It has been yet another good week including my first flight since august 31st.
My friend Tom.
The week began in Skopje Macedonia where I woke up Monday morning and was joined on my day trip by a fascinating, if somewhat cantankerous 80 year old canadian dutch man who has been travelling since before my father was born. Not the normal hostel fare to say the least. We headed out to Matka where there is a river, a lake and a canyon. I was stunned by the incredible beauty of the place overall, especially since it’s not that well known and somehow despite 20 degree sunny skies we saw about 4 other tourists/hikers the entire time .
On the bus ride there we met a macedonian man who worked there selling hemp products who looked almost exactly like jesus, or at least John Fusciante in his jesus stage. He was kind enough to get us to the best of the hiking paths before turning back to his shop.
Such a beautiful place, sorry to ruin it with my face
The paths were really neat, carved right into the rock and sometimes up on cliffs above the winding river. Tom and I walked for a few hours together and I got to hear some very interesting stories from a life well lived. Once you got past his negativity and complaints he really was a fascinating man to get to know, which was neat. Later that night in the hostel he isolated himself by asking which room a swiss football player was in in front of the guy and then saying, right I want the other room, he snores way to loud and I don’t like him. It was pretty awkward and rather funny, luckily the hostel staff just kept going and got him his bed, then of course Hotmail blocked him from his account, and gmail tried to as well so he proceeded to bitch to all of us one by one and then call several friends and do the same thing. That said, intermingled with the complaints were all these really neat places he’d seen and frankly at 80 you’ve got a bit more right to bitch, I just hope I still have the nerve, energy and drive to be exploring at that age. Really I just hope I’m still living and loving life.
Hiking at Matka
At any rate after a few hours of hiking I stopped atop a cliff and did some writing, I’m being bad and not getting down to editing Disappearing Eyes, instead starting other projects which eventually will have to stop, but what can you do, I was feeling inspired and got out a strong first chapter of The First Queen…. Of The Pigeons.
I then headed back to where the bus was and found Tom and Our jesus friend still waiting. They told me I was lucky and the bus was 15 minutes late so I’d not need to wait an hour. Then of course that bus never showed up and we ended up waiting two hours meeting a few French guys who were randomly also staying at Unity Hostel (One more time just such an awesome hostel). Eventually we walked to the next town and picked up a different bus there.
Tuesday I had to wake up absurdly early to catch a 6 am bus to Thessaloniki, even though it’s a huge city only like 4 hours away there is only one bus a day and it leaves at 6. Of course I ended up late but did make the bus and arrived in Greece tired but content. Feeling lazy and not up to an hour long walk up a hill with my pack I caved and paid the 6 euros for a taxi which was a great decision.
I arrived at Little Big House (another great hostel) and ran into Jason, a guy I’d met in Macedonia who goes to school in Halifax, he was just leaving but we had a nice chat before I headed for a relaxing nap. I woke up a few hours later, hiked further up the hill and had a decent dinner with an amazing view, before continuing up to the fort atop the city which had some awesome lookouts. I’m sad the sun was already setting and I didn’t have any time to do some writing there.
View from Atop Thessaloniki.
Wednesday morning I woke up fairly late and wandered out at around ten only to find three brits from the Leeds Bradford area who I’d gone out with my first night in Macedonia. Since I had no real plans they were kind enough to invite me with them and so we ambled around the city checking out various points of interest together, even getting invited to a beautiful church that seemed closed to tourists.
I did something smart on Wednesday, starting a word document of recommendations from other travellers, for books, movies, documentaries, and perhaps most importantly travel advice. For example If I do get my third year I’m now planning to work in the Trans Siberian Railroad journey on my way to China. I also watched perks of being a wallflower and found it to be just an incredible film full of talented young actors.
