Last Message from Europe

I took a late flight last night from Prague, made even later by a two hour delay. I arrived at Victoria Station at about 1:30 AM. The crowd from the Gatwick Express had to be let out of a locked gate. As I came out two guys are brawling with each other. A girl is screaming "Stop them, stop them!" and plunges herself into the middle of the fray. Trying to pull the idiots appart, one butts the head of another. Pure stupidity. That was my introduction to London. A few days ago, a German friend I met in Prague said he was near the main square when he saw some British young idiots attacking Czech policemen. He said that eventually there were about eight Brits and fourty policemen in a brawl. What is this about the British? In all of my time in Russian, I never saw so much as one argument. I heard a lot of Russians laughing, maybe playfully arguing, even drunk asleep on the pavement, but no violence.

Just a few reflections on my trip. My greatest times while traveling was staying in hostles. Because I am alone I am always longing for social contact. Not only is the staff of all the hostiles very friendly, I always meet young people from all over the world. It makes me wonder, why do people stay in hotels?

In Prague it was no exception. I met two nice German guys who showed me the greatest Czech resturant in Prague. One evening about 10 other Germans joined us. We drank good Czech beer and I listened to them give good natured ribbings about the Germans fo the north, the Swabish, the East Germans, the accents. One guy in particular loved Johnny Cash and I had to sing "Walk the Line" twice for him.

The next day I met a large group from Bulgaria who were on their way to a music festival. I played for them some of Donna's group Zora singing Bulgarian music(by the way one of the young women was named Zoranita after her Grandmother, Zora). One said, "There is no way of telling whether this group is Bulgarian or not. It sounds very authentic." I would call that a high complement.

Late night I watched an international group play drinking games (not my style) while they kept asking me if I knew another Beatles song, or a Rolling Stones song, or Bob Dylan- It was great fun.

So I am signing off for now. I probably will write more soon but from a California location. By the way, is no one left reading this blog?