Buying weed Litochoro

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Buying weed Litochoro

Litochoro is attached to the edge of the cliff. The Enipeas Gorge, which is cutting the Olympus massif in half, falls almost vertically next to the last houses in the city. It is true that the buildings with taverns are even at the bottom of the gorge, but no one lives there permanently. I wrote the following text almost three years ago, in April , after a few months of my life in Litochoro. I am posting it below as a document of the times, primarily as proof of my fascination with a new place, which is always very strong at the beginning and therefore it is worth perpetuating it. The text is seemingly about Litochoro, but in fact it says much more about my feelings than about the city and it should rather be read that way. Litochoro also has an amazingly unique layout. The city has the shape of a very elongated rectangle and although it looks like a flat strawberry cake from above, from the perspective of a resident or a leisurely wanderer, it is clearly divided into two parts: the lower, to the roundabout with a fountain, at the end of the main street and the upper part rising up in terraces, a bit older. Comparison to the highest mountains of Poland and Slovakia can be usefull. The asphalt road around the Tatras is about km, the analogous road around Olympus is at least km, while Olympus — unlike the Tatra Mountains surrounded by wide valleys — quite smoothly changes into the massif of Lower Olympus in the south and the Pieria Mountains in the north. Muses Plateau, Mytikas and Stefani are, however, the purpose of a longer, all day trip. Olympus in the Litochoro area is primarily wooded. It is a very diverse forest, rich in species of both deciduous and coniferous trees, with an unusual for Greece amount of moisture, and what is especially important from my perspective, a forest that gives shadow and offers quite a lot of beautiful and quite comfortable running paths. I can easily find routes for short, fast trainings loop to Stavros Rf. And all this almost only in the forest zone to a height of m a. In general, the northern and eastern slopes are much more forested than the southern and western ones. On the south side it is also slightly warmer, and on the west slightly cooler than in the east. I am delighted with the changes of the seasons, flowers in January, trees with evergreen leaves, hundreds of salamanders on the path to the hermit cave, new houses two streets around the corner, the possibility to play basketball outside the school at the beginning of February, local customs, new people I meet every now and then , new words and extraordinary melody of the Greek language that I hear every day. From this perspective, it is very easy to see that Litochoro is completely differently organized than similar places in Poland. More friendly to life, open to people and their needs, conducive to meetings and conversation. There are countless taverns and cafes in the city. Only on the main street I counted over 20! In a quite large although half the size of Litochoro tourist village in southern Poland, where I once organized running competitions, there is only… one restaurant equivalent of a Greek tavern. There are no cafes at all! Litochoro also has an amazingly large number of public places. A sports stadium is absolutely sensational, with a football field of course, but also with a real 8-track athletics track, long jump place, high jump and pole vault places. With an obstacle ditch and additional football field. And with a wonderful view around, because on one side I have the peaks of Olympus, and on the other Aegean Sea. There is no such stadium not only in cities of similar size in Poland, but probably in many cities in much richer Europe. There are many more similar socially active places in the city. In the very center is the City Park, with several alleys, a pond and a large fountain, amphitheater and a bit more wild part. What happens in this park on warm summer evenings in Poland it would be late at night, because in the country on the Vistula River people as we know go to sleep with chickens passes my imagination: the old sit on benches and talk, young people walk somewhere in the alleys, children ride bikes, buzz, constant movement, friendly, open atmosphere — a real human hive. Where are these meneles, drinking some liquids every day in front of the store in my neighborhood — ran out of cheap wine? There are many more smaller public parks in Litochoro. Such squares with alleys, trees and benches, squeezed somewhere between the houses, so that the local residents did not have to go downstairs, and the children had somewhere to play with their peers. Meetings are a different reality in Litochoro. Of course, taverns and cafes are places by definition intended for meetings. Not only with the other friends. One time we sat down at the table and started to talk. A man from the next table cut in on the conversation and Lazaros talked to him for… 15 min! I asked. No, just man. But not only that. I live in Litochoro for only a few months, but every time I move somewhere I meet friends. Not some great friends, but just people I know. And I know someone in Litochoro, because I did shopping in his store twice. People meet here constantly. And nothing can stop such a meeting: the main crossroad of the city, two cars stop in the middle, because the owners have to exchange a few words. And others wait calmly, because they understand that nothing is more important than meeting two people. I wonder if this obviousness and everyday meeting, openness of people to others is not even manifested in architecture. After all, the most important element of every home in Litochoro is … a terrace. A balcony, veranda, loggia, or some other place outside where