Hey you guys! This update starts out pretty shitty. Shortly after posting my last update, the car was broken into outside the hotel in Athens and all of my music equipment was stolen. They also got my backpack with two of my hats and a lot of travel odds and ends inside it. In my guitar case was also my tablet that I use for lyrics. All in all, I estimate a loss of about 800 euros.

It was an absolute kick in the nuts and totally ruined my night. I felt all the emotions on this because music has been such a big part of my trip and I went from having a really great and easy to use set up to having literally nothing (except the mic stand they were nice enough to leave behind). Not to mention they also screwed up the lock on the door of Klaus and Inge’s car, which will also be an expense to fix. I can still lock and unlock it with the remote, but the key hole in the door is ruined. The only bright side to this deal is that they did not break a window, didn’t steal my clothes, and that my passport was in the hotel room. Those would have created bigger problems for sure.

I also felt bad because it was Vickie’s first night in Greece and, after it happened, I was in no mood to have any fun. We were actually setting out to drive over to the hopping tourist area because she wanted to watch me do some busking when we discovered the break-in. I called the police and they came and did a half ass report and told me I needed to go to the station to get a formal report the next morning. I went the next morning and got the run around, so I have the most basic one sheet report you could imagine. I guess it doesn’t matter much because Klaus checked with his car insurance company and they don’t cover the loss of stolen items anyways. They told me this happens 100’s of times a day to cars with foreign plates because the thieves (evidently quite often recent refugee immigrants) assume that those cars are on vacation and have valuable items inside.

I pretty much decided then and there that there is no chance I am ever seeing any of that stuff again, and that there is no use to keep letting what happened ruin my time, and that the best I can do was start scheming about getting new equipment.

The next morning, it was time for Vickie and I to set off for Thessaloniki where we had a room in a hostel reserved for 2 nights for her birthday. It was a pretty long 5 hour drive, but we passed through some good scenery along the way and had some nice chats getting caught up. I have known Vickie since I was 13 years old, so we have plenty of history between us!

After we arrived to the city, the first stop was to a music store that I had read about to see about getting at least some of the music equipment I was going to need. My biggest concern was being able to find another reasonably priced battery powered amp for street performing. I had gotten a great deal on the one I had, but I had found it at the largest music store in Europe when I was back in Germany. I didn’t know what the selection would be like for those at average music stores in Greece. The place had only one that was an affordable choice and after much deliberation, I went ahead and bought it. It’s not as easily portable as my old one and it takes up more room in the trunk, but it was only 220 euro (which is cheap for these) and it is loud and it has a great battery life. It’s less that ideal, but not wanting to invest a bunch of extra time into looking everywhere for one or risk not finding one at all in smaller cities was enough to make me pull the trigger on this one. They didn’t have a guitar that I was looking for, so after Vickie leaves I’m planning on going to a music store somewhere else for a new guitar and all the other accessories (case, microphone, cables, picks, strings, tuner, etc) I’m going to have to buy to get up and running again. Such a drag to think about.

After securing the amp , I started to feel better about everything, and I was ready to start enjoying the trip again. Vickie and I got checked into our hostel and then headed into the city to get some dinner and have a beer until it turned midnight and she hit the big 5-0. She’s been talking about wanting to have her 50th birthday in Greece since long before I had this trip planned. So I was very glad to be able to help her get her wish since I was going to be in Europe for her birthday and could be there to get her and take her around to places!

On Saturday, we headed back in to the city to get some brunch and do some sightseeing!

After we finished up looking around in the city, we headed back to the hostel where we hung out with a lot of the other guests. There were some people picking around on the hostel’s guitar, so I joined in on that for a while, but my heart just wasn’t in it because it just reminded me of the break in and the shit that I lost. But I still had a good time throwing back some drinks, celebrating with Vickie, and chilling out with everybody.

Late this morning, we said goodbye to everybody at the hostel and set out for our return journey to Athens, but with a two night stopover on the Pelion Peninsula. The idea here was to break up the drive back to Athens and get some time on the beach, which Vickie was looking forward to after spending all her time so far in cities. It only took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to our hotel here in Kala Nera. It is just a 5 minute walk to the beach, which is very nice. I had a swim this evening while Vickie chilled on the beach and then we had some seafood and watched a really incredible sunset!

Tomorrow we’ll be going to the other side of the peninsula where we were recommended some great beaches to see and then back across for the night at Volos. Tuesday morning we’ll head back to Athens for Vickie’s last night in Greece and on Wednesday I’ll be taking her to the airport for her flight home.

Coincidentally, one of Anna-Maria’s best friends from high school, Anna, saw that I was in Greece and sent me a message on Instagram. Long story short, she is flying in to Athens at basically the same time as Vickie is flying out (by pure chance) so I’m trading Vickie for Anna at the airport 😂 and she’s gonna be my new travel buddy for a day. Her dad’s family lives about an hour south of Athens, so I’m going to give Anna a ride there and they are going to let me stay there for a night. It’s crazy how stuff works out sometimes!

That’s all I have for now. I’m hoping that by the next time you hear from me, I’m back up and running in the music game!