MY EUROPEAN ADVENTURE

September-October 2003

Well you're probably reading this thinking that my time in Europe was absolutely wild and crazy. "My European Adventure". Doesn't it sound exciting? To be honest with you it wasn't entirely an adventure. I just hate the word tourist and everything that goes along with being a tourist. I suppose you could call me an anti-tourist, therefore I like to call myself an adventurer. Yes that's right, even if I am sitting on a hot beach finishing off a nice cold beer before getting back on the bus to go to some relatively meaningless and surely boring 'historical site' with a group full of old pensioners from Miami. It was an adventure, and I will go to the grave on that. But anyways, I did try to avoid the tourist traps and go against the grain so to speak but there are just some things you HAVE to see, even if it means swallowing your pride and following the crowd with camera in hand.

This was, as some of you may know, my first trip on my own. At first it was a little intimidating, especially not knowing any languages other than English. After the first week or so of my trip I just began to realize and accept the fact that us English speaking people are a joke. The locals of these other countries find us absolutely hilarious and enjoy getting a kick out of us as we either attempt to speak their language, massacring it in the process, or speaking to them in English, exposing our stupidity and lack of knowledge of other languages. Europeans all know at least one other language, some know as many as five, so when you only know one, it can be pretty humbling. For these reasons, I have aptly named myself and people alike, Stupid English Speaking Tourists, because that is exactly how they see us. Luckily for us though, you can get by on English more or less everywhere you go. So much in fact that I didn't take my phrase book out once during my 5 and a half weeks there.

I think it's probably about time I stopped rambling on so you can get to the more interesting things on this site. For each of the countries listed there are pictures and stories for your enjoyment. I'll be adding my journal entries (censored of course) as time goes on and there's a map of Europe up showing my exact route. If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear what you have to say, and if you're planning a trip of your own to some of the places I've been to and want some advice, go elsewhere....If you do email me be sure to put a somewhat interesting topic with it so that I will know not to delete it. My removing of spam has become so systematic lately I've probably gotten rid of half the emails people I know have sent me, so be sure to make yours stand out!

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