there is a table and chairs. Houses in the city are very different, but this element is in everyone, in countless implementations. Sometimes such a place is located on the roof, because above there is a greater chance of air movement during the summer heat. Life in Litochoro goes primarily outside, and homes isolate man from the outside world to a much lesser extent. They do not have intermediate spaces, corridors, hallways or vestibules, very often you enter directly into the room or kitchen. Litochoro architecture does not enchant you at first sight. The city does not look like Paleo Panteleimonas or villages in Zagori that could do as an open-air museum. It is certainly a vibrant town, rich with inventiveness of residents, their various needs and changeable taste. However, all houses in the city have red tile roofs. Not most of them — all of them! This creates a style and urbanistic unity. From above, the city really looks like a strawberry pie, the phrase at the beginning of the text was not a floral metaphor. Nevertheless, the houses are very different. Some retain the features of a traditional style, i. All these houses have one feature: they are incredibly fragmented, they have countless elements of different heights, outbuildings, roofs and eaves. The eyesight has something to catch on and with constant pleasure I wander sometimes on narrow alleys, discovering new pearls. Home gardens are a separate topic. The inventiveness and aesthetic sense of residents is best manifested in these ephemeral elements that require constant care. The gardens are small, but all the vegetation just explodes from them, with lots of flowers, trees and bushes, exotic to me. Sometimes pots of various sizes are dominant, as if casually arranged, and some are like a reminiscent of pitos from the Palace of Minos in Knossos. Imagine the path of your dreams. It was this hypsometry that fascinated me the most: each height painted in a different color…. In this way I come to a crucial moment in an attempt to explain what I am doing here and why Litochoro stole my heart. The most important feature of every trip, every change of whereabouts all the more, is the opportunity to learn new things. It is not just that there are objectively more of these new things around us than at home, more importantly that our sense of perception shifts to reception mode, becomes more open to newness, more sensitive, and sometimes even more greedy and seeking. Hungry for impressions and new discoveries. Can there be a better place to explore than Greece? Theoretically, I live here like everywhere, between home, coffee bar, mountains for training and other places of daily activity. But, after all, I am so excited that Orpheus was born 4 km north of the city of course, I went to see where it was , Alexander the Great set off to conquer the world from the palace, which is located only 30 km away, and the viper bitten Eurydice in the Tempe Valley, which is two hours away by bike from Litochoro. I live in a world of my dreams, only now I can go and see what this world really looks like. And it seems, such a confrontation is only good for it. But it is not only the distant antiques that move my imagination. In Litochoro there are a lot of different remains: abandoned or unfinished houses, empty commercial premises, strange constructions, the sens and meaning of which is not clear anymore, there are even closed taverns and hotels. It all proves the former splendor. Even more about the splendor of plans and great investment optimism of the residents, but still about the fact that the past was full of hope. It is similar with the paths in the mountains. The main tourist trail E-4 through the Enipeas Gorge, built in the second half of the 80s of the previous century, 30 years ago provided much easier access deeper into the mountains than now, when it is so damaged that it resembles a natural path. Even worse i. I used to think that there are very few paths on Olympus, now I know there are plenty of them! They are waiting patiently for rediscovery. Many times checking the next variants of barely visible trails that disappear suddenly in the middle of the forest or above the cliff, I felt like the first tourists haunting the Polish mountains at the end of the 19th century or pioneers of the American West a little earlier. Only me and wild nature. With the only difference that in Greece it is never entirely clear whether it is primordial savagery or in the time of Pericles or Constantine the Great this world was full of human traces, and only now it has gone wild again. Anyway, living in a place where I can play the role of a discoverer and seeker of ancient traces constantly excites me a lot. For now I will stay here. My Life in Litochoro. And why I am staying here. Do you like my website? Seal of Pylos. Forgotten Masterpiece. It is May The rocky island of Sfakteria and several smaller ones, the site of naval battles one from the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC and a second from the time of the Greek Revolutionary War in the early nineteenth century. Great Italian influence in the area. Main street in Litochoro. Olympus highest peak - Mytikas in the baCkground, covered with the snow. Litochoro is located between the mountains and the sea. No more than 15 km is from the town to the top of Olympus, 5 km to the Aegean Sea. The A1 motorway connecting us with the world also runs by the sea. Going north, in an hour I can get to Thessaloniki, in three and a half hours to Athens in the south. Not far away is the intersection with the second most important Greek road Egnatia Odos, which leads to Meteora 3 hours , Pindos Mountains 3 hours to Metsovo and the coast of the Ionian Sea 4 hours. However, there should be no illusion that since Greece is three times smaller than Poland, everything