The Best

Can you tell I'm trying to catch up. . .
So, I arrived on Santorini Island after a bruttle 8 hour ferry ride on 7/23. Known for it's beauty, this island has some fantastic views. The history of this island is incredible - several major earthquakes that have changed the shape of the island including around 1650 bc, a colossal volcanic eruption caused the centre of Strongili to sink leaving a caldera with high cliffs. Some archaeologists speculate that it destoyed the entire Minoan civilisation as well as other claims that the island was part of the mythical lost continent of Atlantis (Lonely Planet). Whatever has happened has left beautiful views - kind of like the beautiful Lotus flower that can only grow in mud. What's more amazing to me is that now you can see that these people have built towns straight on the edge of this caldera with hundreds of meters below of sheer drop-off. In my opinion, even the simplest quake would topple these homes right down into the ocean. They are beautiful never the less.

The most enjoyable part of my visit has been my accommodations :) It is a hotel with a sea water swimming pool close to the black pebble beach. Nice place. Clean. But most of all are the family owners! Greeks. The nicest people I've met in a long time. They are so nice, accommodating, and everything the husband says has the phrase, "The Best" in it. For instance he might say, "Hello my beautiful friend. How is your stay going in The Best hotel on Santorini Island?" Myself and some of the other people now are saying, "The Best" after our sentences, or whatever - it's a crack up! I love it. Tonight is my last night and I will miss the ease with which life here is led.

Tomorrow I move over to Oia (ee-ah) just 20 min north of here where it is picture postcard perfect views of the caldera with all the building in white with sky blue domes. And the sunsets are apparently "The Best".

BTW, I had the best Bakklava ever today. And the gyros here are to die for. The Greek salads are huge, fresh, and they serve them with a humongous SLAB of Feta cheese on top - like a slab of concrete. The Best!

Athens

I arrived in Athens on 7/20. I didn't hold much for expectation. It is:

hot
noisy
poluted with car fumes
busy
packed
touristee
did I mention, hot
oh, and I find that the Greeks don't smile much it seems

But on the other hand:

the views are nice
Acropoli is amazing and glorious - 2,500 yrs old
historic
Greek food has been wonderful
most everyone speaks English
most folks are friendly and helpful
it's hot
the ocean is so crystal blue in color

I only stayed a few nights; long enough to see the Acropoli and sort out my bearings. Acrolopis is just a sight to behold. Packed with tourists. How they built this thing is unbelievable knowing that they needed some serious tools back then. Now in the reconstruction, they use heavy machinary to restore the Parthenon - large mechanical wet saw drills to ore out circlular spires to match up the Ionic columns - but how did they do this back then? And with such precision. They also built the Parthenon columns at a precise angle yet not obvious if you don't know to look for it. They say that if the columns were 2 km high, they would create a pyramid. Stunning. It IS a work of art. Acid rain has been their most recent demise. Car fumes, polutants in the air. When will we stop using gasoline and polluting our environment? Marble is everywhere here and it is magnificant.

I chose to stay in an Australian run hostel with roof-top views of the Parthenon. It is majestically lite up at night like a theatre. I couldn't believe my first view of it. And from my hostel roof? Insane.

His answer for my life

I was fortunate enough to ask Thay a question, one question important to me during his Q&A talk. As you may or may not guess, it was loaded. My question about life. I'll try to repeat here. . .

I would like your advice, I said. I have experienced one career in life and just quit another. I am not happy with my life. I quit everything and am traveling for a year in search for my purpose in life - my passion. However, I find it even difficult to do this. I have a hard time making decisions, never feel grounded, where should I go to next, etc. I come from a family that is very money oriented and it is scary for me to choose a career that I like that may not make me a comfortable living. I feel very lost. How can I find what is right and true for me and that makes me happy and stop worrying about money or feeling it's influence?

Something like that but hopefully a little more elegant. Well, once I asked my question, he sat there pondering for what seemed like enough time to grab lunch.

Finally, he answered and his words were well spoken. I could easily tell he gave an incredible amount of thought and attention to his answer. He first spoke of perspective. He looked out over the crowd, pointed and said, I see that.
pause.
I see that over there.
pause.
Pointing at me, "but you do not see the same thing because you are sitting over there." It is the same thing we are looking at but we do not see the same thing because of angles. But to see the same thing we should not move the object of which we are trying to see. We simply change our angle and then we will see it differently. He also said that we do alot of worrying about the future. He mentioned IRAs, investment, security for the future. But we do not do anything about the present. If we cannot find happiness now, we will never find it in the future. I should challenge myself that with every step I make that I should be happy. If I am not happy I should find out why - why am I not happy. i must enjoy the here and now to find happiness. Every breath I take I should breathe deeply. Every step I make should be mindful. It will come to me if I allow myself to stop worrying and thinking about the future and be happy now.

I know this sounds strange to some of you but when you think about it and learn more deeply about the concepts, it makes sense. The day after my retreat was the happiest day I've had in a long time - and truly happy for myself. Not because something happened to make me happy. I truly felt at peace and an incredible amount of happiness, compassion and love. Now it is difficult to maintain this every day in the real world. Traveling to strange lands doesn't make it easier either.

So since they record all of these talks and discussions, I bought the DVD and have shipped it home. I can't wait to see it.

Breathing out, I am calm

Most of the sisters at my village were Vietnamese. On a few occassions I listened to their stories of hardship back in Nam. I know some of us don't think about it much but the VN war had and still has a major impact on these people today. I know my friend Brian has mentioned a few in his blog having traveled there but the extent is, I think, forgotten back in our American lands unless you go see for yourself. However, I found it fascinating to hear some of the sister's stories so moving as well as issues I could relate to. Words about money, jobs, parents, it's all there just like we have or perhaps used to have in our lives. The emotions were flying for everyone at one point or another and this was a safe place you could let them go. I mean, if you can't do it here, where can you? Yah, safe. That's a word I left out. Safety was felt everywhere here. Not just emotionally either. I noticed myself just leaving stuff out, my camera, books, whatever. It was as if I were home. In fact, leaving was especially difficult. The real world is scary.

