After arriving in Athens early in the morning and searching for a place to stay, we finally settled into the Adams Hotel in Plaka, the oldest continuously occupied little city in Europe. Our second floor room was old but clean, and full of character.

Our first evening in Athens, we settled into an outdoor cafe for an early dinner. I ordered an open faced gyro, starting with a Greek salata: ripe tomatoes, tangy vinaigrette, red onions, kalamata olives, and a slab of seasoned feta. While I was enjoying my salad, a little girl, maybe eight-years old, approached us from the street carrying an accordion. She played a single note on the instrument and said in English, “Money please.” When we shook our heads no, she turned, without a blink of an eye or expression of disappointment, to the next table and repeated. It was very amusing.

This is a painting of my backpack and messenger bag (containing all my art supplies) that I used while traveling in Greece. I bought the backpack many years ago when I lived in London and I still use it regularly. The messenger bag was a recent purchase for this Greece trip and it worked out well. The brand is Timbuku. It has lots of internal compartments to separate my supplies and overall construction seems sturdy. I only have two complaints about this bag. One, the trim on the flap tends to stick to the velco and fray. The second problem is the two water bottle holders on the sides don’t hold my water bottles very well. A good art supply bag is hard to come by these days because most of them are so poorly made. Overall, I would recommend the Timbuku bag. My wide brim hat comes in handy when the place I choose to draw doesn’t come with a shade tree.