SO much can happen in such a short time. I don't have the space, the memory, the words to put down all that has happened since our dig broke up on July 4th and I met K in Athens.
We went to Turkey. We met 4 Swiss boys on the overnight train to Istanbul, and we got to talking, and we found out we were all staying at the same hostel, sleeping for cheap cheap cheap on the roof. Too bad it rained 2 out of the 3 nights we were there. A bit wet we all were. The Swiss boys were our Knights in Shining Armour (sorry Postman, maybe next time) and we hung out like a tangle of puppies every day, galloping around and eating cheap kepab and taking the ferry across and lying exhaustedly on the green shady grass of the university.
We smoked far too much shisha, and got treated to Istanbuli hospitality and a heap of free stuff, and we also got ripped off and scammed and yelled at in the street.
I like Turkey.
Then K and I said a stoic farewell to the boys and Istanbul, and bussed down to Selcuk where we swam in a mandarin orchard below Ephesus, and hitchhiked for the first time. The air is dusty in Turkey, as though curtains of dust and history hang between you and the present. But I felt so solid, so limited by my humaness, yet thrilled at the concreteness of it all. Does that make sense? In Greece it's different, clearer, and more magical. I like Greece too.
The last 2 nights we spent on Samos, getting burnt to a crisp on the beach and luxuriating in the wonderful luck we had in securing our own private kitchen suite with roof top terrace for half price because we had met people who knew the owner. From beggars to princes. And we lay naked on the roof and drank wine and ate chocolate, and laughed at what people might have thought if they were looking but it was dark, and I told K that as long as we knew we weren't lesbians, then everyone else's opinions can go to hell. My skin hurt too much to wear clothes, and so I damn well wasn't going to wear clothes.
Sweaty we arrived in Athens today, flying out to Cairo tomorrow. The ferry was 9 hours long, in the sun... I feel like I have been hung out to dry, but first all the liquid in me must be evaporated, painfully, by burning. We walked through a police protest in Syntagma Square to get to this internet cafe. So thrilling. I love love love life on the move. We have met many cool people. And this is only the first week.
I love your blog.
ReplyDeleteI want to know more about you. I don't even know where you are from or how old you are or how you find yourself travelling in all of this amazing places. I could probably answer these questions by going back in your blog, but I don't think I will.
I think I prefer not to know.
Ain't she just the ding-dangedest most poetic writer you've ever run across, Smithy? They talk about people painting pictures with words, but she's doing masterpieces, those massive portraits that take up a whole museum wall and are filled with such color and light and sound and sensation that you could plop yourself down on a bench, let your imagination off the leash, and contemplate upon it all day.
ReplyDeleteJane, you can say more--EVOKE more--with fewer words than a lot of the published authors I've read. And I don't say that to just anybody, y'know.
Beautiful post, please keep them coming. And enjoy the heck out of the rest of your mobile vacation.
SMithy: I like this way of not knowing better. It would sort of ruin it all if you knew everything.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll keep quiet.
Thank you for commenting :)
Postman: haha, you make me laugh so hard sometimes. Not AT you, but just sort of alongside, diagonally with you. Sort of. My new favourite words. Thank you for the kindest words, all the time, and maybe I'll reinstate you in a new position: that of the Official Flatterer and Head Sweller.
And I'm quite a huge fan of your blog as well, though I'll need a while to read everything you've posted in the past 2 weeks! Hope your summer is doing stupendously.