Most of the travelers to Greece that join us for the Shabbat meals have quite a traditional circuit: they spend a few days in Athens, and then head to the islands: Santoroni and Myknos being the most popular (and no, there are no synagogues or kosher facilities there), followed by Crete and Rhodes. Others visit the Peloponnesus or the North: the Meterora, the Zagoria villages, Thessaloniki. Some choose to do organized jeep tours, which sound like a lot of fun to me.
Yet some visitors decide to do something more unique: I remember Dorine who went to the island of Paros and participated in a painting course. David and Amy spent their time in Athens doing archeological excavations. Tony, one of our guests this week, will do a week of dolphin observation, joining the staff of a boat in the Ionian Sea, thus helping scientists understand and combat the main threats to them and their ecosystem. I did not even know there were dolphins there!
This brings to my mind our very first guests in our apartment, 8 years ago: 2 young Israelis, having finished the mandatory army service, decided as many others to take off some time and travel the world. Yet unlike others, they decided to do something original: instead of trekking in the Far East or in South America, they decided to do a tour of Europe with a bicycle.
When they came to us, they were already quite suntanned, after all the hours spent outdoors on their bikes, and they were heading towards Patra, planning to cross with the ferry to Italy. They enjoyed so much the Shabbat meals that they took the addresses of other Chabad Houses all over Europe and planned their trip accordingly, each Shabbat in a different Chabad House!
When Mendel went to the annual Shluchim conference, he received regards from them from a few of his European colleagues.
As someone has told me… Join Chabad and tour the world! J
