We arrived!  I would like to say that I cant believe our luck that we've had, but I now feel that saying "unbelieveable" is sacreligious, and "luck" implies that you received something that you did not deserve....


more on Hitchhiking part III later :)

we are currently staying with Jane and Jim, two expat retirees who have been living in Stuttgart for 9 years.  Jane is AWESOME, such a great spirit and very young at heart.  a couchsurfing grandmother....LOVE IT!!  she's amazing.  after the longest day of hitchhiking, we arrived to the most satisfying meal of pasta and meatballs with gravy :)

ok...we're adveturing off on their bikes now!

I realize now that I did not ever tell the story of my first European hitchhiking experience, so here it is, although keep in mind that the story cannot possibly capture all of the glory that the experience really is.our previous couchsurfing host had dropped us off. we stood in the sun
for about 45 minutes, when i had a split second
inspiration to make another sign, Jess continued
holding the sign that said "Wien" while i went and made
a new sign that said "Gyor", a city exactly halfway
between budapest and vienna. i told her to continue
standing at the exit of the station and decided that i
would take our new sign and go stand near the highway,
you know, just in case. it all happened so fast, but
the next thing i know, a beautiful car pulls right
over to the shoulder, a lovely Hungarian couple who
signal us to get in. It was such a rush, and before we
knew what was happening, we were in the car on our way
to Gyor. I put out my hand from the backseat and say,
hello my name is Jessica. The man reaches back, and
very kindly says, Hello Jessica. My name is Peter.
(please read my blog called "A Beautiful Letter From Charlotte" for the meaning behind this coincidence).  The couple are very lovely newlyweds who spent their honeymoon in Bali. Their English was limited, but we had a very pleasant conversation.  When we got to Gyor they dropped us off at another Esso station, and we thanked them again and said goodbye.  We took a break and had some lunch in the station, then we headed to the station exit, and this time in less than 45 minutes a very well-dressed German-Turkish businessman named Aldin offered us a ride. He spoke some German with me and told us about his family and two kids.  We did not have a place to stay yet in Vienna because it was such a last minute decision, but we soon received a call from a man who saw my post that I left in the Vienna-couchsurfing group and offered us his place in the center of the city.  We were so blessed because not only did Aldin take us into the city, but he used his GPS system to look up our host`s address and dropped us right off at the front door.  Wow.

I will always love Vienna, but now I must go to Prague!

just wanted to tell you all that jess and i hitchhiked successfully to vienna and now we are in the most beautiful flat in the middle of the city staying with a professional magician-photographer-pianist. more details on the AMAZING adventure that i just experienced tomorrow morning, right now i have no words for how blessed i feel, just an overwhelming transcedental feeling of connection to this wonderful universe. ooop, got to go, we are playing dress up and having a photo shoot!!!!  bye i love you all very much

gute Morgen!  Jess and I have decided to hitchhike to Vienna instead of Prague. We will find couchsurfing there, and I also just found out that Vienna Pride fest is tomorrow!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I say goodbye to the boys today :(  Sad, yes, but they have a long journey ahead of them and I WILL see them on the other side :)

still in budapest. saw on facebook that kenny and joey (cousins from uncle mike and teeky) just arrived in budapest, so i am meeting up with them tomorrow and we are spending the day at a Turkish bath and then to this great hookah bar and rooftop bar for dance and drinks at night!  Jesse, Ian and I also found a new couch surfing host, a famous mountain climber named David Klein who is currently training to attempt mount everest without supplemtal O2 for the third time!!!!  He lives in a Yurt (a mongolian hut) that he built himself in the outskirts of budapest.  the adventure continues...love u all

