It seems like every kid these days goes to Europe. I've lost count of folks who went misty-eyed telling me about backpacking around the continent trying to 'find themselves' while living on cold beans and getting laughed at by Europeans.

With that in mind, I didn't take this particular trip looking for any sort of epiphany. Instead, what I wanted to do was to indulge a lifelong fascination: to live history. Anyone can sleep through a lecture on the Greeks and Romans in school, but to actually walk through the cradle of civilization. . .

So, on July 18th, 2005, I flew to Madrid. Over a month later, I flew home from Athens. This site tells how I got from one side of the Mediterranean sea to the other, and everything that happened along the way.

Obligatory disclaimer: I didn't write all this just to list my museum schedule; guidebooks are great for that sort of thing. Neither do I have a secret agenda to thumb my nose at folks who haven't made it over there yet but would really like to. My journal simply records my impressions of what I saw, along with some of the more amusing things that ended up happening on the road.

And of course, I took a lot of pictures. Enjoy!

To select a major area I visited, simply mouse over the map above and click on anything that lights up--countries for country pages, and cities for individual city visits. The calendar on each subsequent page links to where I was on that day should you want to skip ahead. To start from the begining, click here. You should be able to take it from there.

I would love to hear what you think of the places I visited, my thoughts, pictures, stories, etc. Drop me a line here.

We all have our moments, but these were particularly amusing. Here they are.