Young, eyes wide I fast stepped into a great grand world encompassing self emboldening maddening mean met speculations towards the human whole, my speed free fast faster flow past unconscious implementations by ragged rugged embellishments of Grandfather’s dark hard long stare into another accusatory inference manipulated by silver gray hair, thick mustache, lips spluttering above dark necktie pressed down into silken gray vest, dark pants, polished shoes, pale gray spats beneath high hard collar compressing broad neck beneath near bald pate, sideburns brushed forward into deep knitted forehead, thick eyebrows, thumb and finger pinch pulling moustache aside into time fast read from vest pocket gold plated watch, gold chain across broad chest into thumb flick of watch cover up, thumb press of cover down, watch into vest pocket,Grandfather stood donned dark jacket, fedora brim turned up, hat aslant,Grandfather strode, tapped ivory headed cane into my stumble, rapid regain of balance while staring hard ahead, aside, up, down into need to indulge more than balance while striding past clutter shudder into need to shriek, pound demand regeneration’s solipsistic turn into full forward smile into mean momentum alongside Grandfather striding into my demonic ideational press into query quandary framing harmonium’s near final resolution, near total dedication towards self-indulgent self abnegating near opened display of my low backed low headed dark dead hard long stare into a limited sense of comfort, decorum accompanying my heightened appreciation of maddening mean need to meet, eradicate doubt towards virbatummed virtuosities pressing into my inability to meet eyes staring into intransigent turns into proofs positive mean need was to meet more than dead hard long stare into sufferances imposed by need to climb fast and free into long stare hard down into the propagation of near total resolution propounded by ferocity’s conundrums standing, agitating into slow read of tall broad canvases upon which I shall swab, splatter, gouge, drip prime color onto the cosmic costumed grandiloquent hope radical rabid outlook, strident tempo shall modify brash busy statements spouted by mean need to gain more than the non-figurative iconoclastic fast spoken self-engendering near total self extension into the human whole encompassing an ever more transcendent transparent very narrow personification of black and white photos standing flat backed absolutist verities hard down onto rigid rapid press up out into another historic hiatus to the irrational ideational desperately idiosyncratic aspirations fast turning into fine lined flat black bold print near resolving dark dead too intense stares into heroic honorific momentums when continuing views of afterthoughts radicalized my fast spoken internal alarums pressing desperations into countervailing conundrums presenting ever more implausible impatient final furtive long surround by dead flat too direct stare into my denial of historic perspective incapable of reestablishing behavioral patterns quivering behind official boundaries inferring basso profundo slow long low grumbles tumbled into thunderous benedictions directed towards national characterizations of gratuitous grandiloquent harbingers residing behind fantasy’s too intense stare deep into solipsistic turnings into the centrifugal blur whose incessant swirls extended into short lived fervent burst through eyes staring, bleeding from jaundiced pallor behind my thin lipped pitiable pliable spout of Jewish- American-Ukrainian- Latvian-Mid-Eastern mongrel rigid righteous religious irreligious ethnic non ethnic delve into vanity’s vital burst up, far out into my integration of the prejudicial paradigms which Christian Muslim pagan speed free flows interposed as historic mollifications of self-indulgent human sensibilities deep inside mean need to involve prescient perfect highly limiting parameters’ intuitive press into too intense validations drawing me into the false forward run into mean deep need to indulge the caustic clear characterization of the low backed, low headed slow chanter stumbling over the long trail of sputum from my fallen jaw beneath dark dead too intense stare into the wonder rising, swirling into ancestral lamentations chanted slowly by tribal pro forma benedictions indulged by racial radical religious ethnic fervent familial exceptions to my hope not to be contaminated by dark dead too intense stare into no more than full surround by spectral special sufferances exhibiting a denial of insensible unsuitable dimensions counterpoised by black skull capped broad long loose bearded over solemn slow chanters obliging me to sit, stare long past the morbid mystifications unable to counterbalance the discoordinate disconcerting harsh heavy evidentiary standings inside my multi-faceted much too fervent heel pound down, fist pound down louder harder into mean need to establish the dead headed flat too intense stare past my disguise inferring normalcy would countervail upon babblings into petty prescient too persistent press past hubris diminished by the Ghetto’s broad black long loud shadow as the sun set, illuminated its haloed back drop glowing over the fringes of undistinguished silhouettes whose auras were fragmented by fast spoken too intense enunciations spouting over boundaries configured by intuitive press long down into cull de sac firm stands while broad smiles were fast swabbed over and over by self-indulgent long cries for manumissions to prance dance into providential endorsements by my American born very clear sense harmonium’s soft slow spoken need was to indulge another shrill scream while time ticked, turned slow above blood drip from lower lip bitten into by my need to indulge the flat backed dark dead alien long stare into Grandfather sitting, staring before the European spectra’s dark dead broad bold hard mask’s imperial impervious stare long down very deep into my need to press fast past my need to indulge the self-conscious self-indulgent long stand beneath my too intense too direct stare into the American high wide exceptionally clear sky, the sun shining, illuminating minor particles floating , landing, dappling my lonesome stand, my too direct stare far up, far into an ever more self-effacing highly imperative pour of blood-red-orange-golden-yellow-white hot burn as molten pour consumed my ethnic religious national stultifications incorporated by the European spectra’s dark dead tall broad stare over his dark-chested broad tunic beneath steel gray deep set eyes staring over chest brimmed medallions clattering before my inability to delineate mysteriums desperate press into speed free flight past alarums exceptionalized by prurient prescient factotums challenging my inability to mollify the dark dead too hard stare over lips babbling past Grandmother’s soft slow wipe of tears rolling over my youthful nose free dripping after Grandmother’s slow lift of my small person into deep cheek long kiss, then Grandmother spoke softly, slowly…Great pride shall rise from grandson’s mature person. Grandmother knew. Grandmother was certain … then she pressed warm kisses onto my smooth soft young cheek beneath my premature long hard dark stare over silver gray hair combed fast back into a snug bun set deep into my mean sense an intrepid intransigent need hoped to dismiss the death label upon conundrums rising from divergent rationales whose schismatic interludes disorientated my need to suffer the brute basso slow long low chant into the European spectra’s dark dead too direct stare into my inability to accept flat black print stood upon time turning, ticking into my mean manipulation of thoughtful stratagems beneath tousled hair above dark dead flat long stare into intemperate outbursts raging into loud fast laughter pressing fervent parameters onto historical ideationaled putrifications slinking into near flat black long shadows beneath long low clouds above my mean need to project myself into the colonial, exiled, mongrel swift deft pluck of

