Up Next, Denmark
I guess my Summer 2000
European vacation was forever changed in June 1999 while on holiday in Orlando,
Florida. Up to this point, I was
only remotely considering a weeklong trip to Copenhagen to visit the homeland of
an International Student that was living with me while he attended Arkansas Tech
University. Little did I know, but
this was all about to change over the next 6 months.
My travel plans had
already begun to unravel, unbeknownst to me, on a very hot Friday afternoon. I had tickets for both Disney and
Universal at my disposal. Since it
was so hot, I figured that Universal's covered parking deck would keep the car a
bit cooler. This was to be a most
fateful decision that would haunt me for the next 13 months.
Once parked, I had to
decide which park to enter - Islands of Adventure or Studio. I picked the Studio since I knew where a
concession stand was that sold ice cream and had a tree-covered seating area. The stand was about 3/4 of the way into
the depths of the park. When I got
there, I ordered the largest dish of ice cream they had and then put hot fudge
and whipped cream on top. Why not
go all the way?
While I was eating, this
tall, lean, young man came from behind and walked in front of me toward the
concession. When he returned he had
a couple of Cokes. I noticed his
t-shirt. It had a "P" and
"Eagles Basketball" on the front. The colors were white with blue printing. I knew that Paris, Arkansas high school
athletic teams were the Eagles and their colors were white/blue. My mind was really wondering. In a few minutes, he walked back by me
and returned with a couple of hot dogs.
When I finished my ice
cream, I looked for a trash container. The
nearest one was behind me, at the end of the bench where this guy, his brother
and parents were sitting. I dumped
my dish and walked over to him and ask if he was from "Paris". He said "No, Germany". A very normal answer for a European, I
guess.
I then redefined my
question as "Paris, Arkansas" and he said that he had just come from
there where he had been an exchange student.
I put Paris, a tall basketball-player-looking person and Germany together
and realized that I had a good idea of who this person was. He
said his name was Thomas and I told him that "Martin
Larsen lived with me". Martin
is the International Student from Denmark mentioned above. He also attended Paris High School the
year before Thomas and both played basketball for Paris High School. Martin had mentioned
to me that there was a tall kid from Germany playing basketball for Paris. Once I said that, we realized that we had found
a common connection.
We talked for about 2 hours while the hot dogs cooled. They had been in Florida since Thomas finished school a week or so earlier and were leaving the next morning for Germany. We exchanged e-mail addresses and went our different ways. I really didn't expect to hear from him even though I went back to the room and sent an e-mail. He would have it waiting when he got home. To my surprise, a few days later he responded and we started up a frequent exchange of e-mail.
Long about Christmas-time,
I was starting to get my Denmark trip in order.
All the time, Thomas was pushing me to come to Germany. After several very direct invites to
Kempten, I finally got him to confirm that it was not just he, but his family
that was asking me to visit. So,
what started out, as a 1-week trip to Copenhagen became a 4-week trip to Europe
with stops in London, Paris, Kempten and Copenhagen. Looking at a map of Europe, I realized
that it was a pretty long haul from Paris to Kempten. Finding a place about half way, gave me the stop in Zürich.
Thomas then started
pushing me to skip Paris and Zürich and come to Kempten directly from London. I held my ground, because I wanted to
see those cities since I was in the area anyway.
Plus, I really didn't know what to expect in Kempten. After all, we had only talked for a
couple of hours while in Orlando.