I have been in Europe several times before, including a stay when I was 10 and immigrating from Russia, a 6 week trip with Tantek after graduating from college, and a 6 month exchange study at Oxford. I don’t remember the first trip, but really liked the others. In my travels, the southern countries (Spain, Portugal, Greece) were missed by me. I have several friends from Turkey who recommended it highly, as well a Jay, a good friend who went there for his honeymoon. Being a Jew who has never been to Israel was on my to-do list to fix. Additionally, I did not spend much time in France on my last trip there, and only visited Venice in northern Italy. So I really wanted to cover those place to “complete” my travels of Europe for the time being.
Of course having the desire and actually going for it are two things completely. What I needed was a good excuse and motivation to actually go. It’s difficult to tear oneself away from a very enjoyable and profitable life in Silicon Valley to go travel. The opportunity costs are very high for leaving during peak earning potential months, especially with the industry being so hot.
The motivation came when a very good friend from junior high school days, Deep (who I am senior to mere hours, but wiser by years :) was finally graduating. He would finish his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UCLA in June and would not have to start his job at McKinsey until the start of August. I had an accomplice - that’s all that was required.
We spent loose amounts of time planning the trip. Both of us like bicycling, so we decided to make it a biking adventure around the Mediterranean. Deep did not want to see Israel and Turkey as much as I did, and I wanted to travel earlier than June (before it got too hot and crowded), so we settled on me going to Israel and Turkey on my own first, then meeting up with Deep in Paris. Jothi, a friend and ex-co-worker of mine was psyched to go on the trip with us as well.
We decided to take our bikes (Jothi was going to buy his) and move from city to city using our Eurail passes, doing 1-2 day loop bike trips out of the cities before moving on to the next ones. Deep had never been to Germany and wanted to, so we added it to the itinerary. After deciding to plan the trip there, I set off.
One highlight of the trip was that the timing coincided with World Cup ‘98 which was being played in France at the time. I enjoyed quite a few games of soccer (football) at various locations in Europe, mostly in settings with locals and travelers alike. The camaraderie during the matches is high and emotions quite feverish. Even though I do not follow the games on my own, it’s very cool to root along with (or against) the local fans. I did not get to see any games in person (see the Paris chapter for more on this), but seeing how fanatic they are about it all around Europe was quite a thrill.
The lowlight of the trip had to be the lack of biking and the great efforts we went through in order to transport our bikes with us. It was very disappointing that we ended up doing almost no biking.
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May 23
May 24 - June 7 June 7 - June 20 June 20 - June 22 June 22 - June 24 June 24 - July 1 July 1 - July 5 July 6 - July 15 July 16 - July 21 July 22 - July 26 July 27 - July 30 July 31 - August 4 August 4 - August 5 |
Flight from San Francisco, via Zurich, to Tel Aviv, Israel
Israel Turkey Greece with Attila the Hun Train through Italy France Germany Italy Spain Portugal Spain France England, back home |
I also learned quite a bit about the patron saint of the city near me, San Francisco. We visited Assisi, the home of Saint Francis, learning about his order of monks. Once you know about something, you recognize a lot more signs of it about, and so it was with us that churches of Saint Francis, paintings of him, a tomb, and things from Assisi seemed to be everywhere in our travels.
Other than weather and timing (missing everything by 5 minutes), we have been really lucky in our travels. Especially true of having great friends to visit...
It is such a pleasure traveling when one gets such amazing treatment. I do hope I can live up to these standards in hospitality when folks come to visit the Bay Area.
This trip's lesson for the road - good friends are priceless.
Elizabeth Ferguson for taking care of my mail, house, bills, and the rest of the mundane aspects of life back in California.
Paola Aliverti, Serge-Paul Carrasco, Margaret DiMaria, Arthur Evans and Elizabeth Ferguson for helping to keep New SoftWare, Inc. running in my absence.
Mom, Dad, Marvin, Alyona, and Grandma for providing moral support from back home.
My travel-mates Deep and Jothi for putting up with me for over a month of the trip.
My friends back home for encouraging me to go and welcoming me back.
Tantek Celik for traveling with the first time I attempted a Europe trip and learned many lessons.
Charles of Oaks Travel for getting me a great deal on air fare.
Marya and Sasha Tkachenko for providing wonderful hospitality in Israel.
The Aptekman’s for providing great accommodations and company outside of Jerusalem.
Michael Gelman and the rest of the family / folks in Ashdod who made my visit to Israel just wonderful.
Sema Gokcen for the amazing luxury and hospitality in helping me settle into Turkey, and Selen Opcin for setting it up and recommending some gems to visit.
Martin, Roswitha, and Roland for showing us how splendid Stuttgart and its surroundings and people can be.
Angela and Berndt for showing us Dusseldorf.
Attila for driving a strange American guy like me clear across Greece.
Michelle Haner for making my visits to Paris simply amazing.
Giovanni and Chiara for biking, wining, dining in lovely Tuscany.