Claire

Week 141 December 10, 2016

Published on December 10, 2016August 19, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

¡Felices Fiestas! Season’s Greetings!

We were still in Tampa, Florida at the start of this week, visiting with cousins. We were happy to see the finished draft of memoirs that cousin his daughter was capturing the last time we were here, about travels during his career at Exxon. It is going off to the printer soon, just in time for celebrating his 90th birthday this coming week. One day we helped him to the Emergency Room for some precautionary tests. We have since learned that he is doing fine! Overall, we enjoyed good conversation and nice meals together, sharing more about family history and traveling. I regret that I did not take a single photo during this time, though have precious memories regardless.

From Tampa we drove to nearby Punta Gorda, also on the Gulf coast, where we had a memorable visit with a dear high school friend of mine and her mother. We packed a lot of wonderful activity into this regrettably short visit, which included an excellent evening seeing youth in a Performing Arts Christmas Showcase, especially to see their friend participate.

We all appreciated a lunch date with my Bikram Yoga Teacher Training friend and her partner from Freiburg, Germany, who also happened to be visiting Florida. We arranged for them to stop by at my friend’s home on their way from Miami to Sarasota. With our friends we also attended Sunday mass, and, toasted to another beautiful sunset on the beach, as we did when we were together here last time. Before leaving, we said sorrowful goodbyes to their beloved cat, Harpy.

We then drove to see a cousin in Lauderdale Lakes on the Atlantic coast for another too short visit. At 94 years young, she seems not a day older than 70. Well, maybe 75… Loren had not seen this cousin since his bicycle ride from California to Massachusetts fotty, yep, that is not a typo, it is her strong Massachusetts’ accent – “party” sounds similarly unique – 40 years ago. We had a memorable time with her and some of her friends who we met at Bingo. She won 3 of the many games we played during that evening. Loren and I also won $5 in a raffle!

One morning during our visit, Loren and I drove a little north to Palm Beach Gardens take a Bikram Yoga class from a littermate from my Bikram Yoga Teacher Training, and enjoyed a sweet lunch together afterwards at her home.

With our cousin we drove to Miami, where we had a brief though sweet visit with my Godmother. She actually turned 94 this week, but is weaker physically than she was when we saw her two years ago. She was unable to show us how she feeds the cats and ducks who frequent her back yard, as she did on our last visit. She has very good neighbors who ensure that her needs are met. We reminisced about all our travels and had a meaningful time together. Again, I regret having taken no photos, though I do have treasured memories of this visit too.

Then we went to visit our cousin’s daughter along with her husband. They raised their children just a few miles away from my Godmother’s home, but we had not known that before. She prepared a lovely dinner and we spent our last night in the United States, for now, together catching up on each others’ lives. Their daughter also takes Bikram Yoga classes at a studio that I had visited two years ago. Meeting their son has to wait for another time, as he was away working on a deep sea fishing excursion.

We bade our farewells, returned the rental car, and flew from Miami to Buenos Aires overnight. Our flight from Miami was delayed an hour due to weather conditions, which caused us more than a little concern, because we already had a tight schedule to make our next flight from the regional airport…

Fortunately, baggage retrieval, passport control, customs, car transportation, and traffic all went smoothly from the main city airport, allowing us to arrive with time to spare. We learned that this day was a national holiday, so normal commute traffic was absent. The tour officially begins a day before the cruise departs, so had we missed our flight we had leeway. The regional airport departure area was festively decorated for the holiday season, and our flight to Ushuaia, said Ush-why-ah, the southernmost city in the world, went well.

It is quite mountainous terrain here at Tierra del Fuego.

Loren and I settled in for our overnight at the hotel, then hiked a couple of hours to a vantage point of Del Glaciar: Martial Glacier. The clouds formed and dissipated repeatedly giving us only glimpses of the grandeur. It seemed as if we had all the time in the world to return to our accommodation, as daylight lasted well past 10:30pm.

On our walk back we enjoyed seeing a rainbow over the port, with still wonderful views of the harbor during dinner. Tomorrow we will tour a National Park before boarding our ship to sail away to Antarctica…

PLEASE NOTE: for the rest of December, we may have limited internet access, so, please check back here again for when we can next post to this site.

Week 140 December 3, 2016

Published on December 3, 2016August 20, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

We Wish You Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!! Hope You have a Wonderful 2017!!!

It is already December. This week has mostly been one of reloading our van – sorting, storing, packing and preparing for our next adventure – in Antarctica! While in New York for most of this week, we continued our practice of daily Bikram yoga classes in Yorktown Heights. It was hard to bid farewell for now to the wonderful community of people there.

We also had the delight of a spontaneous lunch date with my brother and his wife at their lake house, and, thoroughly enjoyed our evening dinner date with them, and their daughters. Here is a treasured photo from Thanksgiving of the girls, with us – can you see me in the background and Uncle Loren’s reflection in the mirror? Now their home and front lawn are already decked out for Christmas…

Loren and I had a special dinner too with friends in New York City. Before we met them at their home, we walked the blocks from Grand Central, going by The Chrysler Building. I could not resist a traditional hot pretzel while we passed by so many other outstanding City attractions… like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, sparkling from a recent cleaning.

New York brings to mind a line from from Silver Bells: “City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style,” with the tree at Rockefeller Center all set to be lit, framed by the already twinkling angels with golden instruments, and, buildings trimmed in ribbons and lights.

