fh_trips | Backpacking Trip: Ancient Greece, Tuesday

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graduate backpacking 2010

Backpacking Trip: Ancient Greece, Tuesday

The weather in Greece? Still fantastic, actually, and escorts/horseback rides (regular horses, no, you weren't riding the centaurs) down the road to Targopolis were still available for anyone who wanted to make the trip over today. Or again.

At Tyldus's suggestion, a second option had been added: a slightly longer trip, two hours' by horse, along the river and down to the beach. Ever been to a beach in Greece? It's gorgeous -- even more so in a time long, long before fossil fuels and plastic litter.

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For those of you hanging out on the very girl-power-y side of the river.

For those of you hanging out on the side that skews more toward the halfway-equine.

The center square of the village is crowded with crude wooden stalls hung with various patterns of brightly-colored cloth, merchants of every age and gender hawking their wares; some of them are engaging in not-so-friendly banter with each other across the road. Purely in the spirit of healthy business competition, of course.

Be prepared to haggle.

You might be surprised at the variety of foods to be found here: no hot dogs or ice cream, of course, but there are sausages and meat rolls, roasted fowl, both dried and fresh fish . . .

Fruits and vegetables too. Yes, among the kinds of produce available are watermelons, tomatoes, and potatoes. Kind of like how there are turkey legs available from some of the meat-sellers.

. . . no. Seriously. Nobody here thinks that's weird.

There's all sorts of clothing to be found here: breeches and trousers of various cuts, tunics, dresses, scarves, skirts, vests -- even a haberdashery or two of sorts. You won't find a terribly wide variety of luxurious materials here, and what there will be in the way of silks and fancy embroidery will be quite pricey, but as long as you're not going for anything really fancy there's a wide selection.

Mostly knives, swords, and bows of various, sometimes impractical, and sometimes outright anachronistic design, but you might find a few interesting things among the merchants' wares if you poke through enough. Armor is mostly leather with varying degrees of metal studding and spikes attached, with the occasional small buckler or shield.

Jewelry, trinkets, assorted knick-knacks, scrolls, Hercules and Xena action figures made by the renowned toymaker Senticles . . .

There's no Xena-themed merchandise other than that, though. Salmoneus tried -- trademarks might not exist yet, but a glare and significant threat from Xena do the trick just fine.

Don't get any ideas about eBay, now.

It's not Bethells Beach. Honest. No matter how much it looks like it.

Please also bear in mind that you are in a time long before lifeguards, so really . . . swim responsibly.

Ugh, you guys, this week has been ridiculous and it's only Tuesday. Also I kind of hate myself for making up the name Targopolis. Like a lot.

Yeah, I recycled the marketplace OCD from yesterday. I'm lucky I can form sentences right now.

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Backpacking Trip: Ancient Greece, Tuesday

Amazon Village

Centaur Settlement

Targopolis: Marketplace

Food Stalls

Clothing Stalls

Weaponry/Armor Stalls

Miscellaneous Stalls

The Beach

OOC: VSG