Little Update

I've reached the Black Sea. My planning estimates were rather low - I underestimated the distance to Sudak by nearly 300 km, but I'm less than a week behind schedule and should have no trouble making it to Patras by Easter, which was my target. No worries. Finding accommodation is still the greatest challenge, but I've worked out the keys - the priests and the shop-ladies and haven't been caught out. The food hasn't been to my liking much, well, I haven't asked for any recipes, let's say. The wine is pretty atrocious - they gave the recipe to Vicks and Vicks improved on it for their cough medicine. Sweet, thick, and made from cherries. Yeah, and they call it wine. No where to go but up. I'm about 25% of the way to Patras. They claim a relic of St Andrew in the last town I stayed in. Nearly all people I meet are surprised and impressed that a pilgrim would undertake such a journey. I haven't had any untoward experiences, nothing frightening at all. I've managed in the terrible weather to make about a dozen watercolors so far, but haven't found the means to scan them or have someone photograph them and transfer the files to the net. I'm working on it. I would like to have made more watercolors, but mostly it's been a weather thing; also, the days are pretty short, so I walk from dawn to dusk and don't find many places to sit down and paint. Now the days will be getting longer, and as I walk westward, the sun will set a bit later, too. Pilgrim life is grand.