The busiest building that we saw was across the street from cordoned off Trump tower, where a peaceful protest progressed.

We then walked through a part of Central Park to see one of Yoko Ono’s tributes to John Lennon, a permanent meditation area named Strawberry Fields with a mandala featuring “Imagine” and bordering benches.

We finished the evening with our friends at the “breast table” in the house – that is not a typo, we had a great time at a table beneath a bigger than life work of body art, with our waiter helping to make the evening more memorable. Then Loren and I enjoyed more city views as we walked back to Grand Central for our train home.

Now we have had an early morning flight requiring us to rise in the week hours to arrive in Florida for a week. Here we are visiting a few of our dear family members and friends. As we drove from Floridian ocean to gulf, we had a view of this sunset as we crossed a bridge, also reflected in a nearby car’s side mirror – it is almost duplicated by the brake light of the car in front, but not quite.

Outside our AirBnB near Tampa, we found these fun paw prints that shine at night, a fun way to represent our own footsteps as we continue along on our amazing world journey.

PLEASE NOTE: for the rest of this month, it is possible that we may have limited internet access, so, please check back again for when we are next able to post to this site.

Week 139 November 26, 2016

Published on November 26, 2016August 20, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

We are very thankful this week for more memorable visits with several people who are so special and for the mainly moderate sunny fall weather, but with regrets again of not taking more photos…

Continuing this week in Massachusetts, we are thankful for friends and their family…

…for cousins in New Hampshire, and their family and friends for a special birthday…

…for attending an especially touching Unitarian Universalist Sunday Service in New Hampshire for the week of Thanksgiving… for seeing the wonder of the first snowfall of the season while sharing two more memorable days with cousins in their lovely home…

…for a meaningful visit with cousins in Massachusetts, including catching up on twenty years of joys and sorrows since we last visited together…

…and, a sweet visit with cousins – one our age, and age 90 and 93, in Connecticut…

…for more Bikram yoga classes in New York, and, for a fantastic Thanksgiving with precious family and their neighbors.

Now, on the day following Thanksgiving, I must mention how very thankful I am for all the wonderful times we have enjoyed over these last few weeks in New York, New England, and New York again. As well, I have such deep gratitude for special visits with family members and friends old and new, on our more than two and a half years of travel in parts of the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Central/Eastern Europe, so far. I just tallied the visits of our journey, and – depending on whose definition of countries you subscribe to, Loren and I have now visited 44 countries together over the 25 years that wehave been together. We feel so blessed to be realizing our extended travels dream!

Week 138 November 19, 2016

Published on November 19, 2016August 20, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

We spent more most memorable time with family and friends this week, enjoyed all the more for the mainly beautiful sunny fall days. I was enthralled with the festive fall colors all around us. I only wish I had taken more photos…

Let me start though with a lovely memory from last week of a great walk we had with my older niece after studying together for her New York Board Certification exam for Music Therapy. She subsequently passed it. Yay!

This week our memories span from continuing to be in New York, walking, talking and eating with friends in Albany,

to celebrating their son’s recent wedding,

to sharing a delightful Mexican meal with family in Westchester County,

and, from taking Bikram yoga in New York, to seeing cousins in Massachusetts. This is my photo of a clip of one of them on local television for her work in the Presidential campaign in Massachusetts, and their kitty and the ocean view from their home.

Then, from taking Bikram Yoga in Massachusetts, which included celebrating the studio owner’s newly published book for Bikram instructors, The Toolbox, and having her senior-most student who’s yoga story is mentioned in the book autograph it,

to visiting over dinner with friends along with the studio owners, to having breakfast with a teacher who came and taught at my teacher training, and, to seeing a little bit of early American history commemorated in honoring the Marquis de Lafayette.

Last but not least to staying with friends in their beautiful new home and seeing their new surroundings in Massachusetts!

It has felt like we have enjoyed several little pre-Thanksgiving celebrations with each visit. Loren and I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving this coming week!

Week 137 November 12, 2016

Published on November 12, 2016August 20, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

We finished our visit to Iceland this week with three big activities. The first was a day tour of the “Golden Circle” including a visit to the Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal baths. Loren commented while on our tour how beautiful the middle of Iceland would be if only it were a sunny day. The forecast at the beginning of the week was for full sun, but, like they say here the weather can change in 5 minutes’ time. And it did so midweek. The report changed to calling for clouds with possible rain as every other day. Lucky for us though, the clouds dissipated partway into the afternoon! We saw the rift in the earth at the point where the enormous tectonic plates of North America meet those of Eurasia. Our guide Sven joked that since we were in the Schengen area we would not need our passports to cross the continents as we moved from one side to the other.

We soaked in a geothermal bath similar to hot springs we have visited in the US, saw geisers – geysers, erupt and, saw an incredible waterfall.

We did not witness volcanic activity, but we drove near enough to take a photo of Eyjafjallajökull – do you see how it was nearly impossible to learn any Islenska, well, except for “Skol.” It was hard enough trying to remember how to pronounce Reykjavik, the capitol city of Iceland, much less spell it with any resemblance of the actual name. Eyjafjallajökull is the volcano which erupted in 2010, and disrupted all of Europe for a period of time in the aftermath. Oh, and by the way, Reykjavik is said, rake-ya-vick.

