1 JULY
When I saw that Greece's prime minister was warning his people to brace themselves for a difficult time ahead, I thought he must be referring to the possible arrival of hordes of potentially infected tourists. But no... he was flagging up the likelihood of the country being at least 50 per cent down on takings from holidaymakers this summer.
It seems that everywhere we are being faced with life-or-death decisions: ie getting back to having a life versus the likelihood of causing death to the most vulnerable.
On the odd occasion that I look at comments on the news on social media, I am usually so appalled by the aggression, intolerance and racism that I vow never to look again. But today I actually saw comment after comment that I had to agree with... they were underneath a story on Brits complaining because they had booked to go to Greece believing that it would be open to them today, only to find that it isn't.
Some sample comments:
"I live in Corfu, we have 00000000 active cases here, please stay away from our island!"
"With the world in turmoil with the virus, who in their sane mind would book an overseas holiday? Insurance will not cover for the pandemic, chances of your flights being cancelled and being stranded overseas expecting the taxpayer to rescue you! Seriously get a grip. A year without a holiday won’t harm you."
"More money than sense then. Really, why would you book a holiday without knowing for sure as to the situation? Why would you think it's a sensible or safe option, especially with regard to the previous issue of getting refunds. Take a holiday in the UK."
"Just think how much pollution it's saved the world from."
"Boo hoo."
"It's sad that Greece does not want Brits visiting just yet, but who can blame them?"
"Shame... some of us can't even leave the house yet."
"Pretty stupid to book something before you know if you can go or not. No sympathy."
"Only morons book holidays abroad in this climate."
Brilliant stuff, guys... as Bogbrush always says in Private Eye's From The Bulletin Boards feature.
Mind you, today was the day I was going to make a decision about finalising – or not – plans for my odyssey. Do I take a chance, go ahead and risk losing money? Or do I play safe? Watch this space...
2 JULY
Italy is grappling with its "new normal" while not quite knowing what that is, says my friend Z there, south of Rome, whom I hope to see at the end of my odyssey in September. The lockdown has ended there, but no one really knows what comes next. "Another new not normal," she says, "is the UK seeming in such a mess, whereas Italy in many ways a lot less so." Absolutely. I've been reading the rules and regulations that are likely to govern getting into Greece, and I'm increasingly beginning to see that my idealistic train journeys across France and Italy (followed by a boat to Greece) are not likely to give me enough time to deal with possible testing/quarantine delay. Flying a day earlier than I've got booked as a backup at the moment looks like it might give me a chance. But then sharing a plane with a load of Brits could be much more of a risk than the trains and boat. I have to take some definite steps this week – not knowing (just like everyone everywhere) how things will actually pan out.
3 JULY
I want to change my backup BA flight but BA is impossible to get through to on the phone. It's not just that it takes a long time to get a call answered – the answer comes quite quickly that no one is going to answer your call so we're hanging up on you. Not helpful.
Meanwhile, I've booked a return train ticket from London to Paris with Eurostar. If I do make it to Greece and Italy, and whether I go by plane or train, I've got a ticket to get me from Paris back to London on 30 September.
At the moment, going into France means a 14-day quarantine – which would make going by train impossible – but things may change in the next couple of weeks. On the plus side, Italy currently has no quarantine for those arriving from France, Greece or even the UK. I need to fill in the gaps in the odyssey itinerary and then get ready to go – or to cancel.
4 JULY
Italy is renowned for its bureaucracy and things having to be done in a certain way. I think I recounted many weeks ago the insurmountable difficulties I had in trying to book a bus from Brindisi to Villa San Giovanni – despite additional help from my friend in Italy. In the end I gave up and booked a train journey that involved a daunting three changes. That of course went the way of all travel during the lockdown and I ended up (after more bureaucracy) with a travel voucher from Trenitalia (a name I have stored away in case I ever need a rhyme for genitalia). Somewhat daringly, I thought I would rebook these four train journeys using my voucher. Italian travel websites are almost unbelievable. After three goes (which all came to nothing because I got told I was out of time), I finally prepared to whizz through all the bookings, each time having to give my name... and then my name... and my email... and then my email again, twice more. I had been trying to say that I had a travel voucher in the "voucher" section but it didn't allow that. It was only on this final attempt that I tried the "bonus" section instead – which did accept the voucher. But it accepted it immediately, paid for the first journey and said thank you, goodbye. Could I still use the remaining money on the voucher? It seemed I could, as I went on to fill in the details of the other three stages of the trip – each time providing name etc in duplicate and email in triplicate. In the end, I made it through, got the whole thing booked and still had €0.01 left. Phew! Another gap filled.
