Europe Wrap Up

Back in Dublin for the third time this trip, and I'm about to head back to the states in a little over 24 hours. I've thourghly enjoyed my time here, and it's really hard to believe I've been here almost three months.

Just as another fill in, Whit and I did make our way to Barcelona which was fantastic. The weather was nice, the food was cheap, and we went to a soccer game which was awesome. We tried meeting up with my bud Arnau from the Wicklow experiecne, but since our nightmare overnight train was late by two hours, we didn't cross paths. Barcelona has a very funky, artistic sense to it that is second to none. You can see Gaudy's influence in just about every building there. After that we made our way up to Angers where Whit studied abroad. We had lunch with her host parents and Lindsay which was a lot of fun, and I impressed them with my french speaking ability so that was nice. I took a 700 AM flight out of Charles le Roi in Belgium this morning to Dublin to ensure I would be here tomorrow for my flight.

There are certain things you learn, or come to appreciate about the place you're visiting and home that you might not other wise come to grips with. I figured the best way to wrap up these three months was by listing some of them off:

-God bless the Aussies and Kiwis. You guys were the most spirited, and consistently fun people on the trip. It takes a lot of stones to travel for around a years time, and it seemed as if everyone of you were wandering around for at least 9 months.

-Not being able to speak the local language sucks. No need for expansion on that, it just sucks.

-I think of all the places I've visited, the place I'd most want to live would be Amsterdam. I don't know why, but there's something about ridding around on your bike every where, and the Portland vibe funkyness that I loved there.

-Florence and Dublin are close seconds. Florence simply for the food, and there's quite a homey feeling walking the streets of Dublin on an October morning and smelling the bitter smell of the barley at the Guinness factory being boiled for the whort.

-The Brussels train station is a place I never want to go back to. Somehow, it seemed to get dirtier, less organized, and filled with more scary transients every time I went there.

-Americans, or at least where I am from, aren't THAT much fatter than the Europeans. France and Italy, ok, you guys are all in pretty good shape, but every where else I went I saw a fair share of over weight people on par with Oregon.

-I miss home. Yes Europe is wonderful, but I miss the McKenzie river. I miss Ninkasi beer. I miss Monday Night Bingos. I miss football, oh Good Lord how I miss football. I miss the outdoors (Switzerland did up the standard however). I guess you just can't take the Northwest out of a kid.

John