Planes, Trains & Automobiles

When we originally inserted a two week stop in Italy as part of our backpacker trip around the world, it was to celebrate surviving a month in India and to reward ourselves with some hard-earned rest and relaxation la dolce vita style.

In our revised schedule (and budget) with me spending two and a half weeks in India and Jennifer lounging around Bali, Italy looked more and more like a money sinkhole and less like a party but when you actually set foot in Rome, it’s impossible to feel like saying anything other than Mama mia! Italy is an old shoe that fits so well.

Jennifer flew into Rome from Sweden a day ahead of me and surprised me at the …

We met Martin and Kasja on Frasier Island in Australia and quickly became friends. I mentioned I was going to be in Paris and they invited me for a visit to Sweden. So on the day before I was supposed to leave for Florence, I exchanged my train ticket for a plane ticket to Sweden instead. After 10 days alone, I was looking forward to being with friends. I landed on the east coast of Sweden and took a series of busses and trains to get to Uddevalla on the west coast. At one of the bus stops I didn’t have any Swedish crowns to get on the bus, only Euros. I asked a …