Greetings from Greece. I've been living here for the past year, but will be relocating to Taiwan and have decided to spend the winter in India before moving on to the Far East. When shopping around for my flight to Delhi, it occurred to me how much travel has changed in the past hundred years. I mean it's so easy nowadays to travel: you jump on a plane and in a matter of hours, are halfway around the world. To go from Athens to Delhi would only take me seven hours on a plane. If I had made the trip a hundred years ago, however, it would take me weeks, perhaps even months, to get to India. I would have to go overland, take trains, if they were available in some parts, and animal transport, like horse or camel, in others.

Sure, travel nowadays is much more convenient than it was in the past, but it's not as exciting. I think a lot of the adventure is lost when you fly. When most people travel somewhere, they jump on a plane in one country, and jump out in the next country. The only thing most of them can talk about was the food they had on the flight, not the experiences they had, the sights they saw and the people they met when travelling from one place to another. The whole travel experience is lost when flying, and I believe that we take travelling for granted, because it's become so easy.

Now this might be fine to some people, those who want to get from point A to point B as fast as they can, but what about those who want to have an adventurous travelling experience? When people travelled in the last century, it was full of hardships like bad weather, bandits, and starvation. Nowadays, the worst thing that happens to most people when they fly is getting bumped off a flight! A lot of the danger is taken out of travel today, but so is the excitement. So I was thinking about all this while I was looking at flight prices, and then I started thinking, you know I don't really Iike to fly...I know! I'll go overland! Overland?? I'm sure Turkey will be OK, but Iran, and Pakistan? Especially for an American woman travelling by herself in these crazy political days.

I started tossing this idea around, did some research on security issues on these countries and have come to the conclusion that it will be safe to do this trip. I will be leaving in a week and will be taking boats, buses, trains, camels and rickshaws from Greece to my final destination in India. I've given myself six weeks to make the journey, as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts at the end of October, and I don't fancy being in a country where people are fasting from sunrise to sunset!

And so follows a rough sketch of my plan: I will leave Athens, and Europe, as it will be the last place I will be on the continent, by boat, or to be more specific, by a huge, inter-island ferry. I will bade farewell to Europe by wishing goodbyes to the lovely Cycladic islands of the Aegean Sea. When I touch ground again it will be in Turkey where I will find a bus to take me to the fair lands of Cappadocia; a place of strangely and surreally formed mountains and dwellings.

From there I will make my way to the Iran border, stopping at whatever places grab my fancy. After entering Iran, I will make my way to the Pakistan border. At this point, I'm not sure which places I will stop in, but what's definite is Estafan and Tehran. After crossing the Iran-Pakistan border, I will take the infamously-long bus ride to the first town, Quetta: 14 hours on a cramped bus that only runs during the hot, hot daylight hours. I only hope it'll be an overcast day!

From Quetta, it's even a longer journey to my next destination: Lahore. From Lahore it's just a hop, jump, and a short rickshaw ride away to India...and from there it's curry, relaxation, and no hurry! I have two months in India, but no plans so we'll see what Lassiland has in store for me!

Anyone doing this same trip, please feel free to drop me a line as we can perhaps meet up somewhere along the way!