May 16-August 7, 2000

Online Journal

"Always Keep a Diamond in Your Mind"-Tom Waits

I decided to keep a little journal of my adventures directing ECHT this summer for posterity and so everybody could keep up with our exploits on the road...

May 15-Ypsilanti, MI Well, I leave tomorrow night for the trip. As usual I feel like I am unprepared. I am still not really packed and there about a million things I need to get done before the plane takes off, but somehow I will get it done. All you can do is hope that you don't forget something really essential like your passport or your money.

For anybody reading this who doesn't know the trip I am about to do is called the European Cultural History Tour. It is a 12 week study tour consisting of undergraduate students from all over the U.S. travelling together and studying History and Art throughout Europe. I will be directing the trip along with my assistant, Jessica Hamlin. We will take care of logistical issues like food and transportation. We will also be traveling with two professors who will be responsible for the teaching. Bill Urban from Monmouth College in Illinois is teaching History and Jay Yager from Eastern Michigan is teaching art. I have worked with both of them before and I am really looking forward to doing so again. I will try to update this journal as often as I can and I will try to keep it interesting. I will write again from London...

May 17-London,England A wee bit groggy today after the flight. Everything is fine. Here are my tired impressions of the last 24 hours...At the airport, very sad to leave Ali and Oslo. Met Jay in line and we had our first "staff meeting" at the Michigan State airport bar. The flight was uneventful. Northwest nonstop to Gatwick. Dinner was forgettable vegetable lasagna. Movie was forgettable James Bond. Breakfast was a banana muffin and yogurt. Arrived and got to the hotel. Saw a women reading "Elvis and Me" on the tube. Set up a dinner for the group on Sunday Night at a new pub. I hope its good. Also picked up tickets for "Blood Brothers", a play which is an ECHT tradition. Got time to get over to the new Tate Modern Museum. It is housed in an old power plant across the river from St. Paul's. It was very cool, but I am probably a little too out of it to appreciate it. I am going to try to stay up until at least 10 tonight to fight jetlag. I meet the group tomorrow. I am little homesick, but doing OK. Keeping moving helps a lot. More later...

May 19-London,England Met up with the group yesterday and we traveled to Cambridge for Orientation. They were all real tired. I was glad I had a one day head start. It is good to work with Jessica and Prof. Urban again. The group seems good. Hard to tell yet, but so far so good. Jay and I caught the movie Ghost Dog last night at a Cambridge cinema. Highly recommended, I need to see it again. It is hard for me to be in Cambridge because that is where I met Ali in 1995 so there are a lot of ghosts floating around. It is a little sad to be there alone. I did a 3 hour marathon logistical orientation this morning before we broke for lunch. Then the Profs introduced their individual classes. After that I took off for London to catch the Lou Reed concert at Royal Albert Hall. Only a few hours away now. I can't wait to see Lou! Jessica will get the group back to London tomorrow and we jump right into sightseeing and classes. More later including a Lou review...

May 22-London, England Long day today. Had a group lunch at the Stock Pot, a cheap London tradition and then spent about 3 hours in the National Gallery. I am planning on taking it easy tonight...

May 24-London, England Well, we have already had a passport stolen and a trip to the hospital. Kind of early for these things to be happening, but everything is OK. One girl was asleep in her room and the door was open. Some daring thief came in and lifted her camera and passport. It really stinks for her, but it is a good lesson for everybody to keep their door locked. Luckily, it is pretty easy to get a passport in London and she already has a new one($60 later...). Another girl has developed a weird, itchy, painful rash on her arms and legs so Jess took her to the doctor yesterday. They said it was some kind of allergy and gave her some medicine so hopefully that will help. Yesterday we went to the Imperial War Museum which I had never been to before. I am not usually into military or war museums, but this one was a real sleeper. My favorite part was the trench warfare room where you walk through a recreation of a World War One trench and they even have Smell-o-rama so that the whole place stinks like an outhouse and when you get close to the guy cooking, it smells like bacon. Pretty cool. After that we had lunch and headed to the new Tate. Jay had the students do a group project there and I think they enjoyed it. The new Tate is really nice and I love the building. After that, the staff went out to the pub to relax before going to the Globe Theatre to see the Tempest. It was raining all afternoon so I was afraid we would get wet during the play(which is open air and standing), but it cleared up in time for the show. The performance was great. I need to read the play now. The had an unlikely Klezmer band doing th music which actually worked very well. The character of Caliban really stole the show...Today is our last day in London and we are scheduled for Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and an evening performance of Blood Brothers (an English Musical), so we will have another full day. Tomorrow we leave early on the chunnel train for Brussels. I wil try to write from there if I can find a place to get online...

Jay, Jess and I in Brussels, Belgium

May 26-Brussels, Belgium Oh, happy Brussels! We crossed the channel with no problem. Our last day in London was very full. We did Westminster and the Tower and then met up with John Abbott, Benita and Jen Homan at the Porcupine Pub before seeing Blood Brothers. They will be the staff on our second trip which is one week behind ours. They flew into London one day early so we got a chance to meet up, compare notes and have a beer. It was weird having everybody together, but very fun. They were" pretty wiped out from their flights and I wasn`t sure they would make it out, but they did. Blood Brothers was cheesey but good as usual. I think this is my fifth time seeing it. Prof. Urban skipped it in order to meet up with his possible future daughter in law, but I know that he really can`t handle the thick socialist propaganda of the play either. I am probably more synpathetic to it than he is...We got up real early to catch the Eurostar through the chunnel to Belgium. The ride was uneventful. Blink and you miss the chunnel. It is not as fun as the boat, but it sure is fast. We got to Brussels about noon and Jay, Jessica and I headed off to find the Hostel while the students ate and changed money. I have only been to Brussels once on a 6 hour layover on the way to Africa in 1995 so I not that familiar with the city. We found the place with no problem and went back to retrieve the group. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon trying Belgian beers in town. They are all pretty good so far. In the evening we had class and then took the group on a short walking tour. The staff went out to a real nice diiner at a restaurant called the Reubens where Jay had eaten before. It was not cheap, but it was good. I had melon and ham followed by rabbit in mustard sauce all washed down by a couple of bottles of Chimay Blue.

Tom Waits

Luther Dickinson and Chris Chew of the North Mississippi All-Stars at the Chesterfield Cafe-Paris, France

June 1-Paris France Well, today is our last day in Paris. Tonight we head out via night train for Germany. Paris has gone by really quickly. I really like this city, but it is hard to be here by yourself. The streets are full of couples walking around and it gets a little depressing. Still it has been a good stay. The Louvre went well. Going at night did help the crowds a lot so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Today we took the train out of town to Chartres and had a nice visit. I had hoped to do a picnic out there, but it turns out that today is a church holiday of some sort and the grocery store was closed so it didn't work out. There was a crazy service going on in the cathedral though,with processions, incense and some crazy organ playing. The organ was sinister like the end of the world was at hand. We have some time to kill now before the night train. I will probably not be able to update for a few days. I will try in Berlin though....Happy June.

June 5-Berlin, Germany Things are going well here in Germany. We left Paris on a night train that was fairly uneventful. I slept well unlike most of the students. We arrived in Frankfurt at about 7 in the morning and had breakfast before catching another train to Rudesheim which is right on the Rhine River. There I had my first Bratwurst with Mashed potatos along with a Dunkle Weiss beer. In Rudesheim we caught a tourist boat to Bacharach. The boat trip was beautiful. I alway enjoy the Rhine part of the trip. It was warm and sunny and I sat up on deck the whole trip. In the late afternoon we arrived in Bacharach. We stayed in the Stahlek Youth Hostel which is in an 11th century castle on a hill overlooking the town. That meant that we had to hike up the path to the hostel with our packs. A few students took a cab, but the vast majority walked and made it. It is a hard climb with that much weight and everybody felt a sense of accomplishment when we got to the top. We did very little in Bacharach except for an Art quiz and a few classes. It is meant as a break after Paris. The view of the Rhine from the castle is awesome. I hadn't stayed there since I was a student so I was very excited to be there. We hung out that night drinking beer and wine and talking. The group is really starting to mesh well. The next day I hiked up to the top of the hill opposite the castle. It was a long and hot hike, but it was really fun and the views of the valley were great. Early the next morning we left for Berlin with a short stopover in Cologne. We didn't see much of Cologne this time except the cathedral and the potato pancake stand in front of the train station. If you are ever in Cologn, don't miss either. We got into Berlin at about 6 last night and got to our hostel which is one where I have never stayed before. It is a little rundown, but OK. All the hostels in Berlin seem a little rundown. A group of us went to one of my favorite restaurants in town, the Hardenburg cafe. It has good food at student prices. After that, Jay, Jessica and I went to a fun local bar called the Fat Landlady for a night cap. This morning we left early for a walking tour of the city including the Brandenburg gate and Checkpoint Charlie. These students barely remember a time when the wall was standing, but they are facinated by it. I am too. Berlin is a crazy city. It is the world's largest construction zone. My maps go out of date every year, because so much work is being done. The city has really grown on me and I always enjoy myself here. Earlier today we also hit the Kathe Kollwitz museum which is small, but very cool. We did have small incident with two students involving academic dishonesty that I don't want to get into too deeply here, but I think it has been taken care of. We are here for the next 3 days so I will try to write again soon..

