on my own

6/21/2006, 01.00
Thessaloniki Train/Bus Terminal

The heart is a bloom; shoots up through the stony ground. There's no room. No space to rent in this town. You're out of luck, and the reason that you had to care: the traffic is stuck. You're not moving anywhere. You thought you'd found a friend, to take you out of this place. Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace.
It's a beautiful day. Sky falls, you feel like it's a beautiful day. Don't let it get away.
You're on the road, but you've got no destination. You're in the mud, in the maze of her imagination. You love this town, even if that doesn't ring true. You've been all over, & it's been all over you.
It's a beautiful day. Don't let it get away. It's a beautiful day.
Touch me, take me to that other place. Teach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case.
-U2

Ahhh. After hours of discussion, speculation, planning, replanning & a little crying (not by me) I am, at long last, alone. And it is indeed a beautiful night. Well, except for the ornery gang of rabid cabbies yelling & throwing water bottles at each other a short distance off.

It's a quarter after one in the morning. Chris & Rosanne left on the 22.42 train to Athina about an hour & a half ago (dare you to figure that one out), I chatted with a charming Thessalonikian name Alina (Ellen) about jobs, politics & life for half an hour after that, & now I'm left alone with my thoughts. And the cabbies. Strangely enough, while this was the plan we had settled on before coming here, a great deal has transpired in the interim.

Chris desperately wanted to see Istanbul. After thinking about it all day he made the terribly difficult decision to buy the ticket, scrap his plane ticket to Milano & break the news to Rosanne. She understood, took it with the cool grace most of us can only dream of acquiring & joined us in a last round of cold Mythos beer. The train was scheduled to leave at 20.04. (The cabbies are slowly migrating closer.)

Chris & I remembered that we both had promised Rosanne a letter before we parted. We began writing them. I finished. Chris apparently had more to say. Because 20.00 was approaching quickly, I announced that I would be on the platform & said my goodbye. Let me tell ya, that girl knows how to give hugs!

I found the platform (#1) & the train was there. I waited for Chris. 20.04 came. The train left. 20.04 went. Chris arrived. I had considered boarding without him, & I know he would have understood entirely, but if we are going to part ways on this trip we will make that decision, not a timetable or a train conductor. I'm happy with my choice.

So now here I sit! My bus leaves for Istanbul in just under an hour (02.30) & deposits me among the Turks a little over 12 hours later, around 15.00. Then it's off to the airport to wing my way into the heart of Russia! I wonder when & in what country I'll shower next.