…the East European mandolin’s vibrant vibrato’s near tremolo’s dogged press into regenerations springing, cart wheeling into the anarchic blur spitting absolutist absurdums over ancestral long shadowed over solemn images of East European log huts, small town mentalities after hard heavy breathing poured sentiment from the clarinet’s slow wail fast turning up into memoiric exemplifications attenuated by extra gentle soft slow touch of the dark stoned memorial’s much too solemn long stare into the non factual too adamant imperatives very deep inside my need to dispute enigmas long staring into my adventitious highly contentious meanesses pressing my demeanor hard down into vagrant vibrant non formulaic propoundings by the fury interjected by the European spectra sitting staring long over wartime medallions behind and above Grandfather’s too intense recitation…

…Russia not a country modern like Germania, Austreich-Hungar, the Czar, ptu! worse on his muzhik dumb kop! May he rot, burn slow! But in Russia a man knew who he was! Yes, times were terrible. Yes, Jews suffered. What else shall ever be? We lived in a town near Kiev. Jews were poor. Not me. I had a house, a business; I wore a shirt and tie everyday, I had friends who traveled to Moscow to St. Petersburg, they told me about important people who lived in great houses, had servants, drove carriages to the opera, to the theatre. That was Europe! That was culture!

… deep into my low backed, low headed mean deep need to stride next to Grandfather twirling, pulling moustache further from my need to turn, meet Grandmother lifting, caressing my hard dark too direct stare into a more self-sufficient, more self-contained long stare into the personification of my irrational resolute ability to read slowly, measuredly …Greek city states battled into several centuried suicidal old stoned contemporaneous contempt towards tourists nodding before monuments denigrating grandeur’s inability to deny crude rude God given crisp clear views of rabid raging near free expostulations while considering the Roman Arena’s blood baths pouring moral stains over spectators imbibing gluttonous imbibings leading into incestual performances not dignifying the Empire’s blind bold need to press fast past …tall thin peaked black hooded Inquisitorial stares burning deep into the evisceration of the messianic grip of short ropes garroting laggard repenters pouring whispered confessions aborted by slow solemn firm drawn genuflections before fine lined clear printed viable variable dark dead too direct stares into mythological eulogies growled, grumbled by less than holy progenitors monitoring the detailed manufacture of martyrdoms pressing fervently forward … Louis Quatorze courtiers spending days, nights fitting silken slow woven long loose sleeved blouses onto inconsistent embodiments of desperation’s futile focus upon poor postured artifices incapable of exemplifying the warm hearted intuitive press fast past…solipsistic spoutings into frantic demonstrations encapsulating my inability to abide silence, stillness delaying the broad bold swab of prime color…over rouged, powdered cheeks while painted lips puckered into my need to encapsulate the blood free pour by another aristocratic exemplification whose centrifugal force poured into my inability to expound upon flames rising, carbonizing thick metalled military hulks slow rolling into smoke puffs, shells landing, exploding, not obliterating the dead flat too direct stare upon slag hills standing tall and broad industrial wastes free smoking…beneath my planetary flight about the earth’s gravitational pull hard down into my need to meet the ideational press into my non providential sense chaos swirled fast down into my earth bound need to erupt from my stubborn human situation while I stood, stared, met silence stillness surrounding… Grandfather sitting staring before the European spectra staring hard down into my non privileged relegation by historical conditioned shrill shrieks barked at my too intense demand … young wife and I must gain more than the mongrel exiled stand upon self-spoken unrelenting contention that an imperial imperative’s dark dead too direct stare into flagrant impoundments indulged by my vagrant virginal slow warm full flow into dire daring very deep stains testing my optimistic contention self-extension into mysteriums dead flat too direct stares into mean need to self-involve with another fearless bang clang into the contemporaneous expound of over intense self-indulgent indignities fast lain upon the young, the much too intense too intemperate me.…

