BY GUNNAR NIXON
Over 667 miles in 15 days through 5 countries traveling in trains with oversize dogs, riding in taxis with random strangers, and Penny boarding through the streets of Salzburg, two American boys from small communities discovered that maybe they don’t have the world figured out just yet.
Earlier this year on a visit to Denison University, Mariemont graduate of ’15 Cooper Hayes and Wyoming graduate of ’15 Oliver Reinecke discussed seeing Europe before they committed the next four years of their life at a university. What they didn’t know was that they had just birthed a plan to see Europe in 15 days in what turned out to be a “trip of a lifetime.”
Fast forward to June 22nd, after flying into the Turin Airport in Italy, Hayes and Reinecke arrive by train in Milan. Hayes explains that they made their first rookie mistake within five minutes of exiting the train. “Their is nothing in your life that will prepare you to be immersed in a culture with an entirely different language. We soon realized how helpless we were,” explains Hayes.
Before they knew it, they were surrounded by an persuasive Senegalese salesman who tied friendship bracelets around their wrists and then insisted upon payment. “Then Oliver made the mistake of pulling out his wallet, and we ended up spending a sum of money that I would not like to disclose,” said Hayes.
The two met up with Margarita Rey, a former exchange student of the class of 2014 at Mariemont, who showed the two around Milan. The following day was spent visiting the World Food Expo, and that night they checked out Milan’s night life in one of the cities many clubs.
“The club was like nothing I had ever seen,” said Hayes. “Things going wrong for us from the start, we spent 30 min trying to find an ATM in order to withdraw cash. We soon discovered that an “ATM” in Italy is the name for their subway officers so everyone I asked was utterly confused.”
“After getting the money we embarrassed ourselves by trying to go into the club wearing shorts. Normally we would have been turned away but when we said we were American the bouncer laughed and let us in” added Hayes.
Hayes’s laughed when explaining that the bad luck in Italy became a catalyst for a series of unfortunate events that followed them through the next three countries.
The next stop for Hayes and Reinecke was Venice. Wanting to break the confines of a typical tourist and see the city in a different light, they decided to get lost explains Hayes. “We took turns until we were off the beaten path and got to experience the city in a completely different way. We wanted to do a gondola but it was 90 dollars and I love Oliver but not that much.”
As the two traveled through Venice and then Salzburg, they nearly missed a connecting train in the process. “We were almost late for our night train to Salzburg just to find out that the car was already full of people and one over-sized dog. So we sat awake in the train for the eight hours we planned on sleeping,” says Hayes.
Salzburg was the first country they were able to relax explains Hayes. The boys explored the city by foot, bike and penny board seeing sites at their own will.
The boys’ next stop was Munich, where Hayes insisted they see the world-renowned BMW museum. However, before they made it to the museum, the duo had a run-in with another near-disaster. “Oliver had managed to lose the key in all of two hours. So after waiting an hour to meet with the owner of our lodging, we purchased a new key,” said Hayes.
In a local bar in Munich, the pair realized there were three days that they hadn’t accounted for. “After a long period of scratching out, erasing, rewriting, and erasing again we realized that we had made overlooked a large portion of our trip” says Hayes. Originally birthed at a Chipotle in the U.S, this home-made calendar was used to recalculate the lost time.
Hayes and Reinecke’s next stop was Leipzig where they stayed with Reinecke’s German father who is a renowned professor and musician in the area.
Hayes explains after being inspired by the European cuisine, they decided they would try their own hand at cooking. Equipped with four different kinds of steak, several lamb shanks, bread, and cheese, the pair went to work. “Grilling the meat by the lake, it was easily the best meal of all trip, manly and wholesome,” Hayes states.
After their meal, the two were en route for lake house owned by Reinecke’s mother located in the northwest city of Berlin. “While in Berlin, we visited one of the coolest clubs I’ve ever been to that was located in a retired train station,” explains Hayes.
The duo made their last stop in Amsterdam, where Hayes explains that he came into touch with a different sense of freedom in the Dutch capital. “Growing up in America, I think we are instilled with the belief that authorities are not only to be respected, but also feared. However, in Europe I never feared the authorities at any point, in fact they helped us in times of confusion multiple times,” adds Hayes.
While Hayes admits that he fell in love with Europe during his visit, he ensures that his roots were never forgotten. “Europe could never change the way I feel about the good old U. S. of A, I’ll always rep this country till my death, even if I become a hippie socialist dairy farmer in Vermont.”
