The Road to Assembly '93 This document contains my twenty-six plus page journey of the "Toxic Zombie" Assembly '93 European tour. This journal was started before the road trip with sporadic notes jotted on the long drive from France to Finland. The conclusion was written a couple weeks after I got back from Europe. Guess I got lazy about finishing. Anyway, here is the FULL story: 7/22/93 PIPE DREAMS, broken roads or a reality meant to be. Sometimes I am caught up in the uncertainty of life. Like my quote at the end of the UNDEAD demo--"Uncertainty in Life is Confusion in Reality." Perhaps most don't grasp the meaning of the statement. Like this ASSEMBLY trip. I have discussed it and recently have been aggressive enough to plan it but the whole thing still remains uncertain to me. Like I may never make it. This uncertainty is leading to confusion. I am confused about what I need to bring, if things will go as "planned," and how to pursue my goal once I get to my starting country. It is confusion at its finest. I can pretend it does not exist and even ignore it but that does not make it go away. Life has led to a road not easily followed like before--being led through school and fed information only to re-use on an item called a test. And after all the leading and all the schooling the progression to work leads to a new life where I start pulling the chain. Only uncertainty has lead me to question my direction. Confusion sets in and the road ahead has become gray. The road to Assembly is somewhat like this. TALKED about as somewhat of a joke I mentioned to my friend and group member Pascal that we should go to Assembly '93. He agreed and offered encouragement to visit so we could attend together. When I mentioned I could fly for "free" he seemed to get more serious and encouraged me to visit even more. I discussed it at length with Pascal and decided to figure out a game plan with him. [For those who do not know me I always like to have a "plan" or things "planned." I am not very spontaneous.] OUR trip would start with my arrival in Paris and go from there to Pascal's house. From there we would visit a friend in Dresden, Germany one day, find our way to Sweden the next, and finally end up in Finland after taking the night ferry. This was all fine and dandy but would Pascal's car make it? We sprang this idea on another member of our group and he mentioned he was also interested in going to Assembly. At first we both figure he was joking since he was the jester type. Things became more serious and to both of our surprise Adam became another traveler. By then plans were changing and we were deciding how we would make our trip and where we would stay since it takes a couple days to get to Finland. MY attitude seems to be that just when things are going well something comes along and changes everything. I was hoping that would not happen here. Perhaps to subside my uncertainty about the situation more than anything else. But of course, something did go wrong. About three weeks before the party Pascal informed me he could not go and we had better stop discussing plans to attend. Just before this point Adam and I were ready to get our tickets and ride with Pascal. This really put a damper on the situation. Without Pascal we would not have a car and with no car Assembly would be impossible to attend. Adam and I discussed the situation, changed the plans around and were now ready to let Pascal know the new situation. Pascal Okayed the plan and mentioned he could accommodate us at his place but could not travel with us to Assembly mostly due to lack of money. This saddened the situation because Pascal is the reason we decided to attend Assembly. Now, just a couple of days till our arrival in Paris there are still items of uncertainty. With all this taking place over the Internet replies can sometimes be a few days coming. Because of this our plans are constantly changing--where to stay, how to travel and such. Thus far we have not booked any car or ferry rides so we may have problems though hopefully not. Our situation is one of "make it up as you go along." This is not always the easiest environment to adapt to because you never know if a roadblock will stop you and where it will occur. PERHAPS I think too deeply about all this. Considering we will be strangers in a land with another language I tend to think not. Being prepared is important, as is having a trusting companion. MAYBE with that explanation and our "plans" you can sympathize with my reluctance to tell many people of our trip. It is kind of like the Space Shuttle--it may go off and it may not. The road to Assembly is a bumpy one and our destination, though known, is beyond the bounds of certainty. 