Adventure #15: Sharon, CT (Days 3 and 4)

Adventure #15: Sharon, CT (Days 3 and 4)

I woke up early in my linen closet Thursday morning and decided to go hiking. We headed down to Lion's Head Peak which was just outside the center of town. The path took me through the a few people's farms which is always a little strange. “Hello, I'm just wandering through your back yard. Pay no attention to me!” On the way we passed by a big fence labeled “US Boundary.” My best theory is that there's a wormhole in northwestern Connecticut that leapfrogs Massachusetts and Vermont and lands you right at the Canadian border. Neat. This is Pen Pen clandestinely entering Canada.

The mountain was much more wooded than the paths around Papingo. Trees sprouted up through the rocks and roots grew over them. I can only assume Guilemo Del Toro uses it as his research material. I had to be back at the theatre in the afternoon, so after I reached the peak, We headed back down and got lunch. This is Pen Pen being attacked by the roots which guard the peak.

There's basically no food in Sharon. There are farms everywhere, but there are maybe 3 restaurants. All of them have only token vegetarian options. I've consumed enough eggplant parm in my life that I can probably die happy never having it again. As such I've been living on gas station egg salad sandwiches. As of yet, the microscopic worms have not made me able to play the holophonor, but I think it takes a few days for that to kick in. Only time will tell. This is Pen Pen feasting on the best the gas station has to offer.

We headed back out during dinner break, having seen a sign for the Mohawk Trail earlier. The trail went from the side of Route 4 up to a peak then back down to another highway. This is the shortcut the Mohawks used to ambush Connecticut settlers in their unnecessary SUVs. On the way, We passed over a babbling brook. My hopes were briefly up for an Indiana Jones bridge, but there was no bridge of any kind; Indiana Jones or otherwise. This is Pen Pen sad to realize he has no use for a fedora or whip on this adventure.

On the drive home that night, I noticed a sign advertising boat rentals on the lake. So the next morning I got up and decided to investigate. There were a few sail boats docked, but they had only motor boats for rent, so I declined. As an avid dinosaur aficionado, I try to avoid burning their bones when not necessary. Instead I had breakfast at the tiny restaurant near the boat house and read for a bit. This is Pen Pen contemplating just stealing a boat.

The show opened, and there was a late night of drinking and talking UConn with Ed. Saturday morning I said goodbye to my linen closet, and got on the road to head back to New York. On the way, I passed by a farm that had blueberry picking. Visions of blueberry pancakes danced in my head, so I pulled over. Sometimes I forget that I look kind of strange, and it took me a little while to put together why the older woman in the little trailer was so uneasy letting me loose in her fields. I guess she doesn't get many 6'1” punks with pink mohawks, orange nails, and stuffed penguins picking blueberries at 9 in the morning on a Saturday. Her loss. This is Pen Pen being a gathering type of hunter gatherer.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Nathan Leigh - The Record Goes On by keroscenerecords

Adventure #14: Sharon, CT (Days 1 and 2)

Adventure #14: Sharon, CT (Days 1 and 2)

Duchess County in Connecticut is a really beautiful place. It's located in the Berkshire mountains, surrounded by forests, big open farmland, and rivers. The Appalachian Trail runs through it. There's lots of hiking, scenic vistas, antique shops, and general quaint New Englandisms everywhere. There's also basically nothing to do there when it's raining. Which it was. So as soon as I got in, checked in with everyone in with whom I needed to check, and got everything ready for tech, I hopped in the car and headed to New Haven to meet up with Rosy, Matt, and Ally. This is Pen Pen briefly contemplating hiking the Appalachian Trail before the rain hit.

We met up with Rosy, Matt and Ally, and headed to a tapas restaurant called “Push200.” This restaurant is significant because it's the first fine dining establishment to be named after a late 90's pop-punk band. And Sum41's B&B doesn't count. Their wine selection is a joke. This is Pen Pen being fed goat cheese by Ally, while Matt pretends not to be jealous.

Afterwards we headed over to Brown Bear, which I've been told is where drunk girls go to get in bar fights. There were no bar fights. We played trivia and lost horribly. Although we were all proud that our random guess that Tim Roth played Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs was right. Go us! After 2 humiliating rounds, we decided to go up to Sullivan's where Ethan's birthday was going on. Familiar faces abounded. It turns out I know pretty much the entire incoming class of grad students at Yale. So that's cool. This is Pen Pen wishing Ethan a very special Birthday.

