Five or six days have passed, and the days on Ios have blurred together in the way island days tend to do. I will try to put the pieces back in order. On the ferry over I met two Swedish travellers, Kishden and Maria, who were easy company from the start. We all decided to stay at Far Out, the campsite where Ana was staying, and I ended up in a bungalow that became more crowded than planned but pleasantly inexpensive.

I have been travelling far too much lately, I think. I am ready to take it easy, sit back with a few margaritas, and relax. I am getting more tanned, though, at least on my arms. On the morning of the 30th, I worked out how to get to Ios, which is a long way away. BJ, whom I had met in Rome, happened upon me while I was eating breakfast with another traveller. We hired two sea kayaks and went out on the water for a few hours. Nothing too interesting, except for some of the clearest water I have EVER seen! It was quite amazing. We met a group of Australians on a rock out in the water. I waited around a little longer, then caught the 6:15 bus to Corfu’s main bus station and continued to Athens. The bus …

Unfortunately, not much has happened in the last couple of days. So, let’s see: what on earth is going on? My last entry was from the train from Zurich to Milan. In Milan I jumped on a train to Bologna, only to discover that I needed a reservation. Oops! The conductor was frustrated and scolded me in Italian. She eventually said, "I’ll let you pass this time," or something like that, since I only had 9 euros and the ticket cost 16. Never again will I jump on a Eurostar train without checking; it was not worth the hassle. I ended up in Bologna, checked my email, wrote long messages to everybody, and eventually caught a rough night train south. The train was not comfortable, but it went to …