hey family!  i made it to budapest.  as i was about to get off the plane i noticed that an aquaintance from my apartment building in utrecht was seated behind me.  his name is Milan and hes from budapest. he gave me a list of fun things to see and do, and gave me written directions of exactly how to meet up with my friends, and thank god, because it involved a bus ride to the metro, a train, and then a tram. i am so thankful because i think i would have gotten so lost without his help. i met up with Ian and Jesse, two really great guys that surfed my couch in Utrecht for 5 days earlier in June.  ACtually we met outside of couchsrufing when they accidently showed up at a drag show chris and i were performing in in amsterdam. they have been hitchhiking across europe for 2 months now, started in ireland. a week ago they decided to try to make it all the way around the world. amazing..simply amazing. i cant describe well enough how much fun it is to be around these guys, and they make excellent travel buddies.  we are couch surfing together with a very cute hungarian guy named Daniel who lives with his sisters and parents and he is one hell of a host. we are having a blast.  in a few days Jesse is heading east, but Ian is going to take me hitchhiking with him through prague and vienna, yay!  ill be with an expert so dont worry.  someone call mom for me and read her this post because she wont have internet for 10 days and was very adament that someone back home keep her up to date with my blog...i would appreciate it :)  also tell her HAPPY ANNIVERSARY for me!!

keep on keepin on....see you all soon

Charlotte and I met at the Berlin Beach Camp. We knew instantly we were soul mates, just take a look at us :-P  Charlotte is this incredible girl who decided that if she ever wanted to achieve her dream of hitchhiking across Europe, then she must just do it, so when her grandmother died, she quit everything, her job, school, everything, and bought a plane ticket.  This girl is so inspiring, well, we inspire each other. Anyway, she stayed with me for a while here in Utrecht until she decided it was time to head out again.  The night before we left we performed a manifestation spell, willing good times, adventure, money, and love for the both of us.  She just made it back to the US after a month more of traveling since Utrecht.  Apparently she met up with Naomi, another incredible girl whom we met in Berlin together. This was the perfect thing to wake up to as I prepare myself for my trek from Budapest and back.....

HELL YA!!  I can't believe I'm done, but I am.  Now I am packing up my little Dutch apartment and saying my goodbyes.  Goodbyes always feel so surreal to me, I just go through the motions, but never actually feel the reality until later. 

my adventurous life really picked up since i started traveling. it's wearing me out, but i'm still not quite ready for it to stop.  as soon as i got back from Spain, my old college roommate (i canNOT believe that I can say the sentence "my old college roommate") was coming through Amsterdam after an 18 month excursion on this side of the world.  Kim graduated during the winter of my junior year, and went to teach english with her finance' Tyler in China for a year.  They left China sometime in March, and have been touring all over the world, you know, BEFORE they return home for their wedding July 26.  They left China and visited our other roommate Brad who has been studying in Thailand for the last year.  Then they made their way west, and Amsterdam was their last stop before heading back to good ol' Wisconsin.  It was strange to see Kim-bo after so long, mostly because my mind could NOT comprehend that it had been 18 months since I had seen her last.  Kim and Tyler left before I got into my stand-up career, so when they came to the show that Chris and I were in on Saturday night in Amsterdam it was the first time they had seen my new life!  They loved it.  The show was a queer-gendered drag show (of sorts).  It was very strange as far as drag shows go because "Drag Queens" and Transgendered individuals live in two completely different worlds. Nonetheless, Chris and I performed in the fundraiser, and it was a really good performance for both of us.  It felt SOOOO good to be funny again, especially after the last time I flopped. It was also really fun to have Kim and Tyler in the audience, and I must give them props for being such good sports about it :)  I started my set like this: "After performing for a variety of Dutch audiences, I have learned that it is a good idea to reveal my identity before I really begin, and I feel that this atmosphere is perfect for that, so, I'd like to take this time to go ahead and 'come out' to all of you......my name is Jes....and I....am an American."  There was a lively amount of laughter, and then a Dutch woman in the audience shouted "Don't worry baby! It's not your fault!"  To which I replied energetically, "I KNOW! I CAN'T HELP IT! I WAS BORN THIS WAY!  It was not a choice!"  The queer crowd LOVED it. This was probably one of my best openings yet. The rest of the show wasn't flawless, however, since a lot of my lesbian humor wasn't as well recieved as you would imagine, stressing once again that Transgender issues, however queer they may be, are not issues about sexuality, but only about gender.