Farming in Bulgaria

So...the stories from the boat will have to wait for now - internet is hard to come by and I want to tell you about the farm I am working on.

I arrived in Tserovo - a small rural Bulgarian town, population maybe 500? The train let me off right on the tracks and is it pulled out I saw a young man with a donkey standing on the other side of the tracks. He asked if I was the new volunteer and I said I was. He introduced himself as Alexiv and the donkey's name was Maggie. The three of us turned and made our way to the farm - about a 45 min hike (more like an hour with a hungry donkey) up a steep wooded trail.

The farm consists of one small house, about two and half rooms, a stable, a teepee, a homemade geodesic dome, a composting toilet (outdoors), and several small gardens. There are two dogs and two cats in addition to Maggie. As of the other day there are now three chickens as well. Water is scarce, Bulgaria is generallly very dry in the summer, and so we don't really have a shower - there is a shower head hooked up to a hose outside but we don't use it right now. We wash dishes with ash from the woodstove we use to cook all our meals. There is electricity but it is not uncommon for it to go out intermittedly.

There are a few other farms nearby, most of them at least a few minutes walk if not more. We probably spend half our time cooking and cleaning since it is such a slow process. Basically we are not treated like hired help but like one big family. Depending on the day there are anywhere from two to five of us in the house and we all do everything. Whoever feels inspired cooks up a meal - we mostly all cleanup afterwards. I have been digging a trench to a new water source but also cutting firewood, cutting fence posts from a nearby forest, setting up tents for an upcoming festival, feeding the dogs, collecting some vegetables, sewing seed bags from old sheets, collecting and preparing small plums for compote, jam, wine, etc.....
Ian - the owner - is a british guy with a PhD in Agricultural Science or something similiar - he used to work for the ministry of agriculture in England. Hence he spends much more time in the garden than cooking or cleaning. He is a bit socially awkward but quite a talker once you get him going.

All in all it has been a great experience so far. The farm is quite sustainable, although it doesn't produce so much of it's own food yet - but most other resources used come from nearby. We got a bunch of goat milk and yogurt from the funny neighbor up the hill - he talks and talks to you in Bulgarian even though none of us understand a word he says. Then he'll disappear and return with an armful of jars with goat milk and offer you a ciggarette until you finally take one and at least pretend to smoke it with him.

Well, I must be going - it is over an hour journey back to the farm. But more will come as I get a chance. I should be able to get back to the internet next week but who knows when I get to the next farm.

Mark and Zach and a tour of Turkey

Mark and Zach arrived in Sofia and we headed to O!Shipka - a former punk venue turned pizza place - for dinner. We would end up eating there three of our four nights together in Sofia by the time Zach left two weeks later - it was so good and cheap!! We initially stayed two nights in Sofia and then took an overnight bus down to Istanbul to begin our travels in Turkey. The bus was actually pretty horrible. We left around 9pm and hit the border about 2am. The crossing took 3 hours with us having to get in and out of the bus at least 4 times. Finally we arrived in Istanbul around 7 am and deleriously wandered our way to the Big Apple hostel. We checked in - walked around to get cash and eat omlets and then went back and slept half the day. We then took back to the streets, stopping in a corner store to check the prices of food and beer. Inside the minature shop we were addressed by a local who spoke english, asking where we were from. When we replied "the States" he pointed at the television and said "Breaking News - the US embassy was just bombed!". It turned out that it was actually the consulate and there was a gunfight - not a bomb - but quite a welcome to Turkey nonetheless.

We had planned to stay in Istanbul for 3 nights so we didn't do much sightseeing the first day and just wandered the waterfront and a huge park. We ate some roasted corn and chestnuts and sat on the street watching people go by. On our way back to the hostel we walked by a travel agency and noticed a picture of a big sailboat - "4 day 'Blue Cruise' on the coast of Turkey." We all stopped and stared thinking "how cool would that be." Someone finally suggested we see how much it was and we went inside. Turns out it was quite affordable and the agency could book all our buses, trains, flights, accommodations, etc... ahead of time. Seeing as how we had just a week in Turkey and no travel guidebook we decided to come up with an itinerary and see how much it cost. It ended up being incredibly cheap so we booked it - leaving the next day from Istanbul on another overnight bus.

