The trip

Having recovered from a miniature food bug of some sort, I'm writing this from a balcony in my €30-a-night hotel in Athens, which is pretty Spartan (HEYO GOOD CLASSICISM JOKE IMO) but does mean that I get to blog my idiot thoughts from this view, which is: not terrible!

"Acropolis schmecropolis, how's the baklava" as my father wrote to me

 

After the jump, a quick rundown of my trek to Lesvos, with more about that wonderful island in posts to come. (Spoiler alert: IT'S NICE.) Oh, and a video, cos WHY NOT MAKE A VIDEO.

Proof of life

Folks, it's been Real Quiet here for a few reasons - I've been slamming through some work that needs doing by early June to keep my "ok also I will end this summer PREPARED for the coming year" course on track, and it also turns out that the several articles I read about digital nomadry back post-vaccine when I was daydreaming about working my day job from afar were entirely right in their assertion that "maybe you want to do this somewhere other than Greece, on account of the wifi, she is a-notta-so-good." 

 But as much as any of that, it's also that in the wake of the latest utterly senseless and brutal slaughter of human beings in Texas, I have had a real hard time feeling like posting about Gosh Islands Sure Are Certain Ways. I had a dim memory of a gun-related mass killing happening in my first month abroad back in 2016, but had to go back into the archives to see which one it was. (A good feeling, that.) It was Orlando. (Do you remember which one that was?) Needless to say, what I wrote then is true now: it feels strange and impotent to be so far from home when things like this happen, but increasingly these events stir up infuriatingly helpless feelings, knowing that our country is populated by just enough cultish monsters who prefer to sacrifice hundreds-to-thousands of human beings to the altar of But I Deserve A Very Cool Gun to ensure that nothing will ever happen. I hope I'm wrong, but given that horrible people across America continue to feel this way in the wake of multiple murder sprees at elementary schools, I... am not optimistic. Regardless, it remains important to do what you can to fight the tide even in these mid-fascist times, and so... you know, there's that donation sidebar to the right, to which I'm adding Everytown (please reach out if you know of a better, more efficient, or more-targeted organization) and hope you'll throw them some bones if you're able.

I will, eventually, get back to the main business of this blog (documenting transnational stupidity on my part and marveling at, like, "did you know they have sandwiches in Italy, they just call them different things, pianos I think") in the coming days, since I know it's helpful to have an escape. Thanks for hanging in there while I get myself sorted. And be kind to yourselves and others (save fascists) while we endure whatever these coming months entail...

Refuge in Lesvos

 SO! I am here, in Lesvos, having navigated a mildly whackadoo travel screwball en route (short version: ferry pushed back a day, leading to a three-flight changed itinerary to arrive on the island about 12 hours earlier than originally scheduled, with zero night spent sleeping on a boat) and that whole journey and some attendant travelogue/photography/videography is forthcoming once I get a few work-work odds-and-ends done (yes, I'm doing a little work on this leg of the trip in the hopes of fully unplugging weekends and even a full week or two later on). But first, after the jump, some key context on why I opted for Lesvos (or Lesbos, or Λέσβος, however you wanna roll with it). Spoiler alert: this is going to be one of those "hey, if you're flush with cash could you throw some bones to some good folk" deals? So DO THAT even if you couldn't POSSIBLY care less about why I'm on any particular island at any particular moment in time!

And we're off.

Well, friends, here we go again.

 On Tuesday this week, I wrapped up my last on-site responsibilities at the college, drove back to Chicago, and spent a solid 36 hours or so packing, prepping, and wrapping up the last loose ends before departing for O'Hare, where this time I plan to actually catch the flight that will wing me to Europe until late summer.

Genuinely a bit overpacked, mostly due to the work I plan to do while on the road, but hoping the overhead-friendly backpack and books-and-a-camera messenger bag get me where they need to get me...

I think I laid all this out in my "I made a decision" post about this, but the basic shape of things is: a couple of weeks to thoroughly unplug and brain-wipe in Greece with nothing but books and walking on my mind, and then off to Italy to try to live well as I get my prep for next year underway. I'll be moving around a decent bit, adopting my favored model of "get up at dawn, walk everywhere, come back and write/read/work in the post-lunch heat of the day, get out for the passeggiata and evening exploration" as I make my way from Sicily up to Bologna, which will be my long-stay base at the center of the summer. I'll keep nudging northward (yes, I plan these trips specifically around running away from heat, leave me alone) with a quick gosh-everything-is-so-spendy week in Switzerland en route to the UK, where I will collapse in gratitude on the doorsteps of a few much beloved and long-missed friends.

I'm pretty excited (among other things, to have all but the Athens-Catania leg of the trip be on surface transportation, including sleeping on both trains AND boats! my actual dreams) and eager to see how it all feels after these strange intervening years to be back in a mode I last experienced during the chaos and uncertainty of grad school, before I got better at accepting that chaos and uncertainty are kinda baked-in. My travels were a big part of that journey, so it'll be interesting to see how it all feels now that I'm where I am, and who I am.

Anyway, if you're reading this, thanks for tagging along. And hey, if you come into a sudden inheritance or realize you've got points just sitting there waiting to be redeemed on flights, uh, hit me up, let's get an aperitivo or something.

Marseille'n away

OK, so the caveat here is that I only spent one day scrambling around a corner of Marseille, but I: loved it pretty overwhelmingly? And so we're doing a whole separate post about it, and a separate video, and we will NOT apologize for loving port cities more than most things that are available for us to love!! After the jump: The South Of France, But Not In A Beachy Way!

He Ain't Lyon

 Oh yeah! I said I was going to catch y'all up on my spring break week in France, and now I am going to actually do that thing! After the jump: Lyon, and the unending stupidity of Pat. First, tho, a video with a song dedicated to uhhh anybody who might be going through some extremely complicated times this year not that I'm thinking of anybody in particular! Hey let's all have breakfast!