Eating In the Garden

There are a lot of olive trees here. They’re everywhere. It makes sense, I guess, as this small island produces 5% of the world’s olive oil. They don’t really have an established identity in the international olive oil market. Instead, the Cretan olives get exported to other countries, such as Italy and Spain, where they […]

You Knew This Day Was Coming

Well I guess we should have seen this coming. The day of closures. Because sometimes even the best laid plans must be up-ended. I thought Monday would be the problem day, and planned accordingly. Today was Tuesday… We slept in a bit this morning, had a late breakfast and were on our way. On this […]

Nope, No Minotaurs

This was a crazy morning. We woke early and headed out before sunrise. Crete, it turns out, is a large island, and some of the most ancient things we wanted to see were at the far end of the landmass away from our hotel. We first traveled East, then South. We hadn’t eaten breakfast, but […]

Happy Easter!

χριστός-ἀνέστη! That’s how they say Happy Easter here: Christos Anesti! Yes it is Easter here. Orthodox Easter fell very late this year. We didn’t plan to be in Greece for Easter, which is comparable to Christmas back home, but only recently discovered the coincidence. Where is here? Right now we are in Crete, the […]

Listening to the Song of the Sirens

I miss Garuda Indonesia. That was a lovely airline. Sure the cabins featured unpleasant color palettes, but the people were happy, they wanted us to be happy, they were efficient, and they just plain got the job done! British Airways, on the other hand is a pitiable mess. Yes – I’m flying BA. This […]

Turkey 2016: Closing Thoughts

I’m currently somewhere over the Atlantic as I type this, on my flight from Frankfurt to New York, from where I will ultimately connect to Detroit. I’ve gathered together some of my some final thoughts on Turkey and this trip: There are wards against the evil eye everywhere, especially along the coast, but in Istanbul too. […]