Young wife and I glimpsed Europe nineteen hundred and forty nine when freighter passenger slow ship docked in Genoa, unloaded, reloaded, renewed passage towards extravagant expectations from the Israeli kibbutz. Each day in port we boarded another tall long bus roaring into dark leather soft and deep warm seats supporting hard stares upon fast passing exemplifications of the exotic European scene displaying vital veritable highly unique historic propinquities upon stones chipped slow, fitted slow into century long standing terraces extruding irregular slow steps fast up, long aside above the blue-black Mediterranean Sea whose white caps spilled over white sand far below the Roman road hacked into the cliff above our precarious roll beneath tall long terraces standing olive groves, tangled vineyards above bullet holes pocking dark concrete fast passing behind my need to suffer silence, stillness as the absence of war repairs stood, stared hard into me as the historic hiatus fast met steep swift long climb, long fast fall of deep temper into the orange-gold-red sun’s molten fast pour over my denial of my need to stride fast past …costumed balls, mannered courtly groomings testing my inability to particularize the intricate intrusive enigmatic exemplifications endorsed by historic records favored by dead headed long hard stares into silence, stillness while cravats were slow bowed beneath very clever quips from long rehearsed internal expounds issued by male painted lips, rouged, powdered cheeks, eyebrows plucked into fine lined rapid twitchings by androgynous presentations as thin gloves drawn over fast fingered stabbings forward into non violent, too voluble culminations as cigarette holders sent smoke trails up into frantic fictitious dissipations of enigmatic interpretations by my mongrel, exiled, multi-cultural, multi-religious, much too intense deep mesh of metamorphic transmigrations fast up, long past racial religious ethnic presentations ... in the Israeli kibbutz where I met the human whole’s schismatic highly intrusive massing of intuitive responses to vicious voracious clear threats hoping to decimate the logical rationalizations incapable of denying the self-centered highly visionary exemplifications inferring nefarious propensities drew me into the broad smile wife Deb did present and which stood as the dogged deep set much too mean abnegation incapable of legitimizing the schismatic idealistic flog of my need to flee from flagrant fervent statements initiating deep probes into pugnacious precarious encounters with …

