h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't think they're random.



What? Who?

The mice.

I don't think they're random. I sense a pattern ... if I wait for one minute, thirty seconds ...

I'm like the guy in the film Pi. . Order in chaos.

It's the spaces between the mouse appearances ....

There!Saw one!! Told you I was waiting. I am a very lost person. . Not really, I feel quite found in fact.

OK so it was about five minutes wait, but I saw it. A mouse.

And it told me many secrets about the spaces between mouse sightings and how nothing is random, unless it is.

I will tell you the secrets, for the price of your souls. mwahahahaha

haha, the magic bus , what was your trip like apart from the hell on wheels.

I got off the other end, bit bedraggled at 1.15am with a load of other people who like me hadn't booked anywhere to stay

we got into a hostel, shared a room with three others,it had a working loo, a random bath and a balcony.

Ok sharing room and a double beds with complete strangers, two beds four people, everything needed a scrub*, and the loo plunging at regular intervals

but the view over Athen's rooftops, and a thunderstorm

and a communal kitchen, two hobs and sink

amazing,luxery and bliss, for four nights

*no relection on my landlord for that time, seems that for little drachma people expect room service, bed changes etc and feel it ok to treat things badly cos it is cheap and not at the same time 5

Back in the 1980s, the Hotel Euripidou was a good place to stay in Athens. Ancient, ancient grand hotel. Much luxury for little money. Of course, back then, the currency was soft and people had plenty. You couldn't find electronics, but eating and drinking? No problem.

The rooftop garden was great - you could get a frappe and watch the lumiere at the Parthenon.

Where we parked Elektra's folks wasn't bad either - tiny place in Monastiraki. Never had any complaints about the tiny pensions on Samos or Samothraki, either.

Okay, maybe one - on Samothraki, we stayed over a taverna. Only place in town. Woke up to find a sheep in the room, baaing at us.

Pet . No locks on doors.

There are definately mice, I barely see Pliny and assumed they were albino hamsters, but they have wiggley tails so definately mice

Do you get dolphins if you are signed in and albino mice if you are not, or it is the other way round, or if you look enough they change, I don't know...

I the Dmitri

Interesting the difference a decade makes, it wasn't so much cheap, less expensive, times were very different then and there wasn't plenty, people still came and were disappointed they didn't what they saw as their 'moneys worth'

We spent a week in that village during Easter break. Boy, did we get our 'money's worth'.

We walked across a field and met the guy who collected the trash - and his pony, who carried it up the mountain. We reached the museum and the trash guy's nephew came and opened it up. He let us admire the plaster cast of the Winged Victory of Samothraki. The original's in the Louvre, but they weren't angry about it.

We met a shepherd and his flocks, walked everywhere, and ate lunch once the daily boat had brought in supplies. We met the shepherd's cousin, who worked for the telephone exchange in Alexandroupolis.

The shepherd found out we hadn't had any Easter lamb, so he slaughtered a kid for us and had the taverna owner cook it. We felt bad about this - I've never had anybody sacrifice a goat to me, before or since - but took it in good part.

I only refused to eat kokoretsi - the innards - because I knew I couldn't choke it down.

Much retsina, much fun. Oh, and they told us legends about Alexander the Great's mother, but didn't know the Apostle Paul had slept there once.

Cor, I thought I had some interesting meals but no-one slaughted a goat for me

What a great week, except fot the goat

I don't recall being told legands about Alexander the Great mother either but much retsina, much fun, that rings bells

Ahhhh wonderful Greek writings! This is a series, a precious anthology. Thanks! I love these Greek writings. You folks are painting atmospheres and reminding me of everything, it is very moving...



Although all that is coming back to me are atmospheres, the chronology and details are a blur. The light of course, the feel of the dusty heat, the smell of herbs in the early morning, sleeping on beaches and on the decks of ferries, and Athens ah yes, seeing the acropolis for the first time, sleeping on the grass outside the old airport.

Waking on the beach, using my pack as a pillow, a little dog trotting away, having just lifted its leg on aforementioned pillow , and waking outside in a forest, with a herd of cri cri staring at me. What were the cri cri? Were they antelope? All I remember is someone saying cri cri. . Did I dream the cri cri?

And mosquitos, I remember the bites, endless bites. One time we were in Delphi, slept outside at the camping site, woke up and couldn't open mine eyes, the lids had been bitten by mosquitos, I thought the Oracle was trying to tell me something .

All I remember about the 70s Magic Bus is travelling through the former Yugoslavia, waking to see fields of sunflowers, women in long skirts working on the land, and eating rough bread and strong cheese in a roadside stop in the early hours.

I think we also stayed in a hostel in Athens, all I remember is a black dog on a street corner, I think I might have been near death after that journey. .

I can't remember the border stops, oh no! why not? It's a blank. This is worrying to me, I shall work on it. . What has happened to my borderlines?

