My walk to Ninas

 The walk to the coffee shop began on a familiar path, the stairs for the second to the first floor.  Even pausing on the landing the trip seemed so familiar.

 Looking down my porch I could see that all the porches were still there and pretty much in line.  Signs of winter are still everywhere.

 Spring, a time of rebirth? Man looking around all that seems to be popping up is dead twigs and trash

Some day it will melt

Look it new green sprouting thru the dead leaves

but for the most part not much green.

Winter must have took these people by complete surprise.

What the... That is very spring like

and so is this

Curling club parking lot is empty - that is a sign of spring

Made it.

This was mostly just practice to see how the blogging tool and camera etc worked

Spinning Wheels

I am at an odd crossroads in my life, single and petless for the first time since I was 21. That gives a guy a lot of freedom that I should embrace. The trip is an example of that -- the only example- or is sitting in a coffee shop an example of freedom or loneliness?  The trip is a marker on my horizon something I can point to or hide behind.   An excuse for doing nothing except planning for the trip and working -- What would I do to be more proactive with my life? And really what does that mean . I find that I ache in ways that I can't process or understand.
The joke here is that I don't think i am really planning a trip I am pretending to plan a trip - I have all the props, it is easy to do. 
I need to stop the spinning before I spin too low and can't back up or is that just pretending too?

Here is the route of the Turkey tour

I start with 4 nights in Istanbul

Turkey hotels are done

I was very excited when I decided to bite the bullet and make my reservations for my two pre tour nights at the tour hotel. Not really sticker shock - it was just hard to swallow that those 2 nights would cost 25% of what the 13 night tour cost. But a wise friend said dont worry about just work an exstra day before you retire, that combined with a AAA discount I was sold,until today - when I was reading a woman's Turkey blog and was raving about her Istanbul hotel (Hanedan). It turns out it was only 2 blocks from the tour hotel, had a better TripAdvisor rating and cost more than 50% -- that ends up saving enough for all my Island hopping flights in Greece. I changed that reservation pretty quickly. Oh yeah their ride from the Airport is 10 Euro cheaper also.

I should move on to Greece --at least book a couple things that I know. Reservations lock us in, but can be cancelled, give us peace of mind , a few anchors to give us some stability while we wander around the world.

OK starting from the end I need 2 nights in Athens -easy to research - easy to book. I want to go to Santorini - it seems so perfect - it is my vision of a Greek isle -- the image of the blue roofed church is very clear in my mind. So lets say I want to go there - I should arrange transportation - maybe book a couple of nights there. Here what's is holding me back the image that this is an option other tour members take and it may be more interesting to tour the islands with them.

sigh.