After the quickest shower of my life, Kim and I met downstairs for breakfast: a selection of fresh sweet foccacia, buttery croissants and ubiquitous white dinner rolls, with butter and jam or Nutella (decadent chocolate hazelnut spread) and choice of beverage (orange juice, coffee, tea or hot chocolate).

The breakfast room had a TV on the wall tuned to CNN, reporting the breaking news that EgyptAir flight 990, en route from JFK in New York to Cairo was down, killing all 217 aboard. The most unbelievable aspect to it, was the possibility that the pilot flying the plane had deliberately crashed it into the sea (an act practically unthinkable, pre-September 11).

I suddenly felt so far from home, so precarious. I had departed from that same airport only 10 days earlier, headed out over that same ocean. Any number of things could have gone wrong, or might still go wrong, but here I was, despite the risks, having the most amazingly wonderful time of my life, so far.

As Kim and I headed out for a day of hiking the trails between the little towns, we picked up a couple of garbage bags provided by the hostel. If we filled these bags with trash from the trail on our hike, the hostel owners promised, we could earn free internet time on the hostel's computer.

We set off down the hill, stopping at a little grocery store, to buy provisions for the trail. Laden with fresh fruit, cookies and juice, we found the trail head and talked and walked and enjoyed the views on this perfect day.

We took a side trail down the cliff and stopped at a beach. Well, at least it was a beach in the sense of land meeting water. My concept of a beach had, until this point, always included the presence of sand. But here there didn't appear to be a speck of rock any smaller than a golf ball, with many bowling ball caliber or better.

We tried out the swimming and sunbathing possibilities: the water was warmer than I expected this late in October, but having to take such care not to step on broken glass or twist an ankle on unstable stones, it wasn't much fun. With no smooth place to walk or lie down, it wasn't long before we resumed our hike.

Lady of Leisure on the Riviera
Kim soaks up the sun. We made the best of our rocky beach...at least it wasn't crowded!

Next: Capturing Laughter