7/23/93 A NEW day dawns and with it new questions arise concerning the trip. It seems Pascal's sister is a bit pregnant and won't be able to pick Adam up. This means Pascal will be pick Adam up with me stranded about an hour away in another (older) airport. Only a city apart yet an hour separates the airports. My plane arrives at 8:30AM while Adams arrives at 8:35AM at airports on either side of the city. It will be a learning experience. It is car rental time. Today Adam and I discussed renting a car. I believe he "booked" us for the car. We will have it 7 days for just over $250. This was the best deal we could get after calling around (I looked in some European books to find Rental agencies). It is a good idea to reserve it as well since we will be more likely to have a car and one with a decent rate/charge. A person--Bart--from Belgium called today. I was not home the first time he called but my mom told him to call back in two hours. So, two hours later Bart did call and we discussed Assembly, transportation, and spending the night. It seems Bart is taking the Eurobus for around $265 round trip. This seems to be a pretty good deal however, if three people pooled the money together they could rent a car, pay for gas and ferry rides and probably make it within the same amount. The ferry ride to Helsinki is the one I have a feeling will cost us the most. So, with slightly more than a day things are shaping up. Now, what about that job hunt when I get back? Well, lets hope I can keep my mind focused on the TRIP. Can distractions be avoided? 7/24/93 Okay, here is a good place to list a temporary schedule I made up: Mon 26: Arrive in Paris. Be at Pascal's place (80 miles). Tue 27: Rent car and go to Belgium to stay at Barts (120mi). Wed 28: Start drive to Sweden. End up at Lohmanns, Leinads, or Kristers. (6-800 mi.). Thu 29: Go to Stockholm and take Night Ferry to Helsinki. (250 mi.) Fri 30: Arrive in Finland and end up at Assembly. Sat 31: Assembly. Sun 1: Catch night ferry back to Sweden. (50 mi.) Mon 2: Drive to ? (3-700 mi.) Tue 3: Return Car and Back to Pascal's. (3-700 mi.) Wed 4: ? Thur 5: Head back to states. [As you will see this schedule did not live up to expectations.] I noticed myself getting a little nervous about this trip. Anytime a situation calls for "nervous" or "worrying" you can bet I am one or both. It is one of those old habits you become brought up in because of your parents/environment. Becoming more aware is important. I actually caught a glimpse of where my uncertainty comes from. Instead of my dad backing "us" in renting a car he mentioned he though it was stupid. In fact I think he feels this whole trip is dumb. Of course this negative reinforcement fucks with my brain causing extreme self-doubt and thus has me questioning myself. Now it is becoming clearer why I can no live here. No "backing" or positive reinforcement, no encouragement, minimal motivation, and questioning of "situations." Believe it or not I can see some of these bad traits wearing off on the dog--not the cats though. For the dog I see no motivation, stubbornness, refusal to listen, lazy, frightened, and dependent. This is a horror that needs to be broken. In less then 24 hours I hope to be on the plane to Europe or really questioning my situation. I will read my Internet mail one more time before I leave--around 9:30-10am. It will be a long, tiring, and worrisome one also. What to do, where to go. I wish I could break free from this mold. Inner strength, certainty, and a clear mind would certainly help. Tomorrow...I will need to keep relaxed. 7/25/93--Day 1 Toady's the day. I was nervous when I first woke up but feel calmer now. Especially after making the Newark flight. Yes, I am here at the Newark airport but no service rep was there when I got off the plane so I am really unsure of where to go right at the moment. But that does not matter much because I still have four hours before my flight leaves. My parents took me to the Palm Beach Airport one flight before the "real" connecting flight because all the flights were booked. Well, once again I lucked out and made the flight--In first class though. Thanks to the upgrade coupons I made the flight otherwise I may not have. First class was full. I think my parents were sad to see me leave--and when I got on the plane I was a bit sad as well. Anyways, it is time to figure out what the hell is going on but first...I must mention what first class was like since it has been a long time since I have been in 1st class. They offered a pre take off drink, salad, wine, full meal, cake, and then some after dinner liquor. For my meal I had grilled chicken. It was cold but pretty decent. Right now there is this annoying alarm going off--ah, finally it has stopped. Well, time to move on and figure out what to do with my four hours before my flight (which gate I have not located). 