A second big activity was the evening tour – our final chance while here – to see Northern Lights. First we watched an engaging movie at the horse stables bar where our Northern Lights Tour had brought us the first time. This ranch is far enough from the interference of city lights, while also offering amenities. The movie showed fabulous scenes of Aurora Borealis. While we watched what at times looked like pale-green-breeze-blown-ribbons, I reflected on what I had learned: Aurora is Latin for Dawn and Borealis is Greek for Northern Wind. Our guide called us out to see a faint hint of the phenomenon, then we boarded the bus to leave. But someone immediately demanded, “Stop the bus!” We all got off again to see a true lights display for an hour! Loren’s camera captured it. Mine – just a slightly older model – caught only inky sky and other backlit devices trying to capture it.

Loren likes to say “The third time is the charm,” and so it was with this magnificent experience. What we saw brought to mind these images among others as the lights moved and morphed: large traces of greenish white chalk left after an eraser has smudged out handwriting on a huge blackboard, a giant eerie Frankenstein-green bird soaring towards us, and, streaking neon green locomotives making their way across the sky in the chill, clear starry night. At one point Loren picked out a faint pink color, reminding me of wildflowers swaying in a summer breeze over a green meadow. As well I spotted two shooting stars during the natural performance!

Just as dramatic as the rest of our day had been, when we were dropped off at 1:30am to our AirBnB, Loren stepped off the van transport in exactly the same place and at nearly exactly the same time as earlier in the week, only to slip and fall as there was now a thin sheet of ice on the pavement. In just 3 days, the weather had turned cold enough to create ice on the very pavement where we had stepped off the bus to dry pavement previously. Fortunately Loren was uninjured. Iceland really is “The Land of Fire and Ice!”

Our last day was spent in part at the Blue Lagoon, an expansive geothermal pool where we relaxed for a couple of hours. Our third and final big Icelandic activity was to splurge on a 30 minute massage for each of us sandwiched between soaks here. I have never had a massage while floating on water before. Both Loren’s and my masseuses were expert at their craft. From here we picked up our bus to the Reykjavik airport.

As much as we enjoyed our time in Iceland, I rather doubt that we will return, only because it is quite expensive. Food, transportation, attractions, excursions, for the most part raised our eyebrows at the price, but, we indulged in what we felt was most important for these once in a lifetime experiences. I agree with Loren – if everywhere we went were this costly, we would not have traveled as far nor as wide.

Here is my latest poem inspired from this unique place:

Aurora Borealis in Reykjavik

by Claire Adalyn Wright

Northern Lights

Plentiful greens yellows and white

Sometimes pinks purples or reds

But seldom blues, that can

Look like:

Angels’ wings

Dancing strobe lights

Lightning flashes obscured by clouds

Rainbows

Sunsets

Swirling snow

The Milky Way

Theater drapes closing

Theatrical lighting

Tinted wispy smoke

Water color paintings

Whirlpools

Windblown sheer curtains

And, are

Perhaps best viewed

Beside bodies of water

For additional reflective brilliance.

In all, they are displays

Of the always imperfectly

Perfect nature.

Can this teach me to let go

Of perfectionistic tendencies?

We had an uneventful flight to JFK, going to bed in New York at midnight – which was for us 4am Iceland-time. On our first full day back, it was an incredible sunny fall day where the season is reported to be two weeks late, allowing us to see spectacular fall colors. With the sun shining through, the vibrancy of the leaves of crimson, rose or fuchsia reds, pumpkin and peach oranges, golds, browns, and yellows, were simply breathtaking.

That first evening in New York was the big special event that brought us here earlier than for Thanksgiving: our younger niece’s 16th Birthday family party!

We have had a few very precious visits with family and friends here, taken Bikram yoga everyday, sorted our many belongings that were faithfully awaiting us in the van, compared to what we carried in our packs, and, made plans for this coming week to visit with family and friends who live further north.

But wait! Our big news this week is that we have been saving our accumulated airline miles for years, but on this journey so far have rarely been able to use them for various reasons – until now! We will have an excursion to Antarctica in December, and were able to cash in miles for airline tickets. We fly from New York to the southernmost city in the world: Ushuaia, Argentina, where we will board our ship to travel for over a week to Antarctica. Loren has wanted to see the 7th continent – not that this is our 7th – yet! And we took advantage of a discounted offer that we could not pass up.

This week we also received an email about the video taken when we had a cooking lesson in Kefalonia, Greece.

You can see Chef Lorenzo and Sous Chef Chiara in action by visiting Anna’s website:

www.kefaloniabyanna.com

http://www.kefaloniabyanna.com/web/glorias-kefalonian-meat-pie-with-tzatziki-and-greek-salad-executed-by-lorenzo/

Week 136 November 5, 2016

Published on November 5, 2016August 20, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

I am posting a day early, as I foresee having little time to log into this site in the next few days…

We were still in Berlin at the beginning of this week. For several weeks the Sammlung-Boros “Art in a Bunker” tour had been sold out, and the only cancellations were for groups being led in German. However fortune favored us as two spots in an English led tour opened up just in time for us to visit. Here we learned a bit more about the bunkers built during WWII, saw several memorable art displays – no photos were allowed, and first heard of Saint Théophane Vénard’s final letter through the piece ‘Desire of the Other‘ by artist Dahn Võ.