That night - our only night in Istanbul - we hung out on the roof-top cafe of our hostel - sitting on giant pillows looking at the Blue Mosque on one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other - sipping beer and talking with the other travelers until the sun came up. We did a little sightseeing the next day as our bus didn't leave until 9:30pm. We saw the Blue Mosque - a beautiful and monstrous domed building with nothing inside but carpets and giant pillars. We also checked out the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar - a maze of food, spices, deserts, carpets, jewlery, clothes, tools - almost anything you can think of - sold from little stands that line the road for blocks and blocks in all directions.

Our shuttle to take us to the chaos they call the Istanbul bus terminal was late. We arrived in the throng of people confused and worried we would miss our bus. We finally found our "gate" and had about 10 minutes to spare. Zach and I raced around looking for some dinner. We found a tiny window with a young grill cook inside. We eyed the stack of eggs in the back and asked for omlets. Another customer translated for us and we discovered the only thing the cook new how to make was a hamburger. Zach asked if he could go in the back and cook an omlet and surprisingly the guy agreed! So Zach ran in the back and fired up the grill while I raced back downstairs to check on our bus. It was just pulling up meaning we had somewhere around 8 minutes to go. I told Mark to load us up and try not to leave without us and ran back up to tell Zach to hurry. The omlets were nearly done and we paid the cook and looked around for some paper plates - they had none. I eyed some giant bread rolls - bought two - cut them in half and we ran onto the bus with two massive egg sandwiches in hand - just in time to pull out and on our way south.

We slept much better on this bus and pulled into Pammukale - a small town bordering a hillside filled with salt-pool formations and a bunch of ancient ruins. After spending the afternoon there we caught a few more buses down to Fethiye on the southwest coast. From there we boarded the "Blue Cruise" along with 11 other 20-something year-olds and a fifty-year old couple. Little did we know that we would be spending the next 6 days together, having a great time and forming some great friendships!

I'm still here...

hehe, wow - sorry it took me so long to get back to this....

Well, my studying program is finished and I am (not-quite-officially) a college graduate! After the program Trent came and met me in Athens. We spent a couple nights there - being tourists during the day and hanging out with stragglers from my program in the night. We went out for Greek meals, drank at the Jazz bar and hung out in the street cafes until 4am - and we were going to bed early apparently. From there we headed up to Meteora and camped at a very nice campground. We hiked around the first day and then a caught a bus up to the monestaries the next. We went in a couple monasteries - perched way up on the top of vertical granite cliffs they were very impressive. There were twelve in all but after seeing a couple we decided to make our way down. That evening we decided to head back to Athens and check out a beach the next day. We caught a train and got stuck without seats - standing between cars and trying to pass the time. We chatted it up with Greeks who came and hid in the bathroom or stairwell to smoke cigarettes on the non-smoking train. The next day we headed to the island just north of Greece which is really only separated from the mainland by a tiny channel. The beach there were pretty bad but we made the best of it and got some pretty good pizza in a colorful cafe on the waterfront street. Then back to Athens for one more day of wandering before Trent had to take off. We said our goodbyes on the Metro just after getting pickpocketed and went our separate ways. Trent lost his wallet and I lost my camera - so from here on out it's just descriptions - no more pictures!!

From Athens I went out to the Island of Amorgos to meet some friends that were traveling after our program. I got off the 10 hour ferry at 2am and was greeted by my three filos - Christian, Ali and Hana - at the ferry drop off. It was a full moon so we headed to the beach to sleep for the night. We couldn't do without a swim under the incredibly bright moon and then slept. We awoke to a group of older folks just down the beach from us doing tai chi in the quiet dawn light. We played some guitar and swam some more then spent the day on the beach. The rest of our time on the island went something like that. The next day we went to the other side of the island and found a great cafe - we hung out all day and were invited back for a delicious supper of roasted vegetables. Christian and Ali had to take off so Hana and I stayed one more night then went to the even more laid back island of Donousa. Here we again slept on the beach at a semi-official campground and napped and drank tea and swam all day - our last day in the Greek Isles. We said our goodbyes the next day in the Athens Metro as she went to sleep at the airport for her 6am flight and I caught an overnight train after watching Germany beat Turkey in the Eurocup semifinal match.