7/26/93--Day 2 [Written 7/28/93] Ok, a couple days have passed since the last time I have written so I will now update the log. First off I will start where I left off and try to explain as much as possible with detail. Currently I am riding in the back seat of a car with Pascal and Adam. We are listening to Metallica. So, with at least 3-4 hours of time of traveling today I have lots of time to write--if the roads permit. Back in the Newark Airport I discovered that I would not have to change terminals--that is only for arrivals from foreign countries. So, with a lot of time on my hands I read (Rollins) and watched people. I called my mom after I got my ticket (seat 7B) and she was happy I did call mentioning I should send a postcard when I get here--whoops, I have not done so yet. On the flight I sat in Business First (Continental Airlines). The seats were huge and all had a little TV (LCD) connected. Since there was so much room and I was sitting next to someone I was allowed to move. Once again there was a large food selection--and they even passed out menus. But first, a set of movies came on the TV attached to the seat. I started to watch "The Crying Game" but quit after 15 minutes--it was too hard to follow with the noise, headphones, and such. I then turned to "Rainman" on another station and watched about 1/2 hour of it. The road on the Autobahn was a bit rough for the last few miles so my handwriting was quite bad in the above few paragraphs. About the time I quit watching TV my meal was over. It was a full three-course meal. My main dish was chicken since it appealed to me the most. During the trip I drank about four cokes and one apple juice and only went to the toilet once. The main movie was "Scent of a Women" but I tried to sleep through it. In all I got about four hours of sleep that night We circled Orly and Paris, I got a few "sky shots," and then we landed. At the airport--Orly--we got off the plane the old fashion way--down stairs. We then hopped on a bus, walked a hallway and gave a deport card and showed our passport. Very lenient customs. When I got to the baggage area the luggage was already arriving--great. At first I lugged my baggage around then I noticed everybody using carts--FOR FREE- -so I grabbed a cart and went to where I felt Pascal and Adam might arrive. After about 45 minutes I decided to ask someone. The lady said to go to Gate R. So, I went to Gate R and there were about 1,000 people standing in lines and people arriving at gate R. My next decision was to ask someone else. This time the lady said cars could not come to pick people up at the airport--go to the meeting place near Gate H. So, at Gate H I sat and waited for about an hour. Since I did not know what either Adam or Pascal looked like I looked for two people holding a "Assembly" sign. At about 10:45am I spotted Pascal and Adam. Pascal was tall, thin, and wore glasses where Adam was bearded and a little heavier. We walked to Pascal's car, put my luggage in and were off to PARIS. TO PARIS: Pascal, Adam and I then arrived in downtown Paris. After seeing a bit by driving around we parked in an underground garage. Then we walked Paris. We took some side roads and made our way to a bank where I cashed $40 and lost about $4.50 due to service charges. Oh well. Adam and I then found a bathroom--which cost 2 Franc! Yes, it cost money to use the toilet in France--Paris. Everything cost money here! As Yurgen later said--nothings free. After the bathroom we saw some of the city, took pictures and at a place in the center of the city which ended up being pretty crowded. I had "la quiche de lorrine"--or something similar. It tasted like the Ham rolls my mom makes--good. From the restaurant we proceeded off to a big Arch. There we rested and after trying to walk to the Eiffel Tower we gave up and took the subway. Yes, we sorta got miss directed. We found that there was a long line so decided to skip the tower for the time. Once we found Pascal's car--no easy task-- we drove around Paris--got lost--and finally made our way out and were off to AMIENS and the city where Pascal lives. In AMIENS we stopped at a grocery store--Super Machette (sp?)--and got some juice, cereal, milk, bread, and soda. We arrived in Pascal's village and saw his old, new, and sister's house. All very nice but much older houses then what I am use to. Dinner was not until 8:30-9:00pm because I remember finishing at about 9:30pm when it was starting to become dark. We ate soup, salad, potatoes, some "pig" stuff-spicy like sausage--and drank some wine and cider. For their dinner they (Pascal's family) eat a lot of bread and never use condiments (butter, ketchup, jelly...). Also, soup, wine and no napkins were custom. Very small glasses were used to drink water, wine and such. Another funny thing was the dish used for soup was also used for dinner--no flat plates. At Pascal's house they grow a lot of their own food and have Chickens, pigeon, rabbits, and such. No fresh milk here--like we have. I tried some very strong liquor--cognac--for the end of the day we went to Pascal's sisters to see some demos. We retired our second day (of trip, 1st in France) at about 11:30pm. I slept on the floor since there was not much room in the double bed. 7/27/93--Day 3 I woke up