3/13 5:43 AM (Barcelona time)

I've traveled 4500 miles and I'm almost to the Scotland coast, coming from Greenland and Iceland.  I slept for a couple hours, although mostly half-sleep.  I drank 2 free Heinekens, watched The Dark Knight, and listened to GoRad before sleep.  They just served breakfast, a banana and some bagel sandwich. I feel groggy from the sleeping pill I took.  Anna's awake, she slept most of the flight.

3/12/2011 - 1:13 pm (Seattle time)

I'm climbing to 38,000 feet in an A330, 8:45 away from Amsterdam.  A little turbulence but not bad.  Anna's sitting next to me.  They just announced free beer and wine.  We're excited about that.  :)  No problems getting thru security at Seatac.  I'll be listening to GoRad in a few minutes.  Suddenly I see blue sky outside and I smile.

An explanation

From March 12- 27, 2011, I traveled to Europe with superfriend Anna.  We called it "Anna and Smiley's Most Excellent European Adventure."

We visited Barcelona, Belgrade, London, and Dublin over a two week period.  While traveling I decided to keep a little diary as I moved through Europe, recording my thoughts and experiences as I traveled. This is the transcription of my diary.

The plan is for me to transcribe my journal verbatim.  I want an unedited record of what I was thinking (and writing) during my travels.  I may add little notes at the end, but for the most part I plan to provide unedited and uncensored text (although I may correct spelling).  It's not meant to be self-flattering or aggrandizing.  It's simply meant to be the log of a first-time world traveler seeing the world with semi-fresh eyes and trying to turn a new page in life after a tough breakup.  I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not I succeeded.