Halftime

we're more or less in the middle of the trip, i thought i'd never make it.  But things are looking better.  Arthur only seeks wisdom and truth, and i am eager to give it, but he is still young.  I think i found the balance point of letting him open his own eyes, and making sure he does not go astray at times.  Very happy.  Anyway flying now from Paris to Amsterdam at 300km/h, well not really flying, just taking the TGV train.  Goin back to good old Amsterdam where i can "rest up" for a bit, then its a massive new years party in Dusseldorf, Germany. 

Arthur.....and i

Sitting at the airport waiting for the flight out to Paris from Madrid, which is a stopover coming from Barcelona.  We are supposed to spend a very merry Christmas in Paris. However after entering the security gates i told him sharply to go away and board the plane his damned self, leaving him with his boarding card and passport. Its hard to believe that its only been 10 days since we've been together, and these days i feel myself getting very upset with him at some point during the day, especially at times of fatigue.  This translates to a snappy reply or just being moody towards him.  He of course see's it as my fault for being so easily worked up over such minute circumstances.  What can i say.  Nothing.  There is no one to discuss this about, no one to consult.  This kid is one in a million, he's that special in my eyes.  I feel sometimes that I am his closest thing to being a brother (he has always called me "dai go"), if not his closest thing to being family.  I guess towards him I am that much more sensitive about what he says and does.  I was sure that my patience and love towards him would far exceed his demands, this scenario never ever crossed my mind.  Before the trip I wasn't the least bit worried that this would happen, but now that it has i am rather shocked and beyond frustrated.  I was fully concentrated on delivering the best possible trip that he could ever have.  Up to now I feel that I am failing, fast.  As I said this has only been ten days out of the month and half that we will spend together.  Unbelieveable.  I have already "learned" to live according to Arthur's timing and schedule, his insatiable appetite, his physical and mental demands.  As for the "issues" that he has, they are not.  I am not even going to go into details about the conflicts, only that they are relating to social and behavioral aspects.  Since I know he can't change it (or it will take a very long time); I can only accept it for now.   Society however is not designed to accept him so easily.  However he could easily handle himself (contrary to what others may think) and at the same time enjoy what the world has to offer.  It seems the more I put my hand in, the bigger and more painful the bite.  Yes it is true, as he has told me day in and day out, that I worry too much and get agitated easily, but that's tough love aint it? 

Porto, Portugal

We stayed one and a half nights in Lisbon which was insignificant by many backpacker's "standards", however we worked it.  We took all sorts of transportation methods around the city, but explored mostly by foot.  As Lisbon is an acient city (The city was under Roman rule from 205 BC, when it was already a 1000 year old town, thanks wiki), Lisbon's overall look seems to be old, but in a nice old fashioned way.  They like to lace the walls with fancy ceramics, which is a part of the city's identity.  We stayed near Baixa, or downtown, and explored the major sites in and around by foot.  Then we took a ferry across to see Christo Rei (Christ the King), which is a gigantic monument overlooking the city (u can literally see it EVERYWHERE U go).  It was erected as a symbol of peace exactly 50 years ago after the War, from which the entire country was spared.   Portugal's wine is cheap and delicious, night life is crazy in Bairro Alto (meaning upper quarter, this is the area to go to where everything goes), and the people are just super nice and laid back.  Portugal is my kind of country.

I decided to stay in a cheap hotel right by the train station where we got off.  This way I didn't have to lug my backpack and Arthur's heavy ass luggage all the way to the city center only to lug it back to the train station to get to the airport the next day.  Pulling his suitcase through the uneven and hilly cobble roads is not fun, and this is pretty much the case in most countries in Europe. I have already put 10kg from his suitcase on to my backpack, as it was that much heavier than the allowed weight for the flight.  I'm just praying for ripped back muscles when this is over.

Anyway we were welcomed by a humble family who ran the old but clean hotel.  Again laid back, open people who just wanted to hold a conversation for conversations sake.  They gave us the down low and off we went.  We were just in time for a beautiful sunset while we got off the metro, as the station was perched off one of the bridges that overlooked most of the city.  Sadly the bars along the port were closing up, and the area was deserted except for locals doing their routine evening jog or preparing for tomorrow's boat run. 