sometime after 9am and took a shower. Today was one of those days where everything that could go wrong did. By the time things picked up it was time for lunch. At lunch we had chicken--apparently from the farm; Pascal's dad took the head and neck for his plate--more bread, and of course, wine. At about 2pm things started picking up--people were back from lunch in France. We got through to the American car rental company and found Adams car rental was cancelled. Shit! So, we went through the process again. By the end of the process and about four phone calls to the states (via Adams US WEST phone card) we had a car ready. Of course it was not the right one--a little bigger and more costly. A Renault! We picked up the car after 4pm--3 hours after I wished but...We made it back to Pascal's place and packed our stuff while Pascal checked with his dad to see if he could go. Yes, after all the saying Pascal may not go he is now going. I suspect because we rented a bigger car and he told his dad Adam and I would split the cost. I took a driving lesson and did okay but am not to well in the lower gears where the car may stall. I stalled the car a few times so...it is a good thing Pascal is going to help drive. By 7pm I called Yurgen in Belgium at a cost of 7.70 Franks for about 3 minutes. He said it would be okay to visit and crash at his place so we told him sometime around 10-11pm. Yurgen, YNOS, was someone I met through the Internet. Since it was now near dinnertime and Pascal had to pack we decided to eat dinner with Pascal's parents. This time we had the chicken from lunch--but cold--more wine, soup, water, bread and some cake bread. By 8:30pm, I think we were off to Belgium--AARST (1 Hour NW of Belgium). In town I called Yurgen and he drove to where we were (Fox Pub). The phone call cost some money--Yurgen later asked and Pascal wondered why I did not pay. I assumed it was free but Pascal later informed me nothing in Europe is free. Yergen arrived in a nice tan Mitsubishi Gallant--even nice for American standards. He told us we could not stay at his place but rather at his friends--Hans. So, at 11:30pm Yurgen took us to Hans. Only thing was Hans was not home. Shit. To kill time Yurgen decided to show us where the other people I chatted/talked to lived. We visited Buster's house whose dad is some "vice-mayor!" They lived in downtown AALST. They also run the Buster BBS--biggest demo BBS in Belgium. Next was Bart's house. Bart is a VSW member (cracker) and runs a big Pirate board in Belgium. His dad is a doctor and he had a very nice place as well. By the time we got back it was 12:30am and Hans was nowhere to be found. 7/28/93--Day 4 [AALST Belgium] Yurgen gave us some chocolate and showed us his house so we could visit before we left for Denmark. When we came back it was near 1am and Hans was still nowhere to be found. All four of us chatted until about 1:30am at which time I suggested Yurgen go and we would wait for Hans. So, we slept/rested in the car for an hour and then decided to pitch the tent Adam brought. By 3:00am we had our car parked in Han's driveway and a tent pitched near Hans's garage. Hans never showed up! So, at 7:30am after about 4-5 hours of ok sleep--Pascal said he did not sleep--we woke up packed our stuff and headed toward Yurgen's. Since we told Yurgen we would drop by around 8am we assumed he expected us. Luckily he was there so we stayed for an hour, ate, drank, used the bathroom, and listened to some MODS. Yurgen had a very expensive computer--386, with 14.4k modem, CD-ROM, Optical 120 MB drive, 250 MB Tape backup and 840 Megs of Hard Drive space. Just after 9am we left Yurgen's. I gave him a copy of my magazine; he gave Adam some beer! Unfortunately we got lost in Brussels, Belgium looking for the highway. We circled the city as least once and ended up losing over an hour because of it. Once out of Brussels it was smooth sailing up until Koln, Germany where we took a wrong turn again. We ended up on some back roads heading toward Boun but got corrected before we really got lost. One thing we have noticed is there are no boarder guards between countries. Well, at least that is how it has been through Germany and Belgium. We have purchased gas twice so far today. I did the first using my VISA and Pascal did it next using his VISA--be he got cash from a machine with his VISA. Yea, gas is very expensive--about $3.50 a gallon we figure. Our lunch/dinner was at a pizza type place in Bremen. We almost got lost there as well but...Thanks to Pascal's VISA he got 100 DM and we were able to eat some hoagie type stuff. We used an English/German dictionary of Adams to figure out a little bit before we ordered. During my writing we passed Hamburg and are now on our way to enter Denmark. We are not sure where we are going to stay as of yet--8:00pm. We figure Alborg where I know someone or Frederikchaven or we may take the Ferry tonight. Who knows...we will see as we go. 7/29/93 We made our way to Alborg where we got some gas--as expensive as Germany--and also attempted to call someone I chatted with through Internet mail. We went to a gas station to call but had no Danish money. After explaining we could give only German or other money he let me use the stations phone. Well, it was about 11:15pm and no one answered at Jens place so it looked like we had no place to go. On learning that we decided to take off for Frederikshavn to catch a Ferry. 