Crazy Driving in Southern Italy

Driving in Southern Italy is challenging and exciting.  It requires me to be on my toes, constantly ready to react. It stresses Diane out.  I’ve written previously about driving in Europe, but driving near Naples takes this to another level and is not for the faint of heart.  Here are Continue Reading

The Blue Grotto

One of the items on my Dreams List is to swim in the Blue Grotto.  I saw this on a television show years ago, and it looked incredible, so I added it to my ‘bucket list’ without knowing how I might achieve it, or even where it was.  So it Continue Reading

Ghost Ship – Our Semi-Private Cruise

We didn’t book a private cruise, but we had the entire ship virtually to ourselves.  It was a pleasant surprise, but strange nonetheless.  In each room the staff stood around attentively, watching our every move in the hopes that we might need something.  They outnumbered us 10 to 1.  Each Continue Reading

I let my guard down for just a second…

I was looking forward to seeing Athens again.  I was here for 1 day only when I was 17 years old, a stop on a whirlwind educational trip to the Mediterranean that I took with my school in Grade 11.  Diane and I got up early and drove from Delphi, Continue Reading

The Day I Got My Hearing Back

I lost the hearing in my left ear when I arrived in Greece.  It has happened before, but now was a lousy time for it.  We were driving from the Greek coast into the central highlands to visit Meteora, an amazing natural formation of sandstone pillars upon which are perched Continue Reading

The Greek Debt Crisis – What really happened?

We’ve been hearing so much on the news recently about the Greek and European debt crises, the decline of the Euro, and of protests across Europe, especially on the streets of Athens.  The European Union and its common currency appeared for a while to be a great success, a major Continue Reading

Impressions of Greece

We drove south from Bulgaria into Greece on our own personal bailout mission for the Greek economy.  Exiting the lush mountains of Bulgaria, we immediately noticed a difference.  Although greener than we had expected (at least in the North), Greece had smaller mountains, larger valleys, and less vegetation.  Here are Continue Reading

Impressions of Central/Eastern Europe’s Former Communist Countries

I’ve now traveled through 8 of the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria.  Although I’ve written about most of them individually, I’ve recognized some things they share that I think are interesting: Capitalism has been enthusiastically adopted Continue Reading