So if any of you know or haven't known, I was gone for three weeks backpacking through Europe. Staying with friends, living in hostels, meeting new people and friends. I always thought I was born to travel, and each day I would have a new home, where ever that may be. I once met a man in San Diego who had been in the Vietnam War, he started to tell me the many journeys he had been on. In the end he turned to me and said, " Son I've lived a good life." I realized that's all I wanted was to have my life filled with adventure and story to one day tell others and my grand children if I ever have any...
I had traveled to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Nothing will ever compare to the people I had met and the stories I walked away with.
My first batch of photos are from Switzerland. I landed in the capital, Zurich, and was picked up by family friends of mine the Fischer family. Kurt Fischer had known my parents since the early 80s when my mother use to be his baking assistant. She learned almost everything from him. Three years ago they came back to the states and ever since they wanted me to come out and visit. So this time I did! Up into the Alps and country side I went.
One of the cool things tho was I was in Switzerland for their independence day. Everyone was extremely nice. You can see below how they celebrate with a big morning brunch and for some hold 80 pound bells, swinging away in tradition.
When I was hiking in the mountains we visited a friend of the Fischer's. They were a couple that lived in a cabin and made REALLY GOOD CHEESE! They liked me and enjoyed my company, the wife told me I was a good looking young man. Like I said Switzerland people are very nice. We stopped there for a bit to eat and went on our way.
I then left and headed to Munich Germany to see a close friend of mine, Simone. I had met Simone at Pianos in the lower east side of Manhattan one night after I finished up a job that was one of those, "I want to rip my eyes out" kinda jobs. But any how, from then on till she left for home, we hung out a lot, and to be honest she opened my eyes to what the world was like for her outside the states. She had a grasp on life that was so different then me, I started looking at things from a different angle.
So when she said come out to Germany...I did.
The more I learned about Munich's history I realized how very different it was compared to New York. Every New Yorker knows how rough our city can be if you live there long enough. Everyone living on edge, and ect. It's pretty funny actually. But Munich when I look back on it now was magically. A city that was kept old and still remained the look it did hundreds of years ago.
Here are kids playing in the fountain, right on the west gate of the old city of Munich.
I then left for Lake Como, Italy. It was a different place, but the culture made me feel that they like to keep to them selves.
When I got to Atroni in the south of Italy, it was like everyone with open arms welcomed me. Swimming in the Mediterranean, I couldn't compare it to anything else! The place took my breath away by how much beauty was there. I stayed with Anna, who was my babysitter as a kid and was like my second mother since I was three. I stayed with her and her son Alfie. Together I must say we had a blast!
Staying with Anna, I learned so much more about life. She talked a lot about her Husband Vinny who passed away a few years ago, and how in the little town of Atroni he swept her off her feet. Her stories of old love gave me hope and put a smile upon my face. I always loved that about Anna, how she could tell a story to me and make me smile by the end of it.
In the end, the adventure was with in me. It made me rediscover who I am. I can't tell you about what I experienced and who I met, cause you would have to be there to see it for yourself. I think back to the old man in San Diego now, "Son I've lived a good life." I will always remember...
