With eighteen hours of travel just ahead of me, I've downloaded a copy of the new Thomas Pynchon book, Shadow Ticket. He's one of the most important modern American authors ... Vineland, The Crying of Lot 49, V, Gravity's Rainbow ... and this is his first in twelve years.
Alex M
The world is a puzzle
Each day is a rhyme
All we have is the rhythm
And the fortunes of time
Sitting here in Ikaria, with the windows all open to let the house breathe after so long away. The journey here is never as expected but I suppose I’d be disappointed if it were any other way. It’s too far away from Vancouver to be easy, too rugged a trail, too many hours entombed in airplanes and the purgatory of terminals.
When you travel across cultures, time zones and geographies, there should be big bumps to keep you conscious of what is happening. It isn’t all magic and technology.
In Amsterdam, we are driven in an electric cart from our arrivals gate to the one that will finally get us to Greece. Along the way, the driver gets word that our flight has been cancelled.
He stops the cart and has a long conversation with his superior, and then tells us that he is going to be taking us to Transfers to get us booked on the next flight to Athens. As we rush through the terminal, he introduces himself, Roland, and we go through a hilarious exercise of trying to name famous Rolands. When I come up with the great jazz musician, Roland Kirk, we get into a discussion of music.
When, in the course of conversation, he asks what I do, and I tell him I’m a writer, he immediately finds my book, Somewhere Else, on Amazon and wants to know what it’s about. When I tell him that it’s about how my wife and I restored an old family farm on the Greek island of Ikaria, and that it’s funny as hell, Roland buys a copy on the spot.
He parks the cart near the Transfer desk, where at least fifty people are qued up, and somehow gets us to the front of the line, where he helps us score the last two tickets that night to Athens.
Roland drops us at a restaurant that looks as if it has comfortable seats, and then like the other angels I’ve met in my life, disappears. Just like that.
E. Hughes To travel, to meet with family or friends, or just visit a second home is a luxury that few Americans see. Most are working their 40+ hours, paying of massive amounts of debt, and planning a two week vacation if their job allows it. Your perspective harkens back to a time fifty or more years ago when people visited each other, traveled across states, or took ships across to the other side of world just to sit with a friend for a week or two, or to experience a bit of culture. It amazes me how times have changed and how the focus is on surviving and paying the toll to thrive. I will say that, I am surprised at your trip. Are you staying for the rest of the year? I would imagine you'd travel to Ikaria in the winter to get some relief from Canadian winters :)
Alex M The little farm in Ikaria is my wife's ancestral home, where her grandparents died of starvation when the Germans invaded the island in WWII and took all the food. My relatives were murdered in concentration camps. We stand on their shoulders determined to have the lives they never had. One of the reasons we left the US and moved to Canada was because of the economic inequity in your country. We started from scratch and built this life for ourselves through education and hard work. Far easier in Canada where healthcare is free and university affordable.
E. Hughes If only the mindset existed here. 😔
Alex M Our balcony in British Columbia. That's Howe Sound, which is a tributary of the Pacific Ocean.
E. Hughes That's even more beautiful, with the mountainous backdrop. The water looks very blue, how I would imagine Alaska would look during summer. Which do you prefer, the Aegean area or British Columbia?
Alex M I like both places. Here, in BC, we have our family around us. Ikaria is a world apart ... a place from another time. My book, Somewhere Else, is about how we came to restore an old family farm on a Greek island.
Alex M This is the book.
E. Hughes Oh, you sure did use that view on the cover. I did not make the connection.
Alex M After rose flowers drop, there is a bulb left behind, known as a rose hip. The ones from wild roses have a huge amount of vitamin c.
E. Hughes I have never noticed any on mine, is the funny part. I will be looking next time.
Alex M Rose hips are acidic so you need to cook them with a bit of sugar or honey. When I'm in Greece and catch a cold, I pick a couple of sprigs of rosemary and make rose hip/ rosemary tea. It's better than any antihistamine.
E. Hughes I have blooming tea here and I always see "rose hip" as one of the ingredients. I never associated it with actual roses.
Alex M There's a a plant called the rock rose that grows close to the ground, It's not related to the rose plant, but it has beautiful little flowers that make a great, and very healthful, tea. It grows wild on part of my land.
E. Hughes Great idea to bring a book to such a long flight. I will have to check him out.
Alex M I always read on flights. Rarely do I find a movie that I want to see or haven't yet seen. The year before last I read the entire new, Emily Wilson, translation of The Odyssey on the way home. It's incredibly well done and reads almost like a novel. Far better than the Rieu one, which was the standard prose translation until now.
E. Hughes I'll have to check that one out, too. Thanks for the recommendation. And welcome back!