Since the age of nineteen when I first encountered Greek myths, I wanted to visit the land of King Oedipus, but the possibility always seemed remote until recently when I lost my job and found myself with unlimited free time. My purpose in going was to bring myself closer to the myths of our civilization, to grasp a deeper understanding of the forces working within our society. According to Thornton Wilder: 

... myth-making is one of the means whereby the generalized truths of human knowledge finds expression and particularly the disavowed impulses of the mind escape the ‘censor’ of acquired social control and find their way into indirect confession. Myths constitute the dreaming subconscious soul of the race telling its story.[1]

In the same spirit, I was building a personal mythology that I hoped would lead to a recognition and deeper understanding of the truths of my own life. I wanted to use the Greek myths as a catalyst to precipitate truth from confrontation. I went alone to Greece to confront myself with the ruins of my own past.

I had a little money stashed and enough frequent-flyer mileage for a free ticket to Greece. I also knew I couldn’t afford to go through a travel agency, but then I wasn’t looking for the usual tourist fast-in-and-fast-out cruise. I would be on my own. I looked into the feasibility of going to Greece as a traveler instead of a tourist and picked up a copy of Let’s Go: Greece & Turkey to estimate expenses. I learned it was possible to spend two and one half months in Greece for $35 a day or right at $2,500. Instead of selecting a couple of places to spend my days, I decided on an odyssey about the Greek mainland and islands, even to the western coast of Turkey. I couldn’t afford a rental car and would use the public transportation system instead, buses, trains and ferries, to get from city to city and island to island. I read travel guides and the recently published Balkan Ghosts by Robert D. Kaplan on the history and politics of the region.

I wanted to carry my own weight during my journey, and to me that meant more than my backpack. I hired a tutor and bought a stack of books, many more than I needed, and dived into the language, Ellhnika, modern Greek. I had several months to prepare for my trip because I couldn’t use my frequent-flyer mileage during the summer months and scheduled my departure for the 1st of October. I went without hotel reservations, trusting to luck to find accommodations.

I dislike heavy luggage and opted for a travel pack, a combination backpack and suitcase with a zip-off daypack which I promptly overloaded trying to satisfy all contingencies. I was traveling the off-season during the months of October, November and early December and would experience both hot and cold weather. I took a security pouch not so much to prevent the theft of my passport, international drivers license, travelers checks and return airline ticket as to provide a safe place for those valuables, to isolate them from my own idiocy and absentmindedness. I tied it around my neck and only took it off to shower.