My European odyssey was definitely one of the most interesting (and densest) vacations I've taken in a very long time. My sister, Chelsea, and I spent thirty five days being shuttled from city to city across the continent, going by boat, bus, and even a train once (trains are way cool). Accompanying us were a motley crew of forty-some-odd people of similar ages. The official list of stops went a little something like this:
- Athens
- Delphi
- Corfu
- Pompei
- Rome/ Vatican City
- Florence
- Venice
- Steinach (A little town in Austria)
- Munich
- Regensberg
- Prague
- Nuremberg
- Heidelberg
- Amsterdam
- Bruges
- Brussels
- Paris
- Nice
- Barcelona
There were some minor stops along the way, but most of them were very small towns or even truck stops, and they all sort of run together. In addition, Chelsea and I made a day's stop in London on the way to Athens, for a bit of impromptu sight-seeing.
Did I have a good time? You bet I did. Though I am a notorious homebody, I got into the rhythm of the journey, and there was so much just to see, I never got bored, and I rarely got exhausted.
Apart from the real "work" of the journey, I also wrote a journal, though I confess I was lazy in keeping up with it, and only managed to complete the entries through the first day in Paris. However, I have every intention of finishing the journal from the comfort of my own home. Really, I do!
Meanwhile, over the next couple of weeks, I shall be editing the journal, and posting it here, on the Wave Function Junction, for all of y'all to enjoy. In addition, a great many pictures were taken, and a great many of these will also be posted, once they have been gathered together, sifted, refined, and approved by the men with the stamps.
The journal will mainly chronicle the trip on a factual basis, but will also include my impressions of various things, and occasionally recount amusing incidents or positive aspects of the group dynamic. Unfortunately, not all aspects of that dynamic were positive. Rifts and cliques formed fairly quickly, culminating in a number of unnecessary, but considerably nasty, episodes of drama. These will not be addressed in the journal, because you, the reader, would find them boring, and I have no interest in embarrassing anyone, or calling them out. It's enough to say that the words and actions of small-minded people were not nearly enough to spoil the trip for me.
Finally, my return to the states means I actually have time to write again. Installments of the fore-mentioned journal will go up whenever I feel like it, but the long-awaited next chapter of On the Second Floor will be up on Monday, and all will once again be well with the world. It's going to be pretty sweet (I think), so be sure to check it out.
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