It looks very much like it is time to launch for any number of reasons:
Any one of those reasons is sufficient to justify rolling but the biggest one is that I will just rot if I stay here as I am bored out of my mind. That means lots of boredom and lots of smoking which in combination are lethal.
I have neither a sleeping bag nor a tent but Patras is the third-largest city in Greece and it is the departure port for a ferry to Brindisi in Italy. I have tried multiple times to find camping stuff in Pyrgos but have met with the same result each time. If I can't find stuff like that in Patras then I just roll with the blankets and wing it. The biggest problem won't be staying warm but rather defending against mosquitos.
The ferry to Brindisi is about sixty euros if I sleep on the deck. See above about blankets!
Concerns you all have raised:
The scooter isn't built for this and will break
The way I will be riding won't be significantly different from what I do right now in running back and forth up the highway to Pyrgos. In the U.S. I would try to cover 800-900 kilometers in a day and for this adventure I will be doing maybe ten percent of that. If the scooter breaks it will be something that would have happened anyway.
I will not drive on the Autostrada as the speed limit is 130 kph. Taking the scooter on a highway like that would be suicide.
I will get robbed and maybe murdered as a sacrifice in a satanic ritual
Perhaps so but nothing is without risk. This can be mitigated to some extent by staying in camping grounds and cheap hotels but I have very little money and it would cost too much to do either one. If you would like to ensure that I can at least take a shower once in a while, contribute to the cause!
It is better and cheaper to fly to London
Perhaps but then I have to come back. Greece has been down before and of course it recovered. It will recover again but there is nothing I can contribute to that and I don't have time to wait. The recovery will take all the longer while Greeks blame Germany for problems. Most have more sense than that but not all.
Sell the scooter and then fly
That eliminates any chance of getting another one. It is bad enough taking such a loss on the iMac as there will be no chance to replace that either.
My insurance will probably not be valid outside of Greece
Well, it's probably not useful for much in Greece either. If I'm killed in a crash then I failed in the First Biker Law (i.e. don't let the bastards hit you) and the insurance means nothing if I am dead. If my stuff is stolen it probably won't pay off in or out of Greece as it's my experience with insurance companies that they never pay off for theft. I'm down $10,000 US from the last time it happened. In short, I have no faith the insurance is good for anything anyway; it is just a piece of paper I can wave at cops.
Hobo musicians are not welcome anywhere and writers even less so
See above about nothing being without risk. As Evel Knievel said, "My death will be glorious!"
I've been in hospital rooms too many times after bike crashes when I was surrounded by people looking sympathetic. It is a nightmare and it is sure as hell no way to die.
Who's dying?
Nobody if I can help it, especially me (laughs).
This will make it impossible to ever see me again
Not true as it is extremely difficult to get to Greece from the U.S. and then there's a five-hour bus ride on top of that to get from Athens to where I am now. I couldn't be more inaccessible if I were in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
- The Internet in Greece is nothing but a source of major stress as it drops every few minutes
- Tourist towns in Greece are no more interesting than anywhere else.
- I don't care about rocks and I don't care that much about the beach.
- There is health care in the U.K. and I need it
- The VA in the U.S. lied to me previously and I have no reason to trust them now
- There is high art in France and Germany. This is the biggest reason of all. While Greece is the ancient soul of the world, that soul is in France and Germany now.
Any one of those reasons is sufficient to justify rolling but the biggest one is that I will just rot if I stay here as I am bored out of my mind. That means lots of boredom and lots of smoking which in combination are lethal.
I have neither a sleeping bag nor a tent but Patras is the third-largest city in Greece and it is the departure port for a ferry to Brindisi in Italy. I have tried multiple times to find camping stuff in Pyrgos but have met with the same result each time. If I can't find stuff like that in Patras then I just roll with the blankets and wing it. The biggest problem won't be staying warm but rather defending against mosquitos.
The ferry to Brindisi is about sixty euros if I sleep on the deck. See above about blankets!
Concerns you all have raised:
The scooter isn't built for this and will break
The way I will be riding won't be significantly different from what I do right now in running back and forth up the highway to Pyrgos. In the U.S. I would try to cover 800-900 kilometers in a day and for this adventure I will be doing maybe ten percent of that. If the scooter breaks it will be something that would have happened anyway.
I will not drive on the Autostrada as the speed limit is 130 kph. Taking the scooter on a highway like that would be suicide.
I will get robbed and maybe murdered as a sacrifice in a satanic ritual
Perhaps so but nothing is without risk. This can be mitigated to some extent by staying in camping grounds and cheap hotels but I have very little money and it would cost too much to do either one. If you would like to ensure that I can at least take a shower once in a while, contribute to the cause!
It is better and cheaper to fly to London
Perhaps but then I have to come back. Greece has been down before and of course it recovered. It will recover again but there is nothing I can contribute to that and I don't have time to wait. The recovery will take all the longer while Greeks blame Germany for problems. Most have more sense than that but not all.
Sell the scooter and then fly
That eliminates any chance of getting another one. It is bad enough taking such a loss on the iMac as there will be no chance to replace that either.
My insurance will probably not be valid outside of Greece
Well, it's probably not useful for much in Greece either. If I'm killed in a crash then I failed in the First Biker Law (i.e. don't let the bastards hit you) and the insurance means nothing if I am dead. If my stuff is stolen it probably won't pay off in or out of Greece as it's my experience with insurance companies that they never pay off for theft. I'm down $10,000 US from the last time it happened. In short, I have no faith the insurance is good for anything anyway; it is just a piece of paper I can wave at cops.
Hobo musicians are not welcome anywhere and writers even less so
See above about nothing being without risk. As Evel Knievel said, "My death will be glorious!"
I've been in hospital rooms too many times after bike crashes when I was surrounded by people looking sympathetic. It is a nightmare and it is sure as hell no way to die.
Who's dying?
Nobody if I can help it, especially me (laughs).
This will make it impossible to ever see me again
Not true as it is extremely difficult to get to Greece from the U.S. and then there's a five-hour bus ride on top of that to get from Athens to where I am now. I couldn't be more inaccessible if I were in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
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