The next morning I went for a run, probably motivated by the joggers from last evening.  I havn't ran in a while and thought I was going to cough up blood or something.  I decided to do a loop around this graveyard, since the sun was shining directy at the tombstones like it was giving life to the dead or something.  I'm guessing the richer people in Porto opted for something like a small house instead of a simple tombstone.  Inside the structure is almost like a little chapel, and anyone in the same bloodline would be buried inside. That afternoon we did a port wine tour, never tried port wine before, its definitely sweeter than wine and has more alcohol.

Then it was a smooth flight to Madrid, however we had to move our shit to the city center, Sol, to meet up with our friend Simon. By this point I was pretty tired and we finished dinner at around 10:30 or so.  However not to dissapoint Arthur or Simon, and seeing it was a Saturday night, I decided to push on to the nightlife.  We predrank at Simon's old apartment, which is shared by 10 other Erasmus students (international students studying abroad).  After trying to finish the bottle of vod with Si and a double rum I was pretty done for the night.  However again I did not want to dissapoint Arthur, as he kept stressing it was a Saturday night and the "party is once in a life time" (he does not see himself coming back to Europe ever again, that's
just one of his many thoughts that he always holds on to).  We made our way to the club Capital, which is the biggest club with seven floors of smaller clubs, which is a way to describe it.  I show my German license and get the ok, but they stop Arthur and Si.  The bouncers demanded passports, and at this point Arthur was freaking out and stressing how he has been telling me the entire time to bring the passports in case this would happen.  The wise alternative would have been to use his Hong Kong ID card at some other bar/club and me to cab it home to crash, but Arthur would not have it.  Of course we cabbed it back to the hotel together to pick up the passports but this time only Simon and Arthur went back out, I was dying on the bed.
And guess what? They didn't get in anyway, despite the passports.  The security were just being racist bastards.  Despite all this he still had a good time at some other place as u can see.  Words could not describe how relieved I was because I thought I would never hear the end of it if the night turned bad.  Yes Madrid offers awesome parties. 

Arthur comes to EUROPE

So i consider this to be the first "leg" of my travels, everything that happened before was more or less vacation from...the main vacation. I will be traveling with my cousin around western Europe, sampling all the "essential" places found in pretty much every guidebook. Now Arthur is a very anxious person, to the point where it gets mildly annoying. But I will do anything for this guy, and if he wants a eurotrip of a lifetime, i'll make sure its done. I left Holland fresh and relaxed, pretty much how i've been feeling for the last couple months or so i noticed.

Madrid

a weekends rest later and i'm on another flight to Madrid, Spain for a week to visit my friend from Toronto. His place was strategically positioned so he would be in the center of it all and have access to all the hookers in the city...he is very well situated. The lifestyle took a little getting used to...siestas in the middle of the day, tapas instead of large meals, etc etc but by the time i left i realized just how perfect the Spanish schedule suited me..

ive been spoiled with choice at an early age, so choice is big for me. Fortunately Madrid offers an almost unending variety of food and nightlife.

Prague

A friend of mine from Toronto has been staying in Madrid for a couple of months in an attempt to master the Spanish language. I have not heard from him for a couple of years now, however one day while I was still working in Deutschland I received a message from him that he was in Spain. I told him that I would be in Amsterdam after my work term was over, and that we could definitely set up a meeting point in Europe somewhere. He explained that he would be in Prague for half a week some of his friends from Toronto, and that that would be the perfect opportunity. This is how I ended up in Prague.

Apparently arriving at the airport a couple hours before is quite boring, being the last ones called to board makes things much more...suspenseful. They almost missed the flight, but despite that it was a smooth hour and half flight from Einhoven, Netherlands to Prague, Czech Republic.

Prague is a city just stocked full with art and history, and we tried to see as much as we can by foot, which took its toll at the end of every day. Enjoy the pans!