BACKPACKER NATION
Jolly England And Czechoslovakia
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Poll Tax Revolts, Stonehedge And Getting The Boot Out Of Czechoslovakia By Six Armed Guards

This Was The First Riot I've...
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...Ever Been A Part Of, Thanks To The Brits

Yes, I had been to Italy for a week in the seventh grade and taken another tour there with my family three years later, but England was the country that gave me the travel bug forever. I took a junior year abroad trip to the University of London, spent the first half of 1990 checking out the pubs, taking weekend trips to Amsterdam, Ballyshannon and Edindurgh, and also discovering the pubs did not care I was not twenty-one just yet. The summer was spent riding the train system from country to country, seeing for the first time it was just as easy to go from France to Switzerland as it is to go from New Jersey to New York back home. Best thing I've done in my life.

Not Everybody At Speakers Corner...
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...Actually Chose To Say Anything At All

Why Are These Rocks Here...
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...Stonehedge Knows The Answer

On the weekends, I would spend some time walking through Portobello Market, right down the street from my home away from home. And on Sundays, head off to Speakers Corner to voice my opinions in the only place where free speech was 100% guaranteed. Dart matches were a nightly event, seeing as the telly only had three stations and one of them was a dart channel. "Triple 20, triple 20, triple 20, one-eighty." Don't worry, it's not important.

These Were The Guards...
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...Who Kicked Us Out Of The Country

You see, my girlfriend, Liz, was an Aussie. I did not think she needed a visa. She did. My $20 peace offering to the customs official on the train was dropped to the floor, along with my hopes. We were put in a holding cell for the night and driven to the German border by these guys -- who did consent to a photo, which I still can't believe I requested -- and then Liz, myself and a beautiful, Irish fellow detainee began the long, straight walk to the next civilized town. There would be a second attempt coming shortly and this time we would have a successful entry.

It Was An Entire Week...
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...Of Making Up For Our First Experience, Actually

Of Course We Made Friends...
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...With The Soldiers This Time...

I actually began this party with the guys over shots of absinthe in a local bar in the center of the city. Once again, I do not know the conversation went there, but I ended up buying one of the soldier's hats for the equivalent of one American dollar. I do not know for sure, but I don't think any cadets at West Point would be willing to make me the same deal. Still have the hat, however, although I only wear it for special occasions.

A Very famous Bridge In Prague...
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...Can You Guess Its Name???

Aunt Eileen, I know you know because you know everything. As for the rest of you, give it a shot. Heck, I forgot the name until I just looked it up a minute ago. If you ever visit, however, you will take walks across it pretty regularly, I can assure you.

Just A Small Border Guidepost...
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...To Help All Of Us Along Our Way

More To Bolivia Than Just Uyuni So Let's Take One Click And We Will See The Rest

There Is No England Section Without Sista 'C'...
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...Who I Lived With In Braintree And The Rest Will Be Explained

Sweet, lovely 19 year old 'C' ... started at first like a romantic interlude, but things like that cannot happen when you meet someone that was born to be your sister, especially since you never had one of your own.  A person you can talk to for hours on end on the Gili Islands, dance the night away in Kuta, share a bottle of Sangsom in Dehli, try to figure out ways to break into Tibet from the Spiti Valley side, get mellow on the temples 4,000-meters in the air, make fun of the hippies, hitchhike into Edinburgh, take out the riding crop on the street we call Bourbon in New Orleans and all the while know this person will always be a special person in your life.  The type of person you meet that makes backpacking worthwhile and reaching out to different corners of the world the right thing to do -- because if you do not do this, you probably do not meet this person and you are the lesser for it.  Love ya, 'C'.  We still have to figure out what we are doing this summer.  Call coming your way on the 'morrow:)