Bad Blood

It is really hard to find the words to describe the events of this book. In Bill Gates' review of the book, he called the events "insane." Review here.  It is hard not to compare Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the now defunct Theranos, to Donald Trump. They are both narcissists or they are both evil but I sincerely hope it's the former. Narcissists have no empathy for others. They lie constantly to support their own grandiose self-image.

The most phenomenal and unbelievable part of this book is not that this woman is a vicious liar but the people that she fooled -- Henry Kissinger, Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, David Boies, Jim Mattis (among others). Now, I care very little that these men either lost a great deal of money or sustained damage to their reputations or both. Given their positions in the world, I wonder how they were so thoroughly fooled. The fact that they were fooled gave Holmes the foundation to fool the rest of Silicon Valley. It wouldn't matter at all if Theranos had been a software company but they produced a health care product that caused many, many people to suffer.

The only silver lining of this horrible story is that it would not have been exposed if it weren't for many brave people who put the interests of public safety ahead of their own. The journalist, John Carreyou, and the management of the Wall Street Journal also deserve credit for their integrity and unwillingness to be intimidated by very powerful people. Lastly, Rupert Murdoch could have killed this story but didn't. And while he has mostly created evil in the world, I admired that decision.

Incredible read. I am not at all surprised it will be a movie soon. It's a very classic tale of good vs evil. It is probably the story of our current era.

Maisie Dobbs

While in Greece, I ran out of books to read. My travel partner handed me Maisie Dobbs right after I had finished The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency. A blurb at the top of Maisie Dobbs promised that it was in the same spirit as Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I really enjoyed the book but it was not quite as uplifting as the Number 1 book.  Half of the book takes place during World War I and I cannot think of a less uplifting topic. However, it's a great read and the characters were inspiring.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

The home that hosted our yoga retreat had a lending library and that's where I found this book. The blurb on the front says "One of the best, most charming, honest, hilarious and life-affirming books to appear in years." I'll take anything life-affirming so I read it and it delivered. The story takes place in Botswana. The hero is a lady detective who is a very clever, independent, no nonsense gal. She solves many mysteries and we meet lots of good and decent characters. A fun holiday read.

A Husband's Secret

This is another Liane Moriarty book. I saw lots of tourists on the beaches and in the airports with her books. They are easy to read -- fun and light. I didn't love this book though. It had some good twists and turns but in the end, it wasn't that compelling. I can that she used the frame of this book to build the plot of Big Little Lies -- a far better story. So far, I can only recommend Big Little Lies. I am not sure why the other books are so popular.

Final days in Greece

We left our lovely yoga retreat early Saturday morning. We took a bus, then a boat, then another bus to get to the airport on the island of Kefalonia. We traveled by plane for 40 minutes to Athens, dropped our stuff at our airport hotel and headed back into the city by bus. Taking a bus is a great way to avoid tourists and see parts of Athens we wouldn't otherwise see.

We wandered around the city center then met another college friend and her family for dinner. They happened to be in Greece at the same time. It's funny to be so far away then hanging out with friends from your life on the other side of the world. My friend has two 16 year old boys and their trip was quite different from ours -- lots of scuba diving around Greece and Italy.

Syntagma square -- Greece's parliament building in the background

We began our long journey home Sunday morning. We flew to London then to Vancouver then drove back to Seattle. 24 hours of travel. Flying out of Vancouver was $1000 cheaper (between 2 tickets) so we decided the extra time was worth it. 

I am happy to be home in beautiful Seattle.

Living the dream

Yesterday, we took an excursion to the other side of Ithaca. Our retreat chartered some small boats to take us to different remote beaches. We hung out, we swam, we chatted.

woohoo! boat trip

first nice beach

lunch!

view during lunch

second nice beach

giant sail boat - many fancy boats in the Ionian Sea 

outside local jewelry store in Kione 

garlic!

Today, we got up at 430am to go to a monastery at the highest point on the island to watch the sun rise. I know that sunrise and sunset pictures are generally boring. However, the live show was lovely -- very meditative. We watched the changing colors, and listened to the bugs and birds wake up for the day. We walked around the monastery -- founded during the 1500's but I do not think any of those buildings survive today. No monks were there either. 

