White Pepper Visits Greece

Jan and I are docked quay-side in the town of Preveza--a sailing center of the Ionian islands in western Greece. We are on yacht Zubenel owned by friend Philip Emmanuael.

Tabepenas stretch up and down the quay as far as the eye can see--each one more quaint and inviting than the next. (Translation of tabepens--letters b and v are equivalent in Cyrillic, p is rho which is r in Latin; hence, taverns).

But first let me tell you why I absolultely loathe Continental Airlines......., then we arrived 5 hours late, got into bed at 5 am on the second day of no sleep, and the bags are still have not gotten here 3 days later.

My first impression of Greece is how fair and blond many of the locals are. I guess that these may be the genetic remnants of Homer's "he of the flaxen-haired, blue-eyed Hellenes" some 3000 years ago. Also the young people are mostly thin, so unlike South Texas. They do smoke cigarettes, but they also walk endlessly up and down the quay, often arm in arm.

From the quay I can gaze across the small sound to a small sand spit that the locals call Actio. It was in the waters on the other side of the spit that the battle of Actium was fought 2041 years ago. Readers may recall that this battle settled the matter of Anthony and Cleopatra vs. Augustus in the favor of Mr. Augustus. The asp came later. The scene today is so quiet and mild that it seem difficult to imagine the violence and chaos of that day so long ago.

Once the bags arrive and after some yacht supplies arrive we will push off to the south to cruise some of the islands of the Ionian sea. I explained about the bags but the yacht supplies have been delayed by strikes--that's Greece.