Kevin Kartchner

17 hours of Pure Travel Adventure

Posted on July 15, 2012 Updated on July 15, 2012

Above is a picture (I didn’t take) of Brixen. Looks a lot like Cache Valley. Easily just as pretty.

Here is the first post to my travels during UNICON 16 in Brixen, Italy. To make it easier on me here is my Facebook update describing the trip thus far.

I’m in Brixen Italy in a Youth Hostel. I made it safely. First traveling to Iceland making our connecting flight by 20minutes. Then proceeding to Munich, Germany and having a drunken manufacture worker help us get tickets and guide us to our train where he proceeded to play Avril Lavigne and show us the lighter app on his samsung phone. Great guy. Good heart. We traded him tickets for 3 beers. 3 Euros for 3 beers. What a steal. We made our train by 5 minutes. After the matter, we accidentally tried to enter a girls only section on the train. YOLO. We proceeded on a bus to some other city in Italy, where we met 2 beautiful Italian Chicas. They want us. We proceeded to walk across town and now we are here at the hostel. All with my one and only bro, Colby Danger Thomas. And we still got 25 days to tear up Europe.

So yeah. Crazy trip so far. In the total 17 hours of travel I got about 1 or 2 hours of sleep. This actually worked out better because of the time change because I was tired when it was time to sleep in Italy. Italy is 8 hours ahead of Utah if my calculations are correct.

A little more on the buying beer for “Micheal” was his name. We asked him to help us buy our tickets (bad idea he spoke very bad english) and he did his best to help us but couldn’t get our cards to work. He had a ticket that was good for 5 people so he told us if we bought him beer he would let us go with him. “You buy beer for tickets” he said in broken english. We proceeded towards a bar and he then told me to stop and wait by the luggage while Colby and him continued to the bar. I thought nothing of it, he said “Be back in 3 minutes.” I was convinced he would be back in 3 minutes. 10 minutes later i’m by the luggage about to cry thinking Colby just got kidnapped and sold as a sex slave. “How am I going to explain this to his parents?” “Should I call a police officer.” Those were thoughts going through my head. But how do you explain something like that to someones parents? You’re screwed no matter what. “Well, i let Colby go with some drunk guy to buy beer…” Yeah that’s not going to fly. I’ve honestly never prayed so hard in my entire life. When I saw Colby walking towards me i’ve never been so relieved. So grateful for the power of prayer. Micheal ended up being a really cool guy, he showed us his pictures from his trip to Turkey, a picture of his GF, told us how much he loves Assassins Creed. All that good stuff. All in broken English. Such a blessing that we met him because he led us right to the train we needed to be on.

Last night Colby lost his wallet (big shocker) and he was saying a prayer, opened his eyes, and saw it right on the ground while it was pitch black and raining. The church is true.

The hostel is dope. We are in a room with 4 beds and it’s me, Colby, and a super nice guy named Martin.

Almost everyone speaks a little English, which is crazy because they also speak like 4 other languages. Americans suck that way. We make everyone learn English because we don’t learn any other language.

The ice cream is bomb as usual for Italy. Colby got me to order this “Siciline” or some crap last night at a restaurant. It was a pizza with anchovies/sardines. Worst pizza ever. I just ate the crust haha

I freakin miss my family and friends so hard. I usually don’t get homesick but i’m feeling it this time. I guess it’s good preparation for my mission. I’m really grateful for all my family and friends and the support they are giving me. Love you all.

Me and Colby rode around on our uncycles in the rain a little last night in Brixen. There was a live concert going on in the center of town so we ate there and listened. It’s just crazy that we are in Italy at the Unicycle World Championships. Such a humbling experience and i’m grateful to be here with Colby!

Sorry for the horrible grammar, i’m just trying to get this blog updated as fast as possible. Let me know if you have any questions and i’ll answer them 🙂

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