June 7-Berlin, Germany Still in Berlin and things are fine. Yesterday was a big day. We saw the Gemaldegallery in the morning which is one of the best museums in Europe. That went well and then we headed to Egyptian Museum which is a nice preview for the Option C students who will be in Egypt in a few months. Next was the Romantic gallery at Charlottenburg which has two of my favorite paintings in the world. They are both by Casper David Freidrich. One is called something like Monk on the Beach and the other is something like Church Among the Oak Trees. After that I ran off to see the Berlin Zoo since I had never been there before and had always wanted to go. I had a really great time walking around and watching the animals. Top animals were the seals, the bears, the lions and the elephants. The lions had just been fed so they were right up close eating these big hunks of meat. Another cool little thing was that there is a baby elephant there named Kiri who was born in April that was very cute. After the zoo I met the staff at the Hardenburg Cafe for a quick meal before meeeting the group at the Deutch Opera for a ballet. It was a strange piece that was sort of classical and sort of modern. I slept through a chunk of it, but woke up for the last act which was really good and pretty sexual so of course it holds your attention a little better. Today we hit the Pergamon Museum and are currently on a lunch break at Alexander Platz. After lunch we are either going to the Hamburger Bahnhof or the New National Museum. Both are modern art museums and Jay is off scouting them right now to decide which to see.

June 8-Berlin, Germany Well, Jay decided to go to the Hamburger Bahnhof and we had a great visit. There was a huge piece there by an artist named Walter Di Maria who is one of my favorite people working today. We also had a nice discussion sitting on the floor of the Joseph Beuys room and you could sort of feel his spirit floating around us as we talked. After the museum I met some people at a little Italian place near our hostel and we had a really nice dinner with a lot of Chianti thrown in. We retired to the little tavern next to our hostel which is quickly becoming a favorite drinking establishment. It is truly a local place and its a lot of fun. Today I got up early to run errands and met up with the group to go out to Potsdam which is a huge palace/park complex on the outskirts of Berlin. We had a nice picnic on the grounds and then went into the new palace. It was very relaxing and fun. Students are in a good mood right now. That could change though since we have exams coming up. We head for Prague with a stopover in Dresden tomorrow morning. I always enjoy Prague so I am looking forward to that. We have had a really nice stay in Berlin. We have done a hell of alot and I think managed to still keep it sort of laid back. Next update should be from Prague

June 10-Prague, Czech Republic Greetings from the Czech Republic. It is always good to be here. The night before we left Berlin I had dinner at the Italian place again with a whole group of people. Had a great time again and then went back to the little corner bar, I think its called the Klatch Cafe. I just called it the Crotch Brothers. Why I am not sure. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. We sat in the back room and every once and awhile this real drunk rasta guy would walk by and yell, "Cheese!". We all laughed and yelled "Cheese!" back, but we did't understand why this strange man with dreadlocks was yelling "Cheese!" at us. After about 5 times he came back again and said, "Not cheese, cheers!" and we finally got it. We left Berlin early and caught a train to Dresden the next day. In Dresden we checked our bags and had a lunch break. When we all joined up again, one of the girls had lost her wallet at a store. She searched all over, but it was gone. She lost a bunch of cash and worst of all her passport. I left Jessica with her to go back to Berlin which is where she can get to the American embassy. The catch is that it is the weekend and Monday is some sort of German holiday so she won't be able to get a new passport until Tuesday morning and then she will have to meet us in Vienna. Incredibly bad timing. So I am without my manager for now. She may rejoin us today or tomorrow if everything is OK in Berlin with this girl, but she may not be able to meet us until Vienna as well. Everything here is OK though. The rest of the group left Dresden and headed to Prague. Our train was delayed so we go to the hostel at about 8. After checking in Jay, Prof. Urban and I heded to a cafe right acorss the Charles Bridge that I like for dinner. We had good beer and Gulash with dumplings and it was realy great. Saw a blond Czech amazon in a miniskirt carrying a rose with a 3 foot stem. Had one last beer at a bar near our hostel before collapsing into bed

June 11-Prague, Czech Republic Ghosts, Ghosts, this town is full of ghosts. Our hostel is an old secret police distribution center for gypsies on their way to the death camps. Ghosts of my first trip here in '93 when this was a different town and I was a different person. Having to climb out the window of the Alkohol Bar because the place was so packed with people. Coming here with Ali in '96. The only way to come to a city like this is with somebody you love. Coming by yourself can be a bit of a drag. Ghosts of cheap Czech vodka. Ghosts of absinthe. Drinking with Mike R. at the Bluenote in '98 when the tapdancer walked in off the street. Ghosts of an afternoon spent with Ali at this same Hostel. Everybody on every street corner is a ghost from some Milan Kundera or Franz Kafka story including me...

June 11-Prague, Czech Republic Yesterday we took the group on a walking tour that started in the new part of the city and then ended up in the castle district up on the hill. For lunch I had a burrito at Jo's bar which is a place I have been going to since my firt trip. It has changed a lot since then. It is a lot classier now and is a Prague institution, but it is still good. For dinner I went to a place called Pizza Komotra which I discovered when I came here with Ali, Jess A., Mike H., and Jason Lovejoy in '96. It has an stone oven and the food is great and incredibly cheap. After dinner, Jay and I headed back to the bar near our hostel and sipped Absinthe and told stories. Absinthe is a mildly hallucinigenic green liqour that is outlawed everywhere except Spain and the Czech Republic. We had a nice time time talking until fairly late. This morning we had an Art Quiz and several History classes, but that is it until dinner tonight. I set up a Czech meal at a local restuarant so hopefully it will be good. While I was in there setting it up I heard the song, "El Paso" in Czech. Jessica and the girl that lost her passport are still in Berlin. They are fine, but probaly won't be able to join us until Tuesday night. Vienna is shaping up to be very busy so I am resting up for the rest of today...

June 12-Prague, Czech Republic Still in Prague. Our train leaves in a little while so I thought I would write a quick update. Yesterday was relaxing. Had lunch at Jo's, paid the hostel bill, made my annual visit to the Mucha museum, walked around, finished my book, had dinner and drinks, watched soccer and went to sleep. The group dinner turned out really well. The book I finished is called "The Dumas Club" and it is highly reccomended. After dinner I caught the end of the Denmark/France Eurocup game and most of the Czech/Netherlands game. France and the Netherlands won. Today we will be on the train for a good part of the day so it should be relaxing also. Vienna is going to be very tight so we are going to try and plan it very carefully during the train ride. It is diffilcult to get online in Vienna, but I will try. If not I will write from Munich...

June 16-Munich, Germany From my notes in Vienna...Vienna is a strange city. It is so conservative and stuffy in some ways, but lurking just below the surface is a powerful undercurrent of sexuality. This is a city of operas, waltzes, poofy ratdogs and Big Mac Menues that cost seven bucks. This city is historically right of the right wing and Austrians do seem a bit stern and strict at first, but under their business suits and uniforms you get the feeling that they are all wearing lingerei, even the men. This is also the city of Freud. He knew that we all experience these sexual desires and the Viennese don't try to deny them. Then there is Gustav Klimt. Even his landscapes emit erotic energy. Go listen to "Take this Waltz" by Leonard Cohen. That is how I feel about Vienna. Vienna is a city to make you horny. A man and a woman come out of a photobooth at a metro station. The man's lips are swollen and the woman is straightening her dress. At first glance the business woman on the corner looks like any other. At second glance you notice that the slit in her skirt is just a little higher than you would expect and you look away as you catch a glimpse of her garter. Corner of your eye observation of tight fabric, transparent fabric, odd bruises, and cryptic tatoos. Vienna's sexuality is a little perverted too. I imagine $1000 hookers and spanking infatuations. This isn't a whips and chains city, that's Berlin. This is a city with a more proper set of fetishes in mind. Lots of wigs, lace, powder and lipstick. Lawyer by day, transvestite by night. There are more underwear stores per square block in downtown Vienna than anywhere else. The guy who wrote "La Ronde" and the story that "Eyes Wide Shut" is based on was from Vienna (I forget his name right now). I might be the only person on Earth who liked that movie, but then again I saw it in Vienna so it probably made a lot more sense to me. It is possible that I am imagining all of this thinly velied sexual weirdness and Vienna is as proper and stuffy as the guidebooks would have you think, I have been on the road awhile now...Had an uneventful ride to Vienna. Read a lot and looked out the window. The change places at Viennese train stations are notorious ripoffs and of course all the ATMs are mysteriously broken. Dismissed as coincidence? Finally we get everybody train passes with the idea that they can change money in town. Well, it was a great idea, but unfortunately that same holiday that trapped the student in Berlin who lost her passport for another day also caused the closure of all the banks and the American Express office. The long and short of this anecdote is that we all took a hit on the exchange, but shit happens. We stayed at a campground on the otskirts of town. It isn't really camping. We have little four person cabins. It is more like summer camp. We grabbed dinner at an Italian place nearby, watched a little soccer and then hit the sack. The next morning we went to the City of Vienna Museum for History lessons. While the students were there, I went to the State Opera House and picked up tickets for "Jerusalem" by Verdi. I didn't get to go, but the students said it turned out to be really good. After lunch we went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum which is the big art museum. It was a very hot day (near 90) and the students were pretty wasted after 3 hours in there. While the students took a dinner break and headed out to the opera, I went to the train station to meet up with Jessica and the student who lost her passport. They made it and we went back to the campground. The next day we did Schunbronne Palace in the morning and the Belvidere in the afternoon. The Belvidere is the main museum of the Vienna Seccession and has lots of cool Klimts. After that Jay and I went to the Seccession bulding to see Klimt's Beethoven Fireze and then to the Kunsthalle to catch a show of Scandanavian artists which was very cool. I chilled at the cafe there drinking Austrian beer and listening to Zydeco. That night we had dinner at Flanagan's Irish Pub and then went back to the campground to drink beer and listen to music. The next morning we left very early to catch a train to Salzburg. We had lunch in Salzburg and walked around a bit before catching the train to Munich. That night we went out to the famous Hofbrauhaus for beers and we met up with my old buddy Mark Allen from the Fall '98 trip. He was travelling around Europe with his brother for a few weeks and we got to meet up for this one night. Many beers were drunk and many toasts were made. Mark is going to be working in Chicago this fall so I am looking forward to seeing more of him. Today we did the Altes Gallery in the morning, Mensa lunch and then the Neau Gallery in the afternoon. Right now I am off to dinner at the cafe across from our hotel. More later...

