July 28th and 29th: A very long day

It was a very long day, and it started out poorly. I was supposed to wake at 2:45AM to call the taxi to take me to the train station to catch the 3:38AM train to the airport, but I slept through the alarm, waking at 3:21AM. Too late to catch the train, I got a taxi direct to the airport, and then a flight to Athens.

Leaving Pireas

In Athens I caught a bus to Pireas, then a boat a few hours later to the island of Paros. I bought the cheapest ticket - unreserved deck passage. Greece in the summer is a land of young people. At first I thought I was the oldest person on the boat, but later, after walking all the decks through hundreds of people, I did see one or two other old travelers.

Sunset on the Agean Sea

At the port in Paros, I was met by Karina's brother, Barry, and his daughter Intan

They drove me to Karin's restaurant

Karina and Georgios

Their sweet taverna

Though it was late at night, they insisted on feeding me. Here are three dipping spreads: smokey eggplant, split pea with carmelizing onions, and spicy feta

A delicious plate of roasted vegetables - eggplant, peppers and mushrooms, on a bed of cous cous in a delicious balsamic vinegarette

My day started at 3AM, and I didn't arrive in Paros until 10PM, so this is what I looked like after dinner (it must have been around midnight)

view from the deck - this is the view I woke up to at Karina and Georgios's apartment

Quote from Searching for God at Harvard: "Thus taught the Baal Shem Tov: 'Study for the sake of scholarship is desecration; it is a transgression of the commandment against bowing before alien gods, the idol being mere learning. The study of the Torah is a matter of the heart's devotion."

As my sabbatical is winding down, I have been thinking about why I do what I do, and what I have learned. The passage above is an excellent description of my love of travel. It is not just for the sake of traveling, but my heart's devotion - constantly experiencing and relearning how to live in a "heartful" way - experiencing and relearning about my connection to the universe.