it's magic!

I was looking up ferry schedules this morning, trying to figure out a time table for our island hopping adventure, when I saw this:

Apparently, the Blue Star Ferry lines are working magic now, because their trip from Kalymnos to Rhodes travels back in time.  You depart Kalymnos on Friday, January 25 and arrive in Rhodes on Thursday, January 24!

It's magic!

The cool thing about ferry schedules, I have learned, is that they are generally the same every day of the week, i.e. every Monday schedule will be identical.  So if you are planning a trip that is, say 4 months away, and whose dates aren't in the search engine yet, you can search for the same weekdays in earlier months and it will generally be the same.

I could so do this for a living.

~RLM 

Helpful sites: 

• Ferry Booking Search Engine 
• Ferries.gr 
• Flying Dolphin from Santorini to Crete - Hellenic Seaways
• Matt Barrett's Greek Travel Guide - possibly the most indispensable website every created
• Also from Matt Barrett, his Youth Hostel Search Page
  

The Year in Cities: 2007

As 2007 draws to a close, I must continue the tradition of compiling the year in cities, as I did last year. 

Indianapolis, IN**
Fishers, IN*
Louisville, KY*
Lawrenceburg, KY*
Georgetown, KY*
Frankfurt, KY
Raleigh, NC**
Wilmington, NC*
Blowing Rock, NC
Charlotte, NC
Providence, RI
Mystic, Groton, and North Stonington, CT
Chicago, IL
Philadelphia, PA
Washington DC
Athens, Greece**
Greek islands visited: Santorini (Thira), Andros, Hydra, Lefkada, Kefalonia
Greek towns visited: Delphi, Mycenae, Olympia, Nafplio, Livadia, Tolo, Sounio, Rafina

Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.
Cities marked with ** were residences.

an ache, a yearning

Tonight I've been reading back through a friend's travel journal from a semester spent abroad and now I miss Europe. And Athens.

 

I miss the sight of the moon hanging over the Acropolis during a midnight walk, watching sunsets from a hilltop, and wandering down Adrianou after getting gyros from Tony's. The chaos of the big city - Monastiraki on a Sunday morning, Plaka at dusk as the tavernas fill up, Psirri at 2am, Ermou on late days when the shops stay open past five.  The random peaceful moments - walking back to the apartment through Plaka at 3am when the streets are deserted, free of tourists as the shopkeepers close up - climbing Filopappou on a bright afternoon to take in the staggering view of the city's massive sprawl - long lunches at Byzantinos, lingering over bread with olive oil, teeming bowls of tortellini, and endless conversation with good friends. I miss ferry boats, standing on the top deck in the middle of the night - alone in the vast darkness, watching sunrise on the Mediterranean, coming in to Ios just after dawn on the overnight to Santorini, the expression of awe on my friend's faces as we approach the staggering cliffs of the port at Fira.

I can't wait for May, can't wait to show Sonia, Dylan, and Andy my favorite place.  I need so much to share it with people who will appreciate it the way I do.  And I need to get back - to the city, to the islands, to me.

~RLM 

yia hara

It was our friend Chris's last night in Athens.  We decided to take him to Lykavitos Hill to watch the famous sunset and say farewell.

The girls glittered in the matching dresses we bought from a little old lady in Plaka and the boys looked dapper and gentlemanly in nice shirts and ties.  The scorching Athenian heat was tempered by the hill top breeze, ruffling skirts and tousling hair as it whipped around the summit.

Close narrow streets perpetuate an enveloping atmosphere in Athens and it's difficult to realize how massive the city is until you see it from such a great height.  We sat, surrounded by throngs of tourists, in awe of the scene unfolding before us.  The expansive sprawl of the city spread out around Lykavitos, monuments sticking out in the crowd as development occupied all the available space.  A clear night, our view extended on one side past the Acropolis to the sea, and on the other side to the mountains, where the hills around the city appeared to be on fire.  We sat in reverence, silent as the light faded from the sky, as our friend said farewell to the city that had become our home.

BORF!

My first summer in Athens, my roommate Sarah and I started stalking a graffiti symbol we'd first seen on the dumpster at the end of Adrianou Street.  We'd been delirious from hours of shopping in the hot sun and had sat down on a bench at the shaded end of the street to rest.  An older woman from the neighborhood walked up to deposit her garbage in the dumpster, labeled with the word BORF in huge letters.  Giggling, Sarah had said, "Look, she's opening BORF!"

 

It became a little game we played, and soon we were noticing Borfs all over the city.

 

When I returned to Athens in 2006, we found a huge Borf in the Monastiraki neighborhood, with a face in place of the O.  I took a picture and sent it to Sarah as a postcard.

 

Then, this morning as I was checking gridskipper to see if they had any off-the-wall reccomendations for stuff to do in Raleigh, one of the two articles that popped up was all about Borf and his 'coast to coast graffiti tour.' Apparently he made a stop in the RAL a few years back...and it turns out Borf is famous!

I started clicking on links, and pretty soon, the whole borf story had unraveled.  And its pretty interesting.
Gridskipper: Borf's Coast to Coast Graffiti Tour
N&O: Borf is Watching Us and Arrest May End Artist's Spree
DCist: Who is BORF?
Washington Post: The Mark of Borf

You can view my entire BORF album here. 

It is now apparent that I am very weird and need a life.

~RLM