It seems ironic that I travelled to Europe to write, and yet so far my writing has been less then forthcoming. Perhaps it’s only a matter of getting away from the Internet, because when I’m connected it’s as if all those possibilities prevent me from focusing on just one thing. So it’s only when I’m on my computer and not on the Internet that I find the time to actually sit down and write.

Right now I’m on the ICE, a high speed train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. For the last month, I’ve been hanging with Wally Glutton and his wife, where we spent many nights in deep discussion. It’s times like this that I wish I had recorded our conversations, as the breadth of conversation topics that we covered is hard to summarize. For the last year or so, Wally’s been travelling around Europe so our month together really recharged me. He’s even been giving me writing assignments, over at the quixotic writing bootcamp. I guess a lot of the time we been hashing over ideas for my book, which will probably end up becoming our book. It seems to me that the contraints of dead trees are too limiting for the scope, so it will probably only be available for viewing online. However, that’s far in the future; right now I have to deal with the nitty gritty of actually writing.
I will be spending a weekend in Frankfurt, or actually just outside it in Bad Nauheim, Germany. I will be attending a Samoan party, as Wally’s sister’s boyfriend is Samoan and we’ll be spending the weekend with his parents. After this, Wally and his wife will be heading back to Amsterdam, and I will be continuing on my journey. The current plan is a week in Prague, and then onto Timisoara in Romania. It is here that I will be focusing on writing. It’s going to be tough, and I might have to give up the video games or even the Internet in order to stay focused. I can literally spend 12 hours on my computer and get nothing accomplished. At the same time, the Internet is just getting more and more useful. Right now, if I have a decent connection, I can call anyone at home for about .02 euro’s / minute, thanks to skype. I bought a 10 Euro ‘card’, and have spent hours talking to friends back home without really making a dent in it. When I was travelling before (in 2000), I think that all in all I spent maybe 2 hours talking to friends and family over a 16 month period. The Internet changes everything.
So after a little more then a month abroad, I don’t really have too much to say about my experiences. It’s really hard to summarize what I think so far. I guess the best way to put it would be that it’s about how I expected it to be. So far, the people have been friendly, the architecture gorgeous, the stimulants cheap and enjoyable. I fear I could easily turn into an alcoholic because of the price. The ‘Albert Hein’, the big grocery store in Amsterdam, stocks a 500ml can of beer called simply ‘Beer’, which costs .37 euros each. This Canadian guy I met who had been travelling around the world for 7 months reckons that this is in fact the cheapest beer he has ever come across. It’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen. Many Beers died to give you this information.
I have taken many photos, and they should be viewable at my flickr account. Some of the highlights were Sail 2005, the Circus and of course the gay pride boat parade. I took some photos of Jurassic 5 however they didn’t turn out very well. I might put up the bootleg video I took of the mass tribulation that they took the crowd to, but it’s pretty big. No guarantees. Anyways, I’ll sign off for now.