Two trains later I found myself in Edessa - a tree filled town built high on a plateau overlooking vast valleys of farmland. Three small creeks run through the town and pour over the cliff-side in cascading waterfalls. I spent the day wandering, napping on park benches and using the internet before heading to the last Greek town before the Macedonian border. I planned to stay the night here but could not find cheap accommodations so I called a taxi I had heard about from macedonia - (no public transportation over the border) and caught a ride to Bitola. Here I watched Spain crush Russia and wandered around till the power went out.

The next day I caught a bus to Lake Ohrid on the Macedonia/Albania border. I let myself get stuck here for a full five days it was so pleasant. The guest house I stayed at four of the nights was just a family home with the upstairs rooms let out to guests. The owners were very friendly - sharing meals and coffee with me and showing me their garden. It was like having a family for a few days! The town was nice as well - a great bustling pedestrian street and the first three nights were occupied by a Balkan Folk Dance Festival. I swam and wandered and played guitar by the lake and generally enjoyed myself. I hung out a couple days with an Englishwoman and we checked out a monastery on the Albanian border and caught a ferry boat back. She took care of me as I came down with nasty 24 bug and then took off for Albania. When I recovered I headed into the adjacent national park and hiked into the hills and camped out for the night. I hiked about 30 km and only saw 5 people - all shepherds tending their cattle or harvesting hay high in the hills. I caught a ride back to the city from the other side of the park from a very friendly Macedonian named Borris. He explained some Greek-Macedonian history to me and stopped at the pass between Ohrid and Prespa Lakes and let me look around with his binoculars.
The next day I left for Prishtina, Kosovo. I hadn't really planned on going there but I had met a couple from there with a guitar in Ohrid and they invited me up. I arrived to discover that they were actually staying in Skopje, Macedonia for a few days longer and so I was on my own. I wandered around and checked out an art gallery and ate some pizza but mostly just wrote some letters, read and made a few phone calls. It was interesting spending my Fourth of July in Kosovo, the newest country in the world. But all in all my time there was incredibly uneventful - which is probably just as well.

After two nights I decided to go straight to Sofia, Bulgaria to wait for Zach and Mark who are meeting me tomorrow. I was looking for the bus station and overheard an English conversation so I asked the two men if they knew where the bus station was. They said it was quite a ways and would give me a lift - they were walking to their car and heading to Skopje. Turns out i was looking for a bus to Skopje to transfer to Sofia. They read my thoughts as I ventured to ask for a ride and so they gave me a ride all the way to Skopje instead of just the bus station! From their I caught a bus into Sofia. What a city - especially coming from Kosovo! The place is beautiful - with trees everywhere, cobbled streets, old street cars and great big buildings and churches everywhere! I caught a tram to the hostel I had booked - only to find they had overbooked and had no room for me! They redirected me around the corner and invited me back for a beer. I left my guitar with them - checked into my room and then headed back for the beer.

It was a Bulgarian kid's birthday and so a group was gathered and celebrating. We drank and talked, discussing traveling and music and Hugh Grant and all sorts of things. There were people from Norway, Canada, Denmark, England, and lots of locals. We hung out and enjoyed ourselves till around 4 am the birthday group left and things started winding down. I got out the guitar and played every song I knew until I was struggling through some I don't and a French kid wandered downstairs and began drumming on the table to the beat. When i stopped he asked if he could have a go - and boy did he go. He played all kinds of funky improvised blues riffs while i banged out a beat on an old snare they had laying around. Finally he mentioned that he doesn't really play guitar - he;s a violinist. As soon as we found out he had is violin with him we made him go get it and he played and played. Finally it was just me, him, the bartender and the receptionist. The sun was up and we called it a night.

Today I just wandered around the beautiful parks and city streets and then chatted with a Canadian at my hostel who actually knew some people from Bellingham.

Whew - well - that brings me up to speed i guess - hope it wasn't too much "word vomit" as Christian would say. More to come as Mark and Zach arrive tomorrow!

Leaving the Island...but for how long?

Well, now that I am leaving Kefalonia in less than 12 hours I have finally found a few minutes to update this.  It won't be much of an update but I should be much more on top of things when visit Internet cafes on my travels.

The program finished up with a bang.  The last two weeks consisted of many all-nighters and we presented our work to the community of Farsa on Saturday.  We then took a day off and visited a monastery and a really nice beach on the other side of the Island.  While we were there we felt a 6.5 earthquake that was a few hundred km away but still the strongest earthquake we've felt since being here.