The same evening we met up again with our Dutch and Russian friends, who we had met in Macedonia – at her art exhibition titled ‘Morphologien Des Wandels’ – Morphologies of Change.

We also had the pleasure to meet his parents who were visiting Berlin from the Netherlands. Then we bade So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye to Berlin. I think you can choose whichever one you like if you trust Google translate – we had to Abfahrt – depart, Abgang – leave, and take our Ausgang – exit… only for now I hope! After days of gray skies and misty rain the sun shone brightly over Berlin – just in time for our flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. C’est la vie!

We arrived mid-afternoon in Iceland to totally gray skies too, not unlike our experience two years ago at exactly this time of year, except at that time we were in Churchill on the Hudson Bay in Canada. But here I noticed white roofs! I had to do a double-, even triple-, take. The only time I have ever seen white roofs is when snow has covered the houses, trees, lawns, everything. Here, only some of the roofs were white, and I had to get used to it meaning just that, and that no snow was to be found anywhere right now! In Reykjavik we had a day on a Hop On, Hop Off bus as we had done in Heraklion on Crete. It is one way to have an introduction to, and travel a bit around, a city that is new to us. We stopped to see the large church here – Hallgrimskirkja – and rode the elevator to the top of its impressive tower for the view.

We walked a bit around the harbor to see the Viking ship – an appealing piece of modern art, then had our first Sushi in a long while. We also took an evening Northern Lights tour on a quest to see the elusive Aurora Borealis. We “failed” this time as the tour guide summed it up. I hope this hunt will not be as long a wait as Loren’s goal was to see a moose in the wild earlier on our journey! Not only were art sculptures plentiful, there was also an abundance of street art found on the sides of buildings all around town.

Another day, during a self-led exploration of the city, we stopped for a hot dog at the famed Baejarins Beztu, but came away with the conclusion that a hot dog is a hot dog is a hot dog – maybe our opinion was affected too from having had curry bratwurst in Hamburg and other wursts Berlin recently. Speaking of food, Loren was also keen to try a traditional Kleina – donut, made the Icelandic way – cut in the shape of a diamond and not glazed, as compared to the more familiar Kleinhuringa which are round and glazed.

We visited the free Museum of Photography, then hiked past the lake…

to Perlan where we enjoyed a bowl of soup in the slowly rotating rooftop cafe, though to us it seemed not to be rotating at all, for another birds’ eye view of the city. We topped off our evening with a visit to a different Sushi barinn – restaurant. Yum!

We also took a day tour called “Glaciers, Waterfalls and Beaches of Southern Iceland.” I have only had one other experience of seeing a glacier in person – when we were in the Canadian Rocky Mountains on this journey. This time we were able to hike much closer to the edge and actually saw the turquoise in the ice.

The beaches, like one we visited once in Hawaii, are made of black pebbles, from the volcanic nature of the terrain. Our informative guide Iris but pronounced like Ear-is, described the massive flooding that occurs in the farmlands after a volcano that is buried beneath a glacier erupts. They have to have a specially trained rescue corps and evacuation drills for that reason. Here too we found the familiar basalt columnar formations that we have seen at Devil’s Postpone in California, Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, and the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.

One more day here found us visiting Aurora Reykjavik – a museum devoted to the Northern Lights showing photos, videos and information gleaned from NASA. So there to the elusive phenomenon! Well, except that we still hope to see “The Lights” in real life. We also stopped in at the Phallological Museum. Yes, there is actually a museum devoted to displaying specimens from an assortment of animals. We decided to skip on browsing it other than to have a look in the gift shop, which was full of phallic items for sale. I passed on taking any photos but will forever remember the floppy aprons.

We had one more fulfilling dinner of Sushi before attending Sinfoniuhljomsveit Islands – Iceland’s Symphony Orchestra at Harpa concert hall. This particular program, being performed during the popular music festival named Iceland Airwaves, featured “new music” pieces by talented artists, explaining why I was surprised to find ushers offering packages of ear plugs for sale at the door… A memorable performance was presented by several musicians on a two-tier stage. It was in honor of 10 years of affiliation to the “Bedroom Community” record label, with Crash Ensemble of Ireland. I just realized – there is only one letter difference between Ireland and Iceland! The event was all in collaboration with the orchestra and a choir. It was touching to see some of the performers share happy anniversary hugs between pieces.

Before we leave Iceland, which is mostly not covered by ice, or volcanoes – The Land of Fire and Ice is it’s nickname, we have two more full days planned here. Then we fly to New York for a very special someone’s Sweet Sixteenth birthday celebration!

Week 135 October 29, 2016

Published on October 29, 2016August 21, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

From Prague to Berlin via Hamburg is where we traveled this week. We started out our week at the Prague Unitarian Sunday service. While we could not understand their words, we thoroughly enjoyed familiar music from a visiting choir and the melodies of hymns – like Find a Stillness.

We also recognized names attributed to quotes in the Order of Service by, for example, Bertram Russell. Many of the hymns in their songbook were translated from English by the current minister, Rev. Petr, as well as by Norbert Capek – famed historic Czech Unitarian leader. We met two women who also were visiting from a US UU congregation, from Pennsylvania in fact. Loren and I stayed afterwards for a slideshow presentation on “Transylvanska,” sharing about a trip that some members of this congregation took to Transylvania in September. I reminisced along with them by looking at my own similar photos of Transylvania on my cell phone.