5 JULY
The gaps that remain in the odyssey plan include Paris to Milan, Milan to Bari, and Bari to Patras – that's if I go to Athens by land and sea rather than plane. The nauseating father of the UK's nauseating prime minister came up with his own rule-bending or rule-breaking solution to the problem of flying into Greece this week – by taking a plane to Bulgaria and getting a flight from there. Can these people be called hypocrites? Probably not – since they don't pretend to be anything other than the one-rule-for-us-and-another-for-the lower-orders creatures that they are.
6 JULY
Another gap in the plan is actually getting to Ithaca from the Greek mainland. And an odyssey does really have to take in Ithaca, home of the bloke who started it all by heading off to Troy for 10 years and then taking another 10 years (allegedly) to get back to the island he ruled. Up until recently there used to be regular ferries from Patras to Ithaca – but no more, apparently. The way now is supposed to be to get a bus from Patras south to the port of Kyllini, take a ferry to Kefalonia and then bus/ferry to Ithaca – which takes three-and-a-half hours. And you're supposed to be able to book tickets online – but you can't. The timetable – which is sketchy, to say the least – seems to have more gaps than times, and certainly nothing for the days in September when I hope to make the crossing. I've emailed the bus company – in my best Greek – and await an answer.
7 JULY
There are similar problems with another gap. There are supposed to be regular ferries from the west coast of Italy to the island of Ponza, but I'm now told that they can't be booked in advance (although pre-virus, they could). My friend who lives nearby assures me that they should normally be bookable, but now who knows? She thinks there will be tickets on the day, so not to worry. Ponza's other names include Circe's Island (hence my need to go there) and, in Roman times, Pontia – when it was a handy place for exiling unwanted potential troublemakers, such as Agrippina, sister of Caligula (and mother of Nero). She finally managed to get back to the mainland, so hopefully I will too.
8 JULY
Everywhere there seem to be second waves, rebounds, clusters, whatevers... lots of different ways to say that it hasn't gone away yet. There is also increasing coverage of the suggestion that the virus is far more airborne than we have been led to believe by governments, and emerging evidence that suggests the virus didn't "come from China" but was pretty much everywhere from the beginning (if there was a beginning – since this virus, like many others, may well have been with us for a very long time).
Northern Italy's latest resurgence of infections has prompted the country's health minister to propose sectioning people if they refuse hospital treatment (because the man thought to be the source of this latest spread had at first refused to go to hospital). But one can certainly understand reluctance to go to a hospital in northern Italy – or in the UK...
9 JULY
Well, I heard back from Greece about getting to Ithaca. They say that at the moment you can book it and do it, but in the long-term they can't give any definite timetables because of... yes, the virus. So basically I have to wait until mid-August to know whether there will be a service in September and whether I can book it.
10 JULY
A domestic crisis – not mine but elsewhere in the family – has made me have serious second thoughts about whether to go on the odyssey at all. Being away for five or six weeks may not be a great idea – and there may be good reasons for staying around. It's a shock and I'll have to take it on board.
11 JULY
This afternoon/evening I drove to Bristol – not a particularly enjoyable experience since the M4 is no longer a proper motorway – reduced by roadworks to 50mph, single-lane stretches and a diversion almost into Reading and back again. It took over four hours.
12 JULY
I'm staying with an old journalist friend in Clifton and sitting in his sunny garden above the start of the Avon Gorge. This is a staging post on the way to Carmarthen and Pembrokeshire – and a lovely one, full of old memories and stimulated by lots of old journalistic stories. This is the first time that I've been out of London since the start of this journal, and for that I am truly grateful. Lockdown has made something like this feel like a holiday and a special gift.
13 JULY
After the almost sultry sunshine of Bristol, I found myself in the cold, wet streets of rain-soaked Carmarthen. Part of my quest was to locate the remains of Merlin's Oak (to finish a series of articles on Merlin) – which used to stand in the town – latterly housed in Carmarthen's County Museum. But the museum is closed. A visit to the library led to a series of phone calls that ended with someone there promising to contact someone at the museum to get them to contact me. I'm still waiting to hear something... I'm luck to be staying in a beautiful Airbnb and even luckier to find that my host has a good friend who turns out to be a singer/songwriter whom I had been meaning to interview for some time. So an email has been sent, and I'm waiting to hear back from her as well...
