Hello everyone. If there’s still an everyone following this blog, that is. Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. It turns out that travelling across a foreign continent (even the pretty hospitable continent of Europe) while at the same time trying to prepare for an expedition across Africa takes a lot of time! Who would have thought?!
Obviously my plans to update my blog once each week fell through. Part of the problem was that I’ve been really busy, but I also made the mistake of trying to be too ambitious when it comes to my postings and photos, and there just wasn’t time for it. And there probably won’t be, since things are only going to get more challenging from here on out. So I’ve got a new plan, and hopefully this one will work out a little better.
Basically my new plan is to relax and enjoy my trip of a lifetime, and not worry as much about the blog. By which I mean, I’m not going to try to reproduce National Geographic for you. Instead, I’m going to blog once or twice a week, and my posts will be mostly unedited impressions of my experiences. And… this next part is even harder for me… I’m going to post somewhat random and entirely unprocessed photos as well. I’d love to write great prose and post really great pictures for you all, but for better or for worse, my choices are between compromising on quality or not posting at all, so welcome to the new, leaner version of Semicolon.
This also means that I’m going to start with the present moment and blog from this point forward. I’ll try to post some pictures from Europe a little later, but for now I’m just going to concentrate on keeping you up to date on where I’m actually at. Besides, you didn’t really want to read about Europe anyway, right? You’re here for the red meat, for the tightrope walk with no safety net, for a five-wide-through-the-corner NASCAR thrill ride. You want tales of cow’s blood being drunk straight from the jugular vein, not sipping espresso in Italy (which is really good, by the way). So instead of trying to catch up on Europe, I’ll be starting with… Asia!
That’s right, Asia. My trip has taken an unexpected detour, and I’m now in the small Greek town of Alexandroupolis (named for Alexander the Great), preparing to enter Turkey, which is only about 30 miles away. Because a funny thing happened on the way to Egypt. After many months of assurances that I would be granted to access to Libya, my contact in Libya suddenly told me that I would absolutely not be allowed into the country. (Was it something I said?) So instead of crossing from Italy into Tunisia, then driving east across Libya to Egypt, I’ve had to divert my route through Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan before finally entering Egypt. (This was no small change and is another reason I haven’t kept up on my blog.)
So tomorrow I’ll cross into Turkey, and then a couple of days later I’ll drive across the Bosporus into Asia. Or the Middle East, if you prefer. So stay tuned, and I’ll write about Istanbul and points beyond in my next post.
From the Land of Alexander the Great, and Great Philo Dough,
Aaron
