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Younger Days in Austria
There are a few simple things I’ll never forget about soloing through Europe in the summer of 1985:
- How nasty that 5 pound ball of Gouda cheese from Holland became after two weeks in a hot pack. I could not eat Gouda for 10 years after that. Threw it out somewhere in Austria, about 2/3 eaten. (With a $1200 budget for 8 weeks, one had to economize!).
- That French Camambert can be even nastier than 2-week-old Gouda.
- How good a salad tasted in Switzerland after eating chocolate, cheese and white bread too many days.
- How much it sucks to have tonsilitis in Zermatt, Switzerland on a glorious day after several rainy ones. I must have gotten it from the salad.
- What a crappy bike I had, and how it didn’t matter, once the wheel and derailleur were unbent (twice). Or how funny it is to see a kickstand on a road bike. I bet that bike weighed 25 pounds before the gear!
- How much I missed my girlfriend (now my wife).
Your author in 1985, somewhere in Austria