June 19-Venice, Italy Ah Venice. What a great city. It is a couple of steps away from reality, but still a great city. Two days ago while still in Munich we went out to Dachau which was one of the first Nazi concentartion camps. It is in a quiet suburb of Munich so we took the metro out there. The students were very moved especially after seeing the film they show. It is hard not to be moved. By the time we were done with our visit everybody was in a pretty depressed mood. We had the afternoon free so about 10 of us decided to go out to the Andechs Monestary which is about 45 minutes outside of Munich the other way. The monestary is out in the woods at the top of a hill and has a great view, but the real draw is that the monks up there brew a really good beer and have a beer garden. So we took the train out there and then hiked for about a half hour through the forest and up the hill. When we finally got to the top we were mighty hungry and thirsty. It was a beautiful sunny day and we got a table with a scenic view of the rolling, green hills around us. It turned out to be one of those great afternoons that you will never forget. We ate brats, sauerkraut, potato salad, radishes (yes radishes!)and drank lots of beer. By the end of the day we stumbled down the hill laughing and headed for Munich. The next morning we left very early and took a beautiful train trip from Munich to Venice though the Brenner pass in the Alps. We got to Venice in the afternoon and took a short walking tour. Venice is a really magical city anytime, but yesterday as we walked around there were street bands playing everywhere as part of some music festival going on. From my hotel window alone I could hear 3 jazz bands playing at once. That night Jay and I walked around the Jewish ghetto part of town which is near our hotel. We saw a crazy Klezmer band, a heavy metal band and a circle of drummers all within several blocks. It was a surreal sort of night with lots of characters walking the streets. We walked until we were good and lost and then found our way back with periodic alcohol stops. Getting lost in Venice is so fun. You always discover interesting things and always find your way back. Today we did a tour of San Marco and the Doge's Palace. We had a Mensa lunch and then did the Peggy Gugenheim Museum in the afternoon. I am taking it easy now before meeting for a bottle of vino later. I like Venice very much, but I don't like much being here without my wife. A romantic place like this is hard to come to alone. The first 6 weeks of the trip are almost over. It has gone so fast. We will lose about half of our group in Florence and pick up about the same number of new members in Rome. It will be very strange. More later...

June 20-Venice, Italy Still in Venice. Had a crazy night last night with Jess and Jay out on the Salute. We met out there at about 8:30. The Salute is the point of this little outcropping of land at the mouth of the Grand Canal. It is fairly quiet and has a great view of the canal, San Georgio, San Marco and the ocean. I had picked up a liter and a half of red wine from a place that dispences wine out of something like a gas pump into any container. I used an old water bottle and told the man to "Fill 'er up". It cost about 3 bucks. Anyway, we sat and talked out there for quite awhile and had a lot of fun. After a bit some Rasta girls came out there and they had a couple guitars so they lent me one. The one with the missing high E string unfortunately. So I played some songs like Tom Thumb's Blues, Loser and I Know You Rider. The guitar sounded bad and so did I, but nobody cared, it was still fun. After awhile longer this guy came out and started to light dozens of candles all around the area. I asked him what was up and he just said, "You are about to be invaded". A couple of minutes later about 25 women all dressed to kill and all in black dresses appeared. Some of them even had elaborate carnival like face paint on which was really weird. It turns out that they were all the student interns from America at the Guggenheim Museum and they were having a little party out there. I recognized the guard and the coat check lady from our visit earlier in the day and we talked for a little. The whole thing was a little scary and disconcerting though(it reminded me of a scene from Eyes Wide Shut) and it was starting to get real late so we took off for home. Along the way we stopped for a quick nightcap at a Tapas bar before ariving home and promptly passing out. This morning we got up headed to Padua to see the Scrovegni Chapel with the Giatto frescos inside. They have a new system there for visitors because they are very worried about the frescos being damaged by air pollution. They put 25 visitors in an airlock for 15 minutes while they clean the air and then they let you into the chapel. It is all very Star Trek-esque, but strangely fun. We had lunch at an Italian fast food place and while I ate they played "St.Stephen" and "Dark Star" off of Live Dead. It was great, but a fast food place in Padua was about the last place I expected to hear the Grateful Dead. So I sat there eating pizza and fruit salad while listening for awhile. After lunch Prof. Urban taught a history class in the park while Jay, Erica from New York and Jill from Missouri went up to St. Anthony's to see the Donotello sculture of in front of it. We also ducked into the church where supposedly they have the tongue of St. Anthony, but it wasn't on display. Darn. On our way there we made one wrong turn and when we backtracked I spotted out of the corner of my eye a bar that sold Chimay. Chimay is Jay's favorite beer and it is sort of hard to find, so after the church we had a quick one at the bar which was called Alexander's. Then we headed back to Venice. After last night I plan on taking it easy and working on some accounting. We have one more day here before heading to Florence. I will write more soon...

June 22-Florence, Italy Had to start a new page because for some reason I can't type anymore on the first page. If anybody know why let me know. We are in Florence now and things are fine. I will write more tomorrow...

June 23-Florence, Italy Let's see, our last day in Venice was pretty uneventful. We had a nice visit to the Accademia and the Frari Church and another Mensa lunch in there. That night a large group of us went out for a nice dinner to celebrate Mandy from Oaklahoma's birthday. The next morning we caught a train to Florence via Mestre. Arrived about 1:30 and I hit the ground running in order to make museum reservations, change money etc. Met up with the group and went to see the David sculpture in the early evening and beat the crowds. After that we did a short walking tour including the Duomo, Palazzo Vechio, and the Ponte Vecchio. Had dinner at Leonardo's which is a self serve restaurant and an ECHT tradition before topping the evening off with a couple of Kilkennys at the Dublin Pub and a late show of "Something About Mary" at the English theatre. This morning we went to the Bargello which is a sculture gallery and then to Leonardo's from there. The group is off to San Carmine and San Croce, but I split up with them in order to catch a train to the Cinque Terre which is a series of five viallage on the coast that you can hike between. I am going to stay the night somewhere and then hike it in the morning before coming back to Florence tomorrow evening. This is sort of my vacation before the second half of the trip starts. I am very excited. I will write with the lowdown on my trip when I get back.

June 24-Florence, Italy Hello, I made it back from Cinque Terre in one piece. I am planning on writing extensively about the hike soon, but for now suffise it to say that it was a great time. More about that later.

