October 4, 1996

Here we are at Olympus Beach in Greece, again, full circle from our time here over six weeks ago. We've driven the same highways twice now, passed the same towns, shopped at the same markets. I feel like we should get docked points for repetition. This is the first time that we've backtracked, covered the same ground between countries. When I walked down the aisles of the Hipermarket in Tekirdag the other day, for the third time, I knew exactly where to go for eggs, for bread, for roast chickpeas. Ugh! Familiarity with a grocery store. Shopping become mundane. How will I ever cope with living in the same house, seeing the same checkout counters, the same dairy products day after day after day? Shopping will lose it's magic - gone will be the excitement of driving through unknown towns searching for veggie markets, being elated when a Migros sign looms in the sky, finding peanut butter!

Food has become fun. With each country, we change what we eat. In Germany, muesli and chocolate bars dominated the space under our couch. In Bulgaria, it was beer. Now our van is chock-full of sour cherry juice, olives and roasted chickpeas. Vegetables have ranged from eggplant to green peppers to tomatoes to eggplant to cucumbers to okra to... did I mention eggplant?

But some sameness in life does have its rewards, and, food aside, one for us has been traveling with Hana and Craig behind their little Smurf colored 'Blue Chunder'. We've been together for five weeks ever since we first met in Ankara, Turkey. One day when we parted it felt odd not to be following the 'NZ' taped to their rear and the engine pan gasket that hangs down in a 'U' below it. I'd gotten used to the smiley face it created. But we're together again because they decided to go back to Istanbul after all. When we returned from our amber buying escapade in the city, there was their home, parked at the campground opposite ours. A note under our windshield wiper said "You can run but you can't hide...we're back." So day two in Istanbul was spent in their company and every day since as well. That's one constant we don't mind a bit.