… the Chosen, the Blood Libel, the sputum dripping from righteous rigid soothsayers pressing fast forward pitiable pliable need to speak softly slowly while historic enigmas fast met my desperate disparate human whole’s …righteous rigid self-spoken ruminotory expel by contemporaneous throwbacks to fervent stride, awkward stumble neighboring Grandfather striding beneath …the great moon gleaming long over ocean swells slow rolling over broad reflections fast wavering above subterranean too direct stares into the ethereal flow far over shrill scream from my planetary flight into the righteous rigid too intense need to infer cultural regimens imposed quiescent qualitative stasis long standing, hard staring over the gravitational flow drawing me into wholly pleasurable more aberrant proclivities…while I did consider combers rolling spilling into drum pound, bugle blare, cymbals clash before my need to thrust the national banner far up into acidic ash raining upon …Torrid Zonal dark broad bold breasts, thick nipples standing into my need to pendulate above broad hips slow swaying while deep indenting the fleshed forward roll over my abdominal extension into dead flat too intense stare into the cosmic corrosive overview of my long stare past Grandmother’s soft slow caress of my too intense stare converted into soft slow smile after grandfather proclaimed …I was the grandson delegated to stand, stare into the European spectra’s celebrated dignification of the mythological grip…of the American saddle horn strapped onto the broad beast leaping, sun fishing, hard kicking, loud landing, fast galloping into …snow white peaks standing as self-spoken fully absorbent near final recognition grandeur shall embellish my American need to sample …Marxist-Leninist dogmas pounding Utopian ideals into…Siberian Artic long nights, bitter cold winds blowing past dim days when strong wind trembled stunted trees long standing ice bearded highly fragmented self-extensions into triple paned small windows set deep into the loud wind window rattle beneath black night fast down upon my stubborn press into forbearances standing beneath the long low French sun burning into an ever more difficult sing of La Marseilles while the Guillotine fell, heads rolled, blood poured over Sans Culottes small fists thrust fast up to particularize shrill shrieks insisting power, property, glory be legitimized by the scrupulous editing of the Napoleonic Code’s enormous power and institutionalization of enduring glory burning, consuming my inability to deny the corruption, the nepotism, the bloodlettings, the maimings, the persecutions …after sabers were withdrawn, the sun gleamed long from the fast gallop into shrill shrieks charging artillery salvoes shredding blood red tunics, gold braid falling as horses tumbled, blood poured … while slow sail to the New World’s aboriginal slaughter, the transmission of pandemics decimating aboriginals hacking slowly into the rain forest beneath thunder roll after lightening crashed, illuminated total focus upon vandal plunder following the native massacres promulgating the fast press forward by eyeballs bulging while eyelids fluttered above the dogmas spouted from my much too evident stand beneath dead flat long stares into enigmatic renditions of my rigid invalid stratagems too long contained by the laggard me…

Which tour path? Which vehicle?

Not tour groups lock stepping into righteous rigid pontifications from guides spewing narrow interpretations certifying rigid turns into vendettas rising, running, fast falling into morbid maudlin queries delaying pertinent perambulations into radical renditions reciting mean deep delve into no more than the short mileage between cities, towns, hamlets, fast passed national boundaries which never presented stratagems necessary to visit the hundreds, the thousands of American miles demanding speed free flights over great farms, splendid mountains, broad river long valleys coursing between cultivated fields, municipal roofs standing as highly organized stratagems attested to by the pale green pale brown long dry plains settled by religious righteous historic recorded vagrant near violent mere material bracketings… while American acceptance of immigrants fleeing from morbid moribund cultures stultifying what could present final existences within enclaves where proofs positives instigated desperation’s violent virtuoso long stand upon categorical imperatives shredded by … artillery salvos, blood pourings deep staining the New World’s proofs positive the Civil War had to override the diligent desperate too minimalist residence.

… In Europe, two to three miles, you are in another town, city, nation. There is food, shelter, distractions to tease your aberrant taste, to press your focus long past alarums stamping loud into my inability to dignify the fully uniformed elaborate adorned near desperate mythological imperatives burning stigmatas into my inability to dignify the free running highly speculative categorical imperatives standing beneath long stares into the incommunicable me.

