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.  …

11/07 Tel Aviv, Isreal

The clouds parted when we reached Haifa’s harbor.  It was impressive passing right up next to aircraft carriers and battleships.  That time they passed me right through customs but not Jenni.  They couldn’t pin point why somebody would travel from New Zealand to Moscow, to Cyprus, to Israel and detained her for about forty-five minutes while the rest of us waited outside.  We read travel paraphernalia for ideas and to pass the time.  Once she got released we all wandered the waterfront in search of the train station and discovered that if we wanted to exchange currency we would need to find ourselves a bank.   …

11/04 Crete, Greece

The sunrise was a picture to behold.  Sitting on that beach was like being the only person on the planet.  Once we were all up and awake we attempted to hide the remains of the burnt telephone pole and headed up to meet the first bus to Nicolas.  We were in need of a shower and food.  We took advantage of the stop over on the way to Nicolas which provided enough time to grab some real food.  We were all so hungry but still skeptical after the last experience.  Once we stepped off the bus in Nicolas a little fat kid’s persistence persuaded us to follow him to an available room.  …

06/21 Northern Ireland

It was raining a bit and we had a couple of open containers.  The roads were narrow with no extra space to speak about.   I knew if we got stuck behind another logging truck we could be here for weeks.  Once we managed to pass a couple of these trucks we began to make up for some lost time.  Jim began complaining that his bladder couldn’t take much more of this abuse but before I was willing to pull over, I wanted to put enough distance between ourselves and the logging trucks.  …

08/13 Giessbach Switzerland

We discovered Lake Brienzersee early that next morning.  My entire side was bruised and I had scab from elbow to waist, even through the pain the lake’s unique color of blue was almost hypnotizing.  We docked at Glessbach to walk the falls.  Fighting through the soreness of my abused legs was worth the effort.  …

11/11 Bethlehem, Israel

I wasn’t sure if our bus could make the trip but luckily Bethlehem was not that far of a ride.  Bethlehem was rather small and unexpectedly vacant.  Typically I liked to walk around the outskirts and then worked my way back toward my destination.  That gives me a better feeling of where I am.  The church was also empty and there was nobody inside its wall but the two of us.  It was kind of a shell of a church with an altar at the far end.   …

07/27 Bruges, Belgium

We found ourselves a small room above a bar not far off the main square of Brugge, claimed ourselves bed, dropped off our stuff and hit the local canals for a little sightseeing.  We roamed among the flower vendors, chocolate shops, lingered behind a cup of coffee and smoked a cigarette while standing on a humped-backed bridge.  I enjoyed the mood of the weeping willows and gazed endlessly at the reflections painted by the water.   …

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.  …

12/08 Lienz, Austria

When we finally reached Villach and obtained some currency, sugar was on the menu.  I found a dream of bakeries and was operating on the ‘try everything once’ premise, but we cut that short for some real food.  We spent the rest of the day checking out shop windows.  Jenni expressed a passion for shop windows.  I suggested that she get herself a nice camera and perhaps someday she would publish a book.   …

08/11 Innsbruck, Austria

We were up early, followed advice we received during the last night socializing and joined the “Club Innsbruck” for a day hike.  A young Belgium woman had crossed our path searching for the same location.  It was early in the morning and we were the first to arrive, so there was nobody gathered outside to identify if we had found our destination.  She seemed very nice but didn’t say much.  It was apparent she was very shy.  They began handing out daypacks and boots if needed.  …

06/15 Dublin, Ireland

The clouds were telling no lies, this time they opened up and delivered rain.  Bicycles were now out of the question, so we planned on thumbing our way south.  We were hardly out of town when Jim started whining again.  He’s like one of those thimble banging monkeys.  Once his key gets turned there’s no way to turn him off, until his springs loosen.  …

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.  …

08/22 Algarve, Portugal

I’m an early riser and that provides advantages.  Like in the morning, there were no lines leading to the showers.  I walked around until breakfast and then took the shuttle down to the beach where I planned to spend that entire day on the sand.  When I reached the bluffs I began exploring.  Jim followed duplicating every picture I took.  It is just better to ignore his competitiveness than to give it thought it doesn’t deserve.  …

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.