June 26-Florence, Italy Howdy, it is the last day of option A and we are still in Florence, but let me recount my Cinque Terre story first. I left on the afternoon of the 23rd by train form Florence to Monterosso via Pisa. In Pisa I switched trains and bought a 5 dollar map of the Cinque Terre region which turned out to be fairly useless. I was very excited to be travelling on my own and to be heading for the adventure of the unknmown. I caught my connecting train and made it to Monterosso by about 5:30. Monterosso is at one end of the main Cinque Terre trail and it is the most built up town with several resorts and lots of hotels and restaurant. My first plan was to spend the night there at a hotel and then hike the trail in the morning, but after awhile it became very clear that there were no beds to be had in the whole town. I wasn't altogether surprised by this and I had packed enough warm clothes to sleep outside if I had too. I decided to start the trail and hike to the next town (Vernazza. On the way I would scout possible sleeping areas and then once I got to Verazza I would look for hotels and have dinner. I walked through downtown Monterosso looking for the trailhead, using the new map I got for free at a hotel. Soon I found the sign and started up the into the hills. Monteroso lies in a cove right on the coast and is very beautiful. The trail snaked up the coastal hills and afforded a great view of the town and the ocean. The trail was veryu small and rocky. Streams sometimes passed right over it. The vegetation on this part of the trail was incredibly lush. All sort of flowers, moss and something that sort of looked like bamboo. Even though iy was the evening it was still hot. Most of this part of the trail was uphill and I was soaked with sweat. About a half an hour into the trail I heard some huffing and puffing up ahead and this lady comes around the corner. I flattened myself against the rocks so she could pass. She was obviously having a bad time. She was sweating profusely and slipping all over the place. As she passed she said, " It is terrible". I smiled, but I couldn' disagree more. I was having a great time. Finally the trail leveled off a bit on a ridge and the views of the sea with the sun setting were great. I walked quickly, but comfortably along. All the walking on the trips has gotten my legs and lungs in shape. After awhile I started to head down again and soon I could see Vernazza. Vernazza is very small and has a little cove with a castle lookout and a beautiful beach (which even in the evening had a few topless bathers). I headed in to town and asked around at a few hotels about rooms, but they were all full. At this point I was kind of getting excited about sleeping under the stars and I had found a good looking spot to camp on a ledge that overlooked Vernazza about 15 minutes back up the trail so I wasn't worried. Since I was saving so much money by not getting a hotel I figured I would treat myself to a nice dinner. I found a nice looking restaurant where I could sit outside and ordered caprese, penne with crabmeat and Tirimisu and it was all great. After dinner I walked around a bit and then headed back up the trail the way I had come to find my sleeping spot. I found it and decided it would work so I spread out an emergency rain poncho that Jay had given me to use as a gound cover and over that I put my sheet which I sometimes use at hostels. I used my backpack as a pilow. Set out my jacket, flashlight and pocketknife in case I needed them and fell asleep pretty quickly. In the middle of the night I woke up and the moon had risen over Vernazza and was so bright despite being only half full that I could see my shadow. It was a beautiful night with a light breeze and I could hear the sea crashing on the cliffs below. So what if my campsite stank of goat shit a little and it had a lot of sharp rocks, it was still great to me. My plan was to wake up at 5 and to my surprise I overslept until about 5:30. I wanted to complete the hike early because it can be incredibly hot in Italy in the summer and I only had one water bottle. I was on the trail by about quarter to 6 and headed back down into Vernazza. The town was very quiet, all the tourists and locals were asleep. I passed through silently and headed back up the trail towards Corniglia. This part of the trail was very high and had more dense trees. Several cats began to follow me. They would run ahead of me about 20 feet and then stop to wait for me. Once I caught up they would run ahead again. Just like dogs. Then one of them had an asthma attack and had to wait behind permenently and soon the others followed suit. Somewhere around here I also saw a snake cross the trail. Now I don't much care for snakes and I was really glad I saw it after I had already slept out the night before. Somewhere along this part of the trail I also passed through an incredibly small village called Prevo which was little more than two or three houses. After about an hour and 20 minutes I came to Cornigla which was way up on the hill rather than down by the water. It too had a nice view, but is was still very early so I passed through quickly. After Corniglia the trail headed down near the sea and I started to pass little tourists bungalows. A few hikers were starting to rise, but I felt good since I had such a jump on them. All along the trail had been some empty water bottles which was dissapointing but not unexpected. Stranger though was all the used tissues that I saw the whole way. It was as if someone had blown their nose constantly for the whole 14 kilometers, leaving a dirty kleenex every ten or 15 meters. When ever I wasn't sure which path to take I just looked for the tissues and I knew I was OK. After following a rocky beach I came to the fourth town of the Cinque Terre, Manarola which is on a point jutting out into the ocean. This town was waking up and I found a store where I could replenish my water supply. Then I headed out again for the last and shortest leg which led to Riomaggiore. Along this section there is a part of the trail that is on a walkway over the sea called Vie d'amore. I guess this is something like makeout point for the locals. There were no lovers there that morning, but there lots of Americans still asleep along the trail in their sleeping bags. I was glad I had started the trail on the other end so I had more privacy. Along the Vie d'amore there is all sorts of grafiiti proclaiming the love of diffrent couples. Things like Giovanni and Erika forever, I love Luigi! and things like that. Some of them were rather pornographic and included drawings. I had my sharpie with me so I found an empty peice of rock and wrote, Ali + Jer 2000. The next day was Ali's birthday and she was on my mind during the whole hike. Sappy I know, but I don't care. Soon I arrived at my destination, Riomaggiore. I checked the train schedule and there was a train to Pisa soon so I was in luck. I really didn't want the hike to be over though. It had been invigorating, beautiful and fun. It was nice to take a day away from the group too. I grabbed a popsicle and caught the train back to Pisa and then on to Florence. When I got back I took a nice long shower and then took care off some errands. That night a group of us went out to a middle eastern place called Aman. After that we caught most of the soccer game, but I had to leave early because I was real tired. The next day all we had was an art test and that was it so I did a lot of reading and catching up on business. In the afternnon Chris and Christina arrived from the U.S.. It was great to see them and we sat on the porch and caught up with each other while drinking wine and the fifth of Jack that Chris had brought along. Chris will be managing Option B with me and Christina will be managing Option B with Benita and Jessica. That evening we had a group dinner at Leonardo's and then headed back to the Dublin Pub to watch the Spain-France soccer match which France won. This morning we had another art quiz and then headed to San Lorenzo and the Duomo Museum which is newly renovated and beautiful. we are free until tonight which will be the last supper of option A. I am sure it will be a lot of fun and a lot of tears. Then tomorrow the remaining memebers and I are off to Rome to meet up with the new people. More then...

June 28-Rome, Italy Greetings from Roma, Option B is on the way. The last supper was crazy and fun. Everybody was really sad, but had obviously had a good time. About 14 of us headed off to Rome the next morning a little hungover, but none the worse for wear. Jay came down to Rome also. He is going to stay in Rome with us until we leave and then he flys home. I am too busy to write much now, but tomorrow I will try to do a better update.

June 29-Rome, Italy When we got to Rome, the option A peple split up for awhile while we waited for all the new people to filter in. Soon everybody was there and we met at a cafe for awhile just to do introductions and such. After that we started a fairly lengthy walking tour that included the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. The new people were a little tired but seemed to have good time. We are staying at Freedom Traveller in Rome which is a private hostel run by my buddy Johnny Carlacci. He is a crazy Canadian of Italian decent who moved to Rome to get in hostel business. He is really great guy and we always have fun together. The next day we got up early and hit the Capitoline Hill, the Forum and the Colleseum all before lunch. We took a siesta and then had an intense orientation session in the afternoon. Next we had a nice group dinner in the neighborhood and then Chris, Johnny and I caught the Portugal vs. France soccer match. France won on a cheap call, but it was a fun game. After the game a bunch of us hung out on the stareet shooting the shit with Johnny. One of our students, Abi from Maryland told us all about the Llama that live on her farm. This morning we went to the Borghese Gallery which is mostly sculptures but has a killer Titian as well. Tonight a large group of us are going to a pub to watch the Italy vs. Netherlands game which should be fun. I want to mention our new Professors also. Teaching History on this half is Stewart Slafter from the Bay Area. He seems really cool and is doing a great job so far. Teaching Art is Karen Cass from Eastern Michigan. Karen and I travelled together last Fall for the whole semester. We always have a good time together. So I think we have a good team and I am really excited about this whole half of the trip. It is a little weird switching staff and so many students half way through, but I think it will work just fine...

The Legend: Johnny Carlacci

July 6-Athens, Greece Hello, sorry it has been so long since the last update. We have been really busy and have also been travelling a lot since Rome. We are Athens now and it is a sweltering 114 degrees. Wow, that is damn hot. Where do I start with our adventures of the last week? We watched the Italy/Netherlands game at a bar called Sloppy Sam's in Campo de Fiori. It was a crazy game that Italy pulled out with great defense. We watched it with most of the group, Johhny Carlacci and Bob from Ireland. Had a great time and drank alot of beer. We decided to walk back to the hostel and the streets were filled with celebrations. Lots of people with Italian flags honking their horns and yelling. It was really fun. The next day we did the Vatican which was long and crowded as usual but it went well. We ended that up with a history lecture on the roof of St. Peter's by Stewart which was cool. The next day was very light. Mostly I hung out with Jay since he was taking off the next day. That evening the current staff along with Jay headed down to Ivo's, one of my favorite places to eat in Rome and had a great meal. The next day we got up early, said goodbye to Jay and caught a train to Naples. In Naples we checked our big bags, had an early lunch and then took the train to Pompei which was quite warm, but we had a great visit. After that we headed back to Naples, collected our bags and went to the hostel. As soon as we checked in, Chris and I headed off to find a place to watch the Italy/France championship match. We found a nice outdoor resaturant with a TV and most of the group joined in the fun. It turned out to be a close game and Italy gave up a goal in the last 20 seconds to tie and then lost it in overtime. It was a bummer, but we still had fun. The next day we awoke early again and caught a train to Brindisi via Beneveto. Brindisi is the port where you catch the ferry to Greece. We got there about 2 and Chris and I ran off to secure tickets and get food for the crossing. We boarded the ship around 6 and Chris, Erika from Michigan and I shared a huge slice of watermelon on deck before we shoved off. It was a nice crossing. I slept great. That slight rocking motion really works. We arrived in Patras, Greece about 2:00 and our charter bus was waiting. It is about a 3 hour ride from there to Delphi which was our next stop. Somewhere along the way the bus gets on a ferry and we all got off and I grabbed some souvlaki at the ferry dock which might be the best in all of Greece. We got into Delpi in good time and Chris and I set up a nice meal at a restaurant overlooking the mountains and the valley full of Apollo's olive groves. That night most of the group headed to a cheesey night club called "Delphi By Night". We danced to all the latest Europop while sipping expensive drinks. It turned out to be really fun even though we never convinced the DJ to play "One Night in Bangkok". The next day we visited the museum and the site of the Oracle of Delhi which is always one of my favorites. The ancient Greeks belived that Delphi was the bellybutton of the world and who am I to argue. After lunch we caught our bus into Athens which as I mentioned is in the midst of a heatwave. We set another nice dinner at a vegetarian restaurant here called Eden. After that a group of us climbed up to the rock opposite the Acropolis for a nice view of Athens. Knowing it would be a scorcher we got up real early today in order to get to the Acropolis early which worked out well. We had a nice visit despite the heat. Both Karen and Stewart are doing a great job so far. After the Acropolis Chris and I headed to Peraeus to secure boat tickets to Crete and Rhodes. It was a long process (about 4 hours), but we succeeded. Tonight I plan on taking it easy with a gyros in my air conditioned room. It is supposed to cool off a little tomorrow, but we'll see. Sorry, that this entry is glossed over so much, but I just wanted to catch up before it was too late. If anything else occurs to me I will put it in the next entry. I just want to mention what a blast Chris and I are having working and playing together. It is really too much fun to get paid to do this, but I will take it. Anyway, I will try to write more soon...

