I woke up to my first morning back in Canada

after 3 months in Europe, mostly Greece,
with a new left hip (hooray!!!)
and no longer walking with a cane.

But the headline awaiting me outside my hotel room in Vancouver

on that, my first morning back,
was portentous of a mighty wave a-comin'
for those with eyes to see,
discerning minds to strip away the spin,
and hearts to feel.

Since I have spoken of these matters before

In both poetry and prose,
I will not comment further on this now

except to say:

What has happened in Greece and happens now in several other countries,
will begin in the rest of the world too - even countries, like Canada, that have felt immune.

black-line-divider-clipart-divider-clip-art-9000_2500.jpg

So, my 3 month visa having expired

I reluctantly left my adopted home in Loutraki, Greece

which is only an hour or so from Athens and not far at all from Old Corinth

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My flight from Athens to Montreal was uneventful,

filled comfortably with 2 good meals and 4 recent movies (as I have said before, I like to suffer in comfort!).

The lay over in Montreal was just long enough to grab some Montreal smoked meat sandwiches,

a beer, and change euros back in to dollars.

And off to Vancouver (about a 6 hour flight across three time zones)

Vancouver airport is magnificent, full of stunning West Coast art:

Although I would have liked to stay at the hotel at the airport,

it was already late evening and I had been traveling for many hours since leaving Athens,
there was only one room left, the Presidential suite. Since that was over $1,500,
I wasn't feeling very presidential and went looking for something more fit for a commoner.

But Vancouver is a very expensive city and even miles from the airport the cheapest room

for the night which I could find was still $300. By this time I was ready to pay that "princely" sum anyway just to get some sleep before an early morning flight to Terrace - many kilometers north.

At $300 the room was adequate

but nothing special - although I did get the "free" newspaper in the first photo way above :-)

The flight to Terrace from Vancouver is usually by turbo prop,

but this time I lucked out and was on a jet (thus shaving some time off of the usual 2 1/2 hour flight)

A lift by one friend, from the airport to another friend's house

where I had left my car parked unobtrusively up against a high hedge in his backyard, and I was back in business - or so I thought. But when I re-connected the battery and made my entry into the vehicle I immediately realized that I had forgotten to close the window which was up against the hedge. My poor car was full of spiders and creepy crawleys and twigs and leaves and such lol.

During my last three or four weeks in Greece

I had been working 20 hour days because of dealings with structural engineers, agents, lawyers, banks and notaries and such due to the Bitshares-Munich fiasco and also I was trying to buy a property in Loutraki so that I could get Greek residency under the "Golden Visa" program. My health was deteriorating again despite some good improvement after the hip operation. The downturn was because of stress and lack of sleep and exercise I figured, so I was determined to get back into great shape again now that I was in Terrace with the opportunity to perhaps rest and recreate.

Instead of taking my car all of the time

my car!

I decided I would walk sometimes - at first around the block of my friend's house where I was staying:

But later I started leaving my car to take pictures in other parts of this (very spread out) northern British Columbia town.
And I was rewarded with shots of fisherman trying the world famous salmon fishing at various spots along the Skeena River which runs through Terrace.