My favorite friction story? College age. Getting trapped in Rome due to a train strike. Smuggling aboard a 1st class train with a 2nd class ticket. Getting caught and being removed from said train in the middle of the night in a town named Ort. Sitting on the platform on a chilly December night until a 2nd class train arrived hours later. Standing all the way to Switzerland, but making friends with all the other Euro-rail passengers students around me. Good times.
That's a good story! They just punted you off the train in the middle of the night??? Sheesh. I don't think even the intense Russian train attendants would have pulled that.
That reminds me of taking the train the wrong direction in the Czech Republic with Chelsea and spending some rather long hours waiting to head back the other direction lol. Lots of opportunity to talk :)
Yes! My friends and I were roundly chewed out in increasingly loud and animated Italian and then dumped at the next stop. But we got a great story out of it.
Glad you were at least with other people when they booted you off the train! Alone at midnight on a foreign train platform isn't the best kinda friction...
Hey hey, thanks for reading! Fun to think that we basically biked past your Tallgrass Prairie Dream in 2014 when we rode through Iowa. No plans, lots of friction lol.
And ah ha, second vote for Plain of Snakes! I better check it out.
After spending 2 years in Vietnam (US Army Engineers) and working professionally for 3 years in San Francisco, my Berkeley girlfriend (now wife of 47 years) toof off traveling. We hopped around Japan, then Taiwan and Hong Kong before heading to see a friend in Singapore. After a month or two we then headed overland through SE Asia. Hitchhiking, trucking companies, and busses. Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Burma, India, India, India, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Slovenia, Serbia, Austria, and Germany... where we bought a VW at the Munich drive in and promptly drove 15000 km aound Europe, then Ireland & UK. Sold the VW and flew home. 45 years later we bought a Sprinter cargo van and made it our camper van. I'm now a geezer but still traveling and finding friction. Thank you for your notes and commentary.
That's what I'm TALKING ABOUT! What a fantastic adventure. I noticed that you didn't include Vietnam on that list again...I suppose 2 years there during the war would be enough for anyone?
My favorite friction story? College age. Getting trapped in Rome due to a train strike. Smuggling aboard a 1st class train with a 2nd class ticket. Getting caught and being removed from said train in the middle of the night in a town named Ort. Sitting on the platform on a chilly December night until a 2nd class train arrived hours later. Standing all the way to Switzerland, but making friends with all the other Euro-rail passengers students around me. Good times.
That's a good story! They just punted you off the train in the middle of the night??? Sheesh. I don't think even the intense Russian train attendants would have pulled that.
That reminds me of taking the train the wrong direction in the Czech Republic with Chelsea and spending some rather long hours waiting to head back the other direction lol. Lots of opportunity to talk :)
Yes! My friends and I were roundly chewed out in increasingly loud and animated Italian and then dumped at the next stop. But we got a great story out of it.
Glad you were at least with other people when they booted you off the train! Alone at midnight on a foreign train platform isn't the best kinda friction...
Hello! Enjoying your newsletter. Thanks for sharing.
I read On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey a few years ago and loved it!
--abrazos para ti y Chelsea
Hey hey, thanks for reading! Fun to think that we basically biked past your Tallgrass Prairie Dream in 2014 when we rode through Iowa. No plans, lots of friction lol.
And ah ha, second vote for Plain of Snakes! I better check it out.
Abrazos para ti tambien!
After spending 2 years in Vietnam (US Army Engineers) and working professionally for 3 years in San Francisco, my Berkeley girlfriend (now wife of 47 years) toof off traveling. We hopped around Japan, then Taiwan and Hong Kong before heading to see a friend in Singapore. After a month or two we then headed overland through SE Asia. Hitchhiking, trucking companies, and busses. Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Burma, India, India, India, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Slovenia, Serbia, Austria, and Germany... where we bought a VW at the Munich drive in and promptly drove 15000 km aound Europe, then Ireland & UK. Sold the VW and flew home. 45 years later we bought a Sprinter cargo van and made it our camper van. I'm now a geezer but still traveling and finding friction. Thank you for your notes and commentary.
That's what I'm TALKING ABOUT! What a fantastic adventure. I noticed that you didn't include Vietnam on that list again...I suppose 2 years there during the war would be enough for anyone?
Thanks for sharing. Keep that friction going!