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FURTHER MISS ADVENTURES IN EUROPEPART ONEIt is only my second time away. This time I am more nervous from expectation thanfrom fear of the unknown. I can only hope the expectation will be fulfilled. Still waiting to board, I am too excited to read and am unable to put down myexact feelings about leaving again. At the moment I am feeling very self-conscious about what I write whereas the lastdiary just blossomed without me thinking about it. It s good to see other passengers nervously fingering their boarding documentswhile I am here nursing a beer. All I hope is that my flight is not due for tomorrow’s headlines. The service on Singapore Airlines looks like being good. Hot towels to refresh thehands and face before we even leave the ground Have been talking with a Chinese student who has completed university study, goingback to Beijing for 3 weeks holiday before returning to work in Sydney Shemanages to down 2 beers to my 1. But that is it, she has 2 beers and I have 1.Almost a teetotaler! SINGAPORE AIRPORT The usual freaky sight of children walking around in uniformscarrying machine guns I have a problem with the ATM machine where I cannot read out the sums of money tobe withdrawn, pressed what I have thought is the TRANSACTION OF OTHER AMOUNT and1000 Singapore dollars pop out. Promptly took the money to get exchanged where Imay, or may not, have got ripped off. Singapore dollars are approximately the sameas Oz dollars and I get back 490 euros and a 50 Singapore dollar It’s all too muchfor me. I may have made a profit but I doubt it. We board the plan and I am exhausted. This is the equivalent to me staying uptill 3 am on a Sunday night. I want to go to sleep but I am interrupted byservices for water, a coffee and a light meal. I wake to find there are still7 hours to go to Roma. 23.9.03 TUES Roma Feeling quite the international traveller calmly gliding my way into Rome but then......... .........total shitfight getting from the Rome to the camping ground. Took about 3hours getting from the airport instead of the expected 1 and a half. Will havecoffee at the airport next time instead of doing peak hour with a backpack at Romes main station. It was like the pictures you see of people getting on the trains

in Tokyo. (Later that afternoon, unable to buy a ticket, I was happily doing thetrain system without paying the fare) Some of these Metro stations (all over Europe) are difficult to understand - youfollow signs to Line B all the way only to find yourself on Line A, or on theright train but in the wrong direction. Decided to make the most of this early arrival in Rome ( 6 30 am) and head intotown where I find I haven t got the energy to climb a set of stairs up to theVatican. I turn around and head back to the campground. Had some problems with theMetro too. Throw jet lag in with that and a beer seems like a good alternative. So, haven t got to any tourist spots yet but have been saddened by the acres andacres of high -rise blocks of apartments. They just go on for miles. A bit like meabout women. I m sitting here at a suburban rail station and it is just filthy with litter.Buildings almost totally covered in graffiti. And ugly buildings at that ! Maybethis makes Italians less neurotic than Aussies with the Anti-Litter campaigns. Idon t know. I feel a bit like an older female friend of mine who only seemed toremember how " dirty" Europe was. I thought it was funny at the time. Back at the campsite I m having a beer when a person I met last year almost at theend of my journey walks into the bar area on the first day of my latest. He just seems to go on and on, traveling endlessly. I d always wondered where hegot the money from as he doesn’t t appear to be rich. He has a nasty stutter I didnot notice before , or remember. He tells me he has Parkinson s Disease. He s doneBusabout every year since it inception except for 2. About 8 years I think. It s unlikely I'll run into any "old" young friends as most of them only do Europeonce after graduating and do not return, unless when they are much older. I d been having doubts about this " diary " shaping up to the last but alreadywith the arrival of Bill, things are happening already. I told Bill I was unable to do anything when I got to town and he says it s amiracle I went in at all, only 4 hours after getting off the plane. That makes mefeel better. ( Here I make the comment that Bill is approximately 70 years old. I find outlater that he is only 10 years older than me, 63.) NOTE Trying to find where to buy a train ticket this morning I asked a youngwoman if she spoke English. The answer was No but I managed to say the right word( biggliterria ?) for ticket and she directs me to a newsagent. She was alsobeautiful. We have very many beautiful Italian women in OZ but all I can say isthat we are getting the Rejects. NOTE : Bill has brought his wife, Adele ( Della), this year as opposed to lastyear when he travelled with his daughter. He had spoken of his wife last year butI was too polite to ask if she was ill or dead.24.9.03 WED Three days in a Roma and already I smell of a Sin. I have beennaughty or, at least, I have been trying.Started into town with Old Bill ( Switzerland 2002), his wife Della, and a youngFrench couple called Muriel et Sebastian.We split up and, as I have no exact plans, Muriel et Sebastian invite me to tag

along with them.Muriel is from Toulouse and has just finished Electronics at Uni. Sebastian isfrom Bordeaux and is in Computers. They met at some tertiary institute where theywere students togetherI have an echo from a day in Amsterdam ,where I separated a brother and sisterin order to go to the Anne Frank house. The brother wasn't interested. This timeMuriel wants to climb St Paul's but Sebastian is afraid of heights.I could have done without the trip myself i.e. a lift took me and Muriel half-wayup but there were still 320 steps to be negotiated - narrow, steep, long stairways( and wells). I was fucked halfway up. Fucked, as in tired.At the end of the day me, Bill, Della, Muriel et Sebastian have a beet together atthe camp.......Bill and Della toddle off at first and, then,Sebastian.........it's just me and the girl, 26 year old from Toulouse.The whole thing is hopeless because even though she is not model-attractive, I( Mr. Superficial) warm to her looks and , especially, to her largish lower lipand she begins to morph into the unrequited episode from Arkansas......so, I'mfiguring I know where this will all end, don't I ? Qui ?We don't talk much to begin with. We are both just doing our diaries, mine inSanskrit and hers in Advanced Calligraphy.We end up, though, having a good conversation that I could not ( again !) have hadwith an uptight, Anglo-westerner. My thoughts are, of course, racing while hersare, probably, in neutral. Whatever is in the water here, I'd like to take ithome. 25.9.03 THURS So today I am on my own ( and even lose the map ) but I don'tcare as I am more confident. Even is Muriel et Sebastian hadn't decided to driveinto Roma I wouldn't have tagged along again, even though they don't appear to bea regular boyfriend and girlfriend. ( As they are camping I presume they are doingthis so they can do lunch and then drive on down to Napoli, as one does. Back at the camp I having a beer and pizza with Bill and Della when SURPRISE !SURPRISE ! in walk S & M. They have not gone to Napoli. The connections into townare not good but, for me, not bad enough to want to drive in. Those crazy Frenchkids ! Bill and Della retire and most of the ensuing talk is about S & M being justfriends. They live in different towns but when they travel, or are, together, theysleep together. And, sleep is all. Do not feel like Robinson Crusoe, none of theirparents or friends can understand either . I , especially, cannot understandbecause Muriel, who has been just wearing jeans and stuff, is wearing a dress thatshe is " falling out of" and she is simply STUNNING ! ...........and 2 hours later Seb gas gone to bed and we are alone again and ifanything happens, I might tell you.... It's midnight and we get " hosed" out of the top bar. Muriel isn't tired but notthirsty, doesn't want to go to bed and doesn't want to dance, when I offer. So, wetalk more, for about an hour or so. We have our most " complicated" conversation, according to Muriel. In the end Ishake her hand and I give her a French kiss, Charles de Gaulle-style,and..................we exchange email addresses (she asked!) and photographs (Iasked!) 26.9.03 FRI Muriel Simone Augusta Mangis has rented some space in my head. Atleast Lissa won't quite feel so alone - a big relief I'd say.