The last two days have been spent wrapping up projects and trying to hang out with everyone before going our separate ways.  I have made some great friends here that I will miss a lot but definitely keep in touch with.  

I am too tired and distracted to write more so this is all for now.  Wish me luck on my adventures :)  Love you all...

Epirus - Part dio

So.....After sleeping on the indescribable beach at the base of impossible stairs we wandered the beach most of the day - playing with random objects that had washed ashore, swimming, sleeping, even doing a little beach yoga.  After the place got crowded (about 8 people showed up over the course of the day) we took off and headed for the mainland.

We got a little disoriented when we left the islands and ended up a little lost but stumbled upon a spring with "magical" water.  We followed the signs from the middle of nowhere to what we thought might be a tourist trap but it turned out to be more of a local thing.  We came across a long line of locals waiting to fill hundreds of litres worth of old ouzo and water bottles with the water pouring out of the spring.  We emptied our own bottles and refilled with the "magical" water.  One guy was even filling his radiator with spring water!

From there we raced up to Ionnina - a university town which is also the capital of Epirus.  It was a little shocking coming into a lively town at first but we finally found a place to park, changed clothes on the street and set out in search of somewhere to eat for Hana's birthday.  We happened upon a good looking bar and restaurant set back from the street.  The entire menu was in greek so we decided to just ask for whatever was good and would feed the four of us.  When we proposed this to the waiter we discovered he didn't speak English and he quickly disappeared to get someone who did.  As our luck would have it, the only staff member who spoke English was the head chef!!  After confirming that we would eat anything he cooked, he went back to the kitchen and fixed us an oversized meal of calamari, octopus, pork, steak, chicken, salad, fries, rice, bread, little ham and cheese things and even brought us an extra caraf of wine on the house!  We left sometime around midnight after eating way too much.  As our food comas set in we abandoned our initial plan of going out on the town (we probably would have been turned away from most bars due to our appearance anyway) and instead opted for shared ice-cream treats from a little kiosk.  We sat in the park somehow finding room in our bellies for chocolate covered ice-cream on a stick and graham cracker sandwhiches and then set out for a place to sleep.  The castle we had hoped to sleep in turned out to be a little town within the castle walls so we instead headed to the only dark spot in town and slept the night on a perfect hill that overlooked the entire town.  We slept like babies despite a little rain in part thanks to a shared (small) bottle of absinthe in celebration of Hana's birthday. 

The next day we hit the bakery and grocery store to stock up on chocolate, peanut butter and bread and headed for the mountains...

Epirus Part I...

Too much has happened over the last week and a half to get it all down here but I will throw in some highlights.

Christian, Hana, Ali and I set off last Thursday with the eventual destination of Vikos Gorge in the Epirus region of Northwestern Greece.  We left Argostoli on foot and caught a ride with a lady to Assos (in Northern Kefalonia) in her miniature car.  We barely fit with our bags and her little dog but we piled out and headed up toward the castle on the peninsula.  We watched the sunset and swam in a spectacular rocky outcropping below the castle.  After camping out on top of the castle wall overlooking the sea we set out to explore the rest of the castle/fortress.  Our feet were sore (at least mine were ;) from playing ultimate frisbee the day before but we bushwacked around for a while and eventually made our way back down to the village for some ice-cream - this would become a reoccurring theme - and a nap and a swim on the beach.  In the evening we set out for Fiskardo.  We had hiked nearly the entire winding road out of Assos before we were finally picked up by a man and a boy (his son?) in a van with a cage in the back - where we rode.  

He dropped us off in Fiskardo and we decided to wait another day to take the ferry and explore the area.  We wandered around and stocked up on some food, beer and wine admiring the giant sailboats docked in the harbor.  That evening we walked out of town a kilometer or so to a nice beach and scrambled around the rock to watch yet another spectacular sunset then fixed dinner and fell asleep on the beach under a spectacular show of stars around the nearly new moon.

We awoke with the sun and wandered back into Fiskardo just in time to catch the ferry to Vassilliki on the Island of Lefkada - north of Kefalonia.  The ferry ride was pleasant and we stopped in Ithaka.  The view from the boat ensured that this is somewhere I will explore before leaving the Ionian Islands.  By the time we landed on Lefkada the girls had made friends with the crew of the ferry and Ali was driving the boat and honking the horn - this befriending turned out to be very fortunate by the end of the trip.

