مکالمه

Hey, you know I ran into John today and he’s gonna actually be doin’ some travelin’ in Europe. He’s, uh, he says he’s gonna spend a lot of time in Prague.

Oh, Prague’s awesome. Ah . . . did I tell you I lived there?

No, get out of here. You never told me that.

Yeah, I lived in Prague about 15 years ago.

Oh, whoa, du-, what were you doing there?

Well, I was traveling. I didn’t actually know that I would end up in Prague. I was just gonna do whatever came along.

Wait, where’d you start out traveling?

I got a one way ticket to Amsterdam.

[laugh] Oh, nice.

And one of the only people that I knew in Europe was this chick that I used to go out with. So I figured I’d look her up. I knew she had another boyfriend at that point. But she said she could get me a place to stay and she was in Prague. So I figured I’d go there for a few weeks and see how it went.

She was from Prague? Or…

No, she was American, but she was over there teaching English.

Oh, nice, nice.

Yeah.

So wait, how long did you spend in Amsterdam?

I only spent about four days in Amsterdam before I got kind of sick of it.

So you were just goin’, you were just basically like, uh, travelin’ through.

Oh, nice, nice.

And kind of hooked up with some English chicks and just kind of spent a little bit of time with them on the road. And then eventually ended up, uh, on a train late at night and, uh, didn’t have any money, but pretended I didn’t understand what anyone was saying and ended up in Prague.

Wait, when you first took off, um, from the U.S., were you actually traveling alone?

Totally by myself.

Oh, sweet.

Yep.

Nice…

It’s funny, looking back, I didn’t have anything with me, y’know.

Yeah, you could just like basically, uh, take off on a whim.

I had like one pair of shoes and no health insurance and I was just, uh, livin’ large.

[laugh] That’s nice. And you know what, now you would probably look back and think that you were totally broke. And, uh, that, now that you have kids, that would be a difficult, a very difficult thing to think of.

If I had to be responsible for them it would be difficult. But, y’know, I, uh, I was only responsible for me. And I kind of… I was, I was in the mood to, uh, to feel anonymous. I wanted to go where no one recognized me.

Yeah, no that sounds great. So you, I, that’s great that you just traveled alone.

A lot of people, uh, are not into doin’ that, y’know?

Yeah, well, it’s a big deal.

Yeah, some people…

You’ve got to kind of put yourself out there and just see what happens, y’know.

Yeah, exactly. I actually, I’ve never traveled alone. But, uh, I, I’m sure I could do it, y’know, because, uh, I’m good, I, I feel like I’m pretty good at meeting people, y’know?

Yeah, yeah. Well sometimes it’s fun to meet people and other times it’s fun to just truly be on your own. And, y’know, you get into a situation where you, where you realize that nobody knows where you are… Joe: [laugh]

and you just have this total sense of, uh, freedom.

Yeah.

It’s crazy.

Yeah, I can only imagine.

Yeah.

You took the train from Amsterdam to, uh, to Prague?

No, I took the train to somewhere in Germany and then I started thumbing on the side of the road.

[laugh] Oh, how long did you stay in Germany?

Uh, like two days.

Oh, that wasn’t long at all.

Yeah, just long enough for a couple of weird people to meet me and, uh, help me out, and take me to different places.

So they actually picked you up?

Yeah, at one point I decided that I didn’t really care what direction the car was going as long as it was warm and dry, I was getting in.

Wait, did you, were you actually like, uh, did you believe that you were headed to Prague at that point or were you just…

Yeah…I was…

headed wherever?

No, I was headed to Prague, but I didn’t really care if it took me a while or what.

Oh, that’s cool.

So I just kind of went with the flow of what was happening.

Yeah, what did you think of Germany while you were there, because I’ve never been there…

Kind of weird…

either.

kind of weird. Uh, y’know, being, uh, being a Jew, uh… Joe: [laugh]

I was kind of aware of the history.

Yeah, I’m sure that that’s something that is pretty hard to forget.

yeah, although, you know interestingly, the only person I met in Europe who was a deadhead was in Germany.

Oh really!

Yeah, and he was like so happy that I was into the Dead when he met me and I gave him one tape that I had…

[laugh]

and he was just ecstatic, because they weren’t able to get tapes like we were at that point.

Oh, so he was actually German.

Yeah.

[laugh] That’s great.

Because this was before computers.

Yeah, well if you think about it the Dead played there in, uh, ‘81, and, uh… David: Yeah, he, he knew about them. He knew what was up, but he was like, y’know…

Yeah.

I could use some music. And he had a Dead shirt on. He showed me. It was funny.

Wait, he, he was actually wearing a Grateful Dead shirt when you met him?

Uh-huh.

[laugh] That’s great.

It was like underneath a sweatshirt. He was like, “No, really.” He pulls over… He lifts up the sweatshirt. He was like “Look.” It was like an old tie-dye.

Were you wearing one also?

No.

Oh, so how did he know?

Uh, I just started talking about it and I had bootlegs with me.

Oh, that’s great.