is close. The Aegean Islands are of course even further in every sense. About music, dance, Zagori Races and cosmic religion of Greece. In the heart of the Pindos Mountains, in the small village of Tsepelovo, every year in July, Zagori Mountain Running competitions are organized. There are four distances to choose from, but the start of each of them is somewhat similar: a crowd of runners, an unusual atmosphere of excitement, a customary countdown and… music played from the speakers: a sharp guitar screeching at the beginning, then a wind instrument singing, powerful guitar and bass riffs combined with overwhelming drum beats, finally vocals. Kitros - summit in western part of Olympus masiff. According to Nikos Nezis book, popular in Litochoro, there are 55 peaks higher than 2, m on Olympus, supposedly exactly the same as in the Tatra Mountains. The main summit — Mytikas — rises much higher than Gerlach and reaches m. There are far fewer granites on the mountain of the gods than in the Tatras, and therefore fewer vertical walls. However, it is difficult to decide whether the massif is more easily accessible. Relative heights are often twice as big as between Zakopane and Poprad, paths are much more natural, and there are plenty of uneven stones, even if they are not granites. However, the gorges are the most characteristic. Deep valleys with steep, almost vertical walls, very rightly called gorges, descend from all sides of Olympus. If there is no path, crossing such a gorge is practically impossible, both along and across I tried several times. The difficulty is also associated with much more expansive nature than in Poland. Unused pathways overgrow in the blink of an eye, and the vast majority of plants in lower locations have spikes or sharp, dry branches. The Alpine zone, with quite green grass, begins at a height of about 2, m, and its greatest attraction is the Muses Plateau, a huge, almost flat piece of land at an altitude of 2, m, close to the two main peaks of Stefani and Mytikas.. Kalogeros peak m in south, almost unknown and very quiet part of Olympus - 5 hours walk from Litochoro. Secret Life of Cicada. In Litochoro and elsewhere. It was in the middle of hot summer, the peak of the holiday season. I stood in front of the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion in Crete, among the crowd of tourists. Fire road on north slops of Olympus, just some kilometers from Dion village. Part of circle tour around Olympus. One of the biggest advantages of living in Litochoro is very aptly described by the simplest sentence: Olympus is a very high mountain located in the Mediterranean climate. It also shows the possibility of being in several worlds at the same time. In mid-November, the first snow fell high in the mountains and remains there until now mid-May. This is not symbolic snow in any way, a month ago I saw a shelter covered up to the roof, so the snow cover was at least 2. At the same time up to a height of meters there was no snow at all, the paths were dry almost all the time, and the temperature in January in Litochoro reached plus 15 degrees C. Therefore, it was often the case that one day I walked in big mountain boots, laden like an Olympic mule, in a heavy backpack with crampons, ice ax and a set of warm clothes to the Muses Plateau or Kalogeros m , and the next I ran in sports shoes and shorts to the old monastery of St. Dionysius at an altitude of m, in a completely spring weather, with lots of blooming flowers along the way. For the full picture it is worth mentioning that in the Aegean Sea near Litochoro I was swimming at the end of November, and much more determined swimmer, the owner of one of the taverns in town, has been doing it every day for 20 years! The number of sunny days during all winter months was simply stunning! The first image I see almost every day after waking up is the clear blue sky. And the wind does not blow in Litochoro at all! It is easy to forget about the grayness that lasts for months in the cold lands of the north and the gale that blows your head almost every day. In the middle Muses Plateau. Snow is staing in this region for half a year. I have neither qualifications nor sufficient knowledge and experience. This is my picture of the City and I am fully aware that every time I try to see and understand something, I start from what I know well, namely Poland, Warsaw and Polish mountains. This allows me to notice differences, but also highlights the advantages, if in the old country I saw mainly disadvantages in a given field. For example, if I write that the paths on Olympus are completely empty, I remember the nightmare of the crowd of tourists in the Polish Tatras and Zakopane. To make the background of my considerations more complete, I would like to mention that I was born and raised in a medium-sized city about , inhabitants , I lived in the countryside for 10 years, and in Warsaw for over 20 years. I still get to know more things in a week than in Poland in a year! Peloponnese by Bike. Five weeks of cycling. This trip was not supposed to happen at all. A habit borrowed from northern countries … By bike in November, with a small tent? View from the path to main Olympus peak - Mitikas. Buildings and garden in Litochoro. The house on the right photo was once a music school, now abandon and in ruins like many buildings in Litochoro. Maleas to Astros. In my private ranking of the most beautiful coastal cycling routes in Greece, the following route has taken the first place. About km in length and 4, meters of elevation. Litochoro city park with the fountain and the view for Enipeas Gate. Litochoro is a base for Olympus, but it is not actually a tourist city, i. The comparison seems the most legitimate since both cities are at the foot of the highest mountains in their