As I write this I have just moved tables to (hopefully) avoid being swarmed by endless mosquitos. I’m in a campsite on the coast a couple of days away from Turkey.
I woke around 7 this morning. I packed and left around 8:20, having bought some snacks. The morning cycling was good vibes. I cycled along quiet roads at first by the sea and later through fields between mountains. Parts of it even reminded me of the UK or France. Among the things I saw were a giant statue of a lion, endless fields of dead, blackened sunflower, and lots of places making those tiny, memorial churches which line the edge of every Greek road.
It was mostly flat for the first half of the day. I stopped in a town and bought some snacks from a supermarket. I had been running on a spanakopita from the morning. After this town I began to climb for a while, sweating in the heat. This went on until 13:50 when I reached the top of the hill. The downhill section was winding and short, but beautiful and fast.
I’ve been in a good mood most of today. I’m sure my grieving isn’t over but today, for the first time in a while, I felt more excited for my future, than sadly nostalgic for the past. There’s so much I can do with it. I spent most of the day listening to Lustrum (by Robert Harris) or R.E.M.
After the downhill it was flat main roads, followed by 30km of flat-ish, almost completely straight roads through disappointing farming and industrial national park. I was cycling against the wind and this took a while. At last I reached the campsite around 6. I relaxed for a while, cooling down from the day, then put up my tent.
Soon I went for a “swim” in the sea – around 19:30. I didn’t do much swimming as the bay remained ankle deep for many hundreds of meters. Afterwards I took a hot shower and found myself singing. I guess I must be happy today. After the shower I came to the campsite restaurant. As I have relayed, I had to abandon my first table after I was swarmed by midges – the deet did nothing. They drowned in my beer and coated my table cloth.
The next table was better. I ate a tasty bass and tzatziki, then wrote this.
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