good talk

About 9 weeks ago I told my brother Bob in Cleveland of my Telepathic Abilities and he doesn't believe me, and I don't have a Comment yet on any of my 57 previous Blogs, Bob I can understand but What's the Matter with you people? There is no evidence that Helen or Achilles ever existed, Homer's Story is wildly embellished. The only time I ever was on the Strip on New Year's Eve was for the turn of the Millennium. I walked a mile to the Strip from where I lived and enjoyed it a lot, it was just a huge crush of people pushing down the Strip, I did this for half a mile and the Communal Feeling was very mellow. The Casinos in their Great Wisdom shot off Zero Fireworks to bring in the year 2000, Cheapskates. About 30 yards behind me a guy climbed a Utility Pole, fell and died, people were telling me about it at the time, I didn't see it. Once I got home I turned on the TV and saw some drunk guy who did see it being interviewed. It turned out this young guy, who apparently had a degree in engineering from Stanford and was one of their assistant Wrestling Coaches, hadn't just fallen from the Utility Pole, he had grabbed a Power Line and was dead before he hit the asphalt. The tone was that he had thrown his life away, one should know better. In the local newspaper they even mentioned bringing in the Millennium by "Sacrificing the Californian." From Cannakale I went down the coast a bit to Ayvalik, a nice sea town in its own right, and took the Ferry over to the Greek Island of Lesbos, just 17 miles. The guy operating the boat had a bed next to the wheel and seemingly slept for half the trip. So I arrived at Mytilene, the Capitol and found a nice, inexpensive room for 3 nights. The poet Sappho was from Lesbos and wrote of, you know. Lesbos has a hip, young tourist crowd and some nice places to eat and drink, groups of Lesbians often come to Lesbos for Inspiration or whatever. I still say that to be a Lesbian one would need a Lively Imagination. There are many nice Archeological Sites on Lesbos and a couple of very nice Archeological Museums, I can never get enough of these things. There's buses that go all over the Island, fun aplenty. There were 2 Ferry Boats a day to Piraeus, about 12 hours, overnight voyage, cheap and comfortable. Piraeus is the seaport of Athens, I went straightaway to the Bus Terminal and got a bus to Argos. I've been to Athens a zillion times and have been all over Greece but still have places to go there that I haven't been to. Argos is a very pleasant little city and its Theater which is very well-preserved was the largest in the Greek World in the 5th Century, it sat 20,000. From Argos I took the bus to the ruins of Mycenae which are quite extensive and well-preserved, that was an all-day thing and I enjoyed being there. Back to Argos for the night, just maybe 15 miles from Mycenae and then to Athens the next morning. Athens is always very exciting, I stayed at the same hotel that I stayed 4 years before in Omonoia and directly behind the longtime headquarters of the Greek Communist Party, ha, ha, yes, you can see the Hammer and Sickle displayed out front. I was in Athens over their Easter and I was curious if the Communist Headquarters would be open on Easter, being Communists and atheists you'd think they'd make it a point to be open but the Greeks are so lazy that I thought it might be closed, it was open. The National Archeological Museum was closed over the Easter Weekend, it was closed the last time I tried to go there 4 years before, I've been there many times and it's fabulous, my favorite is the bronze statue of Poseidon that they pulled out of the sea and I like the marble statue of the wounded Gallic Warrior, still able to defend himself at least for the moment. Athens's subway is so good you can whiz about easily, went to the Acropolis and Parthenon of course, Lord Elgin did good service by removing the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon from 1801 to 1805. In 1687 the Venetians bombarded the Parthenon and part of it blew up, there's often been fomentation in Athens' history and the Elgin Marbles have been safe at the British Museum. Since the 2004 Olympics Athens' tourism has increased by 300%. I went to the Temple of Zeus, to the Agora, to Kerameikos, went inside the 1896 Olympic Stadium. I couldn't get inside the Olympic Stadium from the 2004 Olympics but I had been inside there in 2001, you could get inside where they had swimming events. There's always lots of great things to see in Athens, it's one of the best places in the World.