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I LEAVE PARIS FOR ZURICH
I decided to leave Paris for Zurich, Switzerland by train.
The idea of travel by train was linked to my memories of those old black and
white spy and murder movies of the 1940’s. I wanted to feel the joy of being a
part of my own imagination.
The ticket was not too expensive but I could not allow myself
to spend much more money like this again as my funds were very low. I was put
into a compartment with five other people. They had their long loafs of bread
and wine and we all made friends with each other fast. No one spoke English so I
listen to their conversations in French and German, and looked at them like I
had some idea of what they were saying.
The countryside was so green from the spring rains as I
watched the view going by from my seat. It took all day to reach the border of
Germany and Switzerland. We had to go through customs and they checked out my
stuff looking for drugs or weapons. By this time in the trip my hair was rather
long and my beard was full so I looked like the type they might stop and search.
There were no hippies yet and only a few European kids were letting their hair
and beards grow long. This was the spring of 1965 and the times were beginning
to change.
We went through these long train tunnels that took over
twenty minutes to pass through and when we came out on the other side the
mountains were right there. The snow was still on the tops of them and all the
lakes were the clearest blue I had ever seen before.
I got off the train and looked for the local youth hostel and
found the most clean and efficient running facilities any where in the world.
The people were so nice to me and every where I went I was treated with respect
even though I was looking kind of wild with my hair and beard.
I met a guy from communist Yugoslavia. He and I spent a few
days together seeing the sights and talking to each other, even though never of
us spoke any other language then our own. I would talk about what we were seeing
and he would shake his head in agreement and I would do the same thing for him.
It was some of the best conversation I ever had in Europe and we never got into
any disagreements. Actually, I felt like I really did understand him as I used
my inner mind to feel what he was thinking. It was uncanny but it seemed he did
the same with me.
I found the lake and the view of that city to breathtaking,
but I was ready after a few days to travel down to Italy. I had little trouble
getting a ride in the mountains and was picked up by a guy in a very fancy
sports car that he drove like James Bond was after him. We hit those curvy roads
at top speeds. It made me even more concerned when I looked at his speedometer
and saw the needle at 100. I was trying to figure how fast that was in good old
miles per hour and did not enjoy the ride as much as I should have.
We came to a dead end in the road and ended up in line with a
bunch of other cars waiting for a train. The train stopped and put down ramps so
they could drive their cars onto several flat cars. When all the cars were
loaded onto the flat cars the train pulled out and went into a very large
tunnel. It was odd to be sitting in a car watching the other people with their
lights on inside the cars eating and talking.
I was let off in the mountains of northern Italy and already
it was beginning to smell like home. I could catch the aroma of Italian cooking
and I was hungry. I stopped at a youth hostel and met an Englishman that I had
met when I fist came to Europe in Luxembourg. He was studying to become a doctor
in London. He had purchased an old London Taxi Cab that he was driving around
Europe. He was touring the continent during his break from school and was out of
money.
We joined forces since I was almost broke myself. The plan
was to ask young women to ride along with us. We would provide the tour and they
would pay for gas. We met plenty of women at the hostels who wanted to take us
up on the offer. We took side trips to Venice and rode on the boats in the
canals. We took several of young women all the way down to Naples and southern
Italy and went to Rome several more times. Business was good for us.
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