Movin' on...

Our next stop after Kusadasi was supposed to be Santorini, Greece, a small mountaintop town accessible only by foot, cable car or donkey. After pulling into port, we were unfortunately told that all excursions to Santorini that day were canceled due to high winds and the cable car not functioning. This was a major bummer as we had a food and wine tour scheduled for that day – I would have gladly taken the donkey! Alas, we pulled out of port and the Captain told us we’d remain at sea for the day.

Later, he announced we would stop at a very small island called Milos for the afternoon; he told us, however, ”don’t expect much from Milos.” Hopefully nobody did, because about an hour later the stop to Milos was canceled due to a loss of electricity on the island rendering their computers and passport processing station nonfunctional. I guess things really are tough in Greece these days!

The next stop, Zakynthos, Greece, went well, but we weren’t there long. Sweet little town - I took a cheesy little "Tourist Train" for 5 euros. Saw some fishermen come in with their catch. They were slicing up this fish right on the side of the road and selling the slices to passersby



Unfortunately, right after I took this picture, one of the fishermen reached into a bucket, pulled out a large octopus, grabbed it by its legs and began repeatedly smashing its head against the side of the boat to kill it. This made me incredibly sad as octopuses are so intelligent and sensitive – what a horrible death.

Next was Sicily. We took a day tour called “The Land of the Godfather” which was simply fantastic. Sicily is mountainous and in full bloom this time of year. Nearly all kinds of vegetation grows there, from cacti and succulents to all kinds of fruits, vegetables and flowering plants. I had no idea how mountainous Sicily was, and the bus rides up and down the mountains were harrowing with hairpin turns on extremely narrow roads.





Everyone in Sicily has beautiful flowers blooming on their porch



Here's a shot of our photographer



Here he is again outside the bar where a pivotal scene in "The Godfather" was shot - the bar is unchanged after all these years



The view from our balcony in Sicily - that is the toe of Italy's boot in the background



Today we have visited Positano and Amalfi – I am sitting in a café in Amalfi right now putting this post together (finally found free internet – yay!). These are two gorgeous towns around a mountain from each other. Here’s a few pics I took today - note the little houses perched precariously on the sheer rock...

Fog in the mountains over Positano



A view of Amalfi from the dock



The Cathedral of St. Andrew (Sant Andrea) in Amalfi - there are 66 steps leading to the entrance



Next is Rome and Florence – hopefully can update later.

By the way, these are not the best pics I have - I had to pick and choose a few to upload to flickr from thumbnails while sitting in the sun - kind of a crapshoot. I guess I did ok :)

I finally got out of the house!

So I am on the 2nd day of a 10-day Mediterranean cruise that started in Athens. I had hoped to upload pics to flickr and make a blog post every day, but the internet on the ship is verrrrry slow and ridiculously expensive, so that probably won’t be happening, unless I can find free wifi on shore some days.

We did have a great – although too short – tour today of the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey. The New Testament book of the Bible Ephesians consists of Paul’s letters to the people of this ancient city. It is actually a massive archeological dig in progress, and only about 10% is considered to be uncovered at this point. It is stunning to walk down the same streets that Paul and other Biblical figures walked down 2000 years ago. I took about 100 pictures of this fascinating place but probably won’t be able to get them up on flickr until I get home. So until then I’ll appeal to the lowest common denominator of possible readers and post these



Yes, it's an ancient public restroom!






On a more appropriate note, a view of the goddess Nike



a very well-preserved unearthed sarcophagus



and a local resident



More later as the internet gods allow...

This is why I am not on Facebook

Facebook was letting friends spy on each others' chats, via Valleywag

"Privacy settings" - this term means whatever Facebook wants it to mean for their purposes at any given time. It does not mean what users think it means, i.e. protecting their online privacy.

See also 10 Reasons to Delete Your Facebook Account. Although item #9 is weak, some tough points are made against Facebook's business practices. Click on the links throughout this piece to explore these issues further. Very well done.

Update: the author of the above just posted a followup on his blog.

Some would argue blogging on a Google service isn't much better, and that may be. There are too many security lapses on Facebook for my comfort level, however, and the M.O. of the company seems to be to entice users into becoming comfortable with making personal information available and accessible online so they (Facebook) can own, mine and exploit it for their own purposes. I choose not to participate in that.

Who doesn't love dancing American soldiers?

Some bored soldiers in Afghanistan made a video to Lady Gaga's "Telephone" (much like the flamboyant lingerie dancer a couple posts down did), and it's fantastic! Great to see those who sacrifice so much to serve our country engaged in a little fun on their downtime. It's difficult to be miserable when dancing with friends!





But wait - there's more! Here's soldiers in Iraq dancing to "the Ding Dong Song," with a little practical joke played on a comrade after the credits roll





Here's a couple Marines making boring work more fun by doing the cha cha slide - watch some of the others try to resist but eventually give in and dance also






More Marines - this is captioned "field day was boring so we decided to dance"






Two soldiers perform a silent Electric Slide for some locals





While not actually in the battlefield when filmed, these soldiers at the US Air Force Academy make good work of Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" - it looks like their instructor might even be in it :)