Rosy and I drove back up to Sharon, and barely got lost at all. The next morning I had to take Rosy to the train station so she could go back to New York City. We drove past a few dilapidated buildings and abandoned farms. We found one that had once been a rather prosperous farm, but had caught fire and been abandoned at some point. Or the other way around. The family that owned the land had built a small ranch house on the property and put one of those inflatable blue plastic WalMart pools out back while the ruins of the large farm sat boarded up and overgrown mere feet away. Trees grew out of the front door. It was pretty awesome. This is Pen Pen pretty sure no-one's home.

After a breakfast at a quintissentially small town American diner, I dropped Rosy off and headed back to the theatre for a long day of rehearsal. I headed back to the lake house where I'm staying, hoping the weather would improve in the morning so I could explore some of the mountain trails I've been seeing signs for. This is Pen Pen trying to decide if our room was originally the Servant's Quarters or a linen closet.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Esquivalience by nathanleigh

Adventure #13: The Journey from Aegina to Brooklyn

Adventure #13: The Journey from Aegina to Brooklyn

The last ferry from Aegina to Athens leaves at 9pm. It's called a “flying dolphin.” It looks nothing like a dolphin, but does sort of fly on these little pontoons. It's not a very luxurious ride. The interior looks more like an airplane than a ferry, but it's fast. So that's good. Or at least it would be if you had anywhere to be at a specific time. Our flight didn't leave for 10 hours. This is Pen Pen gazing out the porthole at Aegina one last time.

We got back to Athens with 2 hours left before the trains stopped running, and 9 hours before our flight. We didn't see any point in getting a hotel to sleep for 3 hours, and our experience with the Athens cab drivers 3 nights before had left us soured on the idea of taking a cab. So we found a small cafe at Monostraki looking out over the square. They were out of Tsipouro, so we decided maybe indigenous ouzo isn't as bad as it is in the States, and got a bottle. It's not as bad as it is in the States. It's not good. But it's not as bad as I remember it. This is Pen Pen surprised at how palatable ouzo can be.

We left right in time to catch the last train to the airport. Which was a total wasteland. The few people that were there were sleeping in clumps with their bags as pillows as if it were Eugene, Oregon. This is Pen Pen being a hobo.

Despite arriving 7 hours early and camping out at the check-in counter, we still managed to make it to the plane just in time to board. Turkish Airways: We Are Massively Understaffed. The guy who took our ticket drove the shuttle from the gate to the plane. The flight to Istanbul was short and painless. Unlike our layover. This is Pen Pen at an empty information booth.

On the way over, Rosy and I were talking about how much fun it would be to stop in Istanbul and just wander around even if only for a few minutes. We had a little more than a 2 hour layover. It's the EU so customs wouldn't be a big deal. The Istanbul Airport had a better idea, however. We started off in the customs line, which moved one person every 5 minutes or so. We got to the customs line and were told we couldn't enter without a visa. There goes that idea. Still time to wander around the airport though. He said we needed to go to the transfers line up and to the right. We got there and were told our passports needed to be checked, so we needed to go to that line. The guy said it would take 5 minutes. We've been in Istanbul for barely an hour now and have moved about 100 feet from the gate. The passport checking line for transfering flights was short. And slow moving. We made it to the first check point, where they looked at our passports, asked a few questions and put a sticker on the back. Then we were told to wait in another line to have our travel info entered into the computer. At this point our plane had started boarding. After another 45 minutes, our plane was at its final boarding call. There were still 6 people ahead of us. We finally made it through, ran through the terminal to our gate, and waited in another security line. Then another to x-ray our bags, then one final line to verify our boarding passes. I'm not making any of this up. We got on the plane, and promptly sat next to a couple with a screaming baby. This is Pen Pen listening to Minor Threat to drown out the noise.

Eventually the baby stopped crying. They brought out the first meal, which was actually half decent. And we were sitting in the front row of a section so we had tons of leg room. They had a good selection of movies, and the little screen console thing pulled out like the nav console in Next Gen. Bonus points for that. As far as flights go, it wasn't so bad. That's a lot like saying the root canal wasn't nearly as painful as I was expecting, but it could have been worse. Certainly Turkish Airline's handling of security set us up to expect the worst. This is Pen Pen enjoying some serious leg room.