14 JULY
The museum put me in touch with the council, and the council called me to say I could go to see the piece of Merlin's Oak in the Civic Hall. It's not open to the public yet, so they are being really helpful. The singer Jodie Marie got in touch too and I'm interviewing her the day after tomorrow.
I visited some favourite places: the beach at Wiseman's Bridge (where I had my first footfall in Pembrokeshire a few years ago); an excellent café in the centre of Tenby; and a visit to slightly artsy-fartsy Narberth to do an interview with the talented Nick Swannell at his recording studio there.
15 JULY
I called in at the Lammas Eco Village to say hello to Cassandra Lishman, whom I'd interviewed from London back in the lockdown.
I also swam in the sea at Goodwick today with my good friend Kitty. The water wasn't as cold as I'd anticipated – but then, it is mid-July. Afterwards Kitty provided not only supper and good conversation but also a hot tub on her terrace overlooking the harbour.
16 JULY
Greece has now opened up to flights from the UK, apparently. But there are likely to be tests for the virus with the possibility of quarantine. Plus a form has to be filled in just prior to arrival, giving details of where you have been and where you are going. All this probably hangs by a thread, since Spain appears to be already having second thoughts about British tourists, following loutish and selfish behaviour by some of the first wave of holidaymakers from the UK.
This morning found me in the sunshine on the summit of Merlin's Hill, just outside Carmarthen, with its thought-stopping views; and this afternoon found me in Clarbeston (really in the beautiful middle of nowhere) to interview highly talented local singer Jodie Marie. It is the journalist's blessing to spend days like these – encountering diverse people and being welcomed into at least a part of their lives, and learning more about what these individuals do – and how success and creativity rarely comes without a good deal of anxiety, inspiration and hard work.
17 JULY
Well, my Merlin quest finally ended... in front of a piece of wood which is pretty much all that remains of the famed Merlin's Oak. It is preserved in Carmarthen Town Council offices and is currently not viewable by the public because of the virus shutdown. Thanks to the kindness and courtesy of the town's library staff and the council's clerk, it was arranged that I could see it. I just had to turn up at the council's Civic Hall and phone for Eleri, who would let me in. She told me I would recognise her by her yellow dress. As I waited outside the neoclassical facade of the grand building in the central square, I saw a woman in a yellow dress approaching. "Eleri?" I asked. "No," she said, justifiably suspiciously. "I'm sorry, I'm waiting for a woman in a yellow dress," I said – at which she looked even more suspicious. It turned out that not only was she the wrong woman, but I was in the wrong square outside the wrong building. But the right square, right building and right woman were all just a couple of minutes away and all ended well. It was a bizarrely perfect end to my little Welsh adventure.
18 JULY
Back in London. The Greeks are letting in flights from the UK but will be – sensibly – carrying out mass testing for coronavirus. If things go well, Greece will remain open to Brits. If not, it won't. The country desperately needs the UK's money – but not its plague-carrying citizens.
19 JULY
Today I did something that I haven't done since the start of this journal... I played a drum kit. Thanks to the reopening of Brighton Electric studios. I was originally going to be there with the guitarist and bassist from my last regularly gigging band – but neither could make it for personal reasons. It was going to be the most expensive solo rehearsal I'd ever done, but Brighton Electric was sympathetic and cut the cost in half. So I had the luxury of its largest room – just to play drums and to get ready for two solid days of jazz coming up next weekend.
20 JULY
Life seems to be returning to a much busier "normality"... with face-to-face meetings, lots of work to do, appointments to keep... but, then, it's not actually normal at all. The shadow of something that we don't really know still hangs over everything and leads to feelings of emptiness, frustration and end times...
21 JULY
More drumming today... this time at the excellent Drumshack in Battersea. The staff are all masked and ultra-clean-looking... and the practice room has never looked so spotless and tidy. After four hours of much-needed practice, I feel that I have a reasonable chance of coping with playing on a jazz course in Northamptonshire this weekend.
22 JULY
I just had a refund from RailEurope for the train trip I was due to take from Milan to Bari back in May. It's taken a while, but it's been handled really well. It's strange that it should arrive now when I'm having to make up my mind whether to re-book that bit of the odyssey (one of the last remaining gaps) or whether to start dismantling the whole thing once more. I have real worries about those close to me who are vulnerable (I'm not going into the details here) whom I would be leaving behind. A dream of a death last night didn't help. My accommodation in Ithaca has to be cancelled this week if I'm not going – so maybe that will focus my mind.
