Have you ever heard the term squandering your inheritance? Well, this Europe trip was kinda like that. I literally did, for those 8 months, whatever I wanted to. The decision process consisted of answering the one and only question- will this be fun? If the answer was yes, then it was a thumbs up, fuck it, lets do this. I still think it’s a great motto, but in retrospect, maybe a little foolish. Some of my friends would say a lot foolish, but do I regret it? No. Not a single cent, not a single moment. I had more fun than anyone probably ever should, and I would never take that back, any of it.
Originally this trip was supposed to just last the summer, but I could never leave. Every time I tried to go home, I would say to myself, “O.K., you’ve had your fun. It should be over now,” but the other part of me would cave into pressure and say, “I understand that you want a little more. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you until the end of the month to get out of your system whatever needs out, and then it’s time to go home.” Well, that internal battle lasted a whole eight months.
Over the time I was there I saw, I think, twelve countries, and I don’t even know how many cities. Honestly, and I’m not even trying to be cute either. Like, for instance, on the way to Oktoberfest when I forgot to change busses in Frankfurt and ended up in Arschfich Niergendwo. Thats not the real name of the place. I don’t remember the real name, and that’s exactly my point.
I lived everywhere from 5 star hotels in The Hague to single room in a 0 star hostel in Warsaw with 3 bunk beds, countless bottles of wodka, 7 skaters, and one window. And my mattress was on the floor. No sheets. On the floor. In Poland. And there was also the house in the Italian hills. Like deep deep in the Italian hills, so deep that taxi’s wouldn’t go there past 10, and one night I fell asleep on one of those lounge chairs that you rent on the beaches in Chiavari (not pronounced Chee-ah-va-ree). I awoke to the owner tapping me on the shoulder, telling me with his hands in Italian that I couldn’t sleep there. So I moved to a “comfortable” spot on the rocks a few feet away. Not a good idea. That was the night after the wedding so I was ridiculously hungover, and as hard as it may be to imagine, baking on the rocks under the blazing, Italian sun is not a good cure for a hangover. Because of, or at least in part of that, I missed out on what all my friends say “was the best day ever.” I pretty much had the exact opposite kind of experience. I had a panic attack on the second of five Chincaterras, went home early, and got lost on the train ride back too.
There was also whitewater rafting through the canyons of the Swiss Alps, and it rained on us in the red light district in Amsterdam. I met my mom in Munich and Franziska too! Picasso and Dali were in Catalonia and Magritte was in Belgium, which was a nightmare of a trip. We saw Prague, Milan, Florence, and Salzburg. London was of course in England, Paris was in France, and in Oslo, underneath the stars, we did a dance.
My best friend met me along the way and we missed our first flight to Stockholm. You know how they always say the Swedish girls are some of the best looking ladies in the world? Well that’s true, but that’s only if you’re into beautiful blondes with tans. The best beaches were in Italy. The best beer was in Germany. Croquettes were the best in Spain, especially in Madrid. We did a buck fifty on the way home from Austria on the Autobahn, which sounds impressive, until you have to pull out of the left lane for an Audi R8 thats gaining on you like a bat out of hell. And the happiest times were in Barcelona- a place where it always felt as if the sun is shining down on you. That’s where I met Mari Linda, the Brazilian beauty than danced in and out of my life. I’ll tell you about her later.
The trip was a whirlwind of fun, with the operative word being whirlwind. It got to the point where I was sick of packing up my bag every 5-10 days or so (Oh wawa, poor me right? But traveling seriously got exhausting), so I went back to this little place in Northwest Germany called Muenster, which is a gem of a town. If you’re thinking, ‘Oh hey, I know that place,’ you’re wrong. It is not the Muenster where the cheese comes from, although it is spelled the same way. It is also the sister city of Fresno. I lived there once upon a time, and since I didn’t want to go home yet, Muenster got me close enough to what I was looking for. I wanted to be in a place where I had friends, could navigate my self about town without a map, and I wanted to be in a country where I spoke the mother tongue.
Muenster was just that as well as an absolute blast. I got to hang out with all my old friends and meet so many new ones. I was there for about five months doing nothing but writing, painting, skating and a little partying. I was very comfortable in my little apartment with my amazing, skater roommates, but not only was I getting bored with the every day life of doing nothing, I also needed some money to start coming in, rather than it always going out, and I wanted a new challenge.
There was an opportunity to move to Spain and teach English in Madrid. And this was a great offer because working under the table is different in Europe than it is in America. So I jumped at it. But first, yes first, my friend who was also our first host in Madrid and my job hook, came to Germany to meet me a couple weeks before I was supposed to go settle down there and start working.
Well I never made it to Spain. That trip of hers didn’t turn out like either of us expected. Everything was going good the first night, but on the second night, it all took a sharp turn for the worst (or maybe for the best, depending on how you look at it). However, apparently, it came to surface that we were after two different things, and when I didn’t give her what she though we both wanted, she told me to, and I quote, “fuck off!” and get the fuck out of her hotel room.” That was the last I ever saw of her and it, decidedly, became the last leg of my stay.
A couple days after that I booked a ticket and came home. It was all over so fast.