Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Western Europe: 2004
In the summer of 2004, I took my first trip ever to Europe. The seeds were sown five months before, when my friend from college, Naomi, told me that she and another friend, Nancy, were thinking of visiting France. Another of our friends (and my college roommate), Tim, happened to be doing graduate studies in Paris, and I hadn't seen him since graduation. This trip immediately sounded like the right thing to do.
The girls and I bought our plane tickets in March, and after a lengthy period of planning, we finally set our itineraries. We would all meet in Paris. Tim, who would be taking a break from writing his thesis, would join me for a trip to Geneva, Barcelona and Italy. Naomi and Nancy, who had to leave Europe one week before I did, wanted to focus on France. We would split up in Geneva.
The only thing left was to get there. On June 9, I took a nonstop flight from San Francisco to Paris. My flight had several groups of American tourists, which was a harbinger for the trip. One of them, a collegiate-looking kid, wore a T-shirt that struck a chord with me. It read, I'M BIG IN EUROPE. What is big in Europe, I had to wonder. Coca-Cola and Mickey D's? Peace, love and understanding? Throughout my trip, I would keep this question in the back in the mind, and in the end, I hoped, I would have the answer on the tip of my tongue.
From left: Nancy, Naomi and Tim
Will, Naomi and Tim
