Carol remarked on our second day in Ireland that this trip so far seemed “chopped.” I conceded her point, keeping my own thoughts on the subject to myself. Namely, “chopped” is exactly the way I wanted this trip to unfold. The Guiness Brewery bar. Perfect combo of sightseeing while having a pint   Ireland […]

As far as traveling alone, it’s the way I’d started out. In June, 1971 I arrived in Paris with less than two hundred dollars in my wallet, and no idea where I would be spending my first night. I treated the city as if it were a Disney theme park. Oblivious of urban dangers I’d be terrified of back home, I meandered the streets of Paris on foot from seven in the morning until ten at night, cheerfully oblivious to all the historic and culturally significant sites and landmarks I passed. At night I’d sit in a café and put down all I had learned in a journal, most of which was a gumbo of proto-emo angst, insecurity, lonesomeness and a struggle to get laid masquerading as a quixotic search for cosmic love.