7/29/93--Day 5 [Frederikshavn Denmark] At about 12:15am we arrived in Frederikshavn. We passed up the Ferries once but made our way back to find most things closed. At this point we decided to rest at a camp for the night. Well, after about a 10km drive we found a closed camp. So, once again we were stuck. We decided to go back to the ferry location. After asking a "guard" and exploring some more we discovered an office. I used my Visa and bought a round trip ticket for about $140. Only about a few dollars more than I figured. At this point it was about 1am so we drove the car to the loading doc. I ate some bread, drank some water and Pepsi before resting a bit--this was a 3:30am ferry! There were quite a few people on the ferry--many children too. Adam exchanged $15 and probably got a decent rate. Besides that we did not do much except walk the ship and watch it leave and enter the harbor. Pascal did not sleep any, I slept about an hour and Adam got 2-3 hours of sleep. So, once again it was pretty much a sleepless night. Upon leaving the station we saw a "customs" person but we were not stopped. Taking E40 to Jonkoping I noticed Sweden had quite a few hills and lots of fog. Currently it is 8am and we are on our way to Jonkoping to see someone we know over the Internet. Lets hope he is there when we arrive in about 1/2 hour. 7/30/93--Day 6 [Almost in Helsinki] As I write we are currently making our way via the ferry to Finland, Helsinki. At last entry we were making our way to Jonkoping. I will pickup from there. We arrived in Jonkoping at about 8:50am. I remember this because a few places were not open--like the tourist board. We stopped in the center of town at the train/bus/information location. Before 9:00am we checked the phone booths for phone books but none were to be found. Only at a "tourist" stop shop could we find any phone book. We looked but could not find our friend Daniel Faulk. So, we went upstairs and waited for the tourist place to open. When it did we asked the lady if she could find our friend. She did--and called him as well. Since he was in the shower we called back in 10 minutes. I spoke and wanted to go over his house to use the toilet and shower but he was leaving for the town (where I was) to pick up some friends and also make his way to Finland. No luck then--getting a shower and using some free toilets. 7/30/93--Day 6 [At Assembly] Picking up from talking on the phone to Daniel we made our way to a travel booking place as Daniel Faulk (Leinad) suggested. Since a lot of people were going it was stated that there may not be any room so we made our way--after asking a few people--to the travel agency across the street. When it opened at 9:30am we got in to book our ferry ride. We discovered that the only ride we could get was on the VIKING LINE. There was 1 car space and no cabin. After considering all the possibilities we bought the ticket. It cost around $85 per person. When we finally left the city it was 10:00am. On the road to Stockholm we met Daniel--they passed us. From there out we followed them to the ferry. We took a small walk once arriving in Stockholm but not very far and did not see many tourist stuff except from afar. It was around 3:00pm when we found where to board and had to wait 1-2 hours till we could board. The "Cinderella" is a nice cruise ship. Too bad we were too tired to "exploit" all its amenities. Well, I was anyways. The food was quite pricey; they charged me a lot of money for using a traveler's check and good thing for Daniel and his friends because we were able to sleep in their cabin. Not too much happened on the way over--of which I slept most of--and we arrived safely at 9:00am in Helsinki. Upon arrival we stopped at an information center and found a bank where we could exchange money. We got a good rate. I was charged about 20 marks--$3.50 for $100 in traveler's checks. Soon afterwards we ate "donuts" and juice for breakfast. Then we made our way to Kerava--where Assembly '93 was being held. It was quite easy to find since we had good directions from the Future Crews map. There were quite a few people in line waiting to get in, claim a room, and drop off their stuff. We decided to wait, take a walk and finally, near noon, got in line. Unfortunately by that time no rooms were left...or according to what we heard. Well, it worked out that we were permitted to stay with Avalanche...so, at least I did. A ton of people showed up...people with computers...they are everywhere. During the day we visited the whole place and visited with groups...including Extreme, Extend, Epical, Imphobia, Disknet, Future Crew, Renaissance, and so on. There were quite a few drunken people about by mid day. One even hit a monitor, got punched and forced out of the room. Another threw and broke a glass bottle. This seems to be a 24-24 (said twenty-four hour twenty four hour) deal with no one doing any sleeping or little if any. That night after missing techno and no introduction I made it to sleep at around 1 am on a hard floor. I did not get much sleep but I figure it will do. Other high notes for the day included talking with Gore, Phil Shatz who published a book that deals with demos, and a rep (Mike) from Epicmega Games. 