Armchair travelling

AS we get on with sorting out our Italian holiday – car’s now booked & I’m under way with reading about the area to sort out places to visit – I’ve gone off to Greece. This sort of travel is also a pleasure – by novel. In this instance I’m reading “Cartes Postales” by Victoria Hislop. From the first page my imagination has been captured & captivated & yet what I’ve seen of Greece doesn’t actually appeal. I feel it ought to, having read so much set there &, long time ago, I studied ancient Greek as one of my “O” Levels.

I’ve read several of Victoria Hislop’s books, most of which are set in Greece or thereabouts. Indeed I read “Sunrise”, set in Cyprus while we were last on holiday in Cyprus several years ago. I’m still haunted by the trauma of the two families endeavouring to survive the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the 1970s. Just as I am drawn to the idea of visiting Grenada after reading “The Return” before that. The latter book is set largely during the Spanish Civil War.

This time I seem to be in contemporary Greece & having a tour of the country. I am curious where I will go. At present I’m off to Arcadia.

I do much of my travelling by book, by novel. It’s so much easier & less hassle. A wheelchair is no encumbrance. A good writer enables you to feel the sun on your face or the chill in your bones without even getting out of your armchair. They capture something of the essence of that country & its culture, something I sometimes have difficulty doing. I’m already itching to be back in the Greek sun.