going on. So that delayed me about an hour, but I managed to get things straightened out with some help from a few locals who knew English, though the little Greek that I learned has already come in handy. And then I had to haul myself, two backpacks (one largeish and one small) and the box with the bike about ten blocks from the metro station, but it wasn't too bad. The streets were fairly empty but the few people out seemed very friendly, men sitting in chairs on streetcorners talking, etc. Although it was a bit of a pain going that way at least I saved about 50 bucks that a taxi would have cost from the airport. And the ridiculous load that I have right now will look a lot better once the bike is out of the box, and most of the stuff is on the bike.

So I got to the hostel about 12:30 or so. It's pretty decent, marble steps, slightly scruffy, but basically clean and the room is nice and cool, must be air conditioned because it's still pretty warm outside, and free internet access. It's about 1:30 in the morning here, I'm hanging in there thanks to having an open seat next to me on the second flight, so I managed to get a little bit of sleep. But I'm basically headed straight for the shower and then bed, definitely plan to sleep in and then see how things are looking in the morning. The project for tomorrow will be to put the bike back together. Thanks to the free internet I'll be able to check email fairly regularly, at least while I'm here for the next few days. Hopefully I can manage to upload a video or at least some photos from these computers...Alright I'm headed for the sack. Or rather, a nice cold shower, then the sack.

Video contest

This is a video that I made over the past couple of weeks for a travel contest which, if you win, they'll fly you to Australia for free, give you a van to drive around for 6 weeks, and in the process you make a documentary film about one of the 7 states of Australia. For more info click on the subject line above for a link to the website about the contest. There are seven different stages to the trip, each one of which is six weeks long. I'm submitting to the last four stages, so that if I were to win one of them, I wouldn't be going until after I'm done with my trip to Greece and Turkey, etc. As you'll see, the video is basically a 2-minute tour of Oregon:

Sleeping at a truck stop in southern Oregon

I got a late start Thursday leaving Portland, heading for California to catch my flight out of San Francisco (visiting mom in Ukiah on the way down). I gave my buddy Erik a call to see where he was, since I knew he'd just started his job as a trucker a few days earlier and so could be anywhere in the 11 Western states driving his truck. Turned out he was on I-5 heading north, and was planning to spend the night near Roseburg. So he invited me to crash for the night on one of the bunks in the cab of his truck.