Day: 29

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So I was a naysayer…

I though it would be interesting to see this eclipse, but I never imagined something like this. It was amazing, the world went completely black and you could stare strait at the sun and see this brilliant circular flare, my pictures can never do it justice, even if I had the $7,000 lens needed to get the greatest picture. I’ll tell you now, if you ever get a chance to see this celestial event I suggest you do your damnedest to get there. I’m sorry I don’t have the technical know-how to get you all better pictures but you can try NASA’s website. I even kind of understand the “Eclipse-Chasers” that I gave such a hard time to yesterday.

Our bus left the hostel at 11am and after a 45minute ride and a 20 minute hike we (8 of us, me being the only American) made it to the Chimera (see yesterday for details) and grabbed a great spot under a tree to wait for the moon to start to block out the sun. It slowly moved over the course of an hour and then for 3 ½ minutes the entire world went dark and all anyone could look at was the sun. I don’t know about spiritual, but it was a hell of a thrill, it got every ones adrenaline pumping and smiles on the faces of every single person around. I could image nothing like it until I saw it for the first time, every minute of “Traveling Hell” was worth it for that short pay off.

At 3:30pm the bus took us back to the treehouses and I went to work trying to see what kind of pictures I got (the best of anyone around here, but still disappointing to me), and get a couple of entries for my blog ready.

I have decided to head out tomorrow on a three-night cruise around the southern coast of Turkey. It stops on all kinds of islands, towns and historic sights, so I hope these pictures will suffice for those of you disappointed in missing the Greek islands. I got a great deal to because they need to fill the boat last minute and they gave me the cruise for about 40 percent less than what a couple of others around here paid, but as a courtesy to the tour company they asked that I not tell the other passengers I paid only 150 lire (about $110) instead of the 150 Euro (about $180) they paid. If that is the only obstacle to getting a great deal, I can live with keeping my mouth shut (except on the world wide web). I leave tomorrow in the morning and I doubt the boat will have a connection so you all will be without new entries for the next 3 or 4 days. Sunday afternoon I should be in a city and should be able to get up the missing entries for the whole cruise and all the pictures I have backed up since Athens. If you really need more Rob, try going back and read up on any entries you may have skipped or skimmed over, and leave me comments on them to keep me motivated.

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