July 7-Athens, Greece Still in Athens and it still hot, but its only about 100 degrees today and the wind picked up a lot so it isn't as bad. As planned, I took it easy last night and am happy about it, I really needed the rest. This morning we got up and went to the Archeological Museum of Athens which has a lot of neat stuff including some incredible Greek bronze statues. After that Stewart took the history people to the Agora and I tagged along before splitting up at lunch time. We have the afternoon free agin and I am sort of bumming around. I have to do some accounting so I should get back to the hotel. I wil be out of internet contact for a few days. Tomorrow we are touring around by bus and then catching a night boat to Crete so I will write more from there...

July 9-Iraklion, Crete, Greece We made it to Crete in one piece and everything is going well. Yesterday we took a daytrip out of Athens to Mycenae and Epidavros which took up most of the day. We also stopped in Napflion for lunch where I had some amazing Calamari and Chris and I split a watermelon. This is turning into the melon trip. We got back to Peraeus in time to catch our night boat to Iraklion. The boat was fun. We sat on deck and ate bread and cheese with some Italian box of wine to wash it down. We got in to Iraklion at about 5:30 this morning, had breakfast, stowed are bags at the hotel and then headed right out to Knossos which is a famous Minoan site right outside of Iraklion. We had a pleasant visit there and then headed to the Archeological museum. By the time we were done with that it wasn't even noon yet so we took a break and then had a good group lunch before finally checking into our hotel. We are going to take the afternoon off and then we are planning a beach day tomorrow so I will write more after that...

July 10-Iraklion, Crete, Greece Had a great day today. Went out to Matala which is a cool beach on the south side of the island. It is a little cove surrounded by cliffs that have manmade caves in them with a great view of another little island straight out to sea. We got there early and the waves were pretty big. We had a lot of fun waveriding. I have a pretty good scrape on my elbow to prove it and one time I nearly lost a nipple when I was slammed down on my chest into the sand and rocks. Speaking of nipples, there were many topless supermodels walking around and about the same number of topless grandmothers. I alternated playing in the waves and lying in the sun. Chris and I continued the watermelon theme and carved up a big melon to share with everybody. At about 3 we headed back to Iraklion by bus, slighty burned and beat up, but feeling happy. Tomorrow we have a dayboat to Rhodes so I will write more on Wednesday if I can...

July 14-Rhodes City, Rhodes, Greece I have been struggling with slow connections here on Rhodes so I haven't updated in awhile. This one is better though so here we go. We met a bus at about 5:30 in the morning to take us to Agios Nicholas which is where we caught the day boat to Rhodes. The boat ride took about 12 hours and was pretty uneventful. I slept, read about Antarctica and drank some Amstel. We arrived and headed straight for Pizza Dora which is the single greatest sandwich place in the world and luckily it is right next to the hotel where we are staying. On Rhodes we stay at a place called Hotel Anastasia which is a cozy little place run by two brothers, Lokis and Mihalis and they are both hilarious. It is one of my favorite places to stay on the trip. They have a beautiful garden, a good bar and two turtles. What more could you ask for? The next day was mostly free and I set up the boat to Turkey in between sleeping, reading and going to the beach. In the late afternoon I made a pilgrimage to the beach near our place and alternated reading and swimming for several hours. It was extremely pleasant. The water was warm, the wind was cool and this book I was reading called "The Octopus Hunter" was really good too. I did keep being distracted by the 18 year old Swedish super model who was playing topless Uno with her boyfriend and his cronie right next to me for the whole time though. The next day Karen had a quiz and Stewart took us to the old city to see the crusader sites and to lecture. Later at Mihali's bar we enjoyed my new Rolling Stones CDs, cold Amstel, and another big old melon that I bought that afternoon and chilled in the bar's fridge. This morning we are killing time before we catch the hydrofoil to Marmaris, Turkey. I am very excited to move on, but also sad to leave the islands. We have had a great and very relaxing time. I should be able to write from Selcuk if all goes well. If not it will have to be Istanbul...

Lev and the Twins (Andrea and Sunshine) somewhere on a boat in Greece

Note: The rest of the journal has been reconstrucyed from notes and memories because due to slow connections, lack of time and general laziness I was unable to keep up with it while on tour

July 14-Rhodes,Greece to Marmaris, Turkey Got to the port, went through customs and boarded the hyrdrofoil. In the past I have always taken the slowboat which takes 3 or 4 times as long, but is a hell of a lot smoother. The ride took about 1 hour, but was very bumpy. Almost everybody on board looked a little green. Chris and I both combatted seasickness by promptly going to sleep. We got into Marmaris and for once didn't have any trouble with the visas. Our busdriver, Zeki met us at the port and took us to the hotel. It was a real nice place where we never stayed before with a pool and everything. Our guide in Turkey, Cemil set it up for us. Cemil was finishing another tour and was due to take a redeye flight from Istanbul that night and meet us around midnight at the hotel. I sat around by the pool with Zeki that evening drinking Efes beer and eating big slices of Watermelon while the stereo played "Sex Bomb" by Tom Jones over and over. Zeki speaks almost no English at all and I speak almost no Turkish so our conversations are pretty limited. Despite that I feel amazingly close to him and I think we really understand each other. He was our busdriver for about 2 weeks in Turkey last fall and we really got to be good friends. He is about 50 years old and I call him my Turkish father or Zeki Baba which means Father Zeki in Turkish. The hotel provided us with a Turkish Buffet for dinner and it was really good. After dinner a group of us headed into to town to go to Barstreet. Maramris is basically a resort town so there is no shortage of bars and in fact there is a street literally called Barstreet. We picked out a suitable looking bar with an open courtyard and lots of ship motifs like masts, a plank, crow's nests etc. We drank Tuborg and danced. Chris and I tried to get the DJ to play "One Night in Bangkok" but we settled for "Dancing Queen". I cut out early to get back to the hotel to try and be there when Cemil got in. When I got back Zeki was still sitting by the pool, but there was no sign of Cemil. I switched from beer to Raki which is a Turkish version of Ouzo, but much better I think. Zeki and I sat there for quite awhile waiting. We mostly joked in our broken languages. The hotel manger was this woman named Selvihan which means Green Leaf in Turkish and she also sat with us for quite awhile. Finally, Cemil pulled up in a taxi and more Raki's were ordered all around. Cemil is another old friend. This is my third tour with him as our guide. He speaks very good English and has a million stories, most of which are true. He is also a ferocious smoker and drinker. So we sat and talked for a long time and soon Chris came back from Barstreet and we sat some more. About 4 in the morning we decided to call it quits. The next morning was pretty wretched for me. One too many Rakis I guess. We got up, had breakfast and got on the bus with a final destination of Selcuk. Along the way we stopped at 3 Greek sites, Didyma, Miletus and Prien. All of them are amazing and the students really enjoyed them I think. Around dinner time we pulled into Selcuk which is a great little town. Chris and I went out with a bunch of students for a shave at my favorite barber. It is the closest shave in the world that ends with the burning of the excess hairs with a flaming cotton swab. After the shave we had some good Turkish Pizza and then headed to the Turkish bath to end up the night. After being steamed, exfoliated and beat up in the bath, I felt like a new person. More later...

July 16-Selcuk, Turkey We got up early, had breakfast on the roof of the hotel and then headed for the Efesus Museum which is in Selcuk and contains artifacts from the site of Efesus. After that we climbed the hill to the basilica of St. John where supposedly he is buried. Next we took a lunch/siesta break and then reconvened to go to the actual site of Efesus in the afternoon. It is a large and very impressive site. Cemil did a good job guiding us through and Stewart gave a good lecture near the end.

July 17-Selcuk to Bergama Got up and got on the bus to go to Bergama. I had never been there before so I was real excited. After a short stop in crowded and dirty Izmir we had a lunch break in the modern town of Bergama before going into the site of the ancient city. The Akropolis is pretty amazing. It is on the huge hill overlooking the whole plateau and the ruins are really unique and interesting. We saw the site where the Alter of Zeus was orginally before the Germans borrowed/stole it and put it in Berlin. Afetr the sites we went to our hotel which was outside of town in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of fun even though it was so remote. After dinner we sat out in the courtyard listening to Neil Young and drinking Raki. At some point Kim from Minnesota broke out her silver fingernail paint and before long everybody including Zeki and Cemil had at least one nail painted. When I finally got back to my room it was burning hot in there so I dragged my mattress out on the balcony and fell in to a deep Raki induced sleep.

July 18-Bergama to Canakkale Got up and headed out early, We stopped for lunch at this little cafe on the beach and spent several hours there hanging out and swimming. Cemil and I played Zeki and Chris in a match of Fussball that we eventually lost. The next stop was Assos which is a very cool little town with a temple and a great view of the Greek island of Lesbos. The town doesn't get many tourists so it was a breath of fresh air to see a city in more or less its unspoiled form. Next we stopped at the ancient site of Troy which is very touristy and commercialized. It was still pretty interesting though. There are actually ruins of nine different versions of Troy at this site so it is very confusing. They also have this incredibly cheesey reproduction of the Trojan horse that you can climb up into. We hurried back into the bus so that we could make the 6:00 ferry to Canakkale. We were cutting it close, but just as it looked like we were going to make it without a problem we hit a detour. If not for Zeki's incredible display of driving that followed we would never have made it. I held my breath the whole way as as he honked old ladies and bicyclists out of the way of the speeding bus. We pulled up to the ferry dock with about 30 seconds to spare and drove right on though. When we got to the hotel we had dinner and then watched the movie "Galipoli" starring Mel Gibson in preperation for visiting the battlefields the next day. After the movie we headed down to the Vegemite Bar and Disco for some fun. This is a great bar set up by Aussies. It has a bar, a hookah room, a pool table, a dance floor, an outside sitting area and a beach. I spent a lot of time standing in the water drinking Troy Beer with Chris and Stewart while the music played. Later I joined Zeki for some serious hookah smoking that I am sure took years off my life. All in all it was a great night...

