The Toad and the Llama

First thanks for the well wishing about my spaghetti sauce injury in Turkey. It has healed nicely and without stitches and I don't think it will scar. (Only mentally maybe).

So. I went to Asia for a day.
Seriously, when you cross the bridge you pass a sign that says welcome to Asia. There we met some couchsurfers for a picnic by the sea. Honestly I can't say enough about how wonderful the Couchsurfing system has been for me. Nearly everyone I have met has been incredible, interesting, passionate or strange in the greatest ways. Sometimes I find myself feeling depressed at the state of the world but this community of people has restored my faith in humanity.

Ravi hosts the most amazing people and there are always people coming and going through the house, and each of them has epic travel tales to tell. Lots of nights in Istanbul we all just sat and drank beers and talked about our adventures.

Ravi calls me The Toad. The reason for this mystifies me. I don't think I look like a toad. He says it with an Indian accent too, so it's the Toooooooad. I have retaliated by calling him the Llama and when he calls me a toad I pretend to chew like a llama to annoy him. I think he does this in the same mentality that kindergarten boys tease girls, any attention is better than no attention. I told him this but he was already on to the next topic he wanted to talk about at a million miles an hour. I have developed a sort of aggravated affection for him, his endless energy overwhelms me but his intentions are nothing but good.

Istanbul was the first city I really didn't want to leave. Every night I have new adventures. There are secret bars on the roofs of buildings that you can only go to if you know where they are. On my last night there Ravi took me and some friends to one of the secret bars where they were playing incredible live Balkin music.
We danced and then I sat in the window and watched an incredible thunderstorm tear across the city. I could see every lightning bolt until it began poring rain, but still warm enough to sit outside. It was like an epic battle in the sky raining down destruction on us mere mortals.

Istanbul is as far East as I get this trip and now I'm headed back on the long journey to western Europe. I have finally found the sense that I know what I came here for and I feel like I can do anything and go anywhere. I feel this incredible power when I can find my way through a strange city on the other side of the world and survive. Everything I wanted to prove to myself I have found that I had in the first place, like Dorothy and the shoes. (Cooler though, because Dorothy was really whiny and annoying.) When I arrived in Thessaloniki alone in a city where I didn't even understand the alphabet I felt this overwhelming sense of calm that I could handle this and any situation. I find that in this blog I talk mostly about the good stuff that has happened but the bad has also helped me build a strong sense of self that I can rely on to face anything.

Not that I'm getting more mature or anything.

 My last day I went to see the Blue Mosque. It's in the middle of the city center and surrounded with tourists. Non-Muslims aren't allowed to go in during prayers but I went with a Muslim friend and the guards let me go in with him. It was the most incredible experience, the building is HUGE and every inch is painted with the most beautiful designs. It was as though everything in the outside world was shut out in that space, and nothing could interrupt the peoples' worship. I'm not religious, I generally feel that religion does a lot more harm than good, but in that space I could understand someones devotion to a God, (whatever you call him/her/it), it was so peaceful. The building was so beautiful and I could feel the devotion that the architect put into it. I was so thankful for them letting me in to see, and even take a picture, which doesn't do the incredible architecture justice.

I had to take a couple buses in the city of Thessaloniki to get to where I was meeting my host and during this trip I noticed something about Greeks.
Everything is interesting to them. When I asked some lady if this was the right bus she didn't immediately tell me but first involved each and every old lady on the bus in a huge debate about me. I was clearly the most interesting thing that had happened to them all day and instead of telling me where the bus was, they wanted to know where I was going and where I came from and who I was meeting and why my backpack was so big, what on earth did I have in there? This was all in Greek, translated by a little girl who was clearly thrilled to be in the spotlight. The each made it their personal mission in life to get me where I was going but they all disagreed about how the get it done. Finally I sneaked away while they were still debating.

And they debate about everything.

The house across the street from the place I'm staying caught fire this afternoon and three fire trucks screamed up but as I watched fascinated and smoke billowed from several places in the roof they stood around and discussed what should be done with the totally calm inhabitants of the house and then with the neighbors and then with some other random people. As of the time of this writing I don't know the fate of the house because I left to work at in Internet cafe.

I love Nizar, my Greek host. He has another girl staying at his place and I automatically clicked with both of them. And then Nizar told us that he has his pilot's licence and that we were going up in a plane to fly along the coast. And by that I mean I got to fly along the coast. As we were checking out the incredibly ridiculously blue water down below he handed over the controls of the plane to me and I had my first flying lesson.
From the air you can see the currents in the water. I need a plane

 And now I understand why Nizar says he doesn't want to be a pilot for the hot stewardesses but for the flying itself. It was so incredible having no roads and no markers and to be able to go not just right and left but up and down where ever we wanted. The country of Greece was spread out before us like a blanket and as we followed the coast I could see into the clear water all the way down to the patches of sea grass on the bottom. I have never seen anything like it. In the distance was the silhouette of Mt. Olympus which I will climb in two days time. It's 2,900 meters, (roughly 9,500 feet). It's one of the highest peaks in Europe. It takes a couple of days to climb, and I'm trying to enlist Genette, Nizar's other couchsurfer to join me on the hike. It's not a HUGE mountain but honestly I'm already on top of the world.

We are living lazily in preparation for our climb. We have dinner on the water then then drinks in one of the bars on the beach. I am so thrilled that the sea is this warm, it's like a giant swimming pool, and it has no waves. It's clear and flat for as far as the eye can see. I jumped in as soon as I could and when I came out my legs were horribly itchy. Nizar suspected a jellyfish at which point I plunged back in to attempt to identify the species of my attacker. However being 99% water jellies are incredibly hard to see so it eluded me but made me regret my rash decision to go back in the water that night when I lay tossing and turning and trying not to touch the painful and itchy red welts on my legs and ankles.

There are also crabs in the sand and when you go in the water they all stand up and assume a defensive position with their claws raised towards your feet. When they line up in rows like this it's like they're doing the YMCA dance which is adorable but they pack a pretty painful pinch if they get you.

None of this has stopped me from going in the water, and early this morning Genette and I enlisted the cute bartender to come skinnydipping with us as the sun rose. We swam out and watched the sun rise on the sea and talked about how much our lives suck. I want to live here forever but there are no sharks in the Aegean Sea so I might get bored.