At any rate they left early Thursday morning and I woke up to pouring rain which all but forced me to take a taxi to the airport for my flight to Crete. It was a dull day but that’s good when your flying as most kinds of excitement there won’t be good. I landed in Chania and after meeting some American college students on the bus in, headed off to find my first Private Room since Malta (which really was more of a closet) The room in Chania was lovely with a balcony overlooking the venetian port and a comfortable double bed. (I’d almost forgotten how nice it is to stretch out)
The next morning I forced myself to wake up at 645 and hurry out to the bus station to get to the Samarian Gorge. Something Stu and I had missed since it was still closed for the winter in April when we were last in Crete. It was exhausting but rewarding and I’m still feeling it now. Still it felt good to get through a roughly 20km trek including bus station walks and it also reminded me of how much I have found I like hiking. It’s funny, as a child when we went for family walk in nature I always complained non stop, now it’s one of my absolute favourite things to do.
Iron Gates: 3 meters wide 300 feet high.
The sun rises at the beginning of the hike.
I hurried through the walk and made it to the coast in just under 5 hours, which I was quite proud of, and jumping into the Libyan sea after that trek in 30 degree heat was one of the greatest feelings in the world.
After relaxing in the waters for a while I went to grab some lunch. IT was one of the worst meals I’d eaten all trip (stay away from Greek style pizza, at least I plan to.) but remained interesting as, while sitting on the very sturdy stone balcony overlooking the beach, the whole thing started to shake quite violently. No one was hurt but it turns out there was an earthquake not too far off the coast that measured 6.3 on the richter scale. I’d never felt n earthquake before and I’m really glad I got to, also really glad I was out of the gorge where rockslides are a constant danger. Still it was a useful thing to experience for writing I think and luckily there was only one serious injury in crete, which came from a man panicking and jumping out of his apartment onto a parked car. He just broke his arm though, so no great cost and probably a lesson learned for him.
The beach after a long hike.
The next day I took the bus over to Heraklion where I’d booked a very poorly rated hostel in the centre of town as it was the only budget option and I’ve been spending too much money lately. I expected the worst but arrived and found everything to be be more than fine. The staff was helpful enough, the beds aren’t uncomfortable or dirty, and the wifi works a charm. I almost wish that last hadn’t been the case, as watching my Vikings get crushed by Carolina was just depressing. I did get the pleasure of meeting a fellow travelling English and P.E. teacher from Philly who was also a football fan. He’s worked in Korea and Casablanca for the past few years and it was certainly a nice reminder that there are jobs waiting for me around the world when I do decide I need them.
I was simply too depressed to write the blog last night, the Vikings loss really crushed me, so I put it off until today. I’m now sitting at Knossos, which has some cool ruins and definitely amazing history and getting ready to write a little more of the Pigeon novella before heading back to the city.
Knossos is interesting and unique because it has such a long historical period, but also because an architect who worked on restoration in the early 1900’s decided he’d rebuild big sections of the palace with limited evidence to prove his reconstructions and suppositions were at all accurate, so it’s a weird mix of ancient history and rebuilt sections that may be completely inaccurate to the ancient civilizations which once resided here. Still for 3 euro (God bless that 5 year validity U Ottawa student card for a 1 year degree) it was definitely worth a visit and should prove a good lace to write.
Yet another great week of travelling done with, and countless more to look forward to. My life is full of blessings, and I am doing my utmost to take advantage of them. Bye for now,
Luke
Song of the week:
J Cole Lost Ones
I find this one of the most emotionally resonant rap songs I have ever heard. A very interesting topic and I feel an honest dialogue about it. One of the songs that cemented my love for Cole two years ago.
Currently Reading: The Eye of The World by Robert Jordan
The last book of the wheel of time came out in January and was a masterwork by Sanderson and Jordan. This series has been with me since 7th or 8th grade. Along side Lord of the Rings it has influenced me more than anything else and reaffirmed my love of fantasy. Honestly I probably never would have started writing without this epic beginning to one of the greatest stories of all time. I’ve never had the chance to read them all through from start to finish together so now I’ve made myself a deal. I’m rereading the whole 14 book series but each time I finish one book I read something new before moving on to the next one. I’m amazed by how much I’m still enjoying the beginning of this epic saga. If you have a spare thousand hours, read them, they are all incredible.