That afternoon we went to see the movie, Anthropoid, suggested to us by our European UU friends, at a theater that showed it in English with Czech subtitles. While it was a difficult show to watch, it was well worth it for the history it portrays, that took place right in Prague. On a lighter note, this movie house has some entertaining seat covers, and, the building houses unique art by a current Czech – that hanging statue is of Good King Wenceslas on his horse, hanging upside down. Later we walked around town and saw the “Dancing Building” as well. Fun!

Back on a more somber note, we walked to the Prague church with the Catacombs where much of the events in the Anthropoid movie took place, as suggested by our newest UU friend. The kind attendant made sure that we saw the interior with the actual tombs not just the many exhibition description boards, even though it was nearing closing time.

When we arrived in Prague, we were wearing sweaters, but by the time we left we needed our jackets and wool hats too. We brought our visit to a close in Prague with a memorable Italian dinner. We had an overnight bus ride to Hamburg which entailed 5 hours by bus to Berlin, then 3 more on to Hamburg, partly through some scenic vistas.

We were picked up at the Hamburg station by the grandson of dear UU friends of ours from California. Loren had visited with their daughter, his mom, and her family in Oregon in the fall of 2014 while I was teaching yoga in California, meeting this young man then. When he saw on our blog that we were in Europe he reached out for us to meet up. We three had a fun evening on the Hamburg harbor, including walking the long tunnel below the river for a distant view of the city, before a lovely visit and overnight stay with our friends’ exchange student, her husband and cat. These families are long time friends, and we were happy to visit together with these family members too.

We spent the next morning with our friend for a daytime tour of the city before our bus to Berlin. Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city. We saw the BlumenundPlanten – Flowers and Plants park, the Botanical Garden, and tried traditional foods here, including Apfelschorle – apple juice with sparkling water. It was wonderful to spend this brief but memorable time here with this friend!

We are now in Berlin and have had several days to tour parts of this amazing city, the largest in Germany. We began with the East side Gallery to see the longest piece of the Berlin wall – a mile purposely left standing for historic purposes, and, a memorial museum about life during the Cold War. In all, the original wall was nearly 100 miles long. The rest of it came tumbling down on the night of November 10, 1989, when the citizens of East and West Berlin knew the time was right and began to hack it apart. We also visited an open air museum of the wall with moving accounts of people’s experiences.

We have used the U-Bahn and metro systems in Berlin which has made it convenient to travel around the city. We found a Bikram Yoga studio where Loren and I took a few classes together this week. It has felt so good to be back in the hot room in Prague and now Berlin! We have also seen Berlin’s Brandenburg Tor – Gate, and Oberbaum Bridge of red bricks… both have witnessed so much history.

Then we visited remembrances of the suffering and struggles during the Nazi regime and World War II – specifically, Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Checkpoint Charlie, and The Jewish Museum.

We were told that we would see Stolpersteine – stepping stones, “everywhere” in Berlin as small memorials with some small mention of victims, but I have only seen one here so far, and it is so different from the similar gold bricks we had seen in Freiburg last fall.

At our AirBnB I flipped through the German language version of a book about John Lennon, understanding none of the writing including even the title, but enjoying seeing his drawings in it. Tomorrow, Loren and I are off to Reykjavik, Iceland…

PLEASE NOTE: This week we have access to good internet, but we may not in the next few weeks. Please visit here again to find our next post when we can.

Week 134 October 22, 2016

Published on October 22, 2016August 21, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

Before we left Agia Effimia – the coastal town where we were staying on Kefalonia in Greece – we walked the whole way to Myrtos Beach, over an uneven, sometimes flooded trail and some paved road, winding up on a swath full of switchbacks, to walk way, way down to the beach for a gorgeous vista. Overall, it was well worth the effort.

Loren decided that we would hitch a ride back, and the first car that came along stopped for us. A couple from Germany, though he is originally from Greece, were our friendly Samaritans, and we were back to our guesthouse in no time. For our last full day in Greece Loren and I took a private cooking class. We made a traditional meat pie, Greek salad and tzatziki, and together enjoyed our delicious meal, complete with wine and desert. That evening as Loren and I went out for our last walk, we spied our German friends at an outdoor table of a cafe. We joined them for coffee then beer and the evening quick passed in memorable conversation.

As we took our leave of Greece, I wrote my latest poem:

The Walk to Myrtos

Claire Adalyn Wright

An unusually muddy, rocky trail

intense sun bakes my face

prickly Live Oak leaves

tear at my hair. Ouch!

Thorns grab, pierce my

clothes, prick my skin, draw

droplets of blood. Oww!

Finally, a long, steep road down

finds the beach is not sand but stone.

A glorious, sunny, fall day calls us forth.

Trees line either side, on the path

through a fertile valley. Beautiful!

Side street proclaims, “The Olive Story,”

a sandwich, soft drinks, make good breaks.

The wide, winding road opens down to

aqua-turquoise water. Frothy white surf

caresses a bleached pebbled white beach.

Easier to walk here in sandals than sand!

We had a 4:30am taxi pickup for our flights – through Athens to Prague, Czech Republic, where our AirBnB host picked us up for the hour long drive to his place where we are staying. Prague is a city that represents what most large European cities would look like if not for the destruction during World War II. It is believed that Adolf Hitler was enamored of Prague so insisted on sparing it. The city is full of spires, statues and cobblestone streets from the Medieval to Baroque eras, and of course there are some more modern buildings too. One day we walked through one of the city gates of Staré Mesto – Old Town, which is one of the four quarters – or the four former separate towns – that make up Prague.

