11/06 Nikolaos, Greece

I woke to the sound of wind that seemed to be gaining strength.  It sounded like cats crying in the distance but no, it was closer.  I went out onto the balcony and noticed two of our lady friends down in the street trying to get somebody’s attention.  Apparently the door was locked and they had no key.  We had an early boat and needed to get moving.  Elspeth discovered her girlfriend never made it back from last night and she presumed she may have gotten lucky.  Either way she wasn’t going to hop on the ferry without her, so we left the two behind. …

06/14 Dublin, Ireland

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.  …

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.  …

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.  …

07/15 Archipelago, Sweden

The young man, who originally invited me to his parent’s house, got up at first light and ran off to work.  His friend Brent left to pick up his girl friend.  I began to prepare omelets for the returning couple and took the liberty of cleaning up the house from the night before.  Brent’s girlfriend was very sweet and quite attractive.  …

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.

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06/26 Copenhagen, Denmark

We rose early and spent the entire day wandering the pedestrian streets and central squares popping in and out of small cafes and trendy boutiques.  That’s right, trendy boutiques.  The young ladies that gather in these places are quite attractive.  Carlsberg and then followed the tree-lined avenues to the harbor.
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09/24 Countryside, France

I wandered about the northern coast of France skipping from hostel to hostel and enjoying their fine cuisine.  Finding excellent food was easy but locating a smile or a friendly gesture from the locals was sometimes impossible.  I felt that the rudeness the Northern French dished out actually provided the glue that bonded us tourists closer together.  I came across a nice room in Blois and utilized it as home base to visit the chateaus in the area.  …

10/09 St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome Italy

It was an early arrival into Rome.  I had in my pocket a few phone numbers and a couple of addresses handed to me along the way.  After two attempts at one of these addresses there still was no answer so I obtained a map and began walking towards Saint Peter’s square.  I jumped on to the subway surprised to see all the graffiti.  Unnecessary scars.  As I entered the St. Peter’s courtyard I heard whispers, like the voices of the past that never really left.  Each pillar that surrounded me gave me the impression they were watching my every step.  …

07/14 Stockholm, Sweden

Eventually the crowds gathered and like sheep we were herded onto the boat.  I managed to weasel my way through the gridlock to the sunny side of the ship, found myself a deck chair and began to relax under the sun.  There was a young lady who had the same idea and took the liberty to pull her chair up next to mine and start up a conversation.  Honestly I was more interested in her bathing suit than the conversation.  From here the view was spectacular.  Thousands of white sails littered the horizon and the many islands looked as if God scattered them from his own hand.  …

10/12 Napes Italy

When I woke up I notice that my knife was unchaperoned, sitting all by itself.  Most likely it was pushed away by me while I slept.  There were two elderly gentlemen sitting alongside the same bench staring at me and the knife.  I had gotten less than an hour of sleep and was still very tired and in need of a shower.  I followed those two gentlemen back into the heart of Naples.   …

12/10 Amsterdam, Netherlands

I knew we had reached the Netherlands when the standard blue or green trains turned multi-colored.  Two guys had hit us up in the train station soliciting us to take a room on their boat.  I preferred being in the heart of the city where access was easier and I could be closer to the coffee shop I decide to write in, but Jenni kind of liked the idea of being on a boat.  I was leaving in a few days and felt that getting her acquainted with another group of people was also a priority.  …

07/09 Northern Finland

There were about eight of us on a train traveling from Sweden across the Arctic Circle into Finland.  When we reached a painted line across the tracks, the train stopped and they ushered us out for a celebration.  When the speeches were over, they actually gave each of us a certificate validating our crossing, woopty-do.  It was a nice opportunity to stretch our legs, until we came to learn that this leg stretching exercise would continue for another few hours.  …

11/27 Pamukkale, Turkey

A small mini-bus arrived and toted us off to Pamukkale.  I only knew what I had read in the bible and in travel brochures about Pamukkale.  I understood that it was one of the seven churches Apostle Paul wrote letters to and was coined the “Cotton Castle” of the ancient world.  There was an extremely old hot spring that was believed to have healing power and over time became a center of a pagan cult.  Large limestone steatite created a beautiful arrangement of pools.  …