Jared's Travel Blog

One of the best things about travelling is the abundance of interesting people you meet from around the world.

Here’s a few of the highlights thus far:

In Dublin, as you may have read, there was the Drunken Dutchman. When not violating alcohol bans in hostels, he could be found swimming everyday or painting naked women.

In Amsterdam I talked to a “bartender” at a Coffeshop called Kadinsky. I bought a lighter from him and told him that 4 years earlier I had purchased one from the same place. He pointed out that the new batches of ligthers say “Kadinsky Amsterdam” rather than “Kadinsky Coffeeshop.” Whereas once Holland law required coffeeshops to explicitly mention “coffeeshop” in any advertisements, he said they now forbid the use of this term. This U.S.A.-style B.S. took me off guard, but I guess if anything is universal its hypocrisy in government.

In Holland I talked to Tyrell, an American in the Marine Corps, about Iraq. Having been stationed there for several months, he described how school children treated them like rock stars and how he genuinely felt that we were doing good work there. He agreed that our forces were a catalyst to the fighting, but was fearful of what would happen when we leave. Iraqi security forces, he said were “shit” and didn’t seem to care about their jobs beyond the paychecks. He is convinced that we are in the midst of a world war with Islamic extremists and doesn’t see an end in sight.

I got to talk to Sonja, a Berlin native, about the Berlin Wall’s collapse. She said she was 4 when it happened, and remembers seeing people selling pieces of the Wall. She asked her mom why people would buy them when they were everywhere around her.

In Praha, I talked to a guy named Bjorn from Denmark about Peter Bjorn and John. He was familiar with them, but hadn´t listened to them much. He knew they were very melodic and said they had “the one song with whistling” :-).

A few nights ago in Lisboa I talked to a group of Polish guys about politics in their native land. A guy named Lucas was describing how much influence religion has on Polish politics and government. “You think its bad in America, but our Parliament prayed for rain a few weeks ago.” He also mentioned how abortion is just as much of a hot button issue there as it is in the US and specifically mentioned Catholic influence.

Also in Lisboa, I talked to a French Nuerologist about stem cell research. She said she was working with Parkinsin’s disease and Alzheimers specifically and had no doubt in her mind that stem cell research held alot of promise that should be explored.