An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Troy Story

 

One of the strangest books I've ever encountered has found its way into my possession.

In Where Troy Once Stood the Dutch writer Iman Wilkens puts forward his case that the fabled city of The Iliad was actually in what is now Cambridgeshire. I'm not making this up... but I don't know about him...

And when it comes to The Odyssey, he locates the Cyclops in the Cape Verde Islands, the island of Aeolus and the realm of Circe in the Netherlands, the Laestrygonians in Cuba, the Sirens and Scylla and Charybdis in Cornwall,  Calypso in the Azores, and Ithaca in southern Spain...

Will I be cancelling my trip to Ithaca (an island in Greece) in June to walk in the footsteps of Odysseus once more? Er, I think not... 

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Uneven Stephens

I'm not a Stephen King fan. Horror and terror are not my idea of entertaining reading. But I was told that I really should read his half-autobiography, half-instruction manual, On Writing. Which I did – in pretty much one sitting.

King is a fantastic writer – mainly because he (mostly) follows his own rules for writers: keep the language simple and just tell the story.

As far as King is concerned, adverbs should be banned, and there is no need to pile up huge lists of adjectives to describe people and things.

So my advice to Stephen King might be to avoid the words of Stephen Fry – which are so flowery and over-decorated that they could seriously shock the king of horror.

The ubiquitous Fry has been retelling the legends of ancient Greece with his books Mythos and Heroes... and now Troy, which I was kindly given a copy of as an audiobook.

It's rollicking stuff, but Fry is not keen to use one word where ten will do. It's great that he may be introducing a new generation to the joys of the Greek myths, but let's hope his verbosity doesn't put some of them off.

Now he's done Troy, one suspects The Odyssey will be next in his sights – not a story that needs much in the way of hyperbole, although I suspect that wouldn't stop Fry going over the top once more.

The Troy audiobook is 11 hours long... I reckon Stephen King could get it down to around 100 minutes. 

An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague –6: July 2020

 

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.

An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 3: April 2020

1 APRIL

I have had to cancel a large family get-together in my home county of Northamptonshire planned for 25 April; there seems to be no way that it is going to take place. I suggested to my brother that we might rearrange it for late summer. He said that Christmas might be a better bet – and he was only half-joking, I think. Not only am I close to deconstructing my odyssey, but I am also now wondering if there is any point to this journal. It was started in the hope that it would be a prologue to the story of the journey itself. If I keep going, the prologue will be longer than the story. Or perhaps this is now the story – the odyssey (dictated, appropriately, by forces outside my control, with no indication of how or whether it will end). 

2 APRIL

I have decided to cut down the time I spend reading the news, i.e. reading about the virus. Watching a Trump "press conference" in which he deliberately announced a new war on drugs and a supposed threat from Iran on top of the usual evasions and falsehoods (anything but face the reality of the crisis), I decided I couldn't take too much more of this shocking mess. Things are slightly better here – but not much. One UK government "spokesman" after another has failed to deliver any worthwhile information, inspire any confidence or fully answer questions. For the moment at least, I can't take too much more of these miserable tidings. Instead of checking the news through the day (I suppose in the hope of there being some good news), I'm going to look at it once in the morning and once in the evening.

3 APRIL

Approaching the end of the second week of lockdown. And approaching having to start taking the odyssey down – and then maybe building it back up again. It's another two weeks before I really have to start cancelling and dismantling. Having completed a basic Italian course with Michel Thomas, I'm now well into a Teach Yourself course of Greek. The illustration on my Greek notebook cover is of a little church that sits at the end of my favourite beach on the island of Tinos. As with all the best pictures of Greece, it's a confection of white, blue and more blue. I'm there in my mind and would love to be there in reality. It's one of the stopping-off points on my odyssey, so maybe I'll be there in a few months from now.

4 APRIL

I was up most of the night waiting for an ambulance for my younger daughter (who lives about a mile away from me). She was already in quarantine with a high temperature... and then had rapid heartbeat and breathlessness about midnight. Paramedics finally arrived about 4am (over three hours for an ambulance to arrive! they're quite busy, it seems) and they decided it was a panic attack not coronavirus... which seems to be the case. She's feeling better today... but in all this, I couldn't actually see her or get close to her because she's quarantined... and also I can't afford to pick up anything for fear of passing it on to others close to me. No doubt, we'll laugh about all this one day... On the plus side, the sunshine is hotter here than in Athens and I've put on a pair of shorts for the first time this year.