Some thoughts on travel

When I lived in Italy in 1992, there was no Euro, no internet, no globalization, no cell phones, and no cheap air fare.  In 1992, during the months of October, April and May, I saw lots of tourists but I always knew exactly where they were from. Germans dressed one way, the French another, and so on. There were no Asian tourists (unless they were Asian-American or Canadian), no tourists from India (same parens). November - March, there were no tourists at all.. or there were so few, one did not notice them. In fact, traveling in Europe during those months, there were no crowds at museums or hostels, no lines at train stations.

All of that has changed. I was shocked when I visited Florence in 2015 by how much it had changed. As I said in an earlier post, the center of Florence is no longer a place people live. It is only a place people visit so it feels like a replica of Florence.. not a real place. Athens has that same feeling as I suspect most frequently visited European capitals do.

I am now in a very remote place in Greece and it is not over run with tourists but there are still lots of foreigners here. It is very easy for people to travel here. They can even live here because of the EU. While I still think Europe is really amazing, I have questioned my drive for a well-traveled life.

I think it very important for everyone to retreat from their life every now and then. But I am not sure I need to go 6000 miles to do it. Greece looks a lot like California. Hawaii looks a lot like Indonesia. British Columbia looks a lot like Switzerland. The cultural experience of travel is at least as important as a change in geography but I am not sure how much culture I get when all the popular places are white-washed for tourism. The people all look exactly the same -- they all buy clothes at H&M or Zara. I have to hear people speak to know where they're from. In Athens I played a game called Greek or tourist? I would guess where people I saw where from and once I approached them I could tell by their language. I was always wrong. I confused Americans for Greeks and vice versa.

I am very happy to be where I am. Here are more pictures of the retreat/home where we are staying

http://itha108.com/gallery/

It is a dream. I am grateful to have made the journey. I think, however, in the future I will need more than a retreat to draw me so far away.

Random note: For some reason, the Greek Air Force sends fighter jets very low over the water in front of this home a few times a day. After a quick internet search I learned this small country of 10 million has three branches of the military and 8 air force bases.  Not what I'd expect although I guess they really didn't like it when the Nazis occupied them.. or the Ottomans or anyone else. So arm up I suppose?

Journey to Ithaca

Homer ended the Odyssey in Ithaca. We also had a long journey to travel a relatively short distance.

We enjoyed our short time in Kefalonia or Cephalonia. There doesn't seem to be much consistency in the way Greeks spell their cities and roads in English. I can't blame them. It's also nice of them to try. We ate a lovely fish dinner on the water.

We ate breakfast near our hotel also on the water. I drank my new favorite drink: cappuccino freddo.

We then took a taxi back to the airport, boarded a bus for about an hour. We waited about 40 minutes while the boat took half our group to Ithaca. Then we rode the boat for 20 minutes.

We drove another 20-30 minutes to the home where the retreat is held.

The home is owned by a Swiss woman who apparently made a lot of money in banking. She built it as a place to hold yoga retreats and small retreat gatherings. The rumor is that this is the last year this retreat will be held as she is planning to remodel her home to attract a more upscale clientele. It is hard to imagine what she is going to do as the place already looks like the set of a Lululemon photo shoot.

we can eat outside or inside

we practice yoga here. Ionian sea behind trees. Cicadas in trees.

view from my room

Other part of the view

stairway to second floor. House seems to have been built in concrete then stained white.

one of the doors to the Ionian sea.

library -- faces outside deck which also has a view

after walking out the door, you walk to this beach.

hang out here with rented umbrella and lounge chair and very few other people

predictable greek man wearing thong while everyone snickers at him. ok maybe just the Americans and British are laughing.. I can't tell.

Thong man's dog.

Today was a bit overcast in the morning.  Because of the cooler weather I could take a walk around the property. I saw a few ruins.. maybe ruins? They looked like structures that had once been homes but had now fallen apart. There were in tact homes as well. Some plain some fancier but no mansions around here yet.

