I attended a conference of like-minded individuals a few years ago. It was an exhilarating weekend of sun, new friends, laughter and earnest conversations that ran deep into the night. When I departed I felt strangely disconnected, as if something was missing. I felt as if I had not met enough people. After I spoke to a close friend about this they assured me that this was natural and that I would soon come back down to Earth. It wasn’t until the next event that I understood: I had not met enough people. The truth is that one can never meet everybody. The reverse is true as well. One can never say goodbye to everyone. This realization hit me last week when I discovered that some students from the Aegean Center were flying from Paros rather than taking the ferry. I would have liked to send them off at the port. Call me a traditionalist, but I will choose the boat over the plane any day. That’s just my way. I am no hurry here in Greece. Unless there is a dire emergency that demands my being in Athens in 30 minutes, I’ll pay half the price and slip past the islands on Homer’s wine dark sea en route to Piraeus.
So I am in Athens for a few days, as you might have guessed. I have brought my 22 4×5 portraits to a framer to be matted and framed and put behind glass. He has quoted me an excellent price for the lot, half of my estimate. If I had to do this in America it would have triple what he is charging me, for the same materials. He will ship them back to Paros at the beginning of August, in plenty of time for my August 18th opening.
I will visit some friends, check in at a couple of museums and then on Sunday take the long, slow boat back south, past Paros and on to Amorgos. I will take two weeks off and hop around the Kyklades a bit: Amorgos, Sikinos and Folegandros. This means beaches, stone walls, hiking and very few tourists this time of year. I am bringing few clothes other than shorts, T-shirts, hiking boots, my towel and a couple of hats. Most of my luggage is camera equipment, both film and digital. I have a few books and a watercolor set, some pencils…
I’ll update from Amorgos…
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