7/31/93--Day 7 [Assembly--Day 2] Today the comps begin and go into Sunday morning. It will be a non- stop night. And before I forget, Pascal got a drink last night and locked the keys in the trunk--shit. So, much of the day sixes night we spent trying to get the door unlocked. But to no avail--and I had no sleeping bag, clothes, toothbrush, or anything but what I had on for that matter. So, this meant sleeping on a hard floor with nothing but a jacket for a pillow. We were able to get the door unlocked by the police--this saved 350 FIM, which a locksmith would charge. Unfortunately, before this someone attempted to get in the night before and broke the handle on the right size. Hey, but DDT of Accession--a car mechanic--was there and took about a 1/2 hour of his time to fix the problem. Since he did this we took him to lunch to at least repay a little of what he did for us. Ah, excitement. Since we had leftovers from the Chinese restaurant (220 FIM it costs) we visited we ate it for dinner too. The competitions finally got underway just after 5pm with the PC Music 4 channel and then multi tracked music. There was only average type music--so I felt. I felt Schwing the Swing by Sonic was the best 4- track mod and opossum by Epical was the best for the multi-channel. When we went to dinner we seemed to miss the Amiga Graphics and Intro compo. They are using the 3 light projection TV machine and small text is very hard to read on the screen. Also considering I am about 80 feet away. Ok, soon the compo will begin again. Right now some PC music is playing for some reason. So far they have not kept to their schedule very well. [My ratings of PC demos/intros appeared here. I picked 2 of the top 3 intros and demos.] We missed most of the Amiga intros but I stayed and watched the Amiga demos. There were some amazing ones in the eight or so they showed. 8/1/93--Day 8 [Assembly, Final day--Sunday] After the Amiga stuff they took about a 15-minute break and then started the PC stuff--intros and demos. The intros--all under 100k-- were pretty interesting though nothing stood out as really amazing. After the 16 intros the PC demos were shown--I believe. By now it was after 2:00am and I was tired. Since they had so many demos they decided to show the 10 (9 actually) best. They were definitely the best demos ever with four demos being better than the UNREAL standard. The Future Crews "Second Reality" was the most outstanding. From there I felt Saga, then Elements then Optic Nerve. Other people gave Optic Nerve 2nd, Elements 3rd, and Saga the. After the PC compo was over they had some game demo and the PC graphics. By this time I was too tired to stay up for the C-64 demos so I went to rest at 3:30am. At 9:30am I got up, put in my contacts (only put in saline) and went to get a copy of the 64 demos and see who won for the PC and C-64. After wondering a bit, finding Pascal and Adam I went and got my C-64 disks to get copies of the demos/music/graphics. By 10:30am I had found someone with copies of most of the stuff released. He let me use his 64-SX to copy. Unfortunately I noticed many errors and copied over when it was really bad. Hopefully all my copies work. The American demos I brought worked (C-64) a little slower on their PAL computers. Raster routines looked quite awful most of the time though. One of the funny things I noticed about my stay was the size of the soda bottles people bought and drank. Most bottles people drank from contained 1 liter of soda or other related drink. Quite often it was drunk warm. Ice is not used much in Finland. I thought this was weird. The Finnish people also drink quite a bit. There were many drunken Finns at the party. Pascal and I ran out and got Lunch--pizza--around 12:30pm. The Finnish Pizza is much thinner then our American pizza and taste about 1/2 as good. After talking and saying goodbye to some of our friends--including Gore- -we left at about 2:30pm. Phil S. who wrote a book that covered demos and part of the demo scene, interviewed me on camera. Though it was kind of impromptu Phil directed the conversation well. We made our way from Kerava to Helsinki without much of a problem and made it in time for the ferry. I wanted to walk the city but it was raining and about 45 minutes till car boarding so no one else wanted to do such--so we just waited. In the ferry we met up with new people and our friends Daniel and Avalache. With no cabin Pascal and I wondered till we found a decent table/chairs where we could stay/sleep. So, that is what we did. Later that night Daniel and his friends came along and we talked. About 9-12 people hung around our TV, 4 chairs and bench/window. Not much more to day. I got about 4-5 hours of sleep. 