country. However, such a comparison shows much more differences than similarities. First of all, numbers. There are 7, permanent residents in Litochoro and 30, in Zakopane. According to estimated data, on average , tourists staying in the city near the Tatra Mountains, in town near Olympus number of turists staying in the same time is for sure lower than number of permanent residents. There are no attractions for the mass tourist in Litochoro: cable car, ski lifts, thermal pools, large hotels or horse carriages transporting people on the asphalt road. There is only one sports shop, although excellent! Thus, comparing tourist traffic seems breakneck, because setting each number next to zero or almost zero gives the impression of great value. From my personal perspective, I describe it in such a way, that I have not been able to go to Zakopane for many years, and in Litochoro I can work on developing tourism and I do not feel any discomfort because of it. The Path of Your Dreams. From Chora Sfakion to Elafonisi Beach. Kopsi Naum in north part of Olympus. One of the most difficult, most exposed and most beautiful hiking trail in the area. Some climbing skills are needed. Olympus Mythical Trail. Celebrating the Heat. Out of many Greek inventions, sport probably made the biggest career. Almost nobody practices philosophy anymore, almost nobody values science, but sport is on top. Litochoro — Lakkos, April My 55 Peaks. Goumarostali Vertical Mile. From Prionia to Muses Plateau. Zvara - about music, running Blade Runner on Peloponnese. JULY 17, MARCH 25, Scroll to Top.

32 Best Stops Between Sunny Beach and Litochoro

Buying weed Litochoro

There is the common misconception, that hiking on the mountain paths of the Himalaya is dangerous. The mountains are safe may be with the exception of the very high altitudes , the real danger here is found on the roads and in the air. Nepal has one of the worst road traffic accident statistics and I was more concerned about the six hour journey which then turned out to take nearly nine hours…. Thankfully the discomfort from my infected tooth had settled and , pumped full with a cocktail of medication and with encouragement from hiker friend and dentist Graham and his daughter Angela in the UK, I had finally decided at least to give it a try and to go for a couple of days into the mountains, before coming to the ultimate decision to continue or to turn. Taking one of the seats in the front of the bus, I noticed, that we were under the protection of both Hindu deities Ganesh and Kali. In addition to this, each seat was fitted with a depiction of a pair of hands in a praying position. What could now possibly go wrong? Trusting that at least the vital parts of the chassis of the vehicle had its origin in Sweden — the interior fittings definitly had not……- we started slowly rolling out of the city, heading West towards Pokara. The eternal traffic jam out of Kathmandu had not only the effect that our journey took much longer than expected, but the advantage that we were driving past abyssmal drops next to the road with an agreeable speed, especially while our driver was busy having extended conversations on his mobile phone with Ganesh?! Finally we turned off the main road and the direction changed from West to North — towards the deep valleys of the Himalaya. Steel and rubber were now stressed and strained at their utmost and I pittied the old diesel engine while the bus laboured uphill on untarmaced roads. Sitting in a street cafe over my copy of the The Himalayan Times, I am treating myself to the customary milky tea and a deep fried doughnut. My breakfast is not likely to cost more than 50 cent, a mere fortune compared to the 5 rupees 4 cent I had paid for the newspaper…. I had struggled to find some sleep and when looking into the mirror in the morning , my face was lopsided due to a painful swelling below my left eye. The most likely cause for this was a molar abscess and with the help of my local contacts and following the advice of my dentist friends Angela and Graham in the UK, I had no other choice than checking myself in with one of the dental clinics in Kathmandu. Bad timing ….. Fast forward three hours and I have made the aquaintance of Luna, my local dentist in Kathmandu. After popping the abscess with her dental probe which seemed to give her more pleasure than me…. After having three root canals drilled out and the abscess flushed, I felt much better. To make the most of the still lasting local anaesthesia, I headed straight for the Kaiser Cafe in the Garden of Dreams, one of the few green spaces in the city, and enjoyed a slice of cheese cake and a latte before the pain was due to set in…. Even better, I was joined by my colleague Pranav from the neighboring city of Baktarpur, who had seen a few cases at his branch in Kathmandu. Buoyant and still completely painfree the next morning, I was confident that I could start on my trip the next day and with a swing in my step I saw Dr Luna for a follow up check. What I had expected to be a brief procedure, lasted another 45 minutes with a lot of probing and prodding, with the result that in the evening, at the meeting with my team, I was , despite the antibiotics I was already taking, in agony….. Walking up the ramp to the exit, surounded in neon-blue light, gives me the impression of walking on the bottom of a swimming pool or of entering a fancy night club. For a change due to my working commitments during the day , I am visiting this veterinary faculty not during daytime, but at night and my guide this time is not the dean, but an equally unique vet student. At night veterinary clinics all go into their very own stand by mode. With the waiting rooms and the halls mostly devoid of pet owners, the work of the remaining staff is focused on the care of the