My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

Paris Gare du Nord: flip flap­flap­flap of the train indic­ator board  —  a “lost sound” accord­ing to the BBC sound archive. “Passaporte! Passaporte!” at 2:30am on the Bulgarian bor­der. Cicadas every­where we went in Greece. Through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary: the bell clang of the wheel tap­pers’ ham­mers going down the train.

[Read more →]

Chris is wor­ried that Jane might buy a water­melon to eat on the train. Jane is wor­ried that Chris will have his purse stolen. Callum is wor­ried that he will get cock­roaches in his san­dals cos his feet are so dirty.

[Read more →]

I almost burst into tears when I arrived here  —  out of sheer delight!  It is a beau­ti­ful, quite and undeveloped island with a few Greek hol­i­day makers (and the French couple with the young child we chat­ted to on the first day).  It feels so much ‚ore relaxed and gentle this way, with just local visitors, […]

[Read more →]

Da, doo, da, donk, donk, don­key, Da, doo, da, donk, donk, don­key, Da, doo, da, donk, donk, don­key, Unda da olive tree

[Read more →]

The camp­site is big and com­mer­cial, tents packed close together. There’s a swim­ming pool  —  the kids would spend the whole time there if we didn’t drag them out to the beach! It’s much too hot to sleep in the tent, so Callum and I sleep on the beach under a tam­ar­isk tree, blas­ted by sand blown […]

[Read more →]

…and last night I couldn’t sleep… Callum and Chris slept on the beach here on Serifos last night cos it was so hot in the tent, even with both doors open, and I slept in the hot tent cos it was so windy down on the beach!!  Callum slept until 8.30 even whilst wild sandstorms […]

[Read more →]

When I first talked to our friend Rachael about our jour­ney a few months ago, she described it as a “sac­ri­fi­cial” action. Rather an inter­est­ing choice of words, I thought. “Sacrifice” these days tends to have unfor­tu­nate con­nota­tions of osten­ta­tious self-deprivation, or empty ritual.

[Read more →]

!1. The icy cream is YYYUUUMMMYYY!!! and it comes in lots of dif­fer­ent flavours*  **

[Read more →]

We docked at Patras on time, found the sta­tion and within no time were tuck­ing into fresh greek bread, feta, olives and toma­toes from the local shop, and a freddo (iced espresso  —  this season’s trend­i­est drink!)  A well earned decent feast  —  food on the ferry was a bit sparce due to the pricey food on board and […]

[Read more →]

On the ferry to Paros and Athena and Callum are eati­ung bread and play­ing the Callum/Athena express. Two days into our Greek Odyssey and we have packed in so much already.

[Read more →]