In Lefkada we picked up a rental car and headed to look for a beach to sleep and watch the sunset.  We stumbled upon a spectacular beach surrounded by cliffs at the end of a small winding road.  With not a soul in sight we scrambled down a set of impossible stairs to find that the last 30 foot drop to the beach consisted of makeshift wooden stairs leading to a crooked platform with a wooden ladder leading down.  The beach was completely still besides the crashing waves and the sun was putting on yet another fine performance.  The beach was made up of white pebbles the size of sesame seeds, the water was crystal blue and the surrounding cliffs were a bright grey/white.  After the sun set we fixed a greek salad in our trusty frisbee and ate dinner on a bamboo mat we had snagged from the parking lot under the light of candles we stuck in the sand.  

Whew - that is enough for one post - still another week of traveling to update though....

Bozoukia Night (continued from Kalo Pascha)

The day after the rainstorm consisted of a lot of sleeping.  This was mostly to prepare for the Easter celebration that night.  After sleeping most of the day and working on a limited amount of homework we headed down to the center of town to see the Easter service and the "Cristos Anesti" celebration afterwards.  We are not sure if we were too early or too late for mass but what we saw instead was hundreds of people standing around the Plateia (central square) in church attire holding candles.  About 50 or more people - ranging in age from rambunctious adolescents to solemn middle aged men - where throwing large, unpredictable fireworks into the street.  For about an hour everyone just stood around as M-80s exploded in the street (I'll try to put a video up).  Shortly after midnight larger, 4th of july-style fireworks were lit and then the crowd slowly dispersed.  On the walk back we saw people preparing for the easter feast with entire lambs hung skinned and ready to roast from their porches.

A little after 1 am we headed to the bozoukia for live music and Greek dancing - it was time to put our skills acquired from 3 short dance lessons to work.  The bozoukia was a funny little place about a 30 min walk from town.  Shaped like a large yurt the inside was surprisingly fancy with plush velvet doors, rows of tables and a dance floor/stage right in the middle.  The only affordable way to drink there was to order a bottle of whisky and share it as a group so we did just that.  Soon after the dancing began and we took turns dancing.  Depending on the songs we would dance as partners, in a large (sometimes very large) circle, or individually.  The individual dancing was reserved for the sorrowful songs and everyone would get down on their knees around the person dancing in the middle - releasing any sadness they may be holding through their feet and into the floor.  They would often be showered with flowers brought around by the waitress.

We left the bozoukia just in time to see the sun rise.  It was a calm walk back and once again most of the next day was spent sleeping.  At around 4 we made the journey to Troianata where Nikos and Cynthia (our program directors) live for Easter Dinner.  We enjoyed a ridiculously delicious meal prepared by them and all of us followed by a long walk through the olive groves and vineyard in the valley below their home.  We saw the sunset over Argostoli from the ridge at the edge of the valley and then walked back past dark trees and phosphorescent glow worms.  

This hardly does justice to an amazing weekend but I'll put up some pictures soon to supplement.  Next week we have a break from studies so a few of us will be off to Vikos Gorge for some adventuring.

Kalo Pascha

Whew, where to begin...

I'll skip to the thunderstorm on Friday so I leave some stories to tell when I get home ;)  

This past weekend was Easter for the Greek Orthdox Church - which makes up somewhere between 90-100% of all churchgoers in Kefalonia.  We missed the service but came into the church afterwards to light some candles.  A little elderly women - of which Kefalonia has many - smile warmly and greeted us as we were leaving.  We managed to understand that she wanted to know where we were from and thanks to our wonderfully energetic Greek teacher we stammered out that we were students from the States studying in Argostoli.  She seemed delighted and surprised and kept pressing us for more information but our extensive Greek vocabulary had been exhausted.  She was incredibly kind and warm though despite our limited encounter.

