Entry 17:Day 57 to 59

San Francisco - London - Vienna


Bold words point at a picture on this page


Can you believe it? I certainly can't. It's the 57th day of my trip and I'm sitting at the San Francisco International Airport waiting to board my flight to London. It's over. Well, almost.

This entry is the last one and will consist of several parts, written in San Francisco, London, and in Vienna. It will contain the last adventure in San Francisco (remember I had to go prison), some statistics about my trip, how I got to Vienna, and some final thoughts.

Today in the morning for the first time in my life I went to prison. What happened? Well, on Monday I went to Pier 41 in San Francisco and, and, and... bought a ticket to see Alcatraz, the most feared prison in the US which was closed in 1963 and opened for the public sometime in the 70s.

Alcatraz is build on a solid rock island in the San Francisco Bay. It housed criminals like Al Capone, Robert "The Birdman" Stroud, "Machine Gun" Kelly, etc. It is very eerie to see the conditions under which the inmates had to live there. I met an ex-con who was imprisoned in Alcatraz and became a writer after his prison life. He was signing and promoting his book about his time on "the Rock". He said he wrote his book to appall people from criminal acts because doing time in a penitentiary is far from having fun. I'm convinced.

After Alcatraz I met up with Barry again and we drove through the "Streets of San Francisco". What a great city! Sorry Sydney, but San Fran stays my favorite city and that won't change. It has so much charm and so many different faces. I wish I could live there even if it is only for a very short time. I hope that some of the pictures on this page say more than 1000 words.

After Barry shipped me and my luggage to the airport and I had to wait for an hour in line because of the current security concerns in the U.S., I am now waiting to board my flight to London which hopefully will prove that the earth is round!

London, August 2, 1996

It is now 11 hours later and I'm sitting in London waiting for my flight to Vienna. What I suspected all those years proved to be true: the earth is round! I started here in London two months ago and returned to London from the other direction - that leaves no doubt in my mind, or does it...

Enough of that. Let me give you some statistics on my trip:

Days on the road: 58
Date changes: 57 (you figure it out!)
Continents: Europe, Asia, Australia, America (damn, I should have had a stop in Africa somewhere - this would have been the perfect Olympic trip)
Time zones: all 24 of course, but stayed only in 6 different ones
Time spent on planes: 50 hours (that's a little bit more than 50 minutes per day)
Kilometers traveled: I have no clue
Kilometers driven in Australia: 3,605
Miles driven in Hawaii: 205 (that's 332 km)
Miles driven in California: 768 (that's 1244 km)
That makes it a total of: 5,181 km
No. of different hotels/motels/hostels: 14
Longest stay in one place: Sydney, 6 nights
Mars bars eaten: 58 (one per day)
Favorite place: San Francisco
Least favorite: Singapore
Most fun: sailing in the Whitsunday islands
Worst experience: some weird rashes on my genitals (just kidding)
Postcards sent: 58 (what? that's f$%#ing unbelievable) from 2 different locations (haha and you thought I would say: "one per day")
Analog pictures taken: 339
Digital pictures taken: 533 (that's a total of 15 per day)
Books read: 4 (The new hotel Hampshire by John Irving (very good), The Takeover by Stephen Frey (every new MBA should read that), Dirty white boys by Stephen Hunter (gory but fascinating), and Wilt by Tom Sharpe (hilarious))
Books started: 2 ( The ends of the earth by Robert Kaplan (a diary of a journey to the dawn of the 21st century), Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goldman (difficult), and Last train to Alcatraz by Leon Whitey Thompson (interesting))
Money spent: too much but who gives a @#$%. What counts is the memory of a great trip.

Here are some final deep thoughts (by Joerg Handy):

If I could do it all over again, I would not. It is boring as hell to do the exact same trip twice especially if you are gone for two months.




Now my "Oscars" speech:

I would like to thank my family. Without their support this trip would not have been possible. Especially my Dad who had to deal with the bureaucracy in Austria to get my car which was shipped from Ann Arbor to Vienna. From what I experienced from the distance, he had to go through hell. Dad, I would have lost my patience and probably killed one of the customs #$%holes.

I also would like to thank the following people for their hospitality or support during my trip: Yi Luo, Melissa Seet, the MBAs from Cathay Pacific, Johannes and his brother Norbert in Brisbane, Desi and Barry in San Francisco, and finally my friend Chris who helped me in my wallet crisis.

Also I would like to thank Apple Austria and especially Mr. Janetschka who made the digital diary possible by supplying me with Apple's digital camera.

Products I would like to endorse because they have served me well:

- Apple Powerbooks and Cameras
- Global Village Modems
- American Express Credit Cards: within 24 hours I had a replacement card, almost like in the commercial (it took VISA more then 3 days to get me the card)

Vienna, August 3, 1996, 7:34 am

I did not sleep at all last night. My jetlag kept me from shutting my eyes. Even a dose of Melatonin did not work. Anyway, the good news is: I'm home and safe. The bad news can be seen in my last picture: that's how my apartment looks right now. I have exactly 2 weeks until I start working. Until then this mess has to be gone.

Finally, thanx to you for tuning in. I hope you had as much fun reading as I had writing. Take care and stay in touch, whoever and wherever you are.

Love and peace

Joerg






Last Entry

Return to Main Page

Return to Diary Page