Au revoir

I'm catching a bus early tomorrow morning for the airport and flying to Paris from there. I'll try to update this blog as often as possible -- probably at the same time as I write my weekly column.

A tout a l'heure!

À Paris

In two weeks I'm flying across the Channel to spend five days in Paris, and from there, the rest of Europe. I'll visit all the must-see tourist stops. But is there anything I could miss if I didn't know about it? Where's a good place for dinner?

I'll be in Rome, Madrid, Seville and Granada, too, so send any advice for those cities my way, as well.

Cheers.

The doldrums

Wait, I have to do school work? You tend not to think about that when you "study" abroad. But, alas, I have four essays I need to finish by the end of March.

So for the last four or five days, I haven't done much but sit in my room. I was supposed to go to London on Monday, but I stayed up too late and woke up a half hour after my train left. I'll go to London on the 22nd instead.

Until then, I need to write these essays: How effective was Athenian democracy? Why did the Persians mess with Greece? Are human rights here to stay in international relations? And something about Joyce and Yeats and the Literary Irish Renaissance.

At least the house I'm locking myself in is pretty.

The plan

In case anyone's curious what I'll be doing between March 27 and my triumphant return to the States, here's what's on my Google Calendar:

- March 27-April 3: Grenoble, France. Three days in Paris. Possible day trip to Nice or Geneva.
- April 3-7: No plans. I might hang out a little longer in France or venture into Italy to track down some distant relatives of mine. Or who knows, maybe I'll just book the cheapest flight to wherever.
- April 7-15: Expert tour of Rome, Florence and Assisi.
- April 15-23: Madrid and Seville with my cousin Steve, who lives in Madrid.
- April 23-May 10: Backpacking trip from Leicester to Loch Lomond, stopping in Nottingham, York, Melrose, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Loch Lomond.

Then I'll come back to collect my things that I've left in Leicester and say goodbye to my dear friends, promising, of course, to visit each other when we're in Finland, Australia, South Africa, etc.

And finally, if I have any money left at all, I'll push back my return flight for one more week and spend it visiting Athens and spending a few days doing nothing lounge on a beach in Cyprus.

One last note for fellow lovers of travel. Watch this video about these guys' philosophy on traveling and the birth of their new magazine: http://afar.com/about/video

Men in barber shops

I got my hair cut Tuesday. It was a nice looking little shop on a side street downtown, only nine pounds, and I liked the haircut of the barber. And that's always a good sign.

As with every barber shop I've ever been to, there was an old man waiting to have his hair cut. He was just this old British chap who needed help climbing into the chair. And with the happiest grin you ever saw -- the corners of his mouth above the tip of his nose -- he said to the barber: "We'll be turning the clocks ahead soon. Within the month."

And when the barber asked him how it wanted it, the man said real short, to get ready for summer. It won't be long until the kids will all be wearing shorts.

Old men in barber shops are the same wherever you go. I hope the happy fellow sees a few more summers.