To the friends who were with me that day, I said: ‘Men who want to be monks must live in this kind of secluded place, seeing and hearing nothing for their entire lives, so that they can meditate in tranquillity. At a place like Tiger Hill in my home country, all day long there isContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Where Monks Should Not Live (Shen Fu)”
Category Archives: Travel
RKS Chinese Literature: Be Very Careful Looking at Stone Mirror Mountain! (Shen Fu)
Near the town was a mountain called Stone Mirror Mountain. To see the ‘mirror’ you followed a winding path through the mountains for about a li and then came to a cliff with water rushing down its face, and with moist greenery that itself seemed about to begin dripping over the ground. Gradually climbing higherContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Be Very Careful Looking at Stone Mirror Mountain! (Shen Fu)”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:13September2026: Thessaloniki and Samos: The Rapidly Ageing Doryssa Seaside Resort
After a long flight transporting you to different time zones one thinks of sleeping like a baby but for me that is rarely the case. I had a restless sleep waking up at 03:30 and tossing, turning and dozing thereafter. That afternoon nap might have backfired on me. Down to a wonderful breakfast at 10:00.Continue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:13September2026: Thessaloniki and Samos: The Rapidly Ageing Doryssa Seaside Resort”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026: Thessaloniki: Of Old Farts, Second Rate Seafood and Rain
Returning from MOMUS and the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography we discovered at last the construction of the Holocaust Museum of Greece has started. There has been talk of constructing the Holocaust Museum of Greece for a decade and finally construction is underway with an opening expected in 2028. Germany has pledged ten million Euros forContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026: Thessaloniki: Of Old Farts, Second Rate Seafood and Rain”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026:Thessaloniki. Greece: Thessaloniki Museum of Photography: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: “Light Play”
Always a mandatory stop when I am in Thessaloniki is the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. Intimate and never crowded. A relaxing café and bar overlooking the ocean if you are in the mood. Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) has been a prominent figure of the modernism that exploded in the visual arts in the first decadesContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026:Thessaloniki. Greece: Thessaloniki Museum of Photography: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: “Light Play””
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026: Thessaloniki, Greece: MOMUS Experimental Center for the Arts
Headed to the old port area an enjoyable 20-minute walk from Daios Luxury Living, our hotel. The old wharf’s structures have been restored maintaining its flavour as a port with warehouses converted for cultural purposes. It reminds one, at first blush, of the Distillery District in Toronto. One can always expect an interesting exhibit atContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026: Thessaloniki, Greece: MOMUS Experimental Center for the Arts”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE : Short Attention Span Version
12September2026: Thessaloniki, Greece: Nothing better (not really) than a good sleep and a great breakfast Slept seven and a half hours and woke up a tad groggy. Jet lag causes physical fatigue but it also befuddles the mind making simple decisions a bit more complicated than they deserve to be. A pleasant morning brought cloudsContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE : Short Attention Span Version”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:11September 2026: Are the clouds behind me now and can I look to bright sunshiny days ahead?: Finally in Thessaloniki!
11September 2026: Are the clouds behind me now and can I look to bright sunshiny days ahead: Finally in Thessaloniki! Was it a two hour or 4 hour “sleep” at Sofitel Athens Airport Hotel. Having finally crawled into bed at 01:00 and setting the alarm for 04:00 it was 3 hours in bed and itContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:11September 2026: Are the clouds behind me now and can I look to bright sunshiny days ahead?: Finally in Thessaloniki!”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:10September2026: Frustration With Sky Express and the $815 Four-Hour Hotel Bill
Plans that went askew! I was to meet up with dearest F at Athens E Venizelos International Airport when her ITA Airways flight from Rome arrived at 18:35 and then take a Sky Express flight at 20:35 to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. The arrivals board simply said her flight was “Late” with no estimatedContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:10September2026: Frustration With Sky Express and the $815 Four-Hour Hotel Bill”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:10September2026: Arrival in Athens: A Shitstorm is brewing
I’ve arrived in Athens. Passport control awaits as I tread with spritely footsteps passport in hand. I have returned to Greece! Wait what are three hundred people doing in a large room with lanes of people cordoned in horizontal rows? What are there so few immigration officials checking passports and biometrically imaging your eyes. WhyContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:10September2026: Arrival in Athens: A Shitstorm is brewing”