Meanwhile, Trump has recommended people in the US to start wearing masks. Well, it's only taken him six months – an even bigger shambles than the one we have here.
23 JULY
If I go (I still haven't been able to bring myself to make a decision), I'm thinking of settling for flying to Athens and staking everything on getting through any testing or quarantining and getting to Rafina and a boat to the islands.
24 JULY
Now a friend tells me the story of someone they know who flew to Spain recently and appears to have caught coronavirus on the flight. They have now returned to the UK – and self-isolation.
25 JULY
Today I set up my drum kit for the first time in four months or so – and played with real live musicians. The opportunity was afforded me by a jazz course in my old home county of Northamptonshire. Well, I seem to have got through the first day OK – with even my brushes playing (not my strongest point) drawing some kind remarks. The saddest note was conveyed towards the end of the session – by a guitarist passing on the news that Peter Green has died. Green was a guitar genius – albeit a "troubled" one – and I, like many of my generation, loved him.
26 JULY
The situation in Spain – where two of my best friends are headed this week – appears to be deteriorating... so much so that the UK has announced that people coming back from there will have to go into quarantine for 14 days when they come back. As usual with the Brits, the ones who have just nipped over to Spain for a quick holiday are now complaining about the short notice they have had of this latest development (perhaps not appreciating that it is probably an influx of foreign tourists that has exacerbated the Spanish situation). Being forced to self-isolate on my return from an odyssey is the least of my concerns – I would just be delighted to get on the road to Ithaca and beyond.
I took an early-morning walk in a beautiful sunlit park situated between where I am staying and the jazz school where I am playing today for a second day.
27 JULY
The second day of jazz was harder work than the first – but still a great treat. Such a luxury to be able to be with other musicians (and really nice people) and to make music.
A bit of a damper from Athens: the hotel I had booked for two nights at the beginning of the odyssey emailed to say it was going to be closed during August because of the virus. This perhaps shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it did. Athens is fairly free of the plague, I thought. But then, if hardly anyone is going there because of ongoing virus fears, it probably doesn't make sense for hotels to open.
So that booking has to be cancelled. And do I make another one – if such a thing is possible? Or do I take this as one more sign that it's time to give up?
28 JULY
I booked another cheap hotel in Athens – just a single room with shared bathroom. Now I'm thinking I should book a better room – because of hygiene concerns – the plague is getting to me. The uproar and confusion over the UK government's decision to say everyone coming in from Spain will have to be quarantined for 14 days are adding to the general level of apprehension about travelling in Europe. The government already seems to be backtracking to 10 days instead of 14, but that isn't likely to do much to encourage holidaymakers to go to Spain. Fear and chaos are waiting in the wings – and ready to take the stage.
29 JULY
Italy seems to be teetering on the line between being OK and tipping over into a new wave of the plague. All hangs on whether people behave sensibly or not. I booked a better room at that cheap hotel in Athens. I think I have to attempt the odyssey – otherwise what good am I as an old-style (and yes, ageing) travel writer. London has returned to Mediterranean sunshine but it's still London, still the UK, and still a place I'd like to get away from.
30 JULY
One of those irritating unsolicited emails based on surveillance of your inbox turned out (for the first time) to be of some use... The Greek government's Protocol for Arrivals in Greece - travel.gov.gr proved to be full of useful, clearly written (if somewhat complicated) advice on what you have to do at the moment to get into the country. It's simultaneously welcoming and slightly offputting – in that you have to have a coronavirus test no more than 72 hours before you arrive, fill in a detailed form and be prepared for random testing and potential quarantine. Otherwise, enjoy your trip! There is much to do and prepare between now and 24 August if the odyssey is to at least be launched.
31 JULY
I have written to my friend Z who lives in Latina, just south of Rome, to confirm that I'll be heading her way – if the gods allow. I am due to arrive there on 23 September. Apart from the concerns about getting beyond Athens, there is also more than a slight worry about getting into Italy from Greece... especially as if I get the boat from Patras to Brindisi, I will only have two hours to get from the port to the railway station. Oh well, if I make it that far, it will be an achievement of sorts. Somehow I need to invoke the spirit of "the wily Odysseus" and get through whatever obstacles present themselves. Meanwhile I need to check that I'm still going to be welcome on the islands of Andros, Tinos and Syros – which I plan to visit before setting out for Ithaca.
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