mebtravelling

Sometimes you want to go,
Where everybody knows your name
And they’re always glad you came.
You want to go where people know
People are all the same
You want to go where everybody knows your name

Not a great photo, but I think you get my drift: with its comfortable seating and comforting food, Avli is waiting for me across my pedestrian-only street, several times a week.

With the latest Iran news, or maybe I mean, US-Israel news, it’s a great bolt-hole.

Actually, my micro-apartment’s spacious terrace is also a great escape. I was joined by a couple young Egyptian friends, for a look at the planetary parade on display last night: good pizza from Mystic, great Cabernet Sauvignon from I don’t know where.

A brief tribute, July 2025

Just so beautifully intricate, and so beyond reach,  

This brilliant fluorescent shell with its paper-thin layers
Like those great pieces* left by the tide on an Aegean beach.   

Just so beautifully intricate, and so beyond reach,  

The potential, very often achieved, of knowing how      

to teach. 

Although sometimes seeming one myself, at heart I never believed the naysayers. 

Just so beautifully intricate, and so beyond reach, 

This flashing, fluorescent shell with its  paper-thin layers. 

*abalone shells!

A Brief Memory: August 2025

Mark Bittman on salmon burgers – I couldn’t not think of Finn.

We grilled in my alley on that tiny Weber before  vandals took it  away!
Yesterday I made Indian chicken curry, likewise in honor of where we’d “been” 

I couldn’t not think of Finn.

And though much better at cards, he often let me win.

Whether Western Ave or Greece was better, I couldn’t say.

Mark Bittman’s recipe for salmon burgers – I couldn’t not think of Finn.

We grilled in my alley on that tiny Weber before vandals took it  away!

A 19th Birthday

Other birthdays, other years,

But 2025 the first without you.

We had a Mass and several Igram tears.
Other birthdays, other years.

Memories, yes, and of course as it nears,

Fall leaves, maybe pumpkin bars, and some things new?
Other birthdays, other years

But 2025 the first without you.

Quite awhile ago, I went to Ananda Ashram, Tamil Nadu (for 6 out of 7 winters, actually). This year, Senthil, the staff, and these beautiful students held a memorial .

Megan drove us into another world today. We saw, I for the first time, the rooms where Charles Darwin worked and lived, including the study where he wrote On the Origin of the Species

So, this may not be the study, and I may not have played billiards, but then again…

…we must be headed to Omaha.

First, though, a stay-over in Howard Lake: Auggie, May, and by herself, Queen Evelyn.
I love the the crosses on their backs.

Many summers, my mother and I made drives like this, from Iowa to Nebraska, saw fields and farms like this. Tom drove us — past farmland you forget about when you’re somewhere else. This field is somewhere near Sioux City (or Salix or Sergeant Bluff, or Winnebago). I look at it as I’m writing this a month later in St Paul and think of ancestors who knew land like this so well.

Omaha’s Old Market never disappoints.

On cue, the seagulls appeared as the blessing began.

St Francis of Assisi would be pleased — thanks, Tom, THANK YOU, BROTHER WILLIAM!

Finn joined me in Atlanta with what I assumed was a summer cold, and by Athens I was hounding pharmacies for antihistamines and saline drops for both of us.

We carried on, easy to do in one of the world’s best cities —

Then an email from mn.gov informed me that someone I’d “been in contact with during the past 15 days” had just tested positive for COVID-19. It was one thing to consider changing flights and Airbnb’s because of the fires raging in Rhodes. Going into quarantine? Aargh. But we knew what we had to do.

Iva recommended a good lab. Sadigue and Amir came along with us — we’d spent a lot of time with them in the previous couple days — and off we all went for a Rapid Test.

In the end, all four of us tested negative, we said our good-byes, and went off to Porto Rafti for fishing and seafood.

It’s been hot, and I was This Close to excusing us from our cooking class. Fortunately, Finn – and my better judgment – prevailed. Best experience we’ve had. So far.

Delightful, smart, affirming teacher, plus companions-for-a-day to talk with and laugh at [yes] and with, from Wisconsin, S. Korea by way of the UK, and Austria.

We began at Athens’ Central Market, a place I’d warned Finn about: the smells, the sights, the screaming vendors. He loved it.

In the end, as the teacher picked out vegetables for our lesson, Finn eventually (not here – ) chose figs for us.

We’re in the foreground, Acropolis and Parthenon behind us… and that is as close as Finn and I will get. Just this morning, we chose Ermou Street/shopping over waiting in line to climb the Acropolis and visit the Parthenon. Or even waiting in line for the (imho…) spectacular Parthenon Museum. Yes!