July 19-Canakkale to Istanbul We got up early and boarded the bus for a long road trip up to Isatnbul. We were all feeling a little rough from the night before. Sometime during the morning we stopped in a small town to buy groceries for a picnic lunch. A little later we stopped at a pretty nice picnic area under some shady trees. We made cheese, tomato and olive sandwiches and washed them down with juice boxes and fresh water melon (expertly carved by Zeki). It was a nice relaxing meal and we hung around for awhile finishing up and watching Kyle from Florida try to catch a chicken that was running around. He was unsuccessful. We were on the bus for the rest of the afetrenoon and did not get into Istanbul until evening. We got checked in to the hotel and then I led a group of students up to the Pudding Shop which is an Istanbul tradition. They have good pudding as well as mashed potatos.

Note: Well, it is now the middle of October and I haven’t been able to catch up with the journal yet, so I am going to take a different approach. I will recount each city from Istanbul through Jerusalem…

Istanbul, Turkey-We stayed at a place called the Ottoman, which is really a nice place, but in kind of a sketchy neighborhood. I like the neighborhood, but students are usually a little freaked out at first. I warned people to be careful at night and to watch how you dress, especially the women. Some people learned the hard way that I wasn’t kidding about this. A lot of our women got harassed as they walked up the hill to have dinner the first night. It is not their fault really. The places where we have been staying so far in Turkey tend to see a lot of scantily dressed westerners, but not so in this working neighborhood in Istanbul. On our first full day here Cemil took us on a whirlwind tour of most of the big sights since he had to leave the next day to meet Benita’s group in Marmaris. We took in Topkapi palace, the harem, the archeological museum, the blue mosque, the cistern, and the hippodrome. Quite a day. We finished in the late afternoon and Cemil and Zeki said their sad good-byes. I really love those guys and I was sad to see them leave. Although it was beneficial for my liver to spend a little time apart from them. I did a lot of walking during the rest of our time in Istanbul. I walked over to Taxim to get more pages in my passport and check out the scene over there. Taxim is up on this hill and has some of the most Western parts of Istanbul. I also scouted out the Suliman mosque and the Kora Church on foot, because I wasn’t really sure how to get to either. The following day we took the group to both sights and it went smoothly. Stewart took the students on several of his optional "death walks" as the students call them because they are usually so long. They always have fun though. One night I went out with all the people from option A at a nice little place with Turkish music. This was organized by some of the students because there was some tension between the option A students. I am not sure this dinner solved it, but it was a nice gesture and we had fun. Chris and I snuck off a lot to partake in McFlurries from McDonald’s. A guilty pleasure, but good nonetheless. On the last day, our plane to Egypt didn’t leave until the afternoon so we had the morning off and I hung out and checked my e-mail. Around noon we caught the bus that we chartered and made it to the airport without a problem. Chris and I bought a bottle of Jack Daniels at the duty free shop because we knew what the liquor situation Egypt is like. The flight was only a few hours and very uneventful. The best thing was that they served mango and papaya juice during the meal. Everyone was nervous and excited including me. I hadn’t been to Egypt since 1993 and never leading a group.

Cairo, Egypt-We landed and I had no problem changing money or getting visas, which I had been worried about. Our contact from our hotel also met us right away so things went smooth. They had a bus and a car waiting for us, but that wasn’t nearly enough room for all of us and the amazing amount of crap that the students had bought at the Istanbul bazaar. They found a few cabs and I rode with Yasser(the hotel manager) in his beat up car. It is about a 30 minute ride to the hotel from the airport and you get some idea of just how huge Cairo is as you do the drive in. The place we stay in Cairo is alright. It has a great location and a great staff. Unfortunately, the bar on the roof is full of prostitutes, but they don’t seem to bother anybody. We got in and got checked into our rooms. Chris and I had to spend a lot of time setting up transportation with Yasser, but after awhile we went out for some Koshiri down the street. Koshiri is the awesome Egyptian dish with noodles, chick peas and rice. A big bowl of it cost like 50 cents so you couldn’t go wrong. We picked up some bottles of Stella (the local Egyptian beer) and headed back to our room for the first of our nightly 605 room parties (Chris, Alex form Florida and I were all in room 605). We had a nice time listening to music (I remember listening to the Jam’s "In the City") and chilling in the AC. The beer was truly foul as Stella almost always is, but we kept drinking it. I had a few bottles that tasted a lot like seawater. That can’t be good for you. The next morning we got up and met our bus to take us to the Pyramids. We soon found out we would have an undercover tourist police guy with us for the whole day. This guy was a piece of work. He had a suit that was several sizes to big for him and under it he had a little submachine gun. Everybody was real excited as we drove out to Giza. There is nothing like seeing the pyramids for the first time and everybody was gasping as they came into view. We got out and the police guy started giving us trouble about how much time we were planning on taking and about how we wanted to walk between the Pyramids rather than take the bus. I sort of blew him off and he was already getting annoyed with Chris and I, but I wasn’t going to let him ruin our visit. Karen lectured for awhile in front of the Great Pyramid. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get in since the tickets for the whole day had sold out at 6:30 in the morning. We did get to go into one of the smaller ones. I decide to go against the police guys orders and walk the group between the Pyramids rather than drive and then deal with him later. Doing this was a good idea, because it was faster and more fun. We took in all three Pyramids and the boat museum, before meeting up again with the bus to take us to the front entrance where the Sphinx is. The police guy was livid, but I just apologized and told him it was alright. I was pretty angry with him too though. It wasn’t his job to dictate our program and he knew it. He just wanted to get back as soon as possible. We went in and checked out the Sphinx for awhile and then gave everybody some free time while Chris and I set up the camel ride for the next day. Next we took in lunch at the Nile Hilton which is this huge fancy hotel that has a really good pizza place. I had the Nile Hilton special pizza with chicken and bleu cheese and it was one of the best pizzas I had the whole trip including in Italy. After lunch the police guy was again really mad at me because we had taken too long to eat. Our next stop was the Coptic quarter of Cairo where Stewart did a lot of interesting lecturing, but the police guy again rushed us and I was pretty mad at him as he was at me. Finally we got back to the hotel and we ditched the cop. I lodged a complaint with the hotel about him and Yasser said he would call his superior. That night we had another rollicking 605 room party and ate a lot of Hostess products (they are everywhere in Egypt for some reason). The next day we got up and caught Taxis to Giza again for our camel ride. We had to fight with the tourist police outside our hotel first though because they did not want us to take taxis because it was too dangerous. Finally, I persuaded them or something because they let us go. We got back to Giza after a crazy cab ride and our Camel brigade was waiting for us. We all mounted up and headed out into the hot desert. Riding camels is actually pretty comfortable for me and the ride went well. Nobody fell off or got hurt and the camel herders didn’t make the camels run which is when things get messy. My camel was named Cello, why, I don’t know. He was a good camel though. We rode for about an hour out into the desert to where you can get a good view of the pyramids and then headed back in. Everyone was in good spirits, but tired and dirty when we headed back to the Nile Hilton for lunch again. After lunch, we hit the Egyptian Museum which has so much amazing Ancient stuff that you can’t possibly take it all in. Chris and I also spent a lot of time setting up transportation and hotels in the Sinai. That night we once again had a 605 room party and the Stella was slightly better. The next day we took a bus out to Saqquara which is where the step pyramid is. The trip went well and both Karen and Stewart did some interesting lecturing. I think the rest of the day was free and I spent some time emailing and eating more pizza at the Nile Hilton. The next day we went out to the Muhammad Ali Mosque and the Egyptian Bazaar before lunch and that went well. Cairo had gone by so fast that it was unbelievable. One last 605 room party and we were off.

St. Katherine’s, Egypt-The next day we met our bus and our agent, Aladdin. Aladdin was a lot of fun, but he sure liked to brag, hit on our women and drink. I still like him though. The bus was extremely cramped and the day was long. We stopped at some little gas station for lunch where I am pretty sure I had a camel burger. We arrived at the foot of Mt. Sinai in the late afternoon and we were all pretty happy to be out of the bus. We were staying in these little bungalows at someplace called the Jungle Camp or something although I didn’t see any jungle around. After we got in we had a little soccer match with some of the locals on their cement field. Chris held his own as usual, but most of the rest of us were out matched. We were in this big valley in the shadow of Mt. Sinai, the sun was going down and wild camels were walking by. Definitely a great moment. We headed back to the Jungle Camp and they took us up to dinner. We sat outside under a tarp with lamps around. Dinner took a real long time to come but no one cared. We drank some amazing tea and when the food did come it was great. We all told a lot of stories and Stewart told us about his brother who had died of AIDS. We decided that when we climbed Mt. Sinai the following morning we would dedicate our climb to him. We hit the sack fairly early since were planning on getting up around 4 to climb the mountain before sunrise. As far as I was concerned 4 couldn’t come to soon since our room so was so damn hot and buggy.

