“The court will accept this will for the estate of John Pora. Please see the secretary for some paperwork to sign. Next matter.”
My lawyer then guided me upstairs to the records department to order letters of testamentary from the county. Rocky knew everyone there and greeted and joked with everyone in the records department.
“Okay, you should get these letters in about 2 weeks. Go to the IRS website and get a tax ID for the estate and you’ll be all set. If you have any problems, call me.”
With that he shook my hand and went off to greet another attorney.
So, I stood there in the hallway of the Harris county courthouse as people went about their business pondering what I would do next. I took the elevator down to the ground level.
He had died three months prior and I had just lost my job three weeks earlier and for the first time since I’d left college I hadn’t a thing to do or any place I had to be.
I knew a couple bars in the downtown area but I neither wanted nor needed a drink. Besides it was only 10 in the morning.
On my way home I passed by my dad’s accountant to inform him that everything was done. He greeted me at the door and as always, I was amazed that he had retained his fine silvery locks of hair that complimented his tan and reminded me of a Cuban George Hamilton.
“You look depressed”
I suppose he would know. He had literally known me since I was 8.
“I’ve been better”
“What are your plans now?”
I shrugged noncommittally “I don’t know what I want to do”
“well maybe you need to take some time out and go somewhere to figure it all out. If you stay here all you’ll do is get more and more depressed”
Of course, I didn’t tell him that I had a vague notion of going on vacation and that I kind of had a location in mind already.
So why didn’t I tell him that? My parents have a strong work ethic and mainly eschewed vacations or even going out to fancy restaurants. Under normal circumstances going on vacation while you were unemployed would not have been something my family would approve of.
Maybe my dad’s accountant would understand or maybe he’d get on the phone and start a conversation with my family that I didn’t feel like engaging in. I didn’t want to chance it. No outside consultations or advice allowed this time. This vacation would be all for me and I had in a sense begun planning it since 2015.
That year I found and bought a DVD copy of an anime film that I hadn’t seen since high school. If you’re the sort that is into Japanese animation (anime) then the name Hayao Miyazaki is no mystery to you. He is perhaps the best animator ever and had made a career from drawing amazingly detailed backgrounds for his animated adventures. Among the earliest was a movie entitled “Lupin the third: The castle of Cagliostro”.
Lupin is a daredevil cat burglar but the main point for me was the setting. This was set in a notional kingdom called Cagliostro on the southeastern corner of France on the Mediterranean. For most of the film, Lupin tools around the coast in a Fiat 500 on cliff edge roads. That views really put the hook into me.
Miyasaki had based other adventures on the Adriatic Sea and an unnamed central European country and the views were just phenomenal, and I knew that I had to see such things for myself. So why not start with Provence.
2015 passed by without a vacation. I just had a vacation in late 2014 so I figured it was too early yet to go on another. 2016 came in and the situation at home became complicated and then 2017 happened. I’m still amazed I went to San Diego that year.
In the meantime, I amused myself by buying a copy of Lonely Planet’s “Provence & the Cote d’Azur” and read and reread it in my spare time.
Fast forward to 2018 and here I am in front of my desktop and opening up multiple tabs on my browser and comparing airline tickets and looking at hotels when I suddenly start thinking to myself “this may be my only trip to Europe ever. Why am I going to restrict myself to one spot? Instead why not a crash course on European tourism. If you like something and you get the chance you can come back one day.”
So back online I made up an initial itinerary of 2 days in the UK, 2 days in Paris, 3 days in Provence, 3 days in Venice, 3 days in Prague, and 2 days in Amsterdam.
The destinations careened back and forth across Europe and briefly involved Croatia, Ireland, and even a day or so in Istanbul at one point.
Some hard truths began to emerge as I planned.
- Driving in foreign countries could get expensive and given that I didn’t know the local customs might be problematic so probably driving would be out for this trip.
- Travel times between destinations would inevitably eat into my leisure time. I was willing to accept some of that, but I didn’t want to spend all my time in airports and train terminals.
- Some of these places were really expensive, even in the off season.
So after a lot of internal debate the final itinerary got knocked into shape; 2 days in London, 2 in Paris, 4 days in Liguria, 4 in Prague, and 2 back in the UK.
Where did Liguria come from? I noticed that the Provence guidebook mentioned this area to the East in passing and after Finding another guidebook about Liguria I decided that this would stand in for Provence on this trip. The Cinque Terre region in Liguria is one of those amazing parts of the world you need to visit and hopefully you will agree when I publish that part of the story.
Amsterdam and Venice both got cut for being too expensive and I mean ridiculously expensive even as far as the hostels. Instead I would go into western England and visit Stonehenge instead.
With that in mind I finalized my online bookings and began to prepare. For some reason I got it into my head that I would backpack through Europe and bought the largest TSA approved backpack that airlines would allow in overhead compartments. Fun fact, the primary way you measure carry on luggage is by length and width, the secondary way is by weight.
I then approached the family and told them I was going. Surprisingly it went smoothly. No one seemed to be in the mood to argue the point with me and I got verbal commitments to check on my mother every other day. My mother wasn’t too thrilled, but I suppose she understood that I needed to get away.
Packing was mostly clothes. The Social media websites snuck a peek at my online history and suggested a travel hoodie and for once I didn’t ignore the recommendation. Basically, someone took a hoodie and put in pockets everywhere you could think of and to me it didn’t look bad, so I ordered it.
My toilet kit was as basic as I could manage. I didn’t want the hassle of explaining what liquid was what to airport security so I left behind any toothpaste or shampoo and would rely on local shops to supply what I needed.
My phone service assured me that with today’s modern phones that I didn’t have to fiddle with any settings and just let the phone sort it out for me. Don’t worry it will work. Famous last words. Apart from that I packed my tablet and downloaded some movies and books on the tablet to fill in any long travel times.
The pack looked like an overstuffed sausage, but it would fit in any overhead bin, so I was satisfied. I didn’t care if the locals snickered at my pack or if my hoodie was funny looking with all the pockets full of stuff.
The big day arrived, and I left through Hobby and waited awhile at LaGuardia. Sitting at the Aer Lingus terminal waiting for the plane I found a song for the trip (of course there’s a song).
I got on the big Airbus and sat back to enjoy my 6-hour trip to Ireland.
So the outline for the next few blog entries will be:
Part 2 London and Paris
Part 3 Cinque Terre
Part 4 Prague and Stonehenge
I’ve already written a piece about my return trip and you can find it here:
Part 2 coming in a week or a month or so.
Sometime.
We’ll see.
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