5 APRIL

The daisies turn their heads throughout the day so that they are always facing the sun. It's amazing to watch...

6 APRIL

The Prime Minister of the UK is hospital with coronavirus. After the cavalier and wrong-footed way in which he approached this mess that we are all in, it may be difficult for some people to summon up much sympathy. Or any sympathy.

7 APRIL

More people have died of coronavirus in New York than died in China, where things seem to be returning to some sort of normality. More people than that may die in the UK, where the lockdown is now in its third week. The lockdown in China lasted three months. Italy, locked down for five weeks, may be starting to come out the other side of this thing. Greece, where there is a serious lockdown, has so far kept deaths down to double figures. I'm waiting for news from the Odyssean Coast of Italy before starting to decommission the odyssey – it can't go ahead but I may be able to postpone bookings rather than cancel and make the journey at the end of this summer. Being able to travel anywhere at the moment seems like a dream rather than a possibility...

8 APRIL

Instead of being a month away from setting off, I'm probably four months away from setting off. Nothing to compare to 10 years stuck outside of Troy with the Ithaca blues... or 10 years being blown around the Mediterranean, thrown back and forth between monsters and nymphomaniacs.

9 APRIL

The sun setting beyond the silhouettes of trees has been wonderful for the past two evenings. This is the same sun that I was bound for Italy and Greece to see. The same sun that I remember seeing going down behind the mountains of Crete in 1977. Why is there this urge to travel, when this constant companion is with us every day of our lives? (OK, well not every day if you live in the UK – that's perhaps got a lot to do with why we travel.)

10 APRIL

It's a month since Italy was locked down – and a month since I started writing this journal. In another month from now, I should have been getting ready to set off on my odyssey. And this journal would have started to get a bit more interesting! Now, not only do I have to decide whether the odyssey is to be cancelled or postponed, I have to decide whether there is any point continuing to write what was supposed to be a prologue to the adventure. The word from Italy is that its lockdown is about to be extended to 3 May and that this Easter weekend will see the authorities crack down even more tightly on anyone who attempts to go out.

11 APRIL

The sun shines again and I've been reading about the assassination of Cicero at his villa in Formia – one of the places on my odyssey itinerary, although I didn't know about this truly historic connection. It's had me looking longingly once more at maps of Italy. 

12 APRIL

After this crisis is over, I fear the powers will only want to turn the clock back rather than forward. But wouldn't that be a tremendous failure to learn a lesson? Many of us, deep down, know that we need a fundamental change of course in the way we take care of ourselves and each other. In a way it's quite bizarre that at a time when people are all keeping their distance from each other, they are potentially closer together than ever before?

13 APRIL

Time to bite the bullet. I have accommodation booked on the island of Ithaca – home of Odysseus – for the beginning of June. If I'm going to cancel it, I have to do it by the end of this week. It is truly amazing to see how much the leaves grow on the trees in the space of 24 hours. Every morning there is so much more green dancing in the sunlight.

14 APRIL

The sky is blue and clear and the light seems sharper. There is good news and bad news from Greece... The British Airways flight that I bought as an insurance policy to get me to Athens has just been officially cancelled. No refund. So now I have to apply for a voucher – which I can spend on a flight some time in the next year. The good news is that, unlike the UK and the US, Greece appears to have performed a minor miracle with its hardline lockdown. It's kept deaths below 100 so far – compared with 10,000-plus in the UK and 20,000-plus in Italy. However, while the UK managed with a non-Easter, in Greece Easter is this coming weekend and is much more about deep-rooted religion than bingeing on chocolate. In a country where some Orthodox clergy argued that their services and the giving of Communion were not covered by a secular lockdown, this weekend will be a serious test of whether Greece can hold its hard line.

15 APRIL

Some shops and business in Italy are to be allowed to reopen as long as they arrange "security measures”. But it looks like it's still going to be a while before Italy and Greece are properly opened up to travellers. With a heavy heart, I've just cancelled my accommodation for staying three nights on Ithaca in June.

16 APRIL

I've been reading Ulysses... the James Joyce one... another odyssey... and maybe we don't need to travel very far to be on our odysseys. Why do I need to be trying to get to Greece or Italy, when the sun is shining here and I have everything that I actually need? Is it because we want the very things that we don't need? Is uncertainty far more appealing than basic securities? Voyages tend to be voyages of discovery on all sorts of levels. Can one stay at home and still make discoveries?