After the church we headed down to the plateia and stumbled upon a procession.  It was led by a priest/bishop? followed by alterboys carrying crosses and lanterns and two lines of boy scouts on either side to form a "barrier".  Hundred of people followed behind and we took ranks and continued on to the plateia.  There was a small stage there where the leading group took their place and the priest said some words and other priests/deacons? sang responses.  Then the group continued out the other side of the plateia and the whole mass of people followed to the other side of town.  Afterwards we went back to the plateia and just people watched.  We played some frisbee, worked on dance moves, sat around - generally did nothing - until about 2am.  We were debating heading down to the beach when we noticed an electrical storm moving in.  By the time we got back to the apartments it was in full force so we headed down to the pier to watch natures show - and what a show it was.  Massive lightning strikes with thunder so loud it set off car alarms.  Every time it struck the water lit up a magnificent green and it rained so hard you couldn't tell where the pier ended and the sea began.  At 4am we returned home - thoroughly soaked but now on schedule for bozoukia night.

Another beautiful week in the Ionian Sea

So last weekend ended with a great hike up what I'm going to call "Goat Mountain" (not in B'ham though ;).  Christian, Ben and I headed out across the pedestrian bridge built by the British a century or two ago toward the giant windmills that line the ridge across the bay.  We continued up a steep narrow road past small farms with ancient rock walls and terraces.  We came to the tiny village of Faraklata with new construction built connected (literally) to the old ruins.  As we rounded the bend into town we saw a wonderful, apparently brand new, soccer stadium!  It was far bigger than anything we would have expected in this small village in the hills. 

We continued through town - sticking out like three sore thumbs - and greeting the local men sitting outside a Kafeneio and passing an elderly lady sweeping the street and sidewalk (yes, outside...)  We left town and decided to take a random little dirt path heading off into the olive orchards.  We continued along and the path forked - regathered and forked again every 50 meters or so.  Soon the slope intensified and the trails dwindled down to narrow goat paths cut into the terraced hill side.  We kept heading up and up until we stumbled upon two small buildings - apparently a little mountain farm - way up in a saddle just below the summit of the large hill we were heading toward. 

We skirted the house and zig-zagged our way up over rocks and wild thyme to the domed top.  When we reached the apex, the view was almost as startling as the heard of sheep huddled together under one of three scraggly trees.  As we approached they groaned and meandered over to another tree - bells clanging like wind chimes. 

We hung out up there all afternoon - watching the sky, napping, wandering and listening to the bells of the sheep and a herd of goats that came ambling up the slope behind us.  We returned to Argostoli from a different direction passing vineyards and a family dinner - at least 12 people packed into a house the size of a shed.  We discovered our only route home was along the highway littered with trash and speeding cars but the views were still breathtaking and the company very pleasant!

Athens

Farsa Village

Kefalonia Tour

Goat stew, an island tour, Farsa and a beach fire

So I made a declicious goat stew last week. A few of us went to the biological market (organic food) and we were getting stuff and asked the butcher what was good. He told us how to cook some goat up in a stew. The goat is all local - you can see them wandering around the hills. The stew turned out great - the trick was to add fresh squeezed lemon juice at the end just before serving. I ate that for at least four straight dinners. The lemon I used was picked off a tree in nearby Troianata. There are lemon, orange, fig, olive and almond trees all over the island. I would love to be here in the fall when they are harvesting. Oh - but I got my confirmation the other day for WWOOFing in Bulgaria! I will be working full time from July 21 to August 4 with the option to stay on part time afterwards - probably for the festival that they have each year! Last weekend we took an "organized" tour of the island. A lot of the typical touristic things were closed because their season has not quite started yet so we didn't see the underground lake and caves that are pretty popular but it was great going to certain places with not a soul around! The locals all stare at us since their are relatively few foreigners on the Island right now. Apparently that will all change May 1 when the place starts swarming with British, Italian and Australian tourists :( We started our tour in the neighboring village of Troionata. It is a farming village of about 100-200 people. Apart from farms, goats and an olive press there is one little restaurant, two coffee shops and a little old lady who makes hand woven rugs in a dilapidated building overrun with vegetation. The coffee shops also sell homemade wine, olive oil and vinegar. The wine tasted more like sake but it was a pretty incredible little place. From there we headed to a medium sized wine cooperative on the Island called Robola. They run a fairly modern operation and we saw their facility and got to do a whirlwind wine tasting of their 6 different wines. Considering it was about 10:30 am that made our next stop at the San Gerasimos church and convent pretty interesting. We headed inside a tiny but intricately decorated church where a miniature nun welcomed us. In the back of the church was a trapdoor with a rusty ladder leading down to a cave. From there you could crawl through a hole in the wall to another cave where apparently Saint Gerasimos lived for the last part of his life. It was certainly a calm and eerie place to be. We stopped at a couple towns, swam at a beach covered with bright white golf-ball sized rocks, and then dove up and around and dropped down a winding road to the village of Assos. Assos is built on an isthmus connecting the island to a tiny peninsula. On the peninsula is an old fortress and prison. Once again we were the only people in sight (not even locals were hanging out there!). The group dispersed and a few of us headed up toward the fortress. We ended up on a tiny path cut into the cliff that wound around to an arched entrance to the complex. We then cut our own path up a terraced slope towards the highest part of the wall. Along the way we passed honey bees the size of a quarter and thyme so strong it made your mouth numb. The view from the top was ridiculous (as most views from any point on the Island). We overstayed our allotted time and ran back down to the bus to meet the rest of the group. We stopped briefly at Myrtos beach - by far the most famous on the Island- and then headed back. It was kind of a whirlwind trip with much too large a group but it was nice to get a sense of what is where and see some place that deserve a little more time in the coming weeks.

