The Second City Eternal

Thessaloniki is real. As I wind down this first day here, my primary impression is that there’s nothing fake about this city, a town that hugs the hills along the northern Greek coast and quietly goes about it’s thing. Thessaloniki about as real as it gets (for a tourist, anyway). You see, this is striking […]

Street Food, for the Win

The man at the counter asked what sort of gyro I wanted, pork or chicken. I didn’t let him finish, immediately indicating I wanted the pork. Then he asked what I wanted on it, mumbling a few things until slowly drawing out the word, “delicious?” His voice lingered over the sensual syllables and the word […]

Something to Remember

Well, at last it has happened:I’m back! Butterblogger, my friends, has returned. When last you heard from me I was in Rome headed home. And frankly, I wasn’t doing well. The journey was fine, but my teeth hurt from the fall, I couldn’t properly eat, and I just generally felt terrible. The intervening months have […]

Against Medical Advice

I finally woke – I mean really woke and was able to sit up and process things, at 10 am. I had periodically stirred all night, always noting that the empty 500ml IV bag had not been replaced. At some point breakfast came, involving milk and something I could not eat, so I had kept […]

A Most Imperfect Day

“[Butterblogger] are you OK? Are you OK? You passed out,” is the first thing I remember when I came to. I had woken this morning with a headache and some gastrointestinal symptoms. So I medicated and ate breakfast and was feeling great. My symptoms were truly minor. Our hotel brings a breakfast tray to our […]

Not Trying Too Hard is Sometimes Just Right

One of the challenges I have when traveling is recognizing when it’s time to stop packing stuff into the agenda. Every day isn’t a competition to do as much as I can, and I have to remind myself of that sometimes. Some days are more about the place than a specific site. This was one […]