The most bizarre memory, which came back to me last night, ah Peanut what did you start? , I love it, ... is that when the Magic Bus got back to London, and we were dumped out in the middle of the night, I sat by myself on a bench in Victoria bus station till dawn, with my dusty pack and my dogeared copy of Hermann Hesse's Wandering. That is so weird, 1970s eh?, I must have felt safe, wouldn't do that now.

Mind you, I wouldn't do any of it now, , ah wonderful to be old .

PS haha yes! the albino hamsters aka the Pliny Almost-Random White Mice I am still obsessed. They appear when you log off, until you expect them to, then they don't. .

I just googled cri cri and I see no Greek antelope. This also worries me. .

I just had a major 70s Athens memory ... I was sitting in one of the main squares, so hot! and that light! and I realised in a very profound inner way, that being in the moment was the same as accepting the fact of my death, the transience of all things, and I felt the peculiarity of moment through all my senses.

Ah, the young searcher, , I think I need to lie down.

Thanks for the memories, and beautiful writings, special people

The similarities and differences of experiences, sleeping on beaches,the decks of ferries, the rough bread and cheese, although it was wasn't so strong, it was sheep's cheese, people working the fields. Sitting in the Square.

Doing Yoga on a cliff top, early in the morning, with my little flat cushion over looking the ocean. The coldness of a swim and the clearness of the water.

So many experiences, the people, the kindness and hospitality.

And yet I seem to have this knack of being in places when things are kicking off, the Square, a place of discontent and tensio. Oops, want to go to Bethleham, nope can't, it is shut down, 'security issues'. Going through countries as governments crumple and they move towards war

There is a side to Mirtos in Crete that is positively hair raising, one night on the beach there before I bailed I kept on thinking of The Wicker Man

So many other stories, the illegals, the dispossessed, suppressed, oppressed and exploited. The ones that fled, the seperated families

The hospitality and the kindness of these people too, the sadness, also the love and fondness and laughter.

I'll stop now, abrupt, I know, but long post

and and

That's weird, I did a cri-cri posting, but it has disappeared.

Oops! hope I haven't posted it on another thread, , someone will say who is this strange lady going on about Greek antelopes. . If you hear of this, please explain ... .

Unless my posting has been eaten by an albino hamster

Anyway, I found the cri cri! or kri-kri. The Cretan goat! Yes! It exists. Not an antelope then. I was on Crete, it seems. .

Now if I could remember who I was at the borderline ......

That's so strange, Peanut! . You just posted at the same time as me, and you mention Crete! Did we meet on a ferry perhaps? Did you see me at the borderline? Will you remind me?

Ah, incredible writing again, how similar our experience, all these details, all the jewelled fragments of memory, I am so inspired.

It is ok you post still here, a few minutes ago the whole page vanished momentarily but it came back, just glitching, don't worry

I've never been in a place when political tensions are about to erupt. I think I would be scared. I have had people begging me to take them to London, to get them out, that was weird, made me feel guilty. I'm a nervous traveller these days, get homesick five miles from home .

oh, I have definately been scared, there are things that I still haven't told my parents or would tell Hiccup yet in case she gets any ideas, I shudder when I think of where I was at her age and her being there

Tch, it was an adventure, and it does seem that I have that knack,I have put it to good use, when we have wanted to reach 'the hard to reach' I can get there

I don't have many talents but that is one and I'm sort of proud of it, without wanting to sound like I'm bigging myself up

Wow. You two have adventures. And see Cratan goats.

We always managed to miss the excitement.

Back when we were in Cologne, a colleague was thinking about accepting a job in Lebanon. He changed his mind - good thing, shortly after that, they started kidnapping people like him.

We considered moving to Nigeria. I had a gig, so Elektra went to the embassy. Met some really nice, well-dresesed, suave people. But something about those people made her nervous.

She came back and said, 'I don't want to go there. The veneer of civilisation right now is kind of thin.' We didn't go, and a revolution broke out while we were in Greece.

I can see that, Peanut luv, this way you have, it is amazing, your sensitivity towards the illegals, the dispossessed, suppressed, oppressed and exploited. The ones that fled, the separated families. And that is moving writing.

Holymoly! Elektra the psychic. That's incredible. Good change of plan. . And that's a great line, the veneer of civilisation right now is kind of thin. heheh. I might just quote you, Elektra sweetie



It's tough, the weight of the pain of the world.



We met this fellow in the sauna yesterday who was telling us about this amazing dvd he had just seen called Dalai Lama Renaissance? I think, and he was telling us about how chuckling and childlike the Dalai Lama is, and how everyone in the world just wants to be happy really, and how compassion is at the core of this, and he said the film made him cry.

I thought one interview with the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu was cool. Apparently, they tease each other all the time. They must be very dear people.

aww,cc thank you so much

I never saw a kri-kri, I am going to google to see what I missed

I can imagine the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu teasing each other