European trip, April 2024

The journey began on Saturday morning. A short walk across the street to the DART train station where I would catch the train to DFW Airport. I reached the airport in 20 minutes and then discovered I had 2 minutes to make a 7-minute walk to catch the next train that went from DFW to Fort Worth. If I missed it, I would have a full hour to sit at the station and await the next. With my backpack and suitcase, I sprinted to Terminal B and made it to the second train in just under 2 minutes, boarding a matter of seconds before the train departed. I sat back and relaxed, fascinated by this part of the Dallas Metroplex that I had not before seen. Everything was green and delightful. It was like stepping back into a time when everything was cared for and clean and somehow innocent. Old trains exceptionally maintained adorned the stations we passed through, and conductors in Super Mario uniforms collected tickets whilst guiding and informing customers how to reach their destinations.

                  Upon arrival, it was a ten-minute walk to my hotel, the Worthington Renaissance, where I checked in and ventured out in search for some lunch. I had a beer at the hotel and then walked out to the Flying Saucer where I ate… with another beer, of course. After lunch I took a 25 minute walk to the Punk in Drublic festival and arrived in time to watch TSOL. They were terrible. However, I sat at a table shared by an old man and some young men. It turned out that the old man was from Leeds, England, just north of where I am from. The younger men were his son and the son’s friends. They became my companions. Lagwagon played, and were great, then NOFX played. They are legends, but I am not impressed by their performance these days. I bumped into Emily Davis and her husband (Emily Davis and the Murder Police) and spoke to them for a while before finally departing to walk back.

                  Back at the hotel I went to the bar, and it was absolutely teeming with people. A lady started to talk to me, but by this time I was quite tired. I was impressed by the number and variety of people, I spoke to a few who asked about my accent, then I excused myself and went to bed. The next day I was to fly to France for a work trip and a short vacation.

                  After breakfast, I watched English soccer in my room. I checked out at midday, had a beer at the hotel bar, then walked back to the train station. I arrived home, packed my bag for France, then took the train back to the airport. It was starting to feel like a long trip already. After dinner and drinks at a bar in the airport, I sat at the gate awaiting boarding. The flight was delayed. After a 45 minute delay, we boarded and sat on a plane with no air conditioning for a further 45 minutes. Finally, air conditioning kicked in and we taxied out to the runway. We sat on the runway for 45 minutes more before the plane turned around and rolled back to the gate. An engine problem. The air conditioning went off and we started to cook inside this tinfoil tube. They opened the doors for a while but the temperature was uncontrollable and, as a result, they asked us to leave the plane and go back into the terminal. Several hours later, the flight was cancelled. I made my way home and got to bed at 4am. The next day, we would try again.

                  After another delay, I made it to Madrid. It happened to be the day that Real Madrid would play Manchester City in the champions league quarter final and Madrid was absolutely insanely busy. I fought through immigration and security, and finally made my connection to France just as boarding began. The work days in France were a blur and over before I knew it. The reunion with my French friend and colleague, who now lives in Israel, was the highlight and we both eagerly awaited the end of the week so that we could begin our short vacation and time together. On Saturday morning, we checked out and took an Uber to the center of Nice where we met our host and checked into our AirBnB. We chose our rooms and then ventured out towards old Nice and the beach. After walking along the beach, we went to the Waka Bar and shared a bottle of Rose wine with a plate of vegetarian nachos. The day descended into chaos though booze. We watched soccer, we spoke, we revelled in our time and spent it well. The only negative was that the bar beneath us held a huge party and the music felt like it would destroy the building with the vibration that it was causing. It meant that we didn’t sleep much.

                  Sunday was similar. Starting on the beach in a fancy restaurant that one sees only in films, we drank Rose wine and fell in love with all the people who looked like stars. The weather was perfect, and the blue sky blended seamlessly into the ocean. We walked from there to the port of Nice (I had recently seen Van Gogh’s painting on display in the Dallas Museum of Art). To cleanse ourselves of the fancy morning, and what a beautiful experience it had been, we decided to drop the level a little and we went to a scruffy Irish pub where we drank pints of beer and ate Irish/British food. It was not all that wise as, later, we met another friend and had dinner in the bustling and beautiful streets of Nice… the alcohol intake for the two days was astronomical.

                  On Monday we took the train to Italy where we walked along the coast and then ate pizza outside of a restaurant. The pizza was like the train ride… spectacular. Back to Nice and the afternoon was spent on the beach, the evening sipping cocktails overlooking the ocean before a decent sleep and, finally, the journey back to the US on Tuesday.