8/2/93--Day 9 [Monday] Early this morning we exited the ferry and agreed to take a friend of Daniel's home. Since we passed his city on the way. After the 3.5- hour drive we rested at his house. I washed my hair for the first time in 4 days and Pascal took a shower. I also changed all my clothes since they were getting dirty. Now we are on our way to Goteburg to catch the ferry. It is 2:30pm and the ferry leaves at 3:30pm. Hopefully we can make it. It will be quite a long night no matter what happens. We have no place to stay in Germany or Denmark and the car needs to be returned at 4pm tomorrow. Written 8/3/93--Day 10--7:10am (Tuesday) Currently we are traveling in Germany less than 1 hour away from Hamburg (120km). A shit load has happened since then and most was not good. Let me update you. After the long drive from Jonkoping we were pushing the time and had only downed 1 meal for that day so far--there was no time for lunch. Well, we arrived in Goteburg at 3:15pm, got lost, and finally were headed in the right direction and ready to get on board they ferry but we were too late--the ferry was pulling out. At this point Pascal noticed his waist belt was missing. Unfortunately our stop in Jopkoping ended up costing about 7.5 hours in time. In Jopkoping I washed my hair--mentioning before I would take a shower. Pascal however decided to take a shower though I advised against it because of our time. Anyways, Pascal ended up leaving his most important item (moneybag) at Sami's place. After about 30 minutes of figuring, talking, calling (Daniel Faulk--not home), and thinking we decided to go back--a 2-hour journey each way. This meant we would miss another ferry and make the 11:30pm one. We made it to Jopkoping and found Sami asleep but woke him to get Pascal's bag. About this time (6:30pm) we were getting hungry so we attempted to eat at McDonalds. We sat with two girls before making McDonalds since they motioned to us. However, we left after about 5 minutes when they started smoking. Of course McDonald's did not take VISA so we were on our way back to Goteburg having eaten no lunch nor dinner. We got to Goteburg around 9pm and planned on going elsewhere for eating--after parking our car in the ferry line--but discovered were blocked in and the only snack shack would not take VISA. Well, no money equals an obvious disadvantage. Finally after boarding we got some food in the cafeteria--Swedish meatballs. The cost was around 200 Swedish Krones--a lot! This meal was eaten around 12 midnight, so basically we only ate snacks, candy and breakfast the day before. The ferry lasted 3.25 hours and was once again...on time. I slept about 1.5 hours and Adam about 2 hours. We felt pretty good. I felt ready to drive for the first time (manual). We arrived in Denmark just after 2:30am with less than a quarter tank of gas. Luckily after passing about four closed gas stations we found a 24 hour one. After filling up I drove. I even drove through a city where I had to shift a bit. My driving time lasted about 2.5-3 hours and I stopped in Kolding. Afterwards I rested and woke up when we crossed the board to Germany. For the first time on our trip we got asked for our passports/id's. We had them so after two minutes we were on our way. Now we are approaching Hamburg and will later drive into the Netherlands--it is 7:40am. It looks like it will be another day with little sleep, and little food--maybe lunch. Written 8/5/93--Thursday We made it through Germany with no problems. Pascal even drove 180 Km/H on the Autobahn--which is roughly 110 Mph--the car wouldn't go any faster. We fueled up with the rest of Pascal's German Marks (40). We were making great time as we entered the Netherlands. Once again, we had no boarder problems. We got some more gas in the Netherlands and also got lost for a bit. Though it seems like a recurring theme it did not hurt us that bad. Since we were pushing our time we decided not to stop in Belgium for chocolate. Finally, at roughly 4pm we arrived at Pascal's place, emptied the car and cleaned the car with a vacuum cleaner. As for the outside all we did was use a squeegee at the gas station--bugs on the window, on the lights, on the license plate. The car was returned at 4:55, just 2 minutes shy of our deadline but it seems as if we did not get charged. Funny thing is the lady put gas in- -when it was full (did not believe us)--and most of it spilt onto the ground with us getting charged. Ugh. Day 11 