Why would The Idiot flee Ephesus in Turkey (http://bit.ly/mjxYaQ), which merits its acclaim as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, for the Greek island of Kos (http://bit.ly/mjKK7c)?

After all, he could have spent many more hours analyzing the plumbing connecting the forty-nine side-by-side latrines (FYI #49 is not the one YOU want!) and translating the instruction manual in one of the world’s first “bathhouse exercise rooms” within the intriguing and legendary Greek/Roman city.

Ephesian wonderment.

He left not only to catch a ferry back to Athens to wrap up his current MedTrek outing by attending an expensive dinner near the Acropolis that he won with a bet on the World Cup a year ago.

He also left because one of The Idiot’s doctors (no, not the one who did the test indicating that AHT* was partly to explain why The Idiot acts the way he does) wanted a photograph taken on Kos for a presentation at a medical conference.

The doctor will be discussing the Hippocratic Oath with politicos in Washington, DC, and wants to show his audience a contemporary shot of the Asklepieion. That’s the site where Hippocrates of Kos (the father of modern medicine and paragon of doctors who was born in Kos around 460 BC) trained, lectured medical students and presumably discussed medical ethics.

The ancient healing temple devoted to the god Asclepius is just a few kilometers out of Kos Town and The Idiot enthusiastically MedTrekked there, bounded up the many steps to the upper terrace and took a shot of what Hippocrates would see today.

All Kos roads lead to Hippocrates.

What Hippocrates would see today.

The Hippocratic Oath is in every language.

That healthy kickoff kept The Idiot on the little-traveled high road up Dikaios Mountain to the tourist-and-shop-filled village of Zia where he had a strong coffee at the Oromedon Taverna, owned by a Greek who lived in New York for eleven years.

Tourism and a mountain top in Zia.

Zia: Where simple is beautiful.

When The Idiot descended to the seaside, he realized that Kos is definitely on the cusp of summer. This means that there’s almost too much heat, too many people and more euros required for virtually everything than a week ago.

The cusp of summer.

Although the Kos sunset won’t change too much, this is the time that The Idiot abandons the MedTrek until his return to swim the Bosporus on August 30 — and, if he succeeds, to MedTrek into Troy in early September.

Serene sunset on May 31.

But don’t despair. The Idiot will be a guest guide on The Blue Walk MiniMedTreks on the French Riviera next week and you can catch him if you’re in Cannes, France, on Saturday, June 11.

Put his presentation/reading/signing of “The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean” at the Cannes English Bookshop on your calendar.

Time: Saturday, June 11

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."