17 APRIL

A friend tells me that the Tarot features the World and the Moon – the World representing the outer place to be explored, and the Moon representing the inner place to be discovered. I don't know anything about the Tarot or whether that's correct, but that information came just after I'd been musing on whether it was possible to embark on an odyssey without really going anywhere. Perhaps that's what we're all doing now – whether we know it or not. Back in the World world, I've just cancelled nine accommodation bookings in Greece and Italy... leaving just four more to do. It's a bit sad... but there is now no choice. The only dilemma is whether to rearrange things for later in the year. 

18 APRIL

The hell with it... A friend just pointed out that Odysseus didn't make too many advance bookings – he just set off and kept going (when he wasn't being forced to have sex with assorted temptresses). So I'm going to (semi-Odysseus-like) recklessly reckon that I'm heading into the blue in late August. That's four months now... and if things haven't improved and relaxed by then, then we might as well all give up on this life. Yes, an internal odyssey is possible and perhaps sensible and has perhaps already begun, but life for me (at least up to now) only seems like life when I'm on the way, on the road, going somewhere... travelling rather than arriving. But then again, as the Buddha of country, Willie Nelson, once observed: "Still is still moving to me."

19 APRIL

Greece hopes to open up again in May but more likely June at the earliest. This hint of optimism made me wonder if I should try to get there in June/July but, no, I'm going to stick to the more safely reckless August/September.

A fifth of Greek workers are employed in tourism, so the country is being hit really hard. One forecast suggests that over 60 per cent of hotels there could go out of business. Things may have to change in a post-plague world, but there must be many Greeks who are praying for a return to business as something like usual.

20 APRIL

It's my younger daughter's birthday today and she's locked down a hundred miles away. We'll have an online link-up later. All three of my children seem strong, talented, intelligent and decent – and I never cease to be impressed by them. Their generation has had to go through so much – but then perhaps all generations do. I'm glad that my mother died last year (messily, at 93 years' old, at the hands of a failing health and social care system) and did not have to go through her final months in an even more awful situation of quarantine, no visitors and an even more lonely death. Strangely, just after I'd written these words, I had a call from a musician friend whose mother is nearing the end of her life and stuck in a nursing home. Thankfully, he is able to visit her but he says she is terribly depressed, and that he is finding it all difficult. As David Lynn Jones – more country music – observed: "There ain't no easy way out." 

I've just been taking photographs of the grounds surrounding my flat. I had decided to put it up for sale in June, on my return from the odyssey – but now maybe that will have to wait. If I have to sell later in the year, I thought it would be handy to have pictures showing how beautiful the trees are here in the spring. In fact, the photos make it look so beautiful that it made me think for an instant about staying here – but really I have to make a move some time soon. I've been in London a fraction too long. That old stuff about if you're tired of London, then you're tried of life doesn't really hold up. I'm just tired of London life... and want a better-quality (last part of) life.

21 APRIL

Italy is at least talking about starting to open up again. And in Milan they are talking about not going back to automotive normal, ie some street space is going to be for cyclists and pedestrians only, rather than back to cars – and their pollution. Milan has in the past been one of the worst polluted cities – and the lockdown has shown that it doesn't have to be like this. Just as New York has begun talking about a "reimagined" future, so is Milan. One can only hope that London might follow suit in some way. In the area around my home in south London, I have never seen the air so clear, the light so sharp, and the leaves and the grass so green. Spring sunlight helps of course... but there are far fewer cars, particularly at night, and the every-five-minutes planes on their way to Heathrow have stopped. The latter are certainly normally the source of day-long noise pollution and most likely a major cause of air pollution – and hence ill health and reduced resistance to disease.

22 APRIL

One of the pluses of the lockdown has been that Bob Dylan, for whom I have infinite respect as a songwriter (make that THE songwriter), has been moved to put out not one but two new songs, after going for eight years without releasing any new original material. Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature four years ago (almost 50 years late) and the present circumstances reminded me that he referenced The Odyssey (along with Moby-Dick and All Quiet on the Western Front) as one of the three books that had been major influences.

He says of Odysseus' journey: "There’s two roads to take, and they’re both bad. Both hazardous. On one you could drown and on the other you could starve... Goddesses and gods protect him, but some others want to kill him. He changes identities... Drugs have been dropped into his wine. It’s been a hard road to travel... Some of these same things have happened to you. You too have had drugs dropped into your wine. You too have shared a bed with the wrong woman. You too have been spellbound by magical voices, sweet voices with strange melodies. You too have come so far and have been so far blown back... When he gets back home, things aren’t any better. Scoundrels have moved in and are taking advantage of his wife’s hospitality. And there’s too many of ‘em. And though he’s greater than them all and the best at everything... his courage won’t save him, but his trickery will... And when it’s all said and done, when he’s home at last, he sits with his wife, and he tells her the stories."