Prague is a lovely city where it is fine and easy to walk, so we have walked a lot this week. We were surprised to find an Apple museum here, mainly a tribute to Steve Jobs, from what we saw of the free first floor level.

We also walked part of the Royal Way, crossing over Karluv Most – Charles Bridge to arrive in Malá Strana – Lesser Town or Little Side, of the River where the King once lived. I recognized the familiar Slavic words “Old” and “Most” from Mostar’s Stari Most – Old Bridge, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The bridge here is named for King Charles. Both spans are reserved for pedestrians, who flock to them.

We sought out the John Lennon Wall down one of the side streets. I find it interesting how Steve Jobs somewhat resembles John Lennon, but perhaps it is just because they were contemporaries, wearing similar hair styles.

Then we walked the gentle uphill path toward Strahov Monastery. Along the way we found many of the crafted signs that at one time were used to identify houses – before numbering was introduced. We stopped to enjoy the view of Prague’s skyline over a bowl of soup and a beer at a cafe next to the Monastery on the hill.

In the evening we took in a Black Light Theater show. Traditional to Prague, this is fantasy and comedy, combined in silence. It was most entertaining! It also reminded me of an outstanding memorial service performance that we had attended some time ago in San Francisco. It honored a friend’s daughter, who was a professional clown. Another coincidence is that the theater building is named Palac Unitaria – Unitarian Palace…

Another day our plans were thwarted to take a bus to Cesky Krumlov as we were misinformed of the transport provider and where to pick the bus up. So, we make lemonade when life gives us lemons. I walked back down to Old Town to take a Bikram Yoga class – my first in nearly a year, since last November, and the first since I broke my pelvis, which was last December. Our delicious lemonade lasted well into the evening, as we were then free to attend a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake that we had thought we would have to pass on. I bought the tickets on my way back from the yoga class. It was delightful, and especially because this troop changed the plot that we had read beforehand to have a happy ending instead – the Evil Sorcerer was the one to die in this version, allowing the Prince and his lovely Swan to live happily ever after.

Last fall at the European Unitarian Universalist Retreat in Cologne, we had met an American who lives in Prague. This week we saw her and another local EUU member, over brunch at an ex-Pat cafe. We have so enjoy visiting with Unitarians on our journey, as it feels like a connection to home, and is wonderful to spend time with people who have similar values. We learned that the Black Light Theater is also where the Unitarian offices are located.

Unlike the former Yugoslavian states that we visited on the Balkan Peninsula who had kept up relations with both western and eastern regimes, what was Czechoslovakia – now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, was dominated by Soviet rule. Thanks to our friends’ suggestion, in the afternoon we visited the Museum of Communism. The caption on their flyer is “Dream, Reality, Nightmare.” Just outside the museum is the large square with a statue of the historic Good King Wenceslas and it is the site where the 1989 nonviolent Velvet Revolution took place. Wenceslas hails from the Czech Republic, as does composer Antonin Dvorak.

We finished our week in Prague by attending two classical music performances at St. Nicholas church, with a tasty traditional Czech pub dinner in between. The highlight of the music was Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in the second concert, which was played by an Historic Instruments orchestra that included a Baroque violinist. It is becoming noticeably wetter and colder during our short stay in Prague, with temperatures down to the 40’s and 50’s Fahrenheit. We are set to travel further north to Hamburg then Berlin this coming week… Brrr!

PLEASE NOTE: This week we have decent internet coverage, but may not have viable service over the next few weeks. Please check back here, I will share my weekly post when and as often as I can.

Week 133 October 15, 2016

Published on October 15, 2016August 21, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

I want start by acknowledging you, our family members and friends who check in with us via this blog, send us email or U.S. mail. It is always wonderful to hear from you and to learn a little of what is happening in your lives too. Thank you!

Still in Chania on Crete at the beginning of this week, we were staying at an AirBnB guest house that took part of its name from Morfeas – God of Dreams. And yes, I had a memorable dream one night there! Last week I had bought a bottle of Retsina, which I had fallen in love with in Greece 25 years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it again while we were here! This white wine has a distinct flavor, from the resin of the pine barrels that store it. The only other time I have tasted it are perhaps on rare visits to Greek restaurants over the years, and, for sure when I went out of my way to find it when Loren and I hosted a Greek themed fundraiser for our church. Loren instead preferred to enjoy a bottle of red wine…

The afternoon that we left Chania, we first took a walking tour of several hours. Because it is near the end of the tourist season we had the guide all to ourselves. He took us to see some wonderful sights. As I am enjoying the last glass of Retsina, I want to share two different stories that our guides in Chania told us. They both first asked, “Why do people clink glasses before they drink?”

Our previous guide, who escorted us in a 4 wheel drive vehicle around Chania’s outlying villages last week said that it is to stimulate the fifth of our senses – since we can easily smell the flavor, see the liquid, touch it, and taste it on our tongue, then, the clink, allows us to awaken the sense of hearing. That makes sense! However our second guide, who walked us to several important sites in the city, suggested it was a ruse to spill drops of the liquid into your companion’s glass to be sure it was not poisoned, even though a villain could slyly spill it on the ground afterwards. Hmmm. Which is true? Probably both!