8/4/93--Wednesday (Back in France) After that 24H day we ate dinner with Pascal's parents and got back to Pascal's old house where we retired around 10pm--and we were (at least Adam and I) tired. We slept just over 12 hours. Breakfast consisted of cereal and Bread with chocolate. I also took a shower for the first time in 5 days. We watched some of the intros, a demo, played the music then left for lunch at Pascal's house. The night before for dinner they had beef, pigeon, pizza, and rabbit. I tried the pigeon and rabbit but simply thinking about what I was eating made it difficult to eat such food. Similar food was for lunch so I did not eat much then. Once done we went to Pascal's sisters to finish watching the Assembly '93 stuff. Near 4:00pm it was decided we should leave for the beach--well, the channel actually. It took about an hour to make it to the beach where we could see topless women. We parked and walked, and saw a few topless women but not many. Pascal and Adam kept saying intelligent and nice conversation, etc, etc. I thought the "sand hills" were interesting. We climbed, walked and ran a few of them. The water was very cold--68F. After pissing around-- and I did take a piss in a bush--we left and went for ice cream. I had something like a sundae for about $6. It was pretty good. Afterwards we got some post cards while Adam & Pascal grabbed some interesting magazines. By now it was nearing 9pm and we went to another location to eat dinner. I had fries, a ham & cheese on toast with cheese on one piece of toast. For a drink I had Liptonic--ice tea with lime in it. When done we took a walk along the nice river before seeing a monument and heading aback home. Back at Pascal's we figured out what each person spent to determine who owed who. Well, it ended up that Pascal owed me about $90, while I owed Adam $35. So, after pushing some of what Pascal owed me onto Adam we each felt satisfied we broke even at $40-$50 donated to Pascal for letting us stay with him. We finally turned in around midnight. Day 12 8/5/93--Thursday (Time to Leave) Pascal woke me up--as requested--at 6:30am today. I was able to pack everything except my disk--they were over Pascal's sister's place which was locked. So, oh well. We expected to leave at 7:30am but after getting gas, packed, visiting Pascal's other house it was more like 8:00am. What a shitter. Anyways, we made it to the airport at 10:00am- -only 10 minutes later then I wanted--even though we got lost and had to back track. Thankfully Adam and Pascal waited till I checked in and learned where I was to go. They also decided to wait till noon in case I missed the flight so that was a bonus. At the airport there was a ton of security. In fact I was asked for my passport at least 5 times. They also asked me if I accepted any packages, what I had and such. It seemed to be very secure...maybe too much. They don't seem to trust anyone. In fact, I ran into trouble with one guy wanting to see my # from my moms airline card. Luckily I got past that. Finally, after all the shit I made the flight--seat 37A--the penultimate seat. No matter, I made it and that is all that counts. Too bad I'm back near some smoke. Well, I will be glad when I'm in the US. The movie for today's flight is The Sandlot--a movie I really want to see so...Excellent. Written 8/26/93--Final Comments After the 8-hour flight I was glad to be home where toilets are free and everything cost less. Going to Europe just makes you appreciate the US that much more! After I got off the plane I cleared Customs quite easily--no one in line "US Citizens." In fact, it seemed like most people on the plane were foreigners. After exchanging my money-- paper only--I checked in and went to gate to check in (one stop flight). The plane was so full they started offering travel vouchers to people! During my wait I visited McDonald's and got some good ole American food. Come boarding time it looked hopeless--after everyone had boarded I still was not called. Once I was sure making that flight was impossible I quickly walked to where another Continental flight that was going to Miami. I got there with about 10 minutes to spare and made the flight. When I got off the flight and walked towards the baggage claim I was surprised to see my parents. Unfortunately my bag was in Fort Lauderdale so we went there to collect it. So, I made it up and back without too many problems. Once again, I am thankful. The demo disk mag I worked on (Mayhem) was released August 23rd. I also worked on a Demo article for DDJ for a week. If I'm luckily I'll get a few bucks there. [Never got printed, never got any money.] It was an exciting trip. A few good memories, a few new friends and a journal to remind me of our journey. One more small vacation to Universal Studios in Orlando this weekend and from then on I must really plan--strictly business. [I had no job at the time.] Oh, sometimes I do see myself caught in the THREE BOXES OF LIFE...