I’ve been able to put some much-needed sleep between me and what happened with my camera. I can’t say I feel a whole lot better, but I feel slightly less self-pitying about the situation. More than anything, it's not about the camera, which was insured. It wasn’t even about the pictures, most of which had been uploaded (leaving only about 20% of them lost forever). It was: 1) the feeling of violation that comes with knowing that someone either stole my camera, or found it but didn’t turn it in, and 2) the feeling that I lost the one thing that I really valued when I travel—next to my passport, that is.
Still, it's hard to feel completely forlorn when you're on a slow boat back to the mainland, with perfectly clear weather, and you're surrounded by the beautiful blue Aegean ocean. I’m in Greece, I’m healthy (well, sort of—I'm still not over my ‘traveler’s ailment’), and it isn’t the end of the world. So I’ve had a bit of bad luck—when you travel, you have to expect some. And the longer you travel, the better your odds that these things will happen. This is precisely why I never travel without insurance.
So, as I was saying, it’s hard not to accept it as ‘par for the course’ when it is just so damned beautiful here. Also, on the heels of this bad luck came some good news: I was accepted to volunteer at a wildlife hospital on the island of Aegina, which is part of the Argo-Saronic chain of Greek islands and approximately 1.5 hours from the mainland. Interestingly, it's at a non-profit that I had considered before accepting the Crete position (I ended up choosing the latter because the Cretan organization provided the opportunity to work with both animals and children, whereas the wildlife hospital is strictly with animals). So, shortly after returning to Athens I will head to Aegina for the adventures that await me there. I've also decided to finish off my summer by joining a friend (Krystal, whom you may remember from the Spain, Morocco, and Portugal part of this summer's trip) on her trip to Turkey. So, it seems that 'Plan B' is now complete: volunteer work on Aegina, then off to Istanbul.
