I had a chance to spend 4.5 months traveling through Europe the summer before I attended graduate school. I kept a basic journal of that trip. Here and the next two posts are those journal entries and the photos I shot along the way.
5/1 – Very sick last night – had a fever over 100. It broke about 4:30am. Flew from LA to DC and felt light headed and feverish all day. Took shuttle bus from Dulles to National and met Greg at Braddock Street metro station. Sat next to a customs broker from Miami on the plane. He told a story of a plane he was on taking off when one of the tires had a flat. The plane immediately topped and everyone was all right, except one passenger who kept bitching about how he would miss his connecting flight. Perspective. Also, in line at the boarding counter at LAX when an old eccentric Englishman told me about the “Voice of God” calling at O’Hare over the intercom when he thought no one knew he was there. It turns out the label for his baggage fell off.
5/2 – Met Peter and Jan from Eneric for lunch. Also saw Eric. Everyone is doing well. Walking back to the metro two black ladies asked me if I had a knife. They were trying to pull a piece of rope from a trash dumpster. I pulled the rope out and inadvertently a piece of pie or something hit one of the women on the side of the face and also hit my wrist. They were so happy I had actually stopped to help them they at first didn’t realize the small mess I caused. It’s amazing what you can run into when you’re not in a hurry. Still had a bad sore throat and felt light headed all day. Had dinner with Walter. His new business is starting out fast.
5/3 – Took Metro downtown and saw some exhibits at the National Gallery. Walked by the White House and GWU Foggy Bottom area. Beautiful Spring day! Throat still sore and still a bit light headed. Had dinner with Greg and Kathleen.
5/4 – Starting to feel better. Went for a 20 minute jog down Sligo Parkway. Extremely clear, sunny day. Went with Walter down to the mall to watch the volleyball. Didn’t feel well enough to play. Dinner at Ethiopian restaurant in Adams Morgan with Kathleen and Bill Christensen.
5/5 – Steve’s wedding! Great wedding. Erika is really nice and down to earth. Saw Scott Terry, Dan Zimmerman, Courtney Carlsen, Steve Zerlin, Pat Hogan and Brian Meuling. Had a nice time.
5/6 – Took the bus to Pittsburgh. Cloudy, stormy day. It’s nice to see Grandma again. She seems well.
5/7 – Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda and the kids came by for dinner tonight. They’ve grown a lot in 4.5 years! We sat around and watched the Penguins playoff game against Boston. Tom Welch called. I’m supposed to all him the first or last week of June as he may be in Europe then.
5/8 – Walked around Pittsburgh. Helen took Grandma, Carmella and I to dinner.
5/9 – Rested most of the day. One last wash in America. Met an English stewardess for Pan Am on the flight to New York. She had been a stewardess for over 14 years. She was flying to Moscow tomorrow. Met two guys from Brussels in JFK. They had both spent a week in NYC for an international musical competition at the Juilliard School of Music. Sat next to a couple from German on the way to Brussels. He was a radio correspondent for German public radio and was doing a story on NYC and how the media shaped people’s perceptions of it. He took out his fancy tape recorder and interviewed me. I left America a couple of hours ago and I’m already a spokesman for the US.
5/10 – Got about 2 hours sleep on the flight out. Europe: dazed, tired, jet lagged – here I am. Brussels was cool and partly cloudy. I just walked around in a daze, taking in the sights. Went to bed very early at the Sleep Well youth hostel. Between the newness of the trip, the snoring symphony of the hostel and the fact I had to get up at 5:30am to catch the flight to Athens I didn’t get much sleep again.
5/11 – Slept most of the way to Athens. After being in Athens about 1.5 hours I was approached by a man who spoke to me in Greek. When he found out I was an American he invited me to his bar. The next thing I knew there was a drink inf front of me and a Greek girl right next to me. She said she would be my “companion” for the night. We would go to the disco and have a lot of drinks and eventually have sex that night. She said she would get a commission form the drinks we bought. I left very quickly and ended up paying around $15 for 3 drinks we had in the 15 minutes I was there. One more lesson for the road. I ended up at the Students and Travelers Inn where I got a single room for 1500 drachmas ($1 is about 186 drachmas).