Mt.Sinai, Egypt-We awoke and loaded into our bus. Aladdin had been bragging about how he could beat everybody up the mountain and Chris had challenged him to a race, but when 4 in the morning rolled around he couldn’t even really get up to say goodbye to us. I think he had been out in the desert doing some heavy drugs. It is only a few minutes drive to the monastery, which is at the foot of the mountain. It was still totally dark and the air was nice and cool. We all unloaded, located the path and began our ascent. We got pretty split up right away, but the path was pretty obvious. I was yearning for solitude for my hike so I pressed on ahead. I couldn’t keep up with the Chris and Stewart pace, but I found a pleasant pace near the front of the group and kept walking up. The trail switches back and forth constantly and every time you think you are getting close to the top, another ridge appears. It was a beautiful morning though. I upped my pace a little because I wanted to be at the top for sunrises. I passed several camps of tourists who had stayed on the mountain that night and who were just beginning to stir. I also passed several herds of camels that would help carry them up after their morning coffee. I was happy that I was doing it on foot. Soon I came to the part of the trail where the path turns into a series of steep stairs. I had been doing pretty well up until that point, but those stairs are always a killer. I endured and soon I could hear the crowd who was already assembled at the top. The sun was just coming up and I collapsed on the big rock along with Chris and the first group of our people and several dozen other tourists from around the world. The sunrise was really nice and as I started to catch my breath I had a candy bar and some hot chocolate from one the little stands up there. Soon I felt fine and we stayed up there awhile to cheer on the rest of the people from our group who were trickling in. After everybody had made it we headed down the back way which is basically all stairs. This path was supposedly built by a monk who was repenting for his sins. I hope that guy is in heaven because this would have been one heck of a job. Climbing up this way would be incredibly tiring because it so steep. Just going down is tough. We all assembled at the bottom and met Aladdin and our bus. We went back to the Jungle Camp and got our stuff so we could start the trip to Nuweiba. The trip was again cramped, but luckily it was much shorter, only a few hours. When we were about 12 KM from Nuweiba. The air conditioner on the bus broke, but luckily we were almost there. We pulled into the Nuweiba Holiday huts and said goodbye to Aladdin and the driver. The Holiday Huts are very simple huts with sandy double beds right on the beach. Nuweiba is on the Gulf of Aquaba at the tip of the Red Sea and it is a great spot to relax. As soon as we got everybody into their huts, Chris and I headed out to Dr. Shishkabob’s to set up dinner. The Doctor’s place is an ECHT tradition and it was good to see him. He even still had Sally’s Vegetables on the menu, which our friend Sally from South Carolina had shown him how to make in 1993. Later we headed back to the beach and did some swimming and hanging out. I did a lot of sitting on the beach listening to music and looking out over the sea at Saudi Arabia which is just across the way. That afternoon we also went into the main part of Nuweiba to buy ferry tickets to Jordan. It all went smoothly which was lucky since we had no idea what we were doing. That night we took the group down to Dr. Shishkabob’s for a great dinner. His seafood is amazing and we all had fun. During the middle of the meal I had to leave to go pick up the ferry tickets so Dr. Shishkabob gave me a lift to the port in his old black car. Three I was with the hot desert air blowing on me, speeding down the highway with a man named Dr. Shishkabob. I loved it. That night we drank a few beers on the beach. Stewart had found a new Egyptian beer called Saqquara, which was actually decent, unlike Stella. I slept out on the beach that night because it was way to hot in our hut.

Nuweiba, Egypt-Woke up early and rented some snorkeling equipment. Checked out the reef for awhile and it was very cool. I even found a hundred point note buried in the sand. I vowed I would spend it on a feast at Dr. Shishkabob that night. Spent the rest of the day chilling, listening to music and swimming. Very relaxing. Later that afternoon we had a little Volleyball tournament. My team lost, but we played well. That night Chris and I and some others hit the Doctor’s for another meal and it was again great. That evening Chris and I broke out the bottle of Jack and had a great time on the beach talking about old times and future plans while listening to music (especially the new Billy Bragg and Wilco album). It was a great night all around and I was sad to be leaving Egypt the next day, but excited for the adventure I knew Jordan would bring.

Aquaba, Jordan-We hung out in Nuweiba for the morning and then after much negotiating took cabs to the port. We had to go through a long series of passport and customs checks, but overall it was a lot easier than I had imagined. The ferry was real nice and only took a little over an hour to get to Aquaba. We pulled in and Chris and I spent a lot of time getting money and visas before we caught more taxis to our hotel, which turned out to be nice. None of had ever been to Jordan before so everything was a crapshoot, but it was working well so far. We didn’t have much to do that night. I checked my e-mail, had a good dinner with Chris, and chilled in our air-conditioned room. It was something like 114 degrees in Aquaba that night. If you looked out across the gulf you could see Eliat, Israel.

Wadi Mousa, Jordan-The next morning two buses met us at the hotel to take us to Wadi Mousa. We piled in and took off across the desert. The trip probably took a little over two hours and it was mostly uneventful. We got to our hotel again we lucked out because it was real nice. It was called the Peaceway and the people there really helped us out with our arrangements. There isn’t much to Wadi Mousa. It is basically a jumping off point to go to Petra. We grabbed a little lunch and then assembled for an optional scouting mission into Petra. We were planning on taking the whole group there the next day, but since none of us had been there before we wanted to check it out first. Plus I knew that I wanted to see so much that I couldn’t do it all in one day. We got about 10 people to go with us and we took the short cab ride to the site. Tickets for Petra are like 30 bucks or 40 bucks for 2 days. We obtained our passes and headed in. The entrance is called the Siq and it is this long narrow canyon. That is where you see Indiana Jones riding his horse in "The Last Crusade". It was all pretty breathtaking and we were real excited. Soon we came to the Treasury, which is the building they used in the movie for the resting-place of the Holy Grail. Also, a really impressive place. The inside isn’t impressive though. Just a square room that smells like pee. Best avoided. We continued our trek taking in lots of tombs and sites and figuring out a route for the next day. After we had finished our work, Chris and I took off on our own on what we thought was short cut back to the Treasury. It turned out to be a very steep hike, but it was really beautiful. We got a great view of the whole area from our vantage point. During one portion of the trail we were in this little valley and the wind was blowing past, whistling through the tall grass almost silently. We both agreed this was one of the coolest hikes we ever had done. Soon we came to the Treasury, but unfortunately, we were way above it and there was no obvious way to get down. We had just hiked over an hour to get to that spot and turning around meant probably two hours to get back to the entrance. We cursed our damned Lonely Planet map. It was also getting dark and we didn’t want to be late for dinner or the evening screening of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" We searched around for a way down and found some small crevasses that we explored. We went down one quite a ways before we were stopped by about a 30-foot drop. Climbing back up to our original position was quite a chore from there. At one point Chris had to hoist me up and then I had to pull him up to get on top of this boulder. We were getting real dirty, sweaty and cut up. We got back to the top and explored another crevasse that looked promising. It went down to the canyon floor, but it was real steep and was full of loose rock. We went slowly and finally made it, breathing a sigh of relief. We had to really book it through the Siq to get back to the entrance, catch a cab and make it to dinner, but we did it somehow. We were both exhausted and I couldn’t even eat for awhile. We had been hiking in the heat about 5 hours. Chris went down the street and picked up some Mango Tang that we gulped down like it was the best thing in the world. As dinner finished up, they put on "Indiana Jones" and we all had a good time watching it and seeing where we had been that day. After dinner and the movie, I collapsed into bed. The next morning we got up early and returned to Petra and took the group through. Karen and Stewart did a real nice job with the lecturing and we were done with the tour by around noon. Then Chris and I took anybody who wanted to go up the monastery, which is a decent climb. It is similar to the Treasury, but up on this big hill. We made it up there and it was impressive and then we decided to head to the High Place of Sacrifice which is just what it sounds like. That was another impressive climb and I was pretty cashed after we made it up. I headed down the hill on my own and then indulged in a fantasy by renting a horse and riding through the Siq to get out. That night Chris and I went to Pizza Hut which was actually pretty good. The mere fact that there is a Pizza Hut in Wadi Mousa is ridiculous, but we were ready for it after 12 hours in Petra over 2 days.

Ein Gedi, Israel-The next day we got up and met our buses again for the trip to the Israeli border. It was a fairly easy drive and we got to the King Hussein Bridge around 12 or 1. The paperwork and redtape there was frustrating, but soon we found ourselves on a bus crossing the bridge and headed for Israel. The King Hussein Bridge is pretty unimpressive. It is not much more than 20 feet across a little stream. On the other side we went through Israeli customs which can be little harrowing, but it went OK. Our bus was late meeting us, but once it came we headed straight for the Jewish site of Massada. Massada is this big hill where the Jews hid out from the Romans and then eventually committed suicide rather than surrender to them. Some people took the cable car up to the top, but I decided to climb. It was a very hot climb, but I was getting in pretty good shape after Sinai and Petra. We made it to the top in time to hear Stewart lecture and then headed down on the cable car to meet the bus and go to our hostel in Ein Gedi. The hostel turned out to be great and it was a short walk to the Dead Sea. Once we got settled we headed for a quick swim. Swimming in the Dead Sea is more of a novelty than real fun. You float so well that it is disconcerting and you don’t want to get any water in your eyes or mouth because it is so salty. I went in for a while, but after a few minutes the burning got to be too much and I headed back. We had a great dinner that night and we were all excited because we could eat vegetables again for the first time in several weeks. There was little bar at the hostel with good beer on tap so we hung around outside for quite awhile drinking and talking. The end if the trip was getting close and we were all starting to get a little sad.