School is picking up. We started a new class on thursday with a greek professor. It is sustainable tourism and economic development and a project finance class. The professor is really good and I am finally getting excited about the educational side of this. Oh yeah, and we went to the village of Farsa - the place the program is centered around. It is really beautiful with caved in rock-walled houses with no roofs and grass floors. I can't wait to spend more time up there. On the way down, we stopped at our dance teacher's mother's cafe for a homemade lunch of greek salad with a huge chunk of feta, bread and olive oil and tiropita (cheese pie). It was delicious (obviously).

Last night was our first real "weekend" night so we headed to the other side of the peninsula and had a fire on the beach (we found out this morning that it's actually illegal - oops). Some Albanian kids followed some of us there and hung out the whole time. They were rambunctious to say the least and actually became pretty annoying by the end :) hehe, it was interesting to see what some of the "locals" are like though and one spoke english ok so we could hear their point of view on the island. Today we hit up the Farmer's market where a bunch of old farmers hang out and sell pretty much the exact same thing as everyone else! hehe, they all had local potatoes, artichokes, olives, wine, beets, and a few other things. We got some beets and raisins and giant beans and something that looked like asparagus. We tried to find out how to cook it but the only thing we could really understand was that you can drink the water you cook it in and that it makes your pee smell.

April 3

Yesterday we woke up early and took cabs to the bus stop where we took a bus to the port of Patra. From there we took a ferry over to Kefalonia. It was cool and grey with a light mist in the air. It was uncanny how much it felt like we were in Puget Sound heading to Orcas or some other island! The exceptions were the color of the water - A deep, deep turquoise (probably not really evan a turquoise anymore :) - and the mountains are a mixture of rock, cliff, scraggly trees and then some forest. 

We pulled into the port town of Sami on the the northwest side of the Island - in sight of the fabled Island of Ithaka. Christian (Charles' friend) and I saw secluded beaches on Ithaka no more than 50 meters wide only accessible by boat - the plan: get some kayaks and spend our break cruising around Kefalonia and Ithaka from beach to beach and camping out. From Sami we took the bus to Argostoli - a beautiful drive up over the pass (there is actually a 5,500 ft. mountain in the middle of the Island!!). We saw herds of goats, flocks of sheep and even a small wind farm high up on the ridge! We dropped into Argostoli and winded our way around the bay to our apartments.

I live in Napier with four other students and our wonderful "guide" Constantina. Somehow I ended up with a studio apartment to myself! It overlooks Napier Gardens - the main park in town and is just two blocks from the Platia - the central square! The apartment area is beautiful. Our landlady is a slight elderly lady full of life and energy. The complex has a tiny courtyard in the middle where we can hang laundry and share meals and the entire area is made of white marble floors with large wooden doors and shutters with oversized wrought iron fixtures and potted plants at every turn. 

After dropping our stuff off at the apartment Joe and I headed to the beach. It was cold and sprinkling rain but we could not stand being on a Mediterranean Island and not going in the water. We stuck out like sore thumbs as we headed to the water in board shorts and chacos but it was a refreshing swim with not a soul in sight.

(I can't figure out how to make the picture right side up.  oh well)