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Travel

"They're closing down the hangout, the air is turning cool...
... I come down to talk to me, When the coast is clear..."

     Jimmy Buffet, "When the Coast is Clear"

Some days Telluride Inside... and Out focuses on the  "inside." Those days are museum, gallery, church, monastery, etc. intensives, total immersions in history for grounding. But not today. Today was all about "out."

IMGP2096 On days like today, Telluride Inside... and Out hits the road with the sole intention of having no fixed intention, just inhaling the views from random stops on surrounding highways and byways. We are still in Crete. The weather, gods, kismet, something has gotten in the way of our leaving this Eden, so we gave in (willingly) to fate. Our hotel in Chania, Casa Delfino, became a home away from home and a launching pad for yet another Cretan adventure. Today was all about exploring the island's far west coast. First stop: Falasarna.

28 October, 2010 /

IMGP2073 Telluride Inside... and Out's travels are as much about the people we meet as the places we see. And among the most interesting of the interesting we've encountered so far on our Greek adventure is Nikos Stavroulakis.

Jenny, the concierge at our hotel, Casa Delfino – fabulous, but more on that later – suggested Etz-Hayyim Synagogue and the old Jewish quarter as interesting stops on our tour of Chania's Old Town. She also mentioned that since her husband Alex worked at Etz Hayyim, perhaps he could arrange a meeting with the man responsible for Phoenix-like resurrection of the former house of worship. The interview with Nikos was scheduled for 5 p.m. yesterday.

27 October, 2010 /

IMGP1967 Living in Telluride is about adventure. Readers of Telluride Inside... and Out know that Ben Clark and friends, including Erik and Chris Dalton, are in Nepal. David Byars will be corresponding from Ghana. Susan and I are currently on the island of Crete. There are plenty of adventures available in our backyard in Telluride, but Telluriders seem to be a wandering clan.

One of the reasons Susan and I travel is for the opportunity to meet new friends. Our first morning in Heraklion, Crete, we met 27-month-old Odysseas Pavlides, and through him his parents, Dr. Lefteris Pavlides and his wife Stephanie, both architects in Rhode Island.

24 October, 2010 /

Telluride Inside.... and Out continues to explore the Edenic island of Crete.

Yesterday, along with our new best friends the Pavlides, we visited the Lasithi Tabletop (Plateau), a region that combines spectacular scenery with one of the most important mythological sites of the island, our primary destination, the Diktean Cave. IMGP1925
In a spectacular case of upstairs/downstairs, Zeus did not start out life on Mt. Olympus; quite the opposite: his first address was a deep, dark subterranean cave with visceral limestone shimmering eerily on its walls. The place looks like a huge natural womb – or early Julian Schnabel. 
23 October, 2010 /

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local/mountaineer Ben Clark and a few friends/professional colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside... and Out, including links to his regular podcasts. If you have missed any of Ben's posts, just type "Ben Clark" into Lijit Search to find them all.

Folks, this is my ninth Himalayan Expedition. I have seen crazy stuff happen before, but never anything like this.  We are on our way to the mountains but nowhere near where I thought when we landed in the heart of the Annapurna range just days ago.   21a.thumbnail
 
If you know me well, you know I often joke about getting a tattoo across my chest of two tigers holding hands with the statement "Expect the Unexpected" emblazoned underneath. Well...it is because my life as an adventurer and explorer has put me into some of the most twisted realities I can or can't imagine. I live life daily and this week has been no different.
23 October, 2010 /

IMGP1958 Telluride Inside... and Out wants to talk bull with you. Mega bull: Zeus when he seduced Europa. Here's the story:

Overwhelmed by love for Europa, a Phoenician princess, Zeus transformed himself into a magnificent white bull and appeared on the sea shore where Europa was playing with her maidens.The great bull walked gently over to where Europa stood and knelt at her feet. Overcoming her natural fear of the great beast, she climbed onto his back. What ensued is the ancient Greeks' answer to date rape.
23 October, 2010 /
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While staying in Athens, Telluride Inside... and Out visited Corinth. The ancient city was upon a time a nearly impregnable fortress with a reputation for lewd and licentious behavior in the name of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite. St. Paul must have found the profligates irresistible: he founded a church in Corinth during an 18-month stay.
"Golden" Mycenae was once the most powerful city state in Greece, with the whole of the Peloponnese under its dominion. 
The entrance to Mycenae's acropolis is through the Lion Gate, the oldest example of monumental sculpture in Europe. Inside the walls, excavations have uncovered a palace complex, Grave Circle A with its six royal tombs, courtier's houses, craft areas, sanctuaries, and other important buildings. Off the acropolis lie more finds: Grave Circle B with its 14 royal tombs and the tombs of 12 private homes. On a nearby hill is one of the most memorable edifices of Mycenaen architecture, the Treasure of Atreus, also known as the Beehive Tomb of Agamemnon.
20 October, 2010 /

DSC02439 Our experience is that  upon venturing outside the bubble we call Telluride, it takes awhile to find our sea legs. Or in this case, our way around the kitchen.

Greece has it when it comes to food: the Pelopponese is a kind of Eden, growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables, producing amazing wines , cheeses, meats and olive oils too. Crete, where we are headed today,  is another food mecca. So it is no big surprise that Athens is a food town, with a wide range of choices of eateries from down and dirty tavernas to Michelin-starred restaurants. (There's one right next store to our hotel, Eridanus, but we failed to score a reservation.)

18 October, 2010 /

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local/mountaineer Ben Clark and a few friends/professional colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside... and Out, including links to his regular podcasts. If you have missed any of Ben's posts, just type "Ben Clark" into Lijit Search to find them all.

When I broke my ankle on May 1 last spring, I was at 17,600’ on 23,390' Baruntse, also known as my own personal Moby Dick for reasons you can research at www.skithehimalayas.com. Unlike Ahab, I was rescued by a vessel rather than doomed to one. Lifted into the skies, wrapped in bandages, worked over through weeks of PT and now here I am again today, returning to wrestle with ambition and not the ankle. Hopefully stronger, admittedly risk averse and yet still with an appetite for the unknown. The whale is gone though, off my range for a spell. 

17 October, 2010 /

Dateline: Athens, 10/16/2010

IMGP1701 You know you are not in Kansas – Telluride either – when the view outside your window is, yes, a mountain, but not a very big one, and on top of that mountain –  or "Sacred Rock," the name locals gave it – is a cluster of ancient buildings, marble masterpieces dating back to the late fifth century B.C., the Golden Age of Athens.

The temples on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, are among the most important monuments in the Western world. Yesterday, day #2 in Greece, we made the required pilgrimage. I say "required," not "desired," because the place is on everyone else's bucket list too, and so even now, the tail end of tourist season, there is barely room to turn around. But I am getting ahead of myself.

17 October, 2010 /