Moving on from Madrid....

Well sit down and pour yourself a drink.  So much has happened since I last posted.  I've been busy exploring and not spending enough time putting my experiences into the written word.  I've sent out a few emails letting many know that I'm alive and well, but haven't really told any stories.

After I left Madrid, which I have to say is one of the most beautiful cities I have encountered I embarked on a journey to Barcelona.  Wow!  I have to say that I had such a great time and hung out with my new best friend Ludi, who was raised in France, but ventured out to London at the age of 18.  He's now 40 something and his french family tells him he sounds like a Canadian when speaking to them in French.  We had some wild nights on the town that involved a full day of recovery.  He seems to bring a smile to everyone he encounters and we have kept in touch since.  I'm now sitting here in London, where he lives, catching up on all that has occurred in the last couple of months.  Today is rainy and cold and I thought I would come home and put my thoughts into writing. 

Barcelona was 2 weeks of clamoring around a town full of tourists all speaking different languages.  I visited most of the famous landmarks, among the the Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi. Elies Rogent, the Director of the Barcelona Architecture School once said of Gaudi, “We have given this academic title either to a fool or a genius. Time will show.”   After visiting many of his buildings I'm not really sure which one he is..fool or genius.

Now on to Ireland.  The good bad and the ugly.  I started in Dublin and met with a good friend and old client...not saying he's old, but we got back quite a long time, Steve McCullom.  We had a great time in Dublin and enjoyed touring the Guinness Brewery, The Old Jameson Distillery, and many pubs.  Again the architecture is very interesting with old and new.  A couple who was boarding the plane when leaving Barcelona told me to be careful.  They said, "The Irish are very friendly people, so be careful when asking directions because even if the don't know they're going to tell you".  The Irish were very friendly. 

Now on to Cork, where it gets a little Ugly.  I take the train from Dublin to Cork.  What a change, there's a impossibly miserable heatwave.  Picture this.  I'm renting a top floor flat high up on a hill with very little cross ventilation.  Good times!  Cork also is somewhat thuggish when it comes to the youth.  I didn't fear for my life or anything, but didn't get a warm vibe that I found in the rest of Ireland.

I did start back doing some yoga.  I showed up at this yoga studio down the hill, now remember everything was down the hill.  I showed up for a class and everyone was half my age.  The instructor was this totally hot guy that I couldn't take my eyes off of.  I kept up and was happy getting back into it. So two nights later I go back and the instructor looking like he walked out of an International Male Catalog (my gay friends will get this).  He had on this cotton gauzy little number and the body of a model.  It was a little difficult to concentrate.  Oh and I kissed the Blarney Stone.  That's allows me 7 more years of being full of it!

Leaving cork and on to Galway.  I sent, what I thought was, a clever little email saying I made it all the way to Galway.  What a difference a train ride makes.  I was met by a wonderful woman name Aoife (pronounced Efa).  Her apartment was a very short distance to everything.  Galway is on the North Atlantic Ocean.  Amazingly beautiful and an electric nightlife.  I also did a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher.  Just beautiful.

From Galway I headed to...now pour another glass of whatever you're drinking...make it a double..Belfast.  Talk about getting along.  What a mess.  Catholic, Protestants, English, Irish.  What a messy town.  A wall still exists separating the division.  Irish and English flags still fly separating one side from another.  It amazes me that there is such division.  In America we have Republicans and Democrats and we don't wear it on our sleeve.  The theme of the trip changes as we move along.

