A Sad Day in the World

Agios Panteleimonas – Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece

We try to keep our minds on what is in front of us on this trip. That is, in fact, one of the primary benefits of going on a bike tour: you pretty much have to be present in the moment. Turns out there’s no cruise control and there are no self-driving bicycles. You have no choice but to focus on the road ahead and the cars, and culture, and people immediately around you.  

But there are times when events of the world are too much to ignore. What happened yesterday in Minnesota is like this. For people who don’t know – someone assassinated a state representative and her husband, and attempted the asassination of a state senator and his wife and family. See StarTribune article.  

It’s not just that people were murdered. Sadly, murders happen on a regular basis in the world and, I guess, we all just become numb to them. No, it’s that these murders were apparently committed with a political motivation. The asassination of a state representative and her husband – apparently because of their actions as a state representative – is horrible beyond words. 

I guess it is personal for all of us because it is our democracy. But I just keep thinking of my Grandfather, who was a state rep for something like 44 years. Over that time, there were many occasions when he took stands that were unpopular. 

I’ve talked about the motel and coffee shop that my grandparents ran. The coffee shop had a big bank of picture windows looking out onto Grand Avenue – the busy street that ran by the motel. Growing up, for years several of those windows had bullet holes with big cracks because some angry person felt they had to express their rage that he would dare to vote in opposition to their point of view. 

It was sad that someone would do this. 

But my Grandpa had incredible integrity; he didn’t let vandalism like that stop him from doing what he thought was right. 

What happened yesterday, though, is something else entirely. It is one thing to endure some vandalism. But asassination and the murder of one’s family? Who would voluntarily go into politics when something like this could happen? Endangering not only yourself, but your family as well. 

I don’t know the answer. I guess none of us do. 

But I do think that we need more opportunities to build connections across political lines. We need more community organizations that don’t have a political litmus test – so that we have more opportunities to meet and befriend people who think differently than we do. Basketball and bowling leagues. Knitting clubs. Beekeeping and fishing organizations. Because, in general, when people know each other as human beings, this type of thing doesn’t happen. 

The upshot for me is that the blog goes on. As I’ve said before, I hope there are people on both sides of the aisle reading this and commenting. It’s not much. And it’s online, which is not ideal. But at least maybe a few hundred people will have some connection to people with a different point of view . . .

With that, a few thoughts on the last few days here in Greece . . .

We ended up making a quick trip of it on Friday. Greece is supposed to be something like 85% mountains – but we managed to find the other 15%. We haven’t had a ride that flat in a long time. Covered almost 80 miles and made it Thessaloniki – the second biggest city in Greece.

This is the kind of place that Diana and I really enjoy. A medium-sized city that is not solely focused on tourism. The prices are not exorbitant, and the people are not jaded from having to deal with a constant stream of self-absorbed travelers. All good.

With an extra day off, we managed to take care of a bunch of little housekeeping items that had accumulated over the past few weeks . . .

Maintenance for Old Dan and Little Ann. 

We found a bike shop with the eleven-speed chains we needed. Ended up feeling vindicated for not buying the $78 chains in Dubrovnik, as these were $30 each, for a total of $60, versus $156 in Game of Thrones Town.

The owner of the bike shop was interesting. Just one more European who looks upon America and Donald Trump with admiration. He said that politicians don’t accomplish much in Greece and that there is a lot of corruption. He contrasted the state of affairs in his home country with Trump, who, he said, “gets things done.”

Chain Tool.

Despite the good price, there was a little snafu with the chains. The operator of the chain tool shall remain nameless, but, I can assure you, he is a really swell guy. Now, the chain tool is a small device used to push out the pin that holds the chains together – a tool that is critical to have if something goes bad with the chains. Anyway, the anonymous operator didn’t properly align the tool with the pin when they (our androgynous pronoun) was trying to remove Old Dan’s chain. And then, in the face of great resistance, they kept trying to make it work. The result? A bent pin-pusher-outer thing – rendering the chain tool useless . . . 

Well, if it was going to happen, this was a good time for it. Better than in some Turkish desert or something . . . 

The shop we went to in the morning had already closed, but I found another and rushed over there. Was going to buy a new chain tool, but when I arrived I saw that they had a vice, and the guy in the shop – El Iraq – helped me bend it back into place. 

El Iraq was a fun young man. He’s half Iraqi, half Greek. His dad was an architect, who emigrated from Iraq in the ‘80s, after suffering an injury while fighting in Iraq’s military. El Iraq (pretty sure I have the spelling wrong) is going to school for environmental engineering. Great to see that so many young people seem to be going into fields like this; I guess their generation recognizes where the need is . . .

Oh, and the tool worked great. Totally back in business! They is completely forgiven . . . 🙂

Stove Maintenance.

Our stove situation has been working great, but I thought I needed a new cleaning wire. The guy at the hardware store was a huge help. He found me some wire, a little wire-nut thing that could be useful for holding and pulling on the wire, and some plastic for coating the ends of the wire and holding it in place. 

