Excerpt from my book “The Artist on the Road”:

From Eleusis, we travel west along the Isthmus of Corinth, pass over the Corinth canal, and on to the Peloponnese peninsula, which is a huge landmass shaped like a maple leaf. After exiting the main highway, we make a few wrong turns and end up in the middle of nowhere. Using our map, we negotiate the back roads and finally make it to Mykines, the town closest to the ruins of Mycenae, late in the afternoon. The sun, having sunk low in the sky, casts lengthy shadows across the town’s deserted streets. There’s not a person in sight. The businesses look closed too. What a mysterious place. Have we landed on Mars? Where are all the people? But as we pull into the parking lot of Hotel Klytemnestra, a jolly, grey-haired man steps out to welcome us and relieves my fears of Martians. My dad stayed at this family-run hotel sixteen years ago, and it appears that little has changed.