… Bicycle and hostel travel are ordinary. You shall meet, react to a more nuanced more honest cultural performance than sitting in a bus, auto, train, boarding in villas, hotels, feasting in grand restaurants occupied by highly uniformed pretenders while natives stand, smile as you pedal past. Board in youth hostels, prove you can discriminate more than the crude rude highly despised very rich colonials roaring past in broad long autos transporting crude rude mere material advantages past European contempt towards mongrel exiles incapable of appreciating intellectual values before mature Europeans disparaging the momentum bypassed by precious refuges provided by old towns, long traditions … standing very quiet streets after supper. In the country, board in youth hostels. They are clean, inexpensive, well-managed, serve nourishing but very plain food. You sleep eat with Europeans. You rest in male or female dormitories. Youth predominate. All are welcome. All are present. You appear to be in your mid-twenties. Your conversation, your attitudes are into your dotage. The backpacking bicycle touring traveler is welcome anywhere. Not at the royal ball but at the informal, the spontaneous interactions where you shall meet more than categorical national characterizations denying the individuality of the human influenced by cultural regimens bypassed by the Vanderfogel speed free flight… up out into clear view of the romantic great journey which is not naïve, not implausible through bicycle travel, youth hostel boarding which shall present a more accurate view of human culture melded into what may be the universal truth…Youth hostels stand in most cities, in most towns, on exotic locations, in alpine huts, former hunting lodges, abandoned castles, abandoned farm houses. Bicycle travel shall provide you with the exercise to calm your restless spirit. The mileage between hostels is forty to fifty miles, sometimes more, sometimes less. It depends on the area. You shall meet, eat, sleep with Europeans. Some French hostels are famous for filth and disorder…another demonstrations of France’s inability to cope with LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE…The average hostel is well managed, clean, inexpensive. The typical gender separate dormitory is a large room with rows of double-decker bunk beds. Each bed provides a mattress, a pillow, blankets. You supply a sleeping sac. Vary hostel meals with restaurant meals. European restaurants are reasonably priced, serve good to excellent meals. Europeans are taken with food, its preparation, its presentation. It is never expensive. The dollar is king. But I know you. You are saying it is food only food, more than that is bourgeoisie nouveau nonsense …In the city visit the railroad station. It has a tourist bureau, which supplies addresses, prices for private room rentals, inexpensive restaurants. Room rentals are more expensive than hostels, but your evenings are free. That is important in the city. Hostels have curfews. European city nighttime street and café activities can be adventures. Few human passions are concealed. That applies to urination in pissoirs to near nude women standing beneath street lanterns, sitting behind windows…You shall meet vendors of food, flesh, anything to suit your aberrant taste. There are wonderful conversations at café tables. Walk the streets, sit at café tables, join conversations, test, refine your language skills. Europeans are interested in Americans speaking their language and representing relatives who had the courage to emigrate. But they dismiss Americans as materialistic, not appreciative of intellectual achievements, which make life more than momentum while they want to know what American industry is producing. In the city eat in cafeterias and small restaurants. Travel at your pace, linger, move as you please. Nine weeks on a bicycle? You shall become tired. Take busses and trains over the hilly and mountainous areas… met my hard dark too direct stare into my need to press proofs positive into my direction, my exposition of the evolutionary flow past antiquated attitudinal parameters imposed by highly idealized wholly logical certifications of my inability to surround myself with mean deep need to pedal, to struggle, to suffer territorial imperatives fine lined dark deep stained overly common sensibilities fast met by latent long stares into propagandist prorogations into intuitive allegations that the incorrigible, incorruptible me was indulging my tribal American inclined bias…

Clothing?…Anything clean and comfortable. The Vanderfogel uniform is short pants, short sleeved open collared shirts, sandals, hiking boots, a broad smile above the fast step past dogmatic parameters hoping encounter more than thoughts swirling into incongruous magnanimities relying upon exaggerated images long cast by highly disconcerting enigmas within the human whole slowly evolving into a broader bolder expound of you, me, almost everyone. …All possessions must fit into bicycle bags. Pack short pants, workpants, loose shirts, a heavy sweater, a windbreaker, a rain cape. European nights are cool. It rains on the west coast. Consider trains and busses You shall become tired…met my hard dark too direct stare pressing mean need into an intuitive too intense display of dead flat too long stare into mean need to categorize divergent dilemmas pressing proofs positive onto solipsistic swirls into categorical imperatives long standing upon tall long canvases where prime colors were swabbed, splattered, pallet carved into divergent expostulations of my speed free flow into ancestral stratagems incapable of altering my need to infer subjective, objective enigmas established by deep integrated speed free flow up, long into cold clear flight above enigmas imposed by a narrow sense reality’s dogged desperate mission would characterize me, everyone.

Friends stared, friends giggled…Friends drove a long loud American auto, slept in villas, grand hotels, feasted into nightly stupors flushing fully forward self-serving highly impressionistic compliments unable to distinguish fervent recitals directing my focus upon fine lined firm framings of self-selective near aberrant images not portraying my irrational character engaging long pause, pulse pound into prolonged delay, then speed free flow past another over simple sense self indulgent highly indigent characterizations could not provide the spectral special deeply integrated sense another exclusionary glow rose from the dark dense too direct stares from stigmatas long standing as self-indulged proofs positive I must meet react to more than schismatic contentions dark dead too direct stares into the mortifying sense highly intense proprietary presences sped past dogged desperate long muse after I fast spent dogged doggerels into mean testing discomfort fast assembled by silence then stillness while I pedal faster into hard heavy deep loud fast breathing.

Friends giggled, stared …You shall become tired.

Printed material included with hostel passbook applications suggested we purchase The Youth Hostel Guide to West Europe…which offered maps, tour line suggestions to visit architectural monuments, to interact with natives manipulated by unique cultural resolutions whose more apparent influence shall demonstrate diligent desperate historic exceptions to the fast shifting boundaries never complying with historic developments nurtured by geographic, historic world wide long views overriding dark dead too intense stares questioning traditional protocols slow stepping past deep invested morbid impediments slow established by human historic recorded propensities establishing another questionable norm by my diffident fervent assemble of my critical free running protocol while inhuman ideational hordes ran, vandalized my inability to blend into the complicit, complacent too compliant hordes.

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