inpatients and due to the lower risk of being interrupted, on the writing of scientific papers on brightly lite computer screens. Luregn is making an effort to make the tour of the clinic as comprehensive as possible, so that it is already late, before we are entering the skills lab in one of the historic buildings of the faculty. You might be forgiven for forgetting that fact, when entering the futuristic looking central area of the lab. The dark horse on the right side of the room, fitted with all the important internal organs for students and vets to touch during a rectal examination looks familiar :. It costs about the same as a small car and I have seen one just like it over a year ago in Dubai. The large pig on the left side of the room is new to me and the injection side on the neck , fitted with an electronic sensor to confirm the correct needle placement, is looking well used. Luregn opens a draw and out come the at first sight bizzare looking heads of a dog and a cat. Certainly not something to hang on the wall, but instead very useful probs to practice the intubation of these species for anaesthesia or resuscitation. However — made in blue or in green, they would have looked friendlier…. There are a fair number of fluffy dog and cat models, which very much remind me to the ones I had built some years ago at my clinic to be used at the First Aid courses we where running for clients for a while. The models here are also fitted with artificial hearts and lungs and the model of a frontlimb of a larger breed dog is inviting even the most unskilled vet student to take a blood sample, without being afraid to fail the dog or — even worse? Turning off the light and putting these patient and never complaining creatures back to bed, I appreciate how much veterinary education has progressed, even just during my lifetime. Today, it may be a good place to spot purple sandpipers, but this used to be the site from which over American soldiers departed for Utah Beach, now nearly 80 years ago, to risk their lifes to free not less than a whole continent. Watching hundreds of visitors circling the monument at a great distance, I remained puzzled about the appeal of the place. I have to admit, that I consider it as one of the most overrated tourist attractions on the Globe. In my ignorance, I see it as not much more than a circle of a few big stones on a field, which can — very comfortably — be seen from the inside of a car while driving along the nearby, usually congested road. One will not be allowed to touch a stone, one will not even be allowed to walk among the stones….. In contrast, the real attraction of this part of the world — I would say — lies right ahead of me this morning , and there are nearly miles of it, which can be walked and run on, which can be touched and can be thoroughly enjoyed for free around the year. May be a bit long for a single morning run, but filled with endless artefacts of history and art, unique wildlife, a fair amount of wind, rain and bad weather in general, plus never ending stunning views — especially here in Brixham. Having enjoyed the colourful, iluminated view of the fishtown area of Brixham the previous night,. Pressing on, I pass a stretch of beach, that contains the largest collection of perfectly shaped skipping stones I have ever come across. But at least today, I am in luck and the bell is not ringing…. Following the now ascending coastal path, I am first trespassing on to the terasse of the rather grande Berry Head Hotel,. I am crossing a stretch of Northern cloud forest and finally I find myself faced by the barrels of the sixteen cannons of an old battery. Luckily there is a small gap in this imposing defense installation, so that after all , I manage to reach the lighthouse on the top of the cliff and with that, a spectacular view of the South facing coast and of the English Channel. Here the exposure to the wind and to the force of the waves, which are working relentlessly on the rocks, is very different. Now it is all the way a combination of tail winds, downhill running, but also passing of a large number of dog walkers with happy canines and even of a single lifesized metal sculpture of a rhino in a frontgarden, before I return to the starting point of my morning run. Not one of those noisy bastards at the Continental. A quiet American. Written between and , he correctly predicted in this novel that America would eventually been drawn into the conflict. Like Greene, Fowler is a middle aged man, caught in an unhappy marriage with a catholic wife who is dening him a divorce. Fowler is portrait as worn, bored and cynical. Like the author he his struggling with periods of depression. He works as a reporter for a British newspaper and he is a frequent visitor of the Hotel Continental, at that time one of the most famous buildings in Indochina. But unlike Fowler, who has his own, very humble flat just off Rue Catinat, now Durong Dong Khoi, Graham Greene used to stay directly at the Continental and if so, then always at room Located at the corner of the building, on the second in an elevated position above the street, the room allowed an excellent view of the square infront of the Opera and of Rue Catinat — more or less the centre of Saigon. It is said that Greene preferred this room, because he could see from there, while writing, who was coming and going in Saigon. Most — if not all — of the book was conceived in this room and after thoroughly enjoying it as my travel companion while touring Vietnam, some parts came so much more to life, once I had grasped the opportunity of staying at this room at the end of my trip to this country. Imagining Greene sitting by the window probably without airconditioning , the room — facing South — must have been very hot at times. I wondered if he managed to stick to his