Breathing in, I am a flower. . .

I apologize for the delay. . .
I recently spent a week in France for a summer retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay (sp?))- well, I didn't spend the entire time with him but I did feel his presence everywhere. www.plumvillage.org, but you already have that. Anyway, one word: magical.

Inspirational.
Life altering.
Ok, thrrrreeeee words. Yea, that about says it all. For those of you who won't bother or have the time to look it up, I'll give a synopsis.

It is a solid week (minus one lazy day) of meditating, dharma talks from Thay and company, mindfulness to the fullest extent, nature, bamboo, consultations if needed, fantastic Vietnamese food, your own family, incredibly beautiful Lotus pond, incredibly-lived, kind happy women & sisters that were just amazing to be with, generousity . . I could go on.

There are 4 villages, two of which are designated for men/women and couples respectively. Translation provided for everyone - 6 languages at all times. The environment in itself is completely remote, in the country and conducive for relaxing and taking in a long healthy breath. You just can't help but feel it. It lies about an hour's train ride east of Bordeaux. My village had it's own very large vegitable garden and since I was on the "garden project", I got to work in it about 1.5 hours a day as we learned to do working meditation. It was so great to see our food on the table come from this very garden. Everything. Truly wonderful experience. The eggplants were so rich and bountiful. Interesting looking squash but they looked like zucchini's a bit - just round. And an interesting herb that I think is a VN vegi - it had purple and green leaves but had such a wonderful flavor for many of their dishes.

We ate VN food the entire time - I was in heaven especially not having to cook any of it. So good and yummy. Things I've never had before. Prolly the most interesting thing for me was all the different consistencies that Tofu can take on. They made spagetti the first night (the only subsequent American dish) - I could swear it was meat and I thought, isn't this supposed to be vegitarian? Tasted, felt, looked just like ground meat. Well, the food was excellent and was reason enough to go especially for the price. BTW, the made their own Tofu. And we had some frozen ice cream thing made from beans, Mung beans - so healthy and yummy and delicious. I don't eat nearly this healthy and I should.

The teachings of the Buddha are extremely worth delving into for me. I have alot yet to learn. I especially found interesting his concept of birth & death and that these words are not true reality. The topic of my week there was Ancestors and how our ancestors always live on through us, their children. Powerful concepts. I would rather not recite these beliefs but just merely comment that I find them fascinating and want to learn more. I wish I had the time to tel you all about them but I don't think it's necessary. Thay has written 80 books and there are many more on the subject.

The week for me was, quite honestly, a little overwhelming. These concepts are a bit new for me and fresh. I found it difficult to just accept everything as green grass. It is probably natural to be a little skeptical at first. I need time to read and learn and swallow what just happened to me. I've even had thoughts of going back. However, what did work for me was the simple idea of breathing. Yes, we all do it but how often do we notice that we are breathing - that we are alive. May sound funny to some of you but it's so true. It's the same concept as "smell the roses", etc. Very powerful and after my week, I absolutely felt grounded and had more inner peace. Maintaining it is another story.

Sleep?

Ears up, party people. If youºre looking for a place to party without worrying about time, youºve come to the right place. it is here that I found what could be construed as a major underground paradise for those of us who love electronica. Iºm certain that with more time I could find even better, more deeper sounds than what Iºve discovered thus far but even with what I heard, my soul was rebourne again!

The Portuguese are late starters - with anything; you name it, food (dinner at 9 or 10), sleep, work (maybe start at 10 a.m.), siesta, drinking, and yes, partying. I headed out one evening later than I wanted, 11;30 p.m. By the time I got to Lisbon, it was almost 1. I walked around the Bairro Alto area, known for itºs block upon block of partying and was amazed at the activity, including itºs nature. Bars in this area are abundant but small. So small that everyone just stands outside in the narrow, cobble-stoned streets with their drinks, socializing and wandering around to the next place. It was massive. These particular streets feel more like a clean alley with latin character - they bore happiness and liveliness but without stupid drunkiness that I could find. I moved on from here to a dance club called Lux which had been recommended to me by several. Quite a bit different than those we have in the U.S. in that for starters, the gentleman greeting everyone at the door does so with a personalized affair. "Good Evening. How are you? How many in your party? Have you ever been here before. No problem. . ." All with a gentle smile. This must be the warmest welcome Iºve ever received upon entering a club anywhere. You enter and I immediately responded to the environment with a smile. Nice atmosphere, very stylish with couches, a bed, high ceiling, multiple bars (of course), everyone acting mature and having fun. But wait I thought, this doesn´t seem very busy to me. So I asked the bartender and found out that although it was 2:30, the place doesnºt get busy until 3:30, 4 a.m. NICE! The downstairs dance floor was big but not big enough by, yes, 4 a.m. And the sound system was incredibly clear, crisp and massive. My ears were pounding until dinner the next day. Needless to say, I got home around 7:30 a.m. and when I left, the dance floor was just as packed and hopping as when it started. I learned that after this club, people move on to another called, Kremlin until mid day, then on to another place for the remainder of the following day. I couldnºt hang and I might have to say, thatºs a first. Iºm impressed!

I was awakened the next day at 1 by my friend to go to a Sex Fair. I was, of course, reluctant to go but after some arm twisting I gave in. No stories to mention - just pictures and a few movies. I do love this camera :)