11 hours later and we were back in New York. Despite having to perform 2 more emergency operations on Aegina, my bag had survived. It was one of the first to come out. Rosys was not. We waited. And waited. Luckily our experience in Istanbul had prepared us for waiting. We were now Olympic class waiters. We could even hold our own against Eastern European Communists waiting for bread. We were that good. The thing stopped moving. No more bags came out. Waiting turned into annoyance turned into filling out some missing luggage paperwork. They said we'd have it tomorrow. It was around 3pm New York time. 10pm Greek time. We'd been travelling for 25 hours. And barely slept. We begrudgingly accepted the situation with a handful of mumbles and blank stares, and made our way to the subway. This is Pen Pen waiting for an A train to go home to Brooklyn.

Epilogue.

The first thing that happened when I got off the train was this:

A man who looked and sounded like today was the first day of his life not spent on Staten Island came up to me. He said “hey.” I looked at him blankly, having gotten 3 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, and said something to the effect of “uh. Yeah. Hi?” And kept walking.

He said “don't worry. I'm not asking for money. I've got some.” With all the wit of Oscar Wilde and the insight of Gore Vidal I replied “uh. ok.” And kept walking.

He said “Do you know what's going on tonight? Any parties? I got a pocket full of cash, and I'm down for whatever.” I pretended not to understand English and kept going. Oh Brooklyn. You never cease to amaze me. Just when I was wondering how I could possibly keep this blog going in the States...

Next week I journey to the wild wasteland of Connecticut. Stay tuned.

This is Pen Pen with his new friend the statue.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Liberty Lulu by The Androgynous Androids

Adventure #12: 2 Days in Aegina

Adventure #12: 2 Days in Aegina

The preferred method of transportation on Aegina is moped. So our first day we rented a little knockoff Vespa and explored the island. The island is small, but by moped circumnavigation takes a little while. I'm fairly certain it has something to do with relativistic speeds. For instance, our travel was fast relative to rocks. We generally stuck to the shore road, passing small beaches, pistachio fields, and the occasional ancient ruin. This is Pen Pen riding a moped.

After driving for an hour, we ended up in a town called Aegina Marina on the other side of the island from Aegina Town. They name things very creatively here. We stopped off, parked the Scooty Puff Jr. and went looking for a beach. The one we found was crowded but beautiful. The water was perfectly clear and you could see all the way to the bottom. This is Pen Pen at the beach.

We decided to explore the village. I bought a pair of preposterous sun glasses. They were a cheap Diesel knockoff that a street vendor would be embarrassed to sell on Canal St. They're fantastic. Hungry, we stumbled on a Greek pizza place run by a British woman. I don't understand it either. Greek pizza, as best I can tell, is deep dish with little to no sauce. It was very tasty. This is Pen Pen eating British Greek Italian Pizza.

We hopped back on the Scooty Puff Jr. and explored the island some more. We drove over a small mountain, topped with the ruin of an ancient temple. The road was winding, and I didn't see an obvious path to explore, so we kept going. It looked cool though. After a while following the course of “that road has a sign! Let's go that way,” we ended up on top of another mountain. This time the road took a 45 degree downward slope. Moped don't play that. We headed back the way we came. This is Pen Pen staring out over Aegina wondering why the hell we took this route.

The SPJ was due back at 8, so we headed back. With a short detour to another beach at Aeginitissa. There they go with those creative names again. Apparently one of Bob Marley's lesser sons played there on Sunday. Good for him! Back at Aegina Town, we found a small restaurant on the water and had a fried cheese dish called Saganaki. Also a bottle of Tsipouro. I know technically Ouzo is the thing to drink on the islands, but it's just terrible. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you a bottle of ouzo. On the way back to the hotel, we passed by a little candy shop and got some chocolate mousse. Day 2 of vacation: win. This is Pen Pen eating mousse.

Our second day was shorter. We had exhausted many of our funds on the moped excursion of the day before, so we decided to keep it small and explore the village. We started off exploring the ruins of ancient Aegina. The original city was occupied from 4000 BC to 1000 AD before being abandoned. Not bad. This is Pen Pen at the Temple of Apollo.

The ruins were still being excavated by archaeologists, so we watched them working for a bit. One found an ancient coin while sifting through some dirt. In one fell swoop, he tossed an artifact worth more than all the money I will see in my lifetime in a bucket with the same grace and respect I show my laundry as I toss it in the bag. This is Pen Pen watching the archaeologists work.

