Excerpt from my Travel Journal

I might occasionally post some of my journal entries from my trip to Europe. Some of them are entertaining and some of them are just me bitching. But here is a good one to start off with:

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October 8th, 2004 (Day 43)

Currently on my way to Bari, Italy. I will have to continue this later because the train is far from a smooth ride....

.... ok, I am back. The train from Rome to Bari was long, bumpy, and boring. I did finish Fugitives & Refugees by Chuck Palahniuk though. He continues to be my 2nd favorite author (right behind Robert Jordan).

My final impression of Rome remains the same. I loved it. Yesterday, I made it back to the Hard Rock Cafe with James, Cooper, and Andy. Cheap food + cheap drinks = fun for everyone. Before that, we went to Villa Borghese and my love for Bernini's sculptures grew even more. The details and work he put into "Apollo and Daphne" was incredible!

Last night was a crazy night to top off the end of my Rome travels. Justin, Jerry, Drew, and I went to go to a dance club, called GOA, to party. On our way there we met 3 guys from Frankfurt, Germany who were searching for this place also. Luckily one of them, Geno, was half Italian and fluent in the language. We ended up walking through a huge warehouse section of Rome that was completely abandoned. It looked like it belonged in a Double Dragon video game. We did not go through this area on our own accord, we were told that the club was in this area (which later we discovered it was). But during our search for the club is when IT happened.

"Do've GOA!!" Geno screamed to 2 men and a lady near a car in a completely empty parking lot in this area. (Do've GOA translates to "Where is GOA.")

"DO'VE GOA!!!!" He shouted again in order to get a response, and a response is what he got.

"(insert Italian I did not understand)" one of the guys screamed as he stormed towards our group of 7, looking to start a fight where he would be clearly outnumbered.

The tensions rose as Geno is speaking Italian (more than likely trying to calm this guy down and find where we need to go), and a fight is about to break out. As I prepare myself for a fight that seemed inevitable, a catch something out of the corner of my eye. Turning to get a better look, I notice the 2nd guy at the car seems to be walking towards us with two objects in his hands. As he gets closer, I notice that each object is a tire iron. Now at this time I was still ready to rumble (because 7 vs. 2 is still good odds even with one being 6'6" 300lbs and wielding 2 tire irons). But there was one problem. While noticing this new guy approaching and trying to decide how we were going to take them out as a group, I failed to notice that Geno and his 2 friends, along with Jerry and Justin have already started fleeing. So that left Drew and me alone with this one screaming Italian and a much large r and meaner one approaching. It was at this point we decided to continue our search for this club elsewhere.

We found the club, couldn't get in (had to be on "the list"), so we went to a nearby bar and drank a bit. After this we left the Germans and went searching for another bar. In our search we ended up asking this guy where to go, and in the process Drew and I made him believe we were Russian. But to no avail nothing around was open (since it was 4:00am).

So our journey home began and it went a little something like this:
- Got a cab
- Had cab drop us off a little ways from hotel 9we wanted to walk)
- Had guy almost hit us with his car, which had its headlights off
- We yelled at him and shouted obscenities
- Guy throws car in reverse, tries to run us over, and then appears like he wants to kick our ass
- We inform him that his lights were out (thus our screaming)
- He feels like an ass and drives off
- We get to our hotel

That was our night. I am now in Bari, in the train station waiting room, writing this jour.....

HOLY SHIT!!! OH MY GOD!!!! I JUST SAW A FIGHT BREAK OUT!!!! Some older white couple just got their asses beat up by some black lady!!! The white lady was bitched slapped and knocked on her ass, and the white guy got pushed and his face clawed! Lots of screaming, lots of things said I do not understand. Security came, took the white couple away and now the black lady is sitting here talking to herself! This is nutz!! I think Italians like to fight or something!!!! THIS IS INTENSE!! Damn. What a start to my independent travel to Corfu. But I got to get going, and head to the ferry. This lady looks like she wants to rip someone else’s face off!!!

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So that was one of my journal entries. More to come...