customary words a day writing routine during that time, while filing at the same time his regular reports to London. An unusual feature — I found — were the two columns that are right in the middle of the room. How many times did he run into one of them I wondered…. It was the same with all the doors in the hotel. Placed in the lower third of the door, they probably reflected the average height of the builders over years ago. The hotel used to be one of the main meeting places of politicians, military leaders and journalists from the end of the Second World War until the end of the Vietnam War in One can imagine all the important and at times historical conversations and events that took place behind these unusual doors. The Continental is no longer the most luxurious hotel in town. There were two things that had to be done while travelling in Vietnam — taking a motorscooter taxi and visiting a veterinary clinic. How dangerous could it be? The local motorscooter helmets, which resemble just a harder version of a baseball cap, offered very little re-assurance. During our ride I spotted the first scooter riders with pets. Without doubt, most of these predominantly small dogs clearly enjoyed their ride and appeared to have adapted re-markably well to this unusual form of transport. Some even sported a safety harness and most of them were quite protective of their personal carriage. Both small children usually without a helmet as well as pets were transported this way and I never saw a single scooter accident. On the other side of the road, a 3 m tall red cat was just about to scale the side of the building,. These two sculptures were my first inpression of the world of Animal Doctors International, a British run veterinary group operating in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and now also in Thailand. Using an appealling combination of bamboo, marble flooring, indirect lighting elements and a small tree growing through the reception desk,. I fell immediately in love with the place and I never returned home! This — as I found out later — was less than 10 years including a global pandemic! All of theses clinics provide a standard of veterinary care for companion animals, that was completely unheard of in most of these countries. In addition to this, ADI is doing a lot of conservation work, runs an elephant clinic, organises spay and rabies vaccination clinics and provides continuing education for local veterinary colleagues. The website even offers a degree walk through the clinic in Saigon. Will explained, that small animal veterinary medicine is still very underdeveloped in Vietnam, but undoubtedly the demand for state of the art veterinary care was absolutely there. Native vets are providing nursing tasks and are at the same time upskilled by their foreign colleagues. Postgraduate education of staff members is happening online or by attending international congresses in Asia or further afield. The consulting rooms of the clinic were functional, absolutely spotless and fitted with well thought through features like wall mounted examination tables and climbing opportunities for cats some of them may be a bit too high? There was a large, well equipped prep-area and separate in-patient areas for dogs and for cats. Modern diagnostic imaging equipment in a dedicated room, as well as an operating theatre with an oxygen generator and a lot of monitoring equipment were further features. There is a large case load of infectious diseases, including parvovirosis and distemper, but thankfully only very few cases of rabies in all of Vietnam and no recent cases in Saigon and the Mekong delta. We see them all the time! As the regular reader of these accounts will be aware, I like to go for a run, and — if staying in a interesting city — then ideally early in the morning, when the air temperature is still bearable and when more sensible people are still asleep …….. Even at this time, the roads were packed with never ending waves of motor scooters, skilfully maneuvered by both men and women, with every third rider as it appeared on a mobile phone, some of them clearly reading or sending text messages. From there I had also hoped to be able to cross over to the French colonial city hall and then to run along the pedestrianised Quang Truong Nguyen Hue to the Mekong river. Instead I joined the local crowd and limited the range of my exercise to the small park and to the outside perimeter of the palace grounds. The park was — as expected — packed with joggers, Tai Chi enthusiasts and a group of middle aged women going through sword fighting routines. A couple of times I passed a dog that was resting on a park bench. It struck me, that he probably regarded this sea of pointless and seemingly disorientated exercise fanatics with an element of utter disdain…. When I noticed a sign board that listed so many things one was not allowed to do, I considered myself lucky that at least I was at liberty to breathe. Sticking just to the pavement here — which was what all the local runners did — the clear advantage was, that at least no roads had to be crossed. The building in the center of the complex used to be the Palace of the South Vietnamese Head of State. At least until a North Vietnamese tank crashed through its front gate on 30th April , which was universally interpreted as the end of the Vietnam War. Just before feeling smug about this, it dawned on me that it was probably not due to a lack of fitness, but a precaution to avoid inhaling too much of the fumes of the nearby traffic……. It was high time to return to the hotel and to the air conditioning , following an exercise not to be repeated in the foreseeable future. The most exciting option to cover the distance I thought, was to make use of the old French colonial — of course metric — railway