5/12 – Saw the Acropolis this morning. Absolutely incredible sight. Walked around a hug crowded flea market. Met two Australian, Leon and Sarina, and split 3 bottles of wine on the steps of a church and had a great time.
5/13 – Bought some penicillin for less than $1 at a chemists shop for my lingering cough. Took the boat over to the islands in a huge cruise ship. Arrived in Ios around 12:30am.
5/14 – Spent afternoon on the beach. Saw some two man volleyball. I wanted to challenge but I couldn’t find a partner and it was 1,000 drachma an hour for the court rental. Met some more Australians and Canadians and an American, Larry from DC. Walked back with Marcus form Israel who gave me the scoop on Ios. Had a great Italian dinner with Leon and Sarina. Met everyone later, got drunk, bar hopped and partied until around 3am. Talked for a while with Ulrike from Sweden.
5/15 – Cold, wet and rainy day. Slept in till 11:30, had breakfast, walked around, watched Red Heat at the Fun Club, then went out with the Australians for another night of bar hopping. This time I met Helen from Sweden and her strange friends – Robert Plant and the guy with the Lakers hat.
5/16 – Went to the beach, played volleyball with a bunch of Australians, watched them cliff dive and then got into some two man volleyball. It was me and a West German, Ralph, against an American and a Greek. Lost all three games, but had a blast. Took the boat to Santorini. Waited at the cold dock, the boat was half an hour late. Then came very close to throwing up on the small fishing boat on the rough seas to Santorini. A lot of people were getting sick. Ulrika and her friend Tina were on the boat and we ended up staying in the same hotel, after walking up a ton of stairs from the boat dock and dodging piles of donkey dung in the dark.
5/17 – Slept in then took a walk around the town and relaxed in a partially constructed building with a great view of the island. Went out to dinner at Trianas. Had a great time. Met the owners, a British waiter named Nick and a couple of Canadians, one named Blake. Got very drunk from slammers the Canadians bought me. Learned “inta yuga”, which means don’t lie in Swedish.
5/18 – Very hung over. Took bus tour of Santorini; ancient Minoan ruins, hilltop monastery, black beach and wine tasting. Had dinner at a traditional Greek restaurant the Canadians recommended. We got to go back to the kitchen and pick our meal from what was in the pots. Had a great spaghetti dish. We all went to bed early.
5/19 – Left for Ios that morning. Found out I missed the “Pants on Head” party at the Fun Club Thursday night. Everyone else is either leaving or has left Ios. Had a quiet night of bar hopping.
5/20 – Partly cloudy and rainy so decided to leave Ios. Met a South African named Grant who told me about Mikos Hotel on Corfu. Took the 8pm boat to Piraeus that night. Met 2 more Swedish girls and a Swedish reporter who had interviewed Ralph Sandstrom of the Kings. He took us to the top of Ios which was a beautiful view.
5/21 – Arrived in Athens at 5am. Spent the morning with two Canadian girls and two German guys. Took 1pm bus to Patra. Left Patra at 10pm for Corfu. Had my wallet stolen on the subway, lost about 2,000 drachma.
5/22 – Arrived at Corfu at 8am. Met Dominique on the boat from Montreal who was starting with Proctor and Gamble in a few weeks. Saw a ton of touts advertising places to stay at the dock. Finally found a little old lady with a Nikos Hotel sign. Followed her forever through the streets until we went to an apartment. Had coffee with Lucy in her Corfu City apartment while waiting for her father to take me to his place; Nikos Hotel. The little old lady is Nikos’ mom. Spent the day swimming and playing volleyball on the beach. Played with people from 8 different countries; I was the only American. Met Jerome from Rotterdam. Went out for a calamari dinner and a fairly mellow night of beer drinking. This place is really nice.
5/23 – Very relaxed day on the beach. Found I can stay until Sunday morning. Dinner with Jerome at the calamari restaurant again. Saw Dick Clark host the Miss Universe from Las Vegas with Greek subtitles at the restaurant. Very strange. Relaxed night except for a few guys dressing up for “Drag Night” at the Zanzibar. Their girlfriends dressed up like prostitutes. A good show.
