Friday Photo #7: My Island Home, Ikaria, Greece

Click image to view full size

This stunning view along the south coast of the north-east Aegean island of Ikaria was taken late in the afternoon from the terrace of my sisters house at Partheni. The beach in the foreground is Kampos Beach, and the cluster of homes in the middle distance are part of the port town of Evthilos. The village on the hillside in the far distance is Karavostamo.

Imagine waking up to this view every morning! Or maybe sitting on the terrace at the end of a long hot summer day, with a Greek coffee, or home made wine in hand, and watching the ever changing colours as the sun slowly sets in the west.

If there is a heaven out there somewhere, this would be one of my ideal visions of it.

Photograph: My Island Home, by Jim Lesses

Location: Ikaria, Greece, April 2008.

Solo Travellers eBook

~ In a previous entry on this blog (Flying Solo) I wrote about some of the pros and cons of solo travel. And since I am someone who likes to travel solo as much as I can, I was immediately interested when I saw a reference to GLAD YOU’RE NOT HERE: A Solo Traveler’s Manifesto on one of the forums on Trip Advisor.

The Manifesto, which was written by Janice Waugh, can be downloaded as a .PDF document, and at only 15 pages is a quick, but useful read. It looks at why you might like to consider solo travel – and while not dismissing the value of travelling with a companion, it does a good job of arguing the case for travelling solo.

Janice says the Manifesto is for anyone who is not only unsure about travelling solo, but for those not sure about what they will get out of the experience. It is also for those whose family and friends don’t understand why you may want to travel on your own. Helpfully, she outlines some reasons for embarking on a journey by yourself.

Like the independence that comes with solo travel.

• As a solo traveller, you can do what interests you, when you want and at a pace that suits you. You don’t need to compromise your choices or explain your decisions.
  
• By travelling on your own you are more likely to mix with other travellers and get out to meet the locals.
  
• Travelling by yourself often forces you to stretch yourself, to move out of your comfort zone, to develop new skills, and in the process allows you to discover things about yourself you may never have known.
  
• Solo travel builds your self-confidence: in your ability to plan, and organise each detail of your journey; your ability to move around in unfamiliar cultures; and even your ability to learn a second or third language – no matter how rudimentary.

As I approach my 61st birthday, and plan my next solo trip for 2010, I am delighted to have read the Solo Traveler’s Manifesto. It has helped reinforce my confidence in my abilities to continue travelling on my own, when sometimes my body and mind try to undermine that confidence.

Although I have travelled solo in the past, without incident or accident, it never hurts to have other people reaffirm your decisions, and offer encouragement and support for future endeavours, and this is exactly what GLAD YOU’RE NOT HERE: A Solo Traveler’s Manifesto does.

Visit the Solo Traveler Blog…

Spanish is The Loving Tongue

~ Hola! Como se llama usted?

In my entry for July 7 (Never To Old To Live And Learn) I wrote that I had signed up for a ten week Spanish for Fun and Travel course at the WEA, an adult learning institution here in Adelaide.

I’m now two weeks into the course, and desperately trying to remember and practise everything I’m learning. The hardest part is not having anyone to talk to, or practise with. So with that in mind, I went searching for language classes online to see if I could find a site to supplement my classes.

As you might imagine there are literally hundreds if not thousands of websites that offer language courses either for free or for a fee. The best of them provide some lessons free to get you started, and a ‘premium’ service for a fee.

After conducting several hours of research and trying some of the sites, I have settled on a great online resource that is proving to be a treasure trove of help for language learners like myself.

The site is the Radio Lingua Network.

On the Radio Lingua Network you can listen to, and download audio files for at least 18 languages. These include the obvious ones like French, Spanish, Italian, and German, but also less obvious languages such as Catalan, Gaelic and Irish, Luxembourgish, Polish and Russian, Danish and Norwegian, Greek and Turkish, and others.

The downloadable resources for Spanish alone run to 80 audio lessons of between 15 and 20 minutes each. And these Coffee Break Spanish lessons are free!

If you opt to pay for the Premium lessons, here’s what you get:

• 15-20 minute enhanced audio lesson which includes flashcards for iPhone/iPod Touch and other iPod models


• Printable lesson guide which outlines all the words and phrases covered in the lesson, additional vocabulary and notes


• Bonus listening material: 8-10 minutes of extra listening which helps to consolidate the language covered in the main lesson


• All materials available via a one-click download through iTunes


• Platinum content for level 1 and 2 which includes wordlists, review exercises and key

So why am I paying for a language class when I can listen online and download lessons for free?

Because there is nothing quite as good as being in a room filled with other students practising and using the language as it is intended to be used – in conversation between real people. I also have the benefit of getting help and feedback from my teacher, and the added ability to ask questions, clarify pronunciation, and gain confidence using my new language skills.

However, the benefits of using the audio lessons on the Radio Lingua Network are that I can have them playing on my computer (as I write this for instance), which helps reinforce what I have already learnt, and prepares me for the lessons to come.

By the way, if you are a member of Twitter, you can follow the Network and sign up for language specific ‘tweets’ every time a new lesson for your chosen language has been added to the RLN site.

I would like to point out that I am not associated with the Radio Lingua Network, either as an affiliate, subscriber to their services (although I should be), or in any other way. I just happen to think they are providing an incredibly valuable service (especially the free lessons), and think too that more people should know about and support them.

PS: The opening Spanish paragraph reads: Hello! What is your name?