06/19 Ring of Carrie, Ireland

We woke to another picturesque day and it wasn’t till we began driving the Ring of Kerry that we realized it was also a lucky day.  We were heading clockwise, south to north and every possible tourist and circus was traveling in the other direction.  This gave us the ability to stop and enjoy the scenery and not second guess our place in line or force us to let others dictate our pace. …

09/02 Barcelona Spain

After a morning cup of coffee I took a direct route to the train station and boarded the first train heading towards Barcelona.  I didn’t offer Jim a single word.  He either followed or went his own way and at that point I wasn’t going to give it too much consideration.  I wasn’t interest in continuing the conversation from the night before so sat in my own compartment.  About a quarter of the way to Barcelona a group of travelers from North Africa joined in and donated some hash for the ride.  …

12/02 Istanbul, Turkey

We continued munching on nuts up to the entrance to the Topkapi Palace, the heart of the Ottoman Empire.  I naturally avoided the circumcision room.  I was very impressed with the jewels on display.  The sultan’s armor had diamonds and emeralds the size of baseballs.  I have a lot of respect for somebody who can step on battle field with jewelry of that value and not get raped.  We crammed a lot into one day and I was dead on my feet so we didn’t wander far from our hotel to find food.  …

09/15 Zermatt, Switzerland

A trip to Zermatt was next on my agenda, so the next day was nothing but train travel.  When I finally reached Visp I hit a fork in the road and needed to make a decision on whether to fork out an extra nineteen dollars for a round trip train ticket or to thumb my way into Zermatt.  The rail to Zermatt was a private railroad and not covered under my rail pass.  I looked around and since there was not a single car heading in that direction my decision was made easily.  …

09/20 Paris, France

I attached myself to the rear of a group touring Notre Dame.  After I came down from the tower I found myself sitting among delinquents in the square just outside the church.  After I finished a cigarette I proceeded down to the Louve.  It took me all day to wander its halls, a maze of inconveniences.  I planned on coming back in a day or two to catch up on what I missed.  I always wanted to learn how to paint, so  I enjoyed watching the students copy the masters.   …

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.  …

06/17 Cliffs of Moher, Clare Ireland

This world was filled with small narrow roads hidden by hedge groves, secluded lakes, isolated rivers, hills to climb and valleys to explore.  Tracking down a castle, graveyard or whatever we had earmarked on our map of antiquities was like our very own secret treasure hunt.  Then at the end of every one of these little adventures, we found ourselves staring again at a wonderful pint of local ale, in a small pub in the center of whatever it was the center of.  …

12/06 Split, Yugoslavia

We charted a bus north up the coast into Split where I was able to see the beautiful coast line.  One of the advantages of traveling in baby steps is that we could stop at those beautiful places and not neglect the details that make each special.  When we reached Split we headed through the walls of the old city seeking a room for the night.  We either were appalled at the high prices for a room or they didn’t have any available.  Since our budget was deflating I posed an option to Jenni.  …

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.  …

05/30 Stonehenge, England

Like a string of pearls, one complaint began to lead into another.  One minute it’s the weather, next minute it’s the price of food, carrying too much shit and then it was his feet.  “I’m not walking any further, maybe I’ll just fly home”, confronted Jim.  I reminded him that I was not his mother and if he thought I wanted to hear this shit, he had bigger problems than just his feet.  “Nobody’s putting a gun to your head and you don’t need my permission to make choices”.  I explained that I was not budgeted for repeating every other step and had a plan of what I wanted to see and experience and sometimes those things aren’t at the end of a train line.  “I’m committed to go forward and if you find it in your best interest to detour, I’m more than willing to meet you anywhere else on the map”.  “There’s no rule that says we have to do everything together”.  I provided an example of picking up women.  “I expect this to happen along the way and when we reach that fork in the road I’m sure you’re not going to be wanting me hanging around as a third wheel or vice versa.  We’ll just meet up someplace down the road”.  I tried to be a good person and attempt to avoid confrontations but traveling together has a tendency to bring these things to the surface.  Conflicts start and end with words.

Surely I dreamt today, or did I see. I wandered in this forest thoughtlessly
the clever boy that I once knew; with pebbles white and bread crumbs too
left no trail and lost my way, where all my pictures were thrown away

Through the forest, in the middle of a glade, forever nagging to persuade
no plank or bridge was placed in sight, only fists clinched as if to fight
the wind, the wind has caused me harm; you pulled too many false alarms.

09/30 Freiberg, Germany

I found a gorgeous room in Fribourg that overlooked the main square that surrounded the church.  It had a lovely café out front and was an ideal location to watch foot traffic and to catch up on my journal.  There was a gentleman who showed up playing the harmonica and really put on a show.  Talk about envy, “I wish I could play like that”.  …

09/12 Lausanne, Switzerland

I enjoyed traveling on trains through the darkness of those mountains.  When there was nothing else to do and I was tired of writing, I just stared at the passing shadows from the darkness of my compartment.  I reached Lausanne early in the morning and walked into some confusion.  Apparently the airport in Paris was on strike and that had a domino effect across Europe.  Every form of information service had a line leading out its door.  I noticed a young Finnish girl waiting in one of those lines.  …

08/23 Algarve, Portugal

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.  …

08/04 Mirabellgarden, Salzburg Austria

Today’s plan was to wander around the city in an attempt to locate our choir from home.  After another walk along the river, around the castle and up and down the many streets, I got the feeling we had taken the wrong approach to find our choir.  I began thinking it a better approach to let them find me.  That would at least reduce the walking.  In the middle of the squares in-between the castle and the church sat a large chess set, with pieces about two and a half feet in height.  …