Along the walking tour we stopped for Romeko wine, the one that tastes like cherry sherry, yum! And, more Raki. Raki is quite harsh, a drink I can forego since at least having tasted it. All the Cretan eateries serve it in tiny shot glasses after any food – even breakfast! One waiter, surprised when I declined it, protested, “But it is an herb to help with digestion.” I learned that the appropriate response instead is to accept it, say Yamas! – Cheers!, then just put the glass down without drinking it. However, our guide taught us to actually enjoy Raki by blending it with enough honey to make a big difference in the smoothness and taste. That said, it is still not so good for my continually growing waistline. My pants this week are complaining – the final indication that I absolutely must reverse my trend – now.

A bus ride that took us to stay in the larger city of Heraklion – or, Iraklio, or Irakleio, or Iraklion, Herakleio, Herakleion, and, also spelled with Greek letters which derive from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, was uneventful, except for seeing more dramatic mountains along the coast. Our room at an AirBnB overlooked the coastline, offering views of some stunning sunrises and sunsets. We rode an Open City Tour Bus here, that transported us to the ancient Minoan Palace of Knossos, most famous of the ancient sites on Crete. My Western Civilization professor had inspired me to want to see this site too, many long years ago. At one time, there were over 1,200 rooms in this palace that is now mostly rubble.

But there is great controversy here. Sir Arthur Evans who led the initial excavation of Knossos Palace had a few of the rooms recreated to give a more realistic impression. The work even included piecing together artwork from meager chips of the originals. It definitely brought the site more to life for me, and Loren would have liked to have had the whole palace reconstructed instead of just seeing so many piles of old stones.

Later we stopped at the fort in the harbor, which has survived intact from the time of Venetian rule on Crete – 500 years ago.

The Cyrillic alphabet that we first encountered in Macedonia, and based on the Greek alphabet, explains why the spelling MAPKET – MARKET is advertised by the same spelling here as in Macedonia. But then there is the name dispute over this country of Macedonia and the region of Macedonia that is part of Greece… I also must mention the street art, throughout this post. So often the messages are obscure, but here, written in English, I found thought provoking.

Somewhere – I think in a magazine on a plane, I had read about a most appealing restaurant in Heraklion – Vourvouladiko Taverna, so I added it to my wish list. One evening Loren put it in our navigation app which helped us find the vicinity but took us in circles for some blocks. He was ready to abandon the effort, then indulged me. We arrived exactly at opening time for the evening meal! Fortunately we were there early, because after the next guest arrived without a reservation, all others were turned away. We dined in a beautiful garden setting, our table and chairs sat directly on the earthen floor. The food was excellent, living up to the glowing review that I had read, so it was well worth the time it took for us to find it.

We then had another full day tour on a 4×4 tour, which followed an ancient Minoan path high up into the mountains, from the Mediterranean coast to a fertile plateau. We stopped at Dicteon cave, the birth place of Zeus (!) with time for a little hike. I was hoping that we would see one of the few remaining Kri Kri mountain goats who are distinct from other goats for their long horns and a long beard, but, we were not so fortunate. We spent the day with a couple from Denmark, and two other couples from England. All lovely people, so in that way, we were fortunate.

Loren and I then flew from Crete, connecting through Athens, to Kefalonia, an island we had especially enjoyed on our honeymoon 25 years ago. We are occupying one of only two rooms in use at our guest house, grateful that the crowds have already returned home. Early this morning we took the ferry to the neighboring island of Ithaca, so famous thanks to Homer’s and Cavafy’s poetry. Another memorable college class had required me to read Homer’s Odyssey, for which I am also grateful. Loren and I were most enthralled 25 years ago here in Vathi – spelled Vathy too! on Ithaca, with its delightful horseshoe bay.

The cave where Homer’s protagonist Odysseus buried his treasure, and a romantic night at Gregory’s Taverna in Vathi stand out as highlights from our honeymoon. Now on our 25th year Honeyversary, Gregory’s is no longer in operation. We learned that Gregory had sold the place and is not well, needing oxygen from years of smoking cigarettes. The restaurant is now called Ithaca Mare but was closed for the season. On our visit today we chose to walk the more than two miles of mountainous roads from the port to Vathy. On the way we hiked up one mountain to see ruinous remains of the ancient Ithaca, where Odysseus was revered and pictured on their coins. We also looked where I thought I recalled the path to Odysseus’ treasure was buried, but this time we could not find it.

Today is probably the happiest day so far of our 25th Honeyversary in Greece, because prior to coming to Kefalonia we have mostly visited new places on Crete together. Today in Vathi we reminisced a good bit about our very special time here 25 years ago, and marveled at how the town has evolved and modernized in that time as well.

Later this week we will travel to Prague…

PLEASE NOTE: While this week we have some internet coverage, we may not have service over the next few weeks. Please check back here, I will share my weekly post when and as often as I can!

Week 132 October 8, 2016, 2.5 years!

Published on October 8, 2016August 21, 2018 by ClaireLeave a comment

This week we had unlocked wifi and a refrigerator in our accommodation in Bitola,

Macedonia, but no kitchen. So, we ate many of our noon and evening meals at the nearby restaurant, Kus Kus – said like Cous Cous but their logo looks like Kys Kys, where we also had secure wifi. We holed up there with our devices and the internet for some of our time, to do planning for some of the specific elements of our next few months. Our journey takes work, requiring skills of both vision and attention to detail. And, woo hoo! We marked yet another new milestone this week: two and a half years since we left home. So far in that time Loren and I have managed well together with few disagreements and innumerable precious experiences that bless us with fabulous memories to savor for the rest of our lives.

