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I woke from a dream, fixing my eyes on the unseen shadows of the dark room and began tracing the steps of the dream that had just left my grasp. I got up, sat at a table in the corner of the room and stared out at the moon. …
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We headed into Gent to be part of its annual festival. I, like a honeybee, danced from flower to flower collecting smiles, memorable fragrances. The next day started off with the similar ritual of walking into Brugge’s main square for a cup of coffee, this time before we jumped a train into Brussels. We trekked about the old section of the city and checked out the local sites. Muscles in Brussels and beers, muscles in Brussels and beers. …
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I managed to get some sleep just prior to boarding an early train into Villach. I didn’t have anything to read and I was getting a little bored. I got out some colored pencils I had been carrying for some time and began coding a chart of guitar chords. I was focused in on what I was doing, dreaming about something when I noticed a strong feeling that I was being watched. I looked over to my left and sitting a couple of rows down the car were three of the cutest little girls all dressed up for Sunday church. …
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I was told of a nice beach just outside of Pisa so I snuck in an early shower again and took an early train out. Tuscany provided an enchanting landscape painted in pastels. I followed the tourists to the tower in Pisa, gave my two cents and climbed to the top. With all those people hanging all over it I was surprised it hadn’t fallen and decided to head down before it did. After strolling through the Duomo and viewing Ramous’s doors I wandered across the river to get a feel for the countryside and sat along the side of the bridge thinking. Truth, like art is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. …
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I woke up with a serious problem. I don’t know if it was the combination of the exercise the other day, the consumption of alcohol or both but my arms had stiffened to the point where I could not extend them beyond a forty five degree angle. I tried carried my bags first in one hand and then the other using the weight of the bags to help stretch out my muscles, very scary. …
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I woke with that taste of too many cigarettes and one too many beers and wandered toward a morning coffee before it was back on the road again. We started down the coast searching for another room, kind of back tracking over the previous day’s plans but we ended up in Monte Carlo instead. It had just begun raining as we headed up one of the steep hills looking for shelter and a cup of coffee. We sat down alongside a window and while we sipped our coffee I noticed a motorcyclist get hit from behind. …
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I wandered through the station lingering on familiarities. It’s amazing how routines destroyed time and sped things up. There were so many unexpected avenues, detours, new faces and outright pleasures that it seemed as if it had been months since I left here, not days. I got talking up with a couple on the train that had been reading the same travel guide and discovered out we were going in the same directions. …
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Along side the rising sun and took the early train toward St. Malo. On that train I caught up on filling out stories on post cards and when I finally reached St. Malo the post office was my first destination. I was still disappointed that I had lost my address book back in Scotland, but on the other hand I had fewer cards to fill out. After I got situated in my room, I took a walk along the shore. The ocean was crashing against the wall with an authority that made me feel alive. …
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I wanted to make an early start and head into Algora but it was a bit out of the way and didn’t poise enough of an attraction to make the detour. We did manage to make it out early and followed the rails into the Parenoes and eventually made it into Polgceria, La Tour the Carol. When we reached the border between Spain and France again they were still unwilling to share trains so we were forced to exit and board a new. We took advantage of this opportunity to gather up some traveling snacks. I told Jim on two occasions that he ought to pick it up but all I got in return was an attitude. “I’ll see you on the train then.” …
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Over these last few days, I don’t think there has been a single street or ally way we didn’t accustom ourselves to. Most pubs we stopped in for a pint, maybe even two. About midday I ended up lying out in the middle of Hyde Park, looking up through the trees, day dreaming under the blue sky. It was another gorgeous day. …
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Thank God everyday was a sunny beach day. I began the day with some hair of the dog in a small grass shack that hugged the sand leading toward the water, just like yesterday. I struck up a conversation with a young lady who had given me a strange gesture after a fly had landed on her shoulder. We all look from different angles don’t we? She was disgusted with the idea that the fly was attracted to something on her body. I on the other hand would be more concerned with what the fly might have brought to me. It’s a wonderful world that has more than one color. …
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We were on the road for about an hour after sunrise. I was passing a small automobile with what looked to be three construction workers on their way to work. As I sped up to pass them, I caught some of the loose gravel and slid sideways into them. I’d say we at least traded paint but when I slowed down to deal with the situation they kept on driving. …
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One night at Mik’s place while passing around the pipe, he weaved stories of sprits possessing the trails between the white horse and the many rock circles heading north. I could almost visualize these images he was painting and hear the pounding of drums in the wind, as I focused in on the flames dancing with the beat. …
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We took a tour bus around the lock, walked along the water’s edge, waited and watched but never did see a sea monster. I took off my shoes along its edge and waded ankle deep, for only seconds. To a California boy this was cold. One old man told me that this sea monster stuff had a lot to do with how much whiskey was drunk, but that didn’t help either. …
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We paid twenty pounds each for deck passage to Ireland. Everybody we had been crossing paths with had one priority, duty free beer. Especially a couple of guys from the states. One was from San Diego and the other from somewhere outside of Boston Massachusetts. I was still tired from the long walks and late nights in Liverpool, so I thought I’d catch up on some sleep. After two beers sleep wasn’t hard to find. Jim volunteered to watch our bags so I wandered off and found myself a comfortable place to grab some sleep. …
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