Touching the ground, playing around

by David
May 29, 2018
2 min read

I had a cold for two weeks in Greece.

Tinos was a lovely place to have a cold, hanging out in beds or balconies with a view of the Aegean and nothing to do but lazily stroll through beautiful villages or rest on the beach. Very nice.

But I was happy to be back on my feet when the cold finally passed because I could start moving my body again.

I don’t know if this post will be of much interest to people - how I exercise and work out. But it’s a key element to how I’ve experienced the places we’ve visited on the Jubilee: getting up, usually well before Jess and Willa Marie, and having some time to myself to explore the locations we're staying by climbing on them, running up the hills, hanging out in the trees, jumping into rivers, seeing who else is in the parks and green spaces at 6am in these countries. (It's mostly old folk - doing the same thing I'm doing - using their bodies to commune with the place.)

It’s a way of knowing the country, a way for me to get my hands on the ground. And also to feel a kind of continuity between all the places we've seen by exploring them in the same ways.

I think it also gives me something to be working on given that I have no work projects occupying my time - my handstand, my cartwheel, my endurance.

..so I thought I'd share some pics and videos.

On the ground

Here’s a little video of my working out at the ‘farm’ in Aigos Romanos where we stayed for a week:

On the mountain

Up above the ‘farm’ and its beach was a peak on Tinos. From the moment I saw it I wanted to climb it. As soon as I felt better I did. There were no paths so I followed the goat turds and footprints through the spiky heather and stoney dust often climbing on the ancient walls as a way to create a line up the hill.

Here’s a little video of the journey: