Ithaka Bound

Dangerous Beauty

“I cannot leave you alone on the beach, miss. I cannot.”
A stone’s throw from the coast of Asia Minor, I’m on the island of Symi trying to convince a woman with a boat to leave me on the island’s most beautiful beach.
Concerned over what could happen to me, she’ll only drop me off if there [...]

Two for Tilos

A mere 300 permanent residents.
Beaches so remote, a torturously hot hike or boat ride is required to reach the most pristine.
A studio to call my own,  just five paces from a tranquil bay where dolphins gather at dusk.
Tilos would appear to be my version of the greek ideal.

Except….
with so few greek residents, I meet more [...]

Love in the Time of Caldera

There is a speck in the center of the photo above — a couple embracing in the caldera of a volcano.

The island of Nisyros was formed when the Olympian Gods went to war against the Titans. Poseidon, god of the sea, set his sights on defeating the Titan Polybotes and pursued him as he fled [...]

Amsterdam of the Aegean

Somewhere in that nebulous world between waking and dreaming, I had a heart-stopping nightmare that I was still in the Greek Islands, but everything had disastrously changed.
The people were big — they were so much bigger — and they spoke a strange language. A language that starts deep in the throat and never really rises. [...]

Patmos of the Apocalypse

There was once a troublesome man named John who was kicked out of the beautiful city of Ephesus.
The Ephesians kicked John out because he was so troublesome and kept bothering them about worshipping Diana/Artemis.
John said he had a better god for them to worship.  He said his god was better.
He made the Ephesians feel bad.

When [...]

Pirate’s Lair

Still single, I boarded a small passenger boat called the Blue Velvet and set off for an archipelago of islands near Ikaria called Fourni.
Ikaria went through a long and dark history referred to as the “Age of Invisibility”; a time when pirates ransacked the island on such a regular basis, the locals were forced to [...]

The Marrying Kind

I will always remember Ikaria fondly as the island that gave me back some of my mojo.
My first week here, I received two marriage proposals: one from a man 12 years my senior, and one from a man 12 years my junior.

Senior cooled off pretty quickly after his unreciprocated declaration of love; but Junior had [...]