OK, second set: Mordor, Mnisikleous, Roka, rainbows, the Annoying Brazilian(s), and the moon. That moon.

Reeling from the return to work. Still BOING!ing awake (and passing out without warning) at odd hours.

On way there, saw mind bogglingly beautiful smattering of islands that turned out to be Croatian islands. To do before next job: wander among them.

Gotta say, Greek cop thing, not oversold.

Aegean airlines surprisingly pleasant: friendly (!) service, gave everyone candy upon completion of boarding (I found this oddly touching, like a dr's lollipop..."We know this experience sucks- here, have a sweet"), ERGONOMICALLY SENSIBLE SEATBACKS and more than enough legroom even if you're 6'3", which I've never seen outside of biz/first.

While waiting for flight, met dude who designs/supplies roller coasters, including some of my favorites (Freefall, Stratosphere) and my sure-to-become-all-time-favorite should I ever manage to be at the park when rain doesn't appear from nowhere and close it (Kingda Ka). It was SO cEXCITING to talk to him about something I've often described to people as metaphor for various other things: the psychology behind rides, especially Freefall. What I *LOVE* about it is that you get up there, & you're fine, and then it takes a few seconds too long for the car to push you out (making disturbing and probably superfluous clanking noises, of course), and then you look down and can't help noticing there's NOTHING UNDER YOU, and you are just hanging there -- long enough to think "hm, that's a little weird," followed closely by "I THINK THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE RIDE", followed closely by "GET ME THE F* OFF THIS RIDE", followed by you being dropped. I HEE! just thinking about it. He said, "How long do you think [that wait at the top] is?" I said "25 minutes? It's made to seem so." "Nine seconds." [Gleeful grin] He told me many stories that made me (1) lol and (2) never want to get on an amusement park ride again ever.

Amazing. But like clockwork, at the week mark, homesickness sets in. I love my city.

According to this sign, the 3 listed beaches are out to sea.
Wild woolly deafening surf.

Keywords thus far: Galatis, Argo, Kastro, Sostis, Gialos, and driving our atv into a ditch and escaping with nothing but a very mild chafe and incapacitating giggle fit.

It's easy to perceive how stupid and pointless baseball is when this is your Friday.

Reminding me strikingly of a favorite painting.

Another drink on the roof overlooking antiquity, and listening to church bells and...Poker Face. Sigh

Having a Frog Hollow Farm plum which is Proustian-madeleining me back to the tree in front of the house I lived in in primary school, which had done nothing for the first few years we lived there but be a really good-lookin' tree that was nice to read under, and then all of a sudden one summer exploded with plums, adult-fist-sized, psychotically juicy, so much so as to defy physics, and sweet, I mean Jolly Rancher sweet, with skin that wasn't leathery and tart but tissue-soft and also sweet, so purple it looked black in the shade, with matching flesh. It was Narnia-like to see this object, which had so long just let us sit there thinking it was an ordinary tree, suddenly start spilling hitherto-unimagined gems with such profligate abandon.

Slate, about Pimm's straight: "It is as if a quantity of fresh mulch has doused an insurance fire at a candied-orange factory — inside your mouth." Reminds of Burgess' dead-on observation that eating durian "is like eating vanilla custard in a latrine."

I can update & reapply, to CA, SS's joke about working at M***. It's so like the ex about whom you can bravely think "clearly not for me- walk away", and be right, and mean it - as long as you're not in its presence... but when you are, its particular kinds of awesomeness and its blatant beauty dissolve your resolve and you really should get away before you do something stupid and you just are a mess until you do escape.

Travel: personality litmus-testing since forever.

Stopping in c. for first time since first time. What a strange association. I wonder. Life is funny.