5/24 – Another relaxed beach day. Spent two hours talking to Vera, a redhead German girl who was fully taking advantage of it being a nude beach. More calamari for dinner. Casual night of dancing at Nikos.
5/25 – Rented mopeds all day – had a blast. Went with Jerome and a group of Americans studying in Florence. Almost got hit by buses a couple of times and did a McGyver syphon to fill one girl’s gas tank. Ended up driving very well – gut up to 70km/hr on the thing. Said goodbye to everyone that night – Mike couldn’t take me to Corfu City so he paid the 400dr for my 5:45am bus. No more Nikos Hotel on Pelekas Beach!
5/26 – Woke up at 5am to catch bus to town. Took 9am boat to Brindisi. Met Craig, a SDSU student on the boat. Ended up taking overnight train to Rome with a shitload of Americans, Kiwis and South Africans. Everyone talked about theft on the trains so we all tried to hang together. Spent the night with Craig and 2 Italians in the compartment. 2 Americans from Salt Lake City had expired Eurorail passes so one slept underneath our spread out seats. At one point Craig wanted his sweatshirt and I ended up reaching under the seats and accidently grabbing the American’s crotch. He wasn’t too happy about that. Had dinner in Brindisi with Dave and Dermit, two freshly minted Irish doctors from Dublin.
5/27 – Arrived in Rome. Saw St Peters with Craig and the two Kiwis, Mike and Christine. Amazing place! Walked around Rome all afternoon.
5/28 – Saw ancient Roman ruins with Craig. Unbelievably intricate maze of old brick buildings. Coliseum was great. Hung out at Piazza del Novana and watched the artists that night.
5/29 – Saw Vatican Museum today. Sistine Chapel was spectacular. So colorful and alive! Saw a Dali exhibit which was alright. Walked around a huge beautiful park afterwards. I am really falling in love with this city! Spent a lot of money on small panini for dinner. We went to Plaza del Novana again and saw more sidewalk artists do caricatures. Also had great gelato. Met two German girls, Silvia and Margo and walked around Coliseum at night. Craig decided to stay an extra day and then meet up in Florence or Padova.
5/30 – Took early train to Florence. Walked around all day. Beautiful city. Old, medieval buildings everywhere. Had the best gelato ever at Viviaus; half peach and half banana. Helped some guy push a car that evening. The duomo was beautiful and I saw some breathtakingly colorful stained glass frescos in one of the churches.
5/31 – Arrived in Padova and just relaxed and hung out all day. Talked to a Moroccan about politics and “The American Dream” for a while. Had dinner at the hostel.
6/1 – Went to Venice for the day with Kent, Stewart and Angie. Unique city. Had a couple bottles of wine in a quiet residential square and we got nice and drunk. Walking around Venice with a drunk Canadian and an Irish couple is good for the perspective. The twists and turns of the Venetion walkways become very entertaining. Had dinner in a very Italian restaurant in Padova with Lucky, an outrageous waiter. We ordered different dishes and he just decided to give us all calamari. It was the funniest dinner since Santorini.
6/2 – Strolled around the Venice maze with Dave from Australia and Rick and Jackie from Canada. Just a wonderful city to wander around in. Twists and turns and alleys and dead ends into the canals. Just a great day of walking and exploring. Took the night train to Nice in a couchette.
6/4 – Went to Cannes with Martin, Hector and Marco. Nice sandy beach and we swam out to some rocks in the cold, salty water. Lots of pretty, topless girls on the beach. Ran into Dan and Dina from San Diego who were on the couchette with me from Venice to Nice. They’re staying in Monaco. Had dinner at the same place.
6/5 – Went to Monaco. Ran into some people from the hostel and had a great picnic lunch overlooking Monte Carlo. Met a guy from Colorado named Eric. Was going to stay an extra day with him but we were told of a train strike in France which would start Thursday, so we took the night train to Barcelona after hanging out a bit on the beach in Cannes.