23 APRIL

Nothing changes... well, at least nothing much for the better. People are beginning to talk about the lockdown (currently in its fifth week) lasting for several months. The family-get-together originally due to take place on 25 April that I cancelled at the beginning of this month... I was hoping to rearrange for July or August. But one of my cousins suggests that that could be too soon. She is, she says, fairly happy being locked down and doesn't want to emerge until it's safe to do so. (The opposite of some of the good folk in the Southern states of the US, who are determined to reopen shops etc from tomorrow. God Help America!) My brother and I have decided to pencil in the family meetup for August – with October as the backup. His earlier joke about arranging it for Christmas has definitely ceased to be funny.

24 APRIL

Greece is extending its lockdown by a further week to 4 May. The government there says that “transition to the new normality" will be slow and will "unfold progressively" in May and June. This sounds like grounds for a little optimism. I wrote to Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie magazine, to warn him that the odyssey piece he had commissioned from me was likely to be coming a few months late. His understanding reply ended, typically: "I wonder what Odysseus would have done – probably stayed in the ruins of Troy!" Well, maybe that's where we all are now – in the ruins of Troy. Our "civilisation" has been brought low not by a wooden horse but by a Trojan virus.

25 APRIL

I guess we are all looking ever-increasingly into mortality... Everything in nature – the light, the trees, the flowers, the birds etc – is seen more sharply now. And with that comes the inescapable fact that the leaves "reappearing" on the trees have, in fact, never been here before. They will be here this year and then gone. Like the leaves, like the virus, every one of us is just passing through... living and dying. And that leads, for me, into the question what actually am I? And the answer to that may be: nothing... or an hallucination... The other thing clearly taught by this crisis is that we can only count on being here today... And we may only have today to answer the questions that gnaw away at us...

26 APRIL

It's being reported in Italy that a four-week period of easing of restrictions there will begin soon. More than 25,000 have been killed by the virus there; the UK is well on the way to catching up with that total – if not with definite plans of how to deal with the crisis. Greece is also looking at the possibility of opening up – and opening up to visitors from July. But there is talk of temperature checks and pre-flight blood tests; presumably, quarantines are also likely to remain part of the picture for some time. So do I continue with plans to get there in August? BA tells me it has switched my insurance-policy flight from May to August but I'm still waiting confirmation of that several days on.

27 APRIL

In a month's time restaurants, bars and cafés in Greece will start to reopen – gradually. And Italy has confirmed it has plans to ease the strict lockdown it began seven weeks ago – when I started this journal. Parks will also reopen, but Greek children will not go back to school until September.

28 APRIL

Vivid dreams seem to be a feature of lockdown. And in the past week I've had dreams about five people I know who are dead: my father (twice), my mother, two good friends and one enemy. All of the dreams and encounters were sharp and clear and mostly not at all disturbing; one in particular was joyful. What does all this mean? Perhaps nothing apart from the fact that death is increasingly on my mind.

29 APRIL

Greece has confirmed that it plans to open for (tourism) business this summer. But there will have to be social distancing and strict hygiene rules. Precautions being considered also include health "passports", and restrictions for countries with high virus infection and death rates (presumably that means the UK). This is how Odysseus must have felt – hemmed in and diverted at every turn. Am I ever going to get to Greece?

BA is making thousands of workers redundant but has still reserved a place for me on my insurance-policy flight to Athens at the end of August (with the proviso that it could be cancelled). Meanwhile many of the major airlines are starting to implement new policies that will see masks given to travellers who don't have them, a sort of social-distancing seating and, of course, lots of cleaning. Was cleaning not important anywhere before all this? We are being told that the buses and tubes are now being cleaned thoroughly. Why weren't they before? And will they continue to be cleaned properly after this crisis comes to an end? 

30 APRIL

There appear to be differences of opinion in Italy as to what is going to reopen when. The central government is about to crack down on Calabria for saying bars and restaurants with outside tables can start serving customers again – because national policy is that they shouldn't reopen until June, and then only for takeaways. It seems to be a mirror of the chaos in the US where there is a national lockdown but every state is evolving its own reopening strategy (or in some cases not really bothering with a strategy but just opening stuff up). My friend in Latina, on the Odyssean Coast, near Rome, reckons a major trauma for Italians will be returning to some sort of normality – but not being able to kiss each other.