We headed into the Archaeological museum which had some amazing artifacts. But mostly it was just water jugs. Not that they're not impressive, but I've seen probably a thousand ancient water jugs in the past week. I can't help but wonder if people in 2000 years will find my discarded Fanta bottles fascinating. The docent was friendly, so we didn't try to take any pictures we shouldn't be taking. Also he had 1920's body builder facial hair. It was intimidating. As we left, we came across the ruins of an ancient Jewish Synagogue, which was pretty cool. This is Pen Pen complaining about how hard it is to get a minyan together in ancient Aegina.

We wandered around the town for a few hours trying to find a birthday present for my nephew. In our wanderings, we stumbled upon an old tower, which at one point had been the Parliament building for the Greek government. Now it's the home to a sculpture court and some anti-authoritarian graffiti. This is Pen Pen being devoured by a Minotaur.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. I went swimming and noticed that the rocks under me were distinctly horizontal. There was an ancient wall under the water where I was swimming. How cool. This is Pen Pen sitting at the beach wearing preposterous sun glasses.

With a few hours left before our ferry left Aegina, we headed to a taverna and shared a bottle of Tsipouro and watched the sun set over the sea. Day 3 of vacation: total win. This is Pen Pen reminiscing about his trip to Aegina.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Spinning by nathanleigh

Adventure #11: Causing Trouble In Athens

Adventure #11: Causing Trouble In Athens

We woke up early and headed up to the roof for breakfast. The elements were the same as a tasty Dias breakfast, but with a special “cheap city hotel” twist. Sliced white bread instead of bread baked locally that morning. “Happy Cow” cheese instead of Laughing Cow. The Metropolous does get points for the view though. Dias' is lovely. You can see the rock streets of the village, some of the gorge, and the mountains in the background. At The Metropolous, you can see the frickin' Acropolis. This is Pen Pen in front of the frickin' Acropolis.

After breakfast we packed up our things and headed to the frickin' Acropolis. We got a little lost on the way, but made it just as the crowds were beginning to get heavy. Once you realize that the congestion isn't because of the crowds, but is in fact because of the tours, it's easy to push on through. All the buildings were roped off since the whole complex is being restored. But still it was pretty awesome, in both the “dude, how cool?” and the biblical sense. This is Pen Pen in front of the seat of western democracy.

Having successfully taken part in the Parthenon, we decided to find the Theatre of Dionysus. We could see it from the mount, but there weren't a lot of people there, and no obvious path. We walked down the mountain, and saw a little road on the right. We walked through and headed around the mountain. The road was nearly empty, but the few people wandering made us think it was probably allowed. We saw a series of caves, which according to the sign, had been the original temple of Zeus 3000 years ago. There were no statues, no monuments, and no ropes. This is Pen Pen surveying the local wildlife.

As we continued along the road, we passed by several other sacred caves that were again not roped off. It wasn't until the 3^rd or 4^th off-road adventure that someone finally told us we weren't allowed to stray from the road. Oops. There were also various doors in the wall that had been sealed or blocked. All the cool doors are always locked. We finally found the theatre, which was in ruins. In school, when they show you pictures of The Greek Theatre it's always of some of the few surviving theatres, or reconstructions. The Original Greek Theatre itself, The OG we'll call it, was only found about 100 years ago. This is Pen Pen watching Sophoclese's classic tragedy of teenage love and loss, Grease.

We walked up again to the exit, and passed by some more locked doors and roped off areas. All of which looked really cool. We tried to get a picture on a column. But got yelled at. In the docent's defense, there was a scorpion on the column, so maybe that's what she was objecting to. But she did yell at other people who were doing the same on other columns. Perhaps there are scorpions on all of them. This is Pen Pen on an ancient (not roped off) column anyway.

The docents in Athens come in two shapes and sizes:

1. Bored attractive blond girls texting under umbrellas, who only look up every once in a while to tell you you shouldn't be there, but generally are content to leave you alone
2. Grumpy old men who take their jobs way too seriously, and watch like a hawk.

We got yelled by both types. I'm thinking perhaps they should post some rules somewhere. This is Pen Pen in the Ancient Agora probably breaking some rules.