system, where an overnight sleeper train is covering the nearly km in about 8 hours. What I found though was a nearly empty station hall, where only a handful of travellers were occupying the few available seats. No street vendors were in sight, trying to sell last minute vital provisions to excited and slightly disorientated travellers. No French nobility or American heiresses with a multiple of their own body weight in Louis Vuitton luggage and with the necessary support staff to shift it. Compared to Waterloo station at this time of the day, this was a graveyard. The next disappointment was the train itself and the compartments: electronic displays had replaced the friendly and always helpful multilingual conductor. And while the train started to squeeze itself through the labyrinth of buildings in the center of Hanoi, with not as much as a meter to spare on either side which in itself has now developed into a tourist attraction ,. While the train was rattling — rather noisily — along with a lot of sideway shifting because of the narrow gauge, I delved into the bowels of this slow moving reptile. Turning left to the remaining carriages, the standard deteriorated rapidly, with both the condition of the on board installations as well as the standard of hygiene fading rapidly. Risking my life by jumping over the threshold between the moving carriages, I stepped back well over a hundred years :. Here it was — the mahogany lined wall panelling, the well attended restrooms and the individually crafted compartment doors. The compartments were prepared for four or even for two travellers and there appeared to be a good mix of both Vietnamese as well as foreign passengers. It struck me that this train was a bit like Vietnam in the 21st century — a complex mixture of old and new, embracing some aspects of its colonial past, but at the same time moving forward, no always in an expected or even appealing way, but at least with a bright future ahead. These much loved dogs live a typical canine urban life in Hanoi. Dog ownership, considered by communist governments a bourgeois past time and frequently discouraged as a waste of precious food resources, has in many countries increased in line with an improved standard of living. Over time, the human- animal bond has proven to be more powerful than any political system….. On my walks through the center of Hanoi, I mostly see small poodles, Chihuahuas and a surprisingly large number of Corgies. Interestingly no pugs or French bulldogs and thankfully no larger breeds at all. Having to scrape by, mostly on left overs, competing often with the life stock of the same household and with little or no hope for any veterinary care. After all, this is a country where the dog as a potential food source has not completely disappeared from the menue…. Along with an increased interest in pet ownership, mostly in the urban centers, has come not only a demand for better veterinary care, but driven by popular television programmes and by social media, for veterinary care of an international standard. A brief online search for veterinary services in the center of Hanoi, results in a plethora of practices and clinics, with often colourful names and all with raving Google reviews, albeit usually by reviewers with not more than a total of three or less reviews to their name. Openly displayed price lists — reminding me a bit of a black board displaying the daily specials in a restaurant… — give an indication not only of the competitiveness of the market, but also of the range of services typically provided. At the moment the life of an urban dog in Hanoi remains pretty much confined to the dwelling of their owner and to the very few and always busy local parks. Taking a dog or a cat! But even in this respect — often driven by foreign influence — attitudes might change over time. This was not a great day to summit the highest peak in Greece, but as the recent torrential rain had destroyed the water supply to the hut, leaving it without running water and — worse — any sanitation, this was also not a good place to stay…. This was a nice change to the nearly m I had scaled the previous day, when starting this trip in the small village of Litochoro, close to the Aegean Sea. It was the beginning of October and before attending another Eastern European Regional Veterinary Conference in Thessaloniki, I had a bit of time to kill. The hike the previous day went through a deep gorge, most of the time in a lush forest, along a river with a lot of water falls, pools and even a natural spring underneath a rock ledge. This for many years had been the home of a hermite and it eventually proofed to be an ideal location to build a small monastery nearby. The walk to the refuge had taken longer than expected and I arrived at Spilios Agapitos just before sunset. The hike from there the next day to Giosos Apostolidis was, albeit much shorter, fairly steep and because of the rain the ground was slippery. In the middle of the trail, out of the mist, appeared suddenly a huge dog. These dogs are normally used by the local shepherds to guard their flock against wolfs and even bears and it is advisable to give them a wide berth. Thankfully some locals turned up a moment later and I complemented them on their thankfully gentle giant. Not harming anyone and not chasing any wildlife, they were living off handouts from hikers and of left overs of the mountain huts. I met the other dog near the summit the next day. Making this detour and spending an extra day on the mountain had been a good idea, as the weather eventually improved and both in the evening as well as during the whole of the next day, there was just a blue sky without any clouds. This provided me with a lot of great photo opportunities of the summit from the small chapel of Profitis Ilias. Followed