Love hardware stores – especially when there are knowledgeable people working at them. 

Happy to report that the stove is, I think, good as new as well.

On this topic, I’ve been thinking about whether we should add an additional pan to our mess kit. Right now we have a single one-liter pot that is perfect for making oatmeal or hard boiled eggs. Can make rice or pasta or soup as well. But the bottom of the pan is so thin that it is very difficult to cook anything else – like eggs or pancakes. A small frying pan would do the trick – but it’s a lot of weight for something that is essentially a luxury item. 

Similarly, I’ve been contemplating whether we could find a small plastic French press. Plastic so it won’t break so easily . . . Diana loves her coffee in the morning, and she’s a good sport about it, but instant coffee is just not the same. (This is another area where things are considerably different for our generation than our parents. Our parents were all about their instant joe – but today’s urban, liberal MPR/Starbucks Generation wouldn’t be caught dead living a Folgers Moment . . .). Again, though, I’m not sure about the extra weight – and I don’t know where we would find one anyway. 

You can’t exactly order off of Amazon and get a delivery to your campsite . . .

Pillow Leaks.

Air mattresses work pretty well, really. But inflatable pillows are not so good. I mean, it seems like they would be great. But in practice your head just rolls right off of them. The best solution that we’ve found are hybrids – with a little foam type stuff and a little inflating. We have a pillow like this. It’s great – except if your long-nailed dog has stepped on it on a previous trip – causing a myriad of leaks. Which is exactly what happened to ours. I tried fixing it before our trip by applying some fabric glue to the leaks – and it was okay for a while – but these days it’s been deflating pretty rapidly each night – resulting in some stiff necks in the morning . . .

With a whole day to figure things out – and some extra fabric glue that we’ve been carrying around since Ushuaia, I decided to give it another try. Ended up applying two layers – so now big swaths of the pillow are all crusty with plastic-y glue-stuff. 

We’ll see how that works . . .

Tire Rotation. 

Still going with our trusty Schwalbe Marathons – but the rear tires endure a much bigger load because our personal weight and our panniers are both focused in that part of the bikes. Not quite as quick as AJ Foyt’s team at the Indy 500, but I figure if all else fails I could land a job at Firestone on our return . . . Although, hopefully, they wouldn’t make me use a hand pump . . .

Haircuts.

It’s been a while since my last trim. The barber I found, Alexander, turns out to be a Kurdish guy who emigrated from Iraq. Alexander knows multiple languages: Kurdish, Arabic, Farsi, Greek, English, and some Pakistani. A pretty impressive barber, really. 

Diana’s complaint? Her husband has “so much grey . . .” I guess I’ll just to have keep my hair long going forward . . .

Diana had her hair trimmed as well. I have to say I love her shorter hair. So cute.

In between all these chores, we stumbled upon the Thessaloniki Grand Slam – an apparently high-end beach volleyball tournament. I guess I started out thinking that the primary attraction of this sport was women in bikinis – shallow, I know, but I didn’t really understand the sport before. 

Now, after watching for a while, we are fans. I think we ended up seeing four matches. A Norwegian team, featuring two 17-year-old young men, was amazing. Sadly, we had to board the ferry before the finals. They’re playing two older guys – we’ll be eager to see who wins. Also, we’re thinking that these two young Norwegians might be likely to represent their country in the next Olympics. We’ll definitely be watching if that’s the case. 

Last thing . . . 

I’ve been spending a little time on Greek history. I think most of us think of Greece as one of the oldest countries on Earth. But that’s probably kind of wrong-headed. Back in the day Greece wasn’t so much a country as a bunch of city-states that were united by a single language and common cultural practices and beliefs. Yes, when Alexander the Great conquered half the world the whole country was basically under the same umbrella, but that was short-lived. 

After that Greece was part of the Roman Empire, and then part of the Ottoman Empire. It wasn’t until 1912 or 1913 that Greece really became its own independent nation. And here’s another thing that I never knew or understood. Greece is part of the Balkans, and fought side-by-side with Montenegro, Serbia, and Bulgaria – together the Balkan League (sounds like a band of superheroes) – to expel the Ottomans in the first Balkan War. 

Even then, with its ancient roots as the founders of democracy, Greece didn’t really hit its stride until the 1970s. It took that long for the country to transition to a full republic. Given that history, with only 50 years as a truly modern state under its belt, it’s no wonder that Greece still has a little catching up to do. 

And maybe that’s a good place to finish with our thoughts today. The place that gave rise to Aristotle and Plato has had its share of troubles. I know it seems kind of hopeless in the U.S. right now – but I remain confident that we’ll eventually pull through, and, once again, become the shining light that the rest of the world looks to. (Maybe it helps not to be there . . .)

For us, it’s on to the island of Chios for a brief stop, and then we land in Turkey. Hoping it won’t be too hot – but we’re at least going north for the next leg of our journey.