Belfast to Belgium.  I'm off to meet my friends David and Paul.  I'm pretty much along for the ride of whatever is planned.  I'm just so happy to be with my friends after a month of traveling alone.  I arrive to what seems to be the most spectacular men..  I mean the most beautiful 20 something men.  Muscles from Brussels.  We speculated that they were in town for some sort of music fest.  WOW!  Paul has planned an amazing trip for David's 50th Birthday.  We stay overnight in Brussels and head to Munich with a stop for lunch and a little tour of Frankfurt.  After a quick stay over in Munich with an evening out to celebrate David's big day we head to Baden Baden.  Clinton said it was so great you had to say it twice.  So picturesque.  The water did feel like it had some healing properties.  Even if it didn't it was a sweet little town.  Now we are heading toward Lake Lucerne Switzerland.  At the point we are heading for the border, now remember in the EU there are no borders, but Switzerland is not part of the EU.  We come to a checkpoint and now David is driving and not happy about all the traffic.  He is rude to the border patrol agent.  This doesn't bode well to find out.  We drive another 3 hours on these crazy switchback roads with David thinking he's Mario Andretti.  Finally we arrive at this primarily family resort with an amazing pool and spa area.  Let's just say we were the only gays in village.  Paul is handing out the passports to find out the border agent has given back both my and Paul's passport, but David's has a cover.  That's all we get back is the cover.  Paul wants to drive back to the border to get it.  I'm thinking I'm not going through that crazy ass drive again.  The hotel calls and has the border office mail it to us.  That means we are now spending an extra night at the spectacular resort with views I can't describe in words.  I don't have a problem with it.  With our extra day we drive to see a couple of amazing castles.   We get Dave's passport back and hit the road heading back to Brussels.  We arrive and find a nice hotel.  David and Paul head out the next day. after breakfast, on a train back to London to catch their flight back home.  I, on the other hand, have NO travel plans since we have been constantly on the road with limited Internet connection and little time to think.  I spend an extra night in Brussels to get my shit together.  I'm thinking where to next?  I need to do a little planning and connect a lot of dots.

Well that gets me to my next email I sent out...have another drink..."Hotter than Hell in Hamburg".  Not one person got my salutation...Warmly...you know me.  I would never sign 'warmly'.  Oh well sometimes I think I'm funnier than I am.  Well I'm on this fancy pants air conditioned train thinking this is the way to travel.  I then get to my transfer point and find myself on a piece of shit train without any amenities.  I'm surprised it had bathrooms.  No air conditioning.  I felt like I was on something designed by Hitler and we were off to the prison camp.  It was the worst.  I end in in Hamburg and take a cab to my newly rented apartment.  It was amazing, just outside the city and amongst huge mansions.  I walked the neighborhood and the city.  I loved it there.  The weather cooled and it was very enjoyable.

Hamburg to Berlin.  What can I say?  The wall, the Jewish museum, check point Charlie, East & West Berlin.  Here I am in another city divided.  They are still trying to get the transit system to connect one side to the other.  As I'm there and viewing all the atrocities that took place I think to myself, "How could this have happened?"  How could this man Hitler gotten away with this?  It reminds me of what's going on in Syria now.  We can't allow this happen again.  I wish I had studied my world history a little more.  I want to know more, study it more, try to rationalize this.

Berlin to Stockholm, Sweden.  I'm thinking go North young man.  It has to be cooler there.  Loved Stockholm.  I rented a place from this absolutely adorable guy name Axel.  His place was not far from the center of town and he turned me on to the Yoga Studio he like to go to.  His little apartment had a great kitchen, giving me a sense of being home, allowing me to prepare some things I love.  Mainly my shallot salad dressing I've been missing.  Stockholm is perfect.  It's one of the places I could see myself living.  Maybe it was just that his place was so comfortable or maybe it was that the people were just so Swedish and kind.  I don't know.

Finally, I'm not sure what drink number you're on, but it almost brings us up-to-date.  I'm now in London.  I'm intrigued by the history of the monarchy and plan on finding some interesting reading material.  I'm staying here for a couple of weeks.  Well one more week.   It's so rich in architecture and even richer in history.   I met Ludi...remember my new BFF from Barcelona, for drinks at the top of the Chard.  So cool.  After that we walked along the River Thames to a fantastic restaurant and had an outrageously expensive dinner.  Well one thing led to another and we ended up in the very gay Soho neighborhood.  Once again I had to nurse my hangover.  Thank God we live so far apart.  I've had great food here.  I ate at one of the best Indian restaurants here in my neighborhood of Shoreditch.  Super close to the city center and everything is easy access via the tube.  I hit most spots; The London Eye, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster and the Churchill War Rooms.  Probably the most interesting museum I've visited to this point.

Up next is Copenhagen to see my dear friend Bianca, her husband Henrick and daughter Sofia.  After that I'm off to Posatano, Italy to hang out with a couple of old co-workers and then heading up North to walk the coast with my college friend Sally Smith.  Cannot wait!