05/20 London, England

The clouds had parted and the wings of our plane began to dry.  The very first thing I noticed was that “I wasn’t in Kansas anymore”.  Gatwick Airport had green pastures on both sides of the runway.  Unconcerned cows looked up at our passing plane.  This was a total contrast to the cement landscape we left behind in LA. …

08/12 Eiger, Switzerland

With the crack of dawn we were up to conquer the monster.  We had taken the first train into the heart of the Jungrau region, Grindelwald to the base of the Eiger.  We surveyed the landscape against a local map and selected the West slope since it was opposite from …

12/03 Belgrade, Yugoslavia

I was told I still had family in Belgrade.  My grandmother had given me addresses of relatives so at one point I considered visiting, but the negative idea of just showing up on somebody’s doorstep crept in.  I ran it by Jenni.  She didn’t have any plans of her own and kind of reluctantly agreed to follow, as long as we were heading north.  We spent the rest of the day seeing some of the sights and roaming the streets.  The one thing I didn’t want to do was to visit another museum.  …

07/03 Amsterdam, Netherlands

There were no hedges, nor fences, in the bare and uniform countryside leading into the Netherlands.  We were heading back into the crossroads of traffic back into the circus they had named Amsterdam.  I could see no natural boundaries that separated the courtyard from the jester.  …

08/30 Granada, Spain

A good shower and I packed up for today’s trek.  Our first stop was to see if we could check our bags at the train station but the area used for this service had been closed down some time ago.  It was suggested that we try a hotel across the way.  Typically hotel won’t check in new customer until around noon but usually will accommodate us early arrivals by watching our bags until check in rolls around.  We have done this enough times to know to take advantage of this hospitality.  …

06/24 Paris, France

It was a relief to be back on a dry train.  When we reached Paris we found it almost impossible to find ourselves a friendly word from the locals.  It was like the Parisians were trained at youth to be rude to foreigners.  Their rudeness came so easily it must have been a mandatory subject in their schools.  …

07/26 Hamburg, Germany

We rolled early into Hamburg.  Since we had reduced our load to just the essentials, we could now fit all of our belongings into a single locker.  We wandered about Hamburg searching for a suitable place to put down some breakfast and a few early morning beers.  That day had been earmarked as a day to relax, to kick back and enjoy the city’s parks and its many bridges.   …

05/19 Los Angeles, California

Imprisoned by my own curiosity. I felt as if I was looking up through trees that encircled my view, staring at the many branches and the fruits suspended beyond my grasp.  I knew I could no longer be satisfied simply to lie here on my back, closing my eyes and dreaming of things out of my reach.

…

11/17 Haifa, Israel

We discovered that the prior day’s information was incorrect.  There were no boats leaving today.  We got our Sabbath’s mixed up again.  We had already packed everything up and trekked the long walk down to the docks.  At first I had doubt that anybody was talking straight.  I always had to ask a few to get some comfort in confirmation.  We managed to gather numerous alike answers and concluded that we were stuck there another day, fuck.   …

06/12 Liverpool, England

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.  …

08/24 Algarve, Portugal

We woke the next morning to a welcome change in rooms.  Perhaps a good night’s sleep awaited us.  Our little dog was adopted as kinda of mascot.  He had been eating and actually gained some weight.  By the affection he was receiving his future looked bright.  Every day was a beach day and today was no different.  Luck did find us.  I spent the first few hours at the bar down on the edge of the sand, hair of the dog like the day before and the day before that.  About every thirty minutes or so, it was back into the water to wash off the sun.  …

09/26 Frankfurt, Germany

With all the time I’ve been spending on trains I started to find it difficult to sleep without the cluttering of wheel against rail.  I had an address of a hostel in Frankfurt that somebody had suggested along the way.  It was late and dark when I reached Frankfurt and I didn’t have the best luck making sense of the piece of paper I was carrying.  …

08/18 Lisbon, Portugal

Eventually we exhausted our rail pass in Lisbon.  It felt good to slow down our pace and relax from the routines associated with traveling by train.  We chose a place where the locks worked, the toilet flushed and the view down onto the street below was descent.  By the time I reached for the second bottle everything had a rosy glow, and the food was excellent.  I must have had quite a smile and/or my wallet was showing because every young lady looking to trade sex for money introduced herself.  …

11/18 Rhoads, Greece

When we reached the port we began to wander about.  We really didn’t know which way to proceed but luckily we crossed paths with a couple who spoke English.  They were retired Americans who had been living abroad for the last three years.  Instead of joining a country club or pursuing some hobby back home they decided to see the world at a slow pace.  They explained that they would live in a different city every three months or there about and they planned on doing that indefinitely.   …