I suspect this place has been here a while

Our schedule is a morning meditation from 745-815, Yoga at 830. Breakfast at 10 the break until lunch at 2. Yoga again at 630 and dinner at 830PM. Our teacher has asked that we are silent until the end of the morning yoga class. During the breaks, we read, go to the beach, go on walks, hang out. Lots of retreating. 

What Alice Forgot

The premise of this book is clever. A 39 year old woman hits her head and forgets the last ten years of her life. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is predictable and slow. The end.

Kefalonia

Today we flew to Kefalonia. We will be here one night then go to Ithaca for our one week yoga retreat.

Our flight was only 40 minutes. Propeller plane!

warm Ionian sea

restaurant on the beach

Greece

A while ago, I decided to go to Greece. Now that I am here, it feels like a strange decision. Greece is really, really far away -- 6160 miles. Last year, a yoga teacher mentioned that she ran a retreat on a remote Greek island. Without any investigation I decided I should go.  Earlier this year, I signed up for the retreat then realized that Greece is almost more middle east than western Europe.

I used to make a lot of my life decisions this way but my impulsive ways have been tempered by the reality of children. I tend to think through my decisions more as they effect many people.

So I am here and it is great but it also feels like I am living someone else's life.

I am traveling with a friend from my SU days. We decided to leave from Vancouver Canada as the flight was much cheaper even if we factored a night in a hotel in Vancouver. We stayed at the coolest airport hotel in the US.. it actually won an award. It's the Fairmont at Vancouver International Airport.

This is the view from our room! a runway. Plus you walk outside the hotel and you are in the airport. It would be exciting for the kids.

we ordered room service because we got to the hotel pretty late

We were delayed MANY hours in the Montreal Airport. I saw this Nintendo display and thought of Jack.

We finally boarded our plane and flew for 9 hours.

Our first full day, we took a mythology tour. We visited many ancient Greek historical sites including the Acropolis

Parthenon - dedicated to Athena

Every day, 25,000 people visit the Acropolis. 

Temple of Zeus

Temple of Hephaestus

It was very hot on our first day -- 100 degrees. So we spent a couple of hours at our AirBnB before leaving again for the Acropolis museum. It has many original piece of the Acropolis and a lot of the history. We were pretty tired though. My only picture is the LEGO replica of the Acropolis.

On our second day, we took an excellent tour called Culinary Back Streets of Athens. It was a 7 hour food tour. We learned so much about Greek culture, history and food. They have great food here.

31 million people visit Greece which has a population of 10 million.  To put that in perspective, in 2014, 75 million people visited the US. To have the proportional amount of tourists, we would need 1 billion people to visit the US every year. The central core of Athens which has existed for at least 2000 years seems to exist for tourists. I barely felt like a foreigner. There are a lot of English speakers, all the restaurants have English language menus. There are also a lot of people from other countries -- I heard lots of Spanish and Italian speakers. The center of Athens is very cool but it reminds me of the center of Florence or Amsterdam. It doesn't seem to be a place where people live. It's a place people visit. 

Half of the Greek population lives in Athens -- It is a sprawling city with only one tall building (20 stories).  We ventured outside the center looking for authentic Greek yogurt (made from sheep's milk -- I was not a fan) the city became much louder, grittier, and chaotic... like any big city.

Back to our tour: we ate all day. It was great fun.

pastries!

Byzantine church with hotel built around it

candied mandarins

greek coffee - different but good

the Greeks read the patterns of the coffee grounds to tell your future

lots of interesting graffiti.

Central coast of California

Every year around the 4th of July, we spend a week on the central coast of California. It is always lots of fun. We spend every day at a beach. The weather is beautiful. We visit with Ryan's parents and a great time is had by all.

loose seal!

Sand Dollar beach

building kyrons at Sand Dollar

We visited an art installation called Sensorio. Below is a picture of what happens when the sun sets

Sensorio after dark

Waves at Ryan's favorite beach near Hearst Castle