Once we'd acropolized the Acropolis, we headed up to the Archaeological museum. Our goal was to get all the touristy Athens stuff out of the way on the first day. We got a little turned around on the subway because one of the lines wasn't running, but made it there in about as much time as it would have taken to walk. The walls of the buildings were covered in graffiti, both ancient and modern. This is Pen Pen in front of the writings of the ancient punk rocker Ioanni Rottenous.

The Archaeological Museum is pretty amazing. Basically everything you've ever seen in a text book about ancient Greece is right there in front of you. We found the Antikethera Device and tried to get a picture. Oldest computer in the world, Penguins are the symbol of Linux. The joke writes itself. This is where the Grumpy Old Man Docent came in. We tried to take a photo of the device. He came over and told us no photos were allowed. I couldn't figure out what he meant. Other people were photographing the device. His accent was thick and his English was poor. He spent the rest of the time we were in the room following us. Let me clear something up. I have a deep respect for Greek history. And ancient history in general. This is how I show my appreciation. We're not hooligans. Well maybe we are hooligans, but this is all in good fun. Dejected, we left the room. We came back later after finishing the rest of the Museum. He followed us again. We got yelled at. With arm waiving. The picture came out terrible, but in defiance of Grumpy Old Man Docent, I'm posting it anyway. This is Pen Pen compiling a Linux kernel on the Device.

Partially victorious, we headed off to lunch. We found a vegetarian restaurant nearby, and had tasty tofu kebabs. We stopped back at the hotel, picked up our stuff, and headed to the ferries. The ferry to Aegina was short, cheap, and comfortable. This is Pen Pen, king of the world.

We were supposed to stay in the Hotel Elektra, but when we got there, no-one was at the desk. We waited for 20 minutes then decided to try another hotel. We ended up at the Marmarinos down the street. It was cheaper anyway, and they were very friendly. We checked in, and then headed off to dinner on the beach. When I say “on the beach” I mean literally on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The water washed against the legs of the table. I can't tell if the food was any good, because holy crap we were ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. Day 1 of Vacation: total win. This is Pen Pen having the best vacation ever.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

We'll Take A Holiday by nathanleigh

Adventure #10: Micro Papingo to Athens

Adventure #10: Micro Papingo to Athens

Our bus was leaving at 5. So we all gathered at the house for one final meeting about this summer and next and how to plan the next development retreat. We did actually do a lot of work this week. I just wrote about the fun stuff because it's hard to write irreverent stories about thoughtful analysis of plays from the point of view of a stuffed penguin. I tried. Honestly, I did. This is Pen Pen sitting on the ledge enjoying one last Mythos before we left Papingo.

There were many tearful goodbyes at the house. James and Ianthe took me, Rosy, Pen Pen, SJ, Danny, Nick, Bjorn, and Brian down to Ioananananananana. As I closed up my bag the last time, several of the teeth on the zipper snapped off. I was not pleased. I got this bag from the Delatizkys for my Bar Mitzvah. It's gone more places than Pen Pen. I fixed it up quickly and hoped for the best. We got to Ionanananananananaana and said goodbye to James and Ianthe. This is Pen Pen fighting back tears as he says goodbye to James.

At Ionanananananananananananananana, we waited for the bus. Outside, an ice delivery truck showed up bringing an unexpected love interest for Pen Pen. Alas, it was not to be. She was Greek Orthodox, and her family would never accept a Jewish penguin. This is Pen Pen staring forlorn at his love.

The bus ride was long, but painless, and quite beautiful. I wrote a little bit of this crazy Orpheus adaptation I've been thinking about, and Rosy napped. Danny acted as our defacto tour guide, pointing out the cool buildings and structures we passed. We crossed a giant white bridge over the sea. Danny told us it was built for the Olympics. Before there were just ferries. The coast was dotted with ancient ruins of coastal fortresses. Someday I will have to come here and explore. This is Pen Pen staring out at the sea.