The International Festival of Classical Music was held in Bitola this week and we were there for the opening and second nights. A wonderful violinist, accompanied by an equally talented pianist, from Kazakhstan thoroughly entertained us, including – if we understood correctly, four encores. It has had my brain trying to come up with words to share it. For example, one’s forefinger plucking and bow flying over and over her strings, while another one’s fingers gaily tripped and pounded on keys, Ajmah – said Aiman, and Capa – Sara, respectively kept our rapt attention for two non-stop hours at their 25th Jubilee opening.

The next evening Phta – Rita a highly gifted Serbian pianist played some of the fastest finger movements and most energetic fortissimo performance pieces that we have ever witnessed. While these three performers were female, there are also male artists scheduled for later in the Festival.

A highlight this week too was taking a taxi to visit Heraclea Lyncestis – a large site, like a complete neighborhood, of Roman ruins. You could see how some structures were built on top of older Grecian ruins. The mosaic floor tiles were especially well preserved. We walked back to our AirBnB from there for a little exercise.

The next day we rode a bus to Gevgelija through a vast stretch of dramatic tree covered mountains, cut deeply through by a river running alongside our road. This brought us close to the border of Greece and near to Thessaloniki, which will be our first Greek destination of this journey. Gevgelija, Macedonia, is a town of 18,000 people, a fine place to hang around for a couple of nights, which we must do to remain out of the Schengen area for the last of our 90 days visa restriction. Here is the bus sign for our trip from Bitola – the first listed name to Gevgelija the last listed name. Some of the vowels look familiar, and a few consonants, of the 30 character Cyrillic alphabet.

As we leave behind the Balkan Peninsula, I can say that the people we met, the things we did, and the places we saw, gave us new treasured impressions. From two weeks in Croatia, a few days in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many in Montenegro, over two weeks in Macedonia, and part of a day in Albania, once again we have hopes to return, both to these nations as well as the ones we missed – Slovenia, Serbia, and Kosovo. Albania was the only country that was not part of the former Yugoslavia, which I learned means, “The Land of the South Slavs.” And, like parts of Romania, what little we did see reminded us of earlier times in the USA, coupled with unmistakable 21st century innovation. We heard more than a few nostalgic reflections on Socialism while we were here, hearing this sentiment the most: “Everyone had a house and everyone had a car.”

Though we knew nothing of the Slavic languages, nor could we read the signs written in Cyrillic, we were still warmly welcomed and well cared for. I must mention that we have had some of our best belly laughs from hearing our offline navigation app pronounce the names of the local streets as we find our way walking about! We have appreciated the thriving farmers’ markets, and, as in Italy, eating only foods that are in season. We have enjoyed hearing mostly mellow tunes from the USA of the 70’s and 80’s, many with covers by local artists, though some current and older tunes are aired too. I was sorry to see the number of cigarette smokers and smell some smoke inside airy restaurants. I was also quite impressed to see the many solar powered water heaters on buildings’ roofs.

Now, we are in Greece, to celebrate another milestone – the 25th Anniversary of our Honeymoon! When Loren and I were dating and talked about future travel goals, I let him know of my dream that if I ever visited Europe I had promised myself that I would visit Greece first. This was because Sister Coldrick, who taught my first college class – Western Civilization – had taught it so well that not only did I decide to pursue further studies for a degree, I also dreamed that I would see Greece in person if I could.

And Loren honored me with our honeymoon there. In 1991, we heeded the sage advice to wait until late in September to visit, since earlier in the month – right after our wedding – would still be quite hot. So, we honeymooned in Greece the last week of September and the first week of October. Now, twenty-five years later, it was such a coincidence that our Schengen visa had expired just in time for us to be in Greece again during the first week of October for this special occasion. We spent our first two nights on the mainland, in Thessaloniki, which is the second largest city in Greece. For some reason it reminded me of being in Manhattan, then I noticed a sign for a club named Manhattan! This city also has Roman ruins and is a port city. We holed up some in Mikel’s coffee shop with wifi while we were here, for more planning work.

Then we took a short flight to the island of Crete, the largest Greek island, and fifth largest island in the Mediterranean – after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete too has been on my wish list to see forever, or at least ever since taking Sister Coldrick’s Western Civilization class in 1979.

We are now in Chania pronounced HAH-knee-ah, where, so far, we have taken a full day tour to see a knife maker’s shop which introduced us to how the steel blades and then the handles are made, taste olive oil at a very high tech production facility, and, taste wines at a winery with a friendly cat.

We also saw a 3,000 year old olive tree, and, enjoyed a traditional lunch prepared by our hostess Irini in a village in the mountains. Her husband Dimitri offered traditionally numerous refills of our glasses of homemade wine of golden brown color, sweet tasting like sherry, and, the famous apertif, Raki.

We finished the day with a drive through one of the steep gorges on this western side of the island.

We will head to Heraklion, also on Crete, later this week.

PLEASE NOTE: While this week we have had flaky internet coverage, we may not have any service at all in the next several weeks. Please visit here again for our next post which we will make when we can.

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