Chris and I at Mikes Place-Jerusalem, Israel

Jerusalem, Israel-We left Ein Gedi in the morning and made it to Jerusalem before lunch. We stayed at the Davidka Hostel and it was pretty nice. That afternoon we went down into the Old City and showed everybody around, but it was a pretty easy day. Jerusalem was very tense as the peace talks in America had just broken down and the Palestinians were claiming that they would unilaterally declare independence in September weather or not they had an agreement with the Israelis. That evening Chris and were looking for an Internet café when we stumbled upon bar called Mike’s Place. There was a guy outside who said to us, "Hey are you guys thirsty?" We looked at each other and both said, "Yes!" We sat down and it was happy hour so Guinness was like two bucks which is about as cheap as you will find it anywhere in the world. I will tell you that was one of the best beers I have ever had, especially after all that time in the Egyptian beer wasteland. We hung out and listened to music at Mike’s for quite awhile and then headed back to the hostel. The next day we went to the Mount of Olives, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where I almost got into a fight with a photographer) and several other sites. Actually, Jerusalem sort of runs together for me. One day we did the Dome of the Rock after several failed attempts because we couldn’t get in due to services. Another day we took cabs out to the Israeli Museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some people went out to the Holocaust Museum. We also took people to some of the most famous synagogues. All the while we were spending a lot of time at Mike's Place. Every night they had live music there and we saw some pretty good Jazz and Blues. On our second to last night in town, Stewart actually had one of his History finals at Mike’s before our goodbye Chris celebration. Chris left a day early to go meet Benita’s group in Aquaba. We had a lot of fun and drank a lot of Guinness. It turned out Mike’s also had pretty good pizza so we ate there too. The last day was mostly free and I did some gift shopping and some drinking of beers with Stewart. We talked about what a great trip it had been. Stewart was one of the greatest things about it too. He is a great friend now. That night we had a real nice last supper at the Jerusalem YMCA which has a good restaurant. Everybody had a great time and lots of speeches were made. I was sad because this had been such a fun tour and a great trip. I loved my staff, Chris, Karen and Stewart were all great and the whole trip had gone smoothly. We had a lot of laughs and a lot tears at the last supper and once we had finished we headed down to Mike’s Place for one last party. I headed out at about 12, went back to the hostel and then caught an airport van with 6 others to Tel Aviv at around 2:30 in the morning. Way too early. The airport was a zoo as usual and it took quite to get through customs. Sat in the terminal saying last good-byes to people and then caught my plane to Amsterdam and later to Detroit. It felt real good to be going home, but there are always mixed feelings at the end of one of these trips. You know you will never see some of these people again and you have shared so much with them that it seems a shame.

I hope this journal helps preserve some of the fun we had. Sorry it took so long to complete and if you took the time to read it all, I appreciate it. I wish it was funnier, more detailed and more insightful, but it is what it is I guess.

Below you will find a beautiful poem written by Debbra Steele, one of my favorite students from Option B. She read this at the last supper in Jerusalem.

Organized Grab Ass 2000

By Debra Steele

Jeremy and Chris leading the pack

Stragglers gossiping in the back

Bottled water, rolls and jelly

Foreign men who are sweaty and smelly

Hiking up winding snake paths

Getting naked and scrubbed raw at the Turkish Baths

Dancing the night away in Rhodes

In Egypt violating tourist codes

Worn in shoes and Stella t-shirts

Talking and laughing so hard that it hurts

Old hotels with skeleton keys

Turkish men yelling "Sex Please"

Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Using a squatter to take a pee

Someone saying something witty

The Boss II, man that was shitty

Amstel, Efes, Stella, and Macabee Beer

The meeting place is in 15 minutes, HERE!

Getting our asses kicked by the waves in Crete

Blisters and cuts all over our feet

Climbing up a thousand stairs

It's time for allotments, get in pairs

Gelato, our favorite treat

Hearing stories about all the guys Christy would meet

Topless European women decked out in thongs

Sex Bomb, Mambo Italiano, and the Turkish Kiss song

Bug bites that scratch and itch

Climbing Mt. Sinai, that was a bitch

Taxi rides like police car chases

The bus to Sinai with narrow spaces

Praying our next city has the internet

Breakfast is at 7, have your alarm set

Baba Zeki and Cemil drinking Raki with every meal

Getting sunburned and watching our skin peel

All the guys growing out beards

After that first shave in Selcuk, Stewart and Jer sure looked weird

The Noran Hotel with prostitutes left and right

Praying our next hotel has airconditioning- Ya Right!

Cheap delicious food bought and eaten on the street

Are we ever going to get out of the heat?

Stewart's lectures like a Shakesperean play

If you want to use the WC, there's no toilet paper, and you have to pay

Stripping off our swimsuits in the Mediterranean Sea

Feeling the water against our bodies made us feel free

Clothes covered in stains and dirt

Crotch burning in the Dead Sea, that really hurt

Karen lecturing about quintisential architecture and art

Athens, the city that smelled like fish heads and farts

In Bergama seeing a million stars and a bright orange moon

Hoping our packages arrive home soon

The Blue Eye of Medusa and the 8th Wonder of the World

Better not drink the water or else you'll hurl

Advil, Midol, Pepto, and Imodium, our best friends

Is this trip ever going to end?

Mangey gatos and dogs that haven't been fed

Is that homeless person on the street dead?

Shopping in the Grand Bazaar one could go crazy

If you look out over Athens, it's quite hazy

Watermelon, Chris and Jer's favorite food

Those Egyptian men with guns were some scary dudes

Through the Greek Isles we did crusie

To make the time pass we were sure to booze

In Nuweiba sleeping on the beach and under the stars

Tiny Italian compact cars

Outfits that don't match

That chicken Kyle never did catch

Riding smelly camels through the hot Sahara sun

Drinking beer on the street, wasn't that fun?

Taufiq lugging around those heavy tiles

Stewart taking us on adventures that last for miles

Bitching and complaining about this and that

The gyros in Greece dripping with fat

Kim's birthday cruise on the Nile

Guarding the pack pile

The Sultan, the Pharoh and the King

On the bus ride to Sinai, Oh did we sing

Lev with his video camera and penguins he takes everywhere

Not remembering the last time you shaved your leg hair

The huts in Nuweiba were like shacks

Shlepping around 100 pound packs

Abi giving her dramatic performance in the Greek theater

Hotel rooms that feel like they have on the heater

That last night in Turkey the hookah we did smoke

Drinking far too much Fanta and Coke

Hiking through Petra was so damn hot

Was that man in the Old City smoking pot?

Soccer jerseys and linen, our favoite things to wear

All our underwear is dirty, and we're down to one pair

Going through customs, that was hell

We all like each other, it's okay if we smell

Shopping, shopping everywhere

We've bought so much stuff, where will we put it, where?

Lunch on those long travel days consisting of chips and ice cream

This trip has gone by so fast it feels like a dream

Pancakes in Jerusalem, now that was a treat

It's finally time to get out of this motherfuckin' heat!

Now this trip must come to an end

But along the way we've made some life long friends

In the future we will tell our children, husbands, and wives

That summer of 2000 we saw the world and had the time of our lives!!!!!

And finally, here are some quotes from Option B as compiled by Kyle Cohen from Florida…

Quotes list

"How come there are 44 men on the field" – A drunken Alex watching the futbol game.

"Who the hell would wear a rosary so gaudy"---Kyle looking at the neon rosary only to find out afterwards that Abi got it.

"Color me impressed"---Tasha in amazement at the Vatican

"Hey isn’t that the balcony where Mussolini made his speech"---Kyle for the 15th time that day.

"Look at the painting of the dog, they must have had dogs back then." Danelle looking at a mural in Pompei.

"I am Tasha’s parched throat" Tasha hot and bothered in Pompeii

Alex: "Can we get drinks on the train" Kyle: "No but you can poop on the tracks" ---our first train ride.

Nothing like blowing a couple thousand on the slots"…Alex after he lost thousands of drachma (otherwise known as about 2 dollars)

"Its hotter then 2 muskrats fucking in a wool sock"….Tasha in the 115 degree heat of Athens.

"If I was to ever go to the Isle of Lesbos I would take you with me" Jody to Nina.

"Lets head over to the blue water…the waves are much bigger." Alex showing us his aquatic knowledge at Matala.

"I learned a lot about girls on this trip….they don’t always smell good" Kyle sticking his foot in his mouth.

"He was a perfect gentleman…until he stuck his hand up my skirt" Christy on her date in Rhodes.

"Your cheese on my balls" Mahali trying to tell Christy that she is busting his balls.

"I didn’t drink…I just had a bunch of shots" Christy trying to convince us of her soberness

"You didn’t sell me tea, you sold me rabbit pellets, dog food, animal food, donkey shit" Christy to the apple tea vendor.

"It was a shit and chat" Cemil at the ancient toilets.

"Manners are the tyranny of the majority" Stewart at dinner swearing off utensils.

"Can you hear that ringing in my ear" Sunshine to Taufiq on her 21st

"Hey Kyle…I’ll give you 50 bucks if you can catch that chicken" Tasha at the picnic…for the record I would have caught it had it not been for the guy who was yelling at me not to.

"In the Turkish baths no one can hear you scream" Kyle after he was twisted into a pretzel at the baths.

"The busses should come by…ummmm….every second" Jeremy describing the bus situation.

"The pharaoh kicks the sultan’s ass" Chris on the water situation in Egypt.

"Fuck the rules..I never liked rules" Jeremy at the Pyramids.

"I have seen a mummified monkey…how can you top that" Stewart at the Cairo museum.

"Get your Camel’s nose outta mines ass" everyone to Kelly’s camel, Cassanova

"Now I understand why it is called B.F.E" Becka in the Sinai desert.

"No wonder he broke 5 of the 15 commandments" Kyle on his way down from Sinai.

"It looks like a penis only smaller" Tasha to the guy who took it out in front of her in Nuweiba.

"Sometimes ignorance is bliss…unless you are our waiter" Stewart on our lousy table service.

"I have excruciating pain in my anus" Lev coming out of the Dead Sea.

"Come on baby…wanna get high before you die" Salesman to Karen in the bazaar.

"You can drink as much as you want but there is no talking during the test" Stewart administering a test at the bar.

MELON! Erika and I share in the melon during our last supper in Jerusalem

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