by a short breakfast with an obligatory Greek coffee, I then set off on a spectacular traverse just below the summit. The path eventually made a sharp turn and ascended steeply North to a high alpine plateau and to Scala, one of the nearly 50 sub summits of Olympus. What was left, was a scamble for another half an hour and eventually I was standing on Mytikas, with m above sea level the highest peak in Greece. Arising from out of nowhere and standing on its own with a diameter of just 26 kilometers, being just 18 kilometers away from the coast, catching the first sunlight in the morning and providing a unique navigation point to a nation of seafarers through the millenia, it is no surprise that this place was believed to be the home of the Gods. Another sleepless night and serious doubts if I should start this new adventure….. First a visit of the small animal clinic though…. For us too, it is a good time to take a closer look at the green and red illuminated, state of the art, temperature and air controlled, noise reduced recovery cages , at the sophisticated air lock systems, which help to keep pollutants as low as possible, at the batteries of simulantiously running infusion pumps, which are always a good indicator for the complexity of the treatment the patients at an intensive care unit receive, at a room which is exclusively dedicated to dialysis, where the lives of patients with renal failure can both be saved and maintained without functional kidneys for a while, and basically at a good example of how the clinical training of veterinary under graduates in the 21st century can look like. Here models rule and no living creature is coming to any harm….. The dark horse on the right side of the room, fitted with all the important internal organs for students and vets to touch during a rectal examination looks familiar : It costs about the same as a small car and I have seen one just like it over a year ago in Dubai. Another early morning run…. I am in Brixham, on the coast of Devon. Driving here from Surrey, I had passed Stonehenge. Having enjoyed the colourful, iluminated view of the fishtown area of Brixham the previous night, I am heading East this morning, towards Berry Head. Ignoring the puzzling stare of the old fisherman at Grenville Cottage, I narrowly avoid being pounced on by a blue silverback with fetching sun glasses…… Pressing on, I pass a stretch of beach, that contains the largest collection of perfectly shaped skipping stones I have ever come across. Sorry, but no time to try it out though…. Following the now ascending coastal path, I am first trespassing on to the terasse of the rather grande Berry Head Hotel, I am crossing a stretch of Northern cloud forest and finally I find myself faced by the barrels of the sixteen cannons of an old battery. I doubt that a few large stones in a circle on a field can match this….. Well, time for a coffee…. On the other side of the road, a 3 m tall red cat was just about to scale the side of the building, while a young boy was sitting on the wall below , reading from a book to his Greyhound. As remarkable as the man, was the story of his veterinary business. Back to my visit though….. The clinic offered boarding facilities and had a separate physio therapy area. Another frequent problem are tick borne diseases and parasitic diseases in general. This is, if you manage to run at all…… Even at this time, the roads were packed with never ending waves of motor scooters, skilfully maneuvered by both men and women, with every third rider as it appeared on a mobile phone, some of them clearly reading or sending text messages. Finally I left the park, heading for the perimeter wall of the Independence Palace. Passing the gate a couple of times, I noticed — that a full circle around the palace grounds was just short of a mile and — that Vietnamese runners appeared to be much slower and had more of a tendency to stop running, compared with European or American runners it was something I had observed in Hanoi as well. Just before feeling smug about this, it dawned on me that it was probably not due to a lack of fitness, but a precaution to avoid inhaling too much of the fumes of the nearby traffic…… It was high time to return to the hotel and to the air conditioning , following an exercise not to be repeated in the foreseeable future. Lao Cai lies in the far North of Vietnam, right at the border to China. Why was that? Plastic and steel fittings were now the norm instead of marble and what looked like mahogany and instead of an elegant restaurant service, bananas and some plastic wrapped biscuits had to suffice as sustenance for the nocturnal journey. And while the train started to squeeze itself through the labyrinth of buildings in the center of Hanoi, with not as much as a meter to spare on either side which in itself has now developed into a tourist attraction , I started to wonder if the old world flair had all but gone from this railway line. Time to take a walk I thought……. The equally poorly maintained lighting was progressively appreciated….. Time to explore the other end ……. Risking my life by jumping over the threshold between the moving carriages, I stepped back well over a hundred years : Here it was — the mahogany lined wall panelling, the well attended restrooms and the individually crafted compartment doors. Even the emergency equipment gave a historic impression….. This provided me with a lot of great photo opportunities of the summit from the small chapel of Profitis Ilias and I realised, that on my ascent, I had walked right through a whole herd of mountain goats without spotting a single one of them in the fog….. Newer posts 1 2 3 4 5 … 19 Older posts. Subscribe Subscribed. The Blue Vet Diary. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website.

Buying weed Litochoro