Greece Photos

Here are a bunch of new pictures, from Greece. Hard to believe it's been 3 weeks since we were there. We're in Bangkok(One Night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble), on the way from Nepal. Tomorrow we fly to Bali. Hopefully there the connection will be good enough to upload the Istanbul and Nepal pics.

To see the photos, click on April in the Archives Link on this page. Scroll down to the bottom of the April page, or click on header: All Photos AT the Present Time Up to This Point Now.

Shannon & Jonathan

Whither Nepal (jon)

forecast
Hot. Thunderstorms in the afternoon with their usual coolness. Possibility of lingering Maoists. otherwise, absolute chaos with a smile.

Nepalis have been the most loving, trustworthy and trusting, generous and willing (to be touristed, is that a word?)we have met yet. They are poor by our standards, for sure, and they are pushy to get us to buy stuff, because they are poor and we have money and, hell, we came here! Kathmandu is very comfy for me, the constant buzz of crazy mixed traffic and the tiny shops with everything being made in the back room, there is something very homy about it. Thamel, the touristed part of Kathmandu, is where we are at a great place called the Acme Guest House. They arranged our trek into the Annapurna Conservation Area. That was a 5 day trip into the Himalaya on these steep trails that had tea houses and lodges all along it. No cars, only people on foot. The villages use terraced gardens to grow food and livestock (chickens, goats, water buffalo) and feed intrepid travellers like Shannon and me Dal Bhat (lentils and rice with pickle and potatoe, delicious) and pancakes. Don't order chocolate cake, they don't have it this time of year (so why is it on the menu!!??) (Whiny tourist). We actually had a porter carry most of our stuff so we only had like 20 pounds each, less even. And a guide to keep us on the right trail and translate for us. The panoramas of the Annapurna range (Annapurna north, one and 4, Machupuchere, Niligiris) and a bunch of others we took pictures of, otherwise known as the Great Barrier, goes on forever. Absolutely wonderful, once in a lifetime thang, even though I want to come back here and film some climbing on one of the 8000 meter (24000 foot) peaks. 5 days and 80 kilometers later, we emerged from the woods at Naya Pul and returned to Pokhara to begin another journey...
This time to the jungle. We stayed three days at the Chitwan Jungle Preserve in a place called Sauraha in the south near India. We rode Elephants into the jungle to find wild Rhinoceros, Monkeys and the ferocious Deer! We also bathed with the elephants, amazing to be so close to one on its side in the water, just kind of lolling around, getting petted and scrubbed by one of the people who basically spend their lives caring for these huge beasts. One of the full grown weigh 12,000 pounds. They are cute and have sweeet eyelashes. It was like communing with a whale lolling in the water like that.
That is all now, very amazing place, kind of exhausted. Slow internet means no pictures right now, but soon, hopefully in the next week. We have a ton to post...
Jonathan

From Nepal

Hi, Jonathan and I are having a life-changing great and challenging time in Nepal. Electricity,nevermind Internet, is a bit dicey here, so we can't blog much or post pictures yet, though we've taken zillions. Just a note to let you know we haven't been captured by Maoists or eaten by leeches. We have trekked in the Himalayas and swam with elephants! Now we're back in Kathmandu enjoying the chocolate cake and listening to four kinds of music at once. We go to Bali in three days with a stop in Singapore, where we hope to upload some photos.
xo, S&J

Enough Superlatives. A List of Worsts [Shan]

Worst Thing in Ireland?
Shannon: Venetian blind-style windows when it's so bloody cold.
Jon: Litter on the beach.

Worst Thing in Spain:
S: (besides bullfighting): Eating Lard.
J: Sewage coming out of Ronda's gorge.

Worst Thing in Italy:
S: Rabbit-flavored babyfood with the smiling coniglio on the jar
J: the coffee

Worst Thing in Athens:
We have to agree it's the packs of wild dogs that attack when you walk by.

Athens [Shannon]

I'm very happy in Athens. The heavy buildings that take up a whole block are strangely plain, scuffed marble with old shutters and look like something out of a Ben Katchor comic, past their prime and of mysterious use to begin with. SOme are pocked with cannon shot holes. We wake up to mopeds and roosters. There are these signs in Greek letters everywhere that we can't even sound out, mysterious, adding to the Katchor effect.

Greece without a map [Shannon}

We headed into Greece without a guidebook. It's this excellent sort of anxiety that feels like freedom, or reality, instead of a half-life of assumed preknowlege when I think I "know" what's there. We were expecting water on the left side of the train, but it was on the right, evern though Jon's fun empirical watch says we're traveling southeast. I imagined we might be on a peninsula, and soon we would join the mainland and see water on the left. Then we did. It happened that way. Did I sense the landscape for what it is, rather than compare it to a virtual reality of a map? Always an interesting dissonance anyway. Or do I remember a map of Grece I once looked at? Do we ever really experience only the reality in front of us? Anyway I can't look at this land without seeing a million stories...

Patras [Shannon]

is a honeyed place. I sat on a hilltop circled by ruined walls in a field thick with clover and humming with bees. The sky was a perfect clear blue and a tiny aracnid swung from my arm. It's easy to see how one could be seduced by the gods.

Waking Up [Shannon]

on the boat and seeing the mountains of Greece rising out of the Adriatic, coming closer and closer, out of the mist was the most exciting travel moment of my life. I might as well they say they were risng out of the myth.

New Pics!

We have found a decent internet place in Athens and we uploaded all our Spain photos, Italy and the first glimpse of Greece! Scroll down to the bottom of your page to see 'em.

Also check out our new profile photo.

love and smackers,
Shannon & Jonathan

GRANADA

Some copyeditor

_shan