I just realized that I haven't made a post in 23 days!

(except for one little photo contest entry)

Why am I wasting my life away when I could be posting in Steemit!!?!??

Just doesn't make sense, does it?

So...

When I left off my story of a slow-motion expatriation from Canada

Here: Making Room for the New
( https://steemit.com/steemit/@onceuponatime/making-room-for-the-new )

I was a very happy guest of @kus-knee The Old Dog ( https://steemit.com/@kus-knee ) in Ticino, Switzerland,

Now, the plan

had been to stay there for a few weeks, then get a train ticket from nearby Milan, Italy to one of the Adriatic port cities on Italy's east coast. And a ferry from there to Athens. I had a very important fine art painting to pick up in Athens, a painting that is set to play a foundational part in the emerging VIVAconony (my part of it, anyway).

Heard of the VIVAconomy? Let's take the emerging crypto economy to a whole new level:
Read the White Paper ( http://go.vivaco.in/ref/w5842421/ ), become a Crownholder in the ICO

https://steemit.com/art/@mariandavp/transcendence-an-original-artwork-that-was-supposed-to-be-a-catharsis-by-mariandavp

But fate had it otherwise.

My old nemesis, a deteriorating left hip that has plagued me for years (which I erroneously thought had been mitigated by stem cell therapy last year) was roaring up into consciousness again. Walking was slow and painful once more, despite having improved for a while following stem cell treatment. In fact, there was no way I was now able to take the planned train/ferry trip. A new plan was needed, fast.

As a Voluntarist (Anarcho-Capitalist), recently returned from Anarchapulco with its many inspiring presentations, I was confident that there are free market solutions for everything (or soon will be!).

G. Edward Griffin, author of The Creature from Jekyll Island, inspiring us at Anarchapulco

The Old Dog helped me undertake

a scan of medical tourism websites, which gradually narrowed in on hip replacements in Greece. There seemed to be excellent private hospitals and skilled surgeons in Greece, as there are in many other countries competing for medical tourism business (Spain, Poland, Turkey, Thailand etc). Coming from the socialized medical "paradise" of Canada, where patients have about the status of pests to the medical bureaucracy, what a joy to have my medical dollars competed for!!! Practitioners grateful for my business. Isn't that a novelty!

I wanted to go to Greece anyway.

Greece seemed competitively priced with other medical-tourism hot spots. And so I e-mailed my good buddy @liondani (https://steemit.com/@liondani ) to ask if he has heard anything of the reputations of some of the hospitals that I was checking out. It can be hard to tell from just a website!

A real gentleman, @liondani

To my great delight, @liondani answered that his wife ( @kerkyra ) had a first cousin who is one of the top hip replacement surgeons in Greece!

It was beginning to feel as if Fate has plans for me! And who am I to decline Fate's proffered hand? So, I booked a ticket, Milan to Athens, for a couple of days hence. Then I found a really cheap hotel in a less savory part of Athens (because I still had no idea how much Fate was planning on charging me for this intervention of Her's). Was it going to break my budget? The Socrates Hotel, 60 euros for 2 nights including breakfast, turned out to be adequate while I awaited my appointment with the surgeon - but definitely no pleasure palace!

A meeting with the surgeon, Doctor Konstantinos Dialetis (Κ. ΔΙΑΛΕΤΗΣ)
( http://almishipreplacement.blogspot.gr/ ) left me with the impression that he was extremely confident and competent, used the latest of techniques and practiced a very non-invasive type of surgery with no blood transfusion necessary. So we arranged for the full hip replacement to be done a week later.

Then, to my further delight, @liondani said he was coming the following day at noon to pick me up and whisk me out of Athens. First stop, his home in the lovely city of Loutrakia about an hour drive out of Athens.

The beautiful city of Loutrakia, with its casino, where @liondani and his family live.

A nice visit with the family at their home and then we were off to a fabulous Greek restaurant by the ocean.

I was beginning to feel Greek, as you can see in the photo below:

One fabulous multi course meal later (food servings that not even a giant could finish in a sitting) and @liondani drove me about a half hour away to the village of Pasio where his mother has a couple of guest houses and graciously agreed to put me up in her lovely home for the days remaining until my operation.

The days fled by, mostly me sitting in front of computer screens, as always, lol.

But finally the day came that it was time to head back in to Athens for pre-op tests on Friday and the surgery on Saturday. But we were in Greece, right, so why not take a short detour to Old Corinth before heading for the big city.

Sightseeing, and another fabulous meal, completed, @liondani drove me into a suburb of Athens where I had booked a couple of weeks at what looked to be a very nice hotel. After discovering that my operation was going to cost a couple of thousand euros less thanI had anticipated, I decided that my recovery was going to consist of suffering in comfort.

The Kastri Hotel

And so has it been!

I spent only one night here:

And since then, up until today, and for a few more days to come, I'm suffering in comfort:

Over and out,
@onceuponatime