When we got to Athens it was close to midnight. Brian took his own cab. Rosy, Danny, Nick, SJ, Bjorn, Pen Pen and I headed to the hotel. Danny, Nick, and SJ took one cab, and the rest of us headed in another behind them. The rest of us being the half of the group that spoke little to no Greek and had never really been to Athens before. I had heard you're supposed to make sure the cab driver turns on the meter, or else he'll make up a price and rip you off. When we got in the cab, I told him to turn on the meter. He turned on the overhead light. Obviously he spoke enough English to know what “turn on” meant. We sighed with the knowledge that we were going to get scammed, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. 20 Euros later, we got to the hotel and Danny asked a cop nearby. He confirmed. We got ripped off. Le sigh. Most of the group was leaving in the morning, but Rosy and I are sticking around for a few more days for further adventuring. Thus ends the One Year Lease 2010 Papingo retreat. We headed up to our tiny tiny room, and tried to repair my bag. This is Pen Pen sewing over the zipper.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Glitch by nathanleigh

Adventure #9: Micro Papingo (Last Day)

Adventure #9: Micro Papingo (Last Day)

I woke up to the startling realization that I only had one sock remaining. My best theory involves the packs of wild kittens that roam this hotel. So we headed up to the house and did laundry. This is Pen Pen hanging up clothes to dry.

We spent the morning having a bunch of end-of-summer meetings and discussions. After lunch, Rosy and I decided to try and find the “Indiana Jones Bridge” once and for all. So we followed Brian's directions, which basically amounted to “I'm pretty sure, you go down that way, and then walk towards the gorge. But I don't remember.” This is Pen Pen going “down that way.”

The path was narrow. We walked single file. It occasionally opened up into rock scrambles, or open fields. Every time we were unsure of the way though, the path would veer back towards the gorge and down some clearly man-made stairs. That was very convenient of the path. Very thoughtful. This is Pen Pen walking down the stairs.

For maybe the first time all week, our adventure didn't involve any sort of getting lost. We continued down one path, until we found a small very old sign that said “Megalo” with an arrow pointing the way we were headed. We still weren't positive this was the way to the Indiana Jones Bridge, but at the very least we knew we weren't lost. After another 10 minutes we could hear the water babbling. Odds are good we'd have to cross over said water to get to Megalo. This would necessitate some sort of bridge. Possibly one of the Indiana Jones variety. This is Pen Pen on the trail.

The Indiana Jones Bridge itself was ultimately slightly anti-climactic after The Cliffs Of Insanity. Don't get me wrong. It was pretty cool. Handmade of wood. Definitely old and rickety. Good use of vines. But when you have to strain yourself to go under it in order to get a picture, it's a little underwhelming. While there was a chance that the bridge could snap, the worst that would happen is a little scrape and maybe getting somewhat damp. It was a nice bridge though. Scaled for Pen Pen's height though, it's maybe a little intimidating. This is Pen Pen slowly crossing the bridge, terrified.

We walked back quickly to get to the last end-of-summer meeting. The company was up at The 1700, which is basically a swank trashy urban European bar transported into the middle of rustic Micro Papingo. Having come in straight from a hike, I felt woefully under dressed. It's the sort of place that plays trance and new age mixes of the great works of classical music. Also mashups of Billy Jean and Kelis' Milkshake. I found that deeply offensive. This is Pen Pen wondering what Erik Satie ever did to deserve this.

After the meeting, we all went back down to Megalo. I'm going to miss this place. I'm not going to miss walking up and down the mountain 2 miles every day at least once from Micro Papingo to Megalo Papingo and back. The apprentices had their final performance in the town square. We ran into James, Mike, and Amanda who were at the waffle place. Because tiny villages in the northern mountains of Greece need waffle places. Actually, yes, yes they do. This is Pen Pen eating waffles.

While the apprentices were setting up, we headed down to Nicko's for a little game of giant chess. Rosy has only played a few times, and I'm not very good, so the match was pretty tense. We even gathered a small audience. This is Pen Pen feeling like a pawn in some sort of game.

The whole village showed up for the performance, and it was very well received. They incorporated some of the local girls into it. After the show, we all went down to Spiro's for a giant farewell feast. The Tzatziki sauce was the best we've had so far. Which is saying a lot. We capped the feast with a few pitchers of Tsipouro. Needless to say, my memory of the events that followed gets a little blurry. This is Pen Pen enjoying a tasty after dinner aperatif.

Here's a rough guess of the events that followed: walking back up to Micro Papingo, night swimming, lying down in the middle of the road gazing at the stars, hunting triceratops, playing with a frog, lounging on Ianthe's porch, talking in French, talking in Russian, hiking to Albania, stealing, and then losing Rosy's Flaming Lips shirt, probably other stuff. This is Pen Pen at the swimming hole, wearing practically nothing.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Don't Blame Me I Voted For Kodos by A Thousand Ships