I’m actually writing this from Budapest, having just now gotten a free moment to get caught up with writing about the trip. My last two posts were centered on Germany, and in those I tried to display a kind of ironic dichotomy between the generally splendid nature of the country and the people I met, though punctuated with a few calamities. First, I was mugged on Easter Sunday in Frankfurt, an event that lead to a psychedelic conversation that ultimately seemed like I was being comforted by an angel. After that, I foolishly went to a spa in Munich that ended up being more of a house of ill repute that resulted in my getting swindled out of a lot of money, though my Banks were merciful and credited me the money back. Finally, I had two expensive devices stolen out of my hotel room in Inzell, on the border with Austria. Other than these three events, Germany was beyond delightful, and I met a number of wonderful people, particularly a number of fantastic ladies whose company helped me get past a lot of the disturbing emotional reactions I had been having ever since problems with my daughter and December, and a bizarre negative encounter with a Polish girl and her jealous boyfriend on the cruise to Europe in March.
Germany was a place with which I have a long history, not all of it positive, and this contrasted with Flanders and the UK, which were nearly entirely wonderful experiences, I suspected because I had no previous experience with those places, so I could experience them with nothing but the wonder of a completely new place. All in all, Germany seemed unique on the trip so far, and if that perspective would be true, then my subsequent destinations should have a different kind of flavor or message to them.
My next country to tour would be Austria. I only spent a couple of days in Salzburg, a night in Lintz on the way to Vienna, and a few days in Vienna. The ride to Vienna from Lintz would be my longest ever by a long shot.
I was desperate to get there to finally send my documents back to the Jewish Agency in Los Angeles. I had been running around trying to get everything collected and find someone who could view the actual physical documents as the Jewish Agency requires. This also was a part of the negative experience of Germany. I couldn’t just relax and go wherever and do whatever. I was always worrying about how to get this document problem solved for my Aliyah packet. Now, at the time of this writing, the only issue I currently have to worry about is showing someone my passport, as I can’t exactly mail my passport to the USA while I am in Europe.
There were two events that really overtook me in Austria. They both involved girls. Both were quite different. The first involved a synchronistic event of epic proportions. This would be the night when I met Neta. An Israeli. There aren’t too many Israelis in the world, so when I run into one at a hostel in Salzburg, I took note. She was 21 years old, and she was from Netanya. Netanya was the city where I lived in Israel in 2018 and 2019. So I met this Israeli from my town. The town that actually bears my name, in fact, as Jonathan and Netanya actually have the same meaning in Hebrew.
But not only was this young Israeli woman from my town, her name struck me. Neta in Hebrew means little plant. Now I carry a deep anguish in my heart for a young woman named Chloe, who I knew from when she was nine until she was 22. She was my daughter’s best friend until they had a senseless falling out over the apartment they were sharing. Chloe was a sort of a replacement for me for my stepdaughter Veronica, who I lost after my divorce when my ex wife manipulated her to testify against me in a custodial case involving my daughter. I lost Chloe just as I went to Los Angeles. There are old blog posts about that somewhere on this blog. Anyway, Chloe is a Greek name, and it means “little plant.” So, this Israeli girl, Neta, had the Hebrew name that corresponds to the name of a young woman who I deeply loved but is now lost to me.
Finally, Neta’s final destination on her European trip is Peru. This also was a strange coincidence, as for a long time I was telling myself and others around me that if I don’t get something going with my life before too long, I’d just give up and disappear to some mountainside in Peru. That’s not the case anymore. I’ve got some other ideas about what to do and where to go if things don’t work out with this Israel mission, and Peru is no longer on the list. However, Peru represents for me a kind of disappearance and surrender from the task of trying to accomplish anything in life, and tht’s eactly where this girl was going, though only for a while before she returned to her country.
That’s a lot of coincidences. In Strasbourg I meet an Israeli chick. She is from my town in Israel. She is named after someone I love but lost. She was traveling to somewhere that I once considered escaping to. I write a lot about Jungian synchronistic events, meaningful coincidences, events that correspond to specific patterns through a series of events that don’t appear to be related. Meeting this girl just blew me away. I went out to a bar with her and a couple of Brazilian guys and a handful of other young ladies, all of which were super cool. I was really glad for that experience, grateful to God for showing me all these cool girls and moving me past the traumatic experiences from earlier in the year.
I only have a couple of pictures of Neta that I snapped while we were out. There she is above front and center talking to the other girls while Matheus from Brazil is there on the right heading to the bar.
While my time with these folks in real life was delightful, the misery begins when things go online. I got Neta on Instagram and WhatsApp, and in my typical fashion I started in talking to her about strange coincidences and fate and all that, trying to explain why my interest in her would be a bit different from what she was expecting. As usual, we traded a few lines, I went into some explanations, and she went silent. One would think she was unimpressed with all my craziness. Of course, I could have been once again attacked by the technological gremlins that have been plaguing me ever since the cruise to South Hampton.
Yes, these are still tearing at my sanity and plaguing the trip in general. Just today I tried to register for a Shabbat lunch at the Chabad in Budapest, but was just unable to pay the entry cost.
It really does seem like some supernatural techno force is preventing me from interacting with Israel and Jews. So I really don’t know why Neta went silent. Perhaps she is not getting my texts at all.
I went off to Lintz and Vienna the next day, and I hope I’ll hear from her again some way, maybe even in Netanya. In Vienna I was exhausted from the ride and didn’t do too much but want around the city taking pictures of some breathtaking monuments in that gorgeous city and otherwise hung around the hostel. It was there that I met this gay guy Jeremy who converted to Reform Judaism and moved to Israel to be with his boyfriend. I have him on Instagram, and he is in Israel now having a great time from the looks of his social media posts.
Finally, though, I met this super cool Hong Kong girl in the hostel. She was traveling with a group of friends she was studying with in the UK for a weekend in Austria. The thing about this girl was that there was just this powerful energy around the conversations I was having with her. I was super excited to hang out with her, again, another pearl from God showing me all these cool chicks acting as a kind of therapy to overcome my own past traumas. There were no strange Jungian coincidences about her or anything. Only that I could kind of feel my intense desire to hang out with her actually form the relationship. Like, she could feel how into her I was, and I think she reacted accordingly. I think is was just a bizarre, but delightful interaction that had something to do with the exhaustion I was feeling. I honestly think if I had made a pass at her, she would have gone for it. That’s how well we got along.
But then, as usual, I got her on Instagram, sent a text or two, and she stopped responding. I just don’t understand why this always seems to happen. In real life I get along with everybody great, but once the internet gets involved, nothing happens. Maybe there really are illuminating wizard computer programmers out there trying to drive me crazy. No idea.
From there, though, I again packed up and rode my bicycle to Bratislava on my way to Budapest. This post is pretty much an update about travels without any particular grand adventure or theme other than to say that I did NOT experience any of the particular calamities of Germany, or any of the frustrations. Going to new places does indeed seem to result in better experiences. Seeing Neta was absolutely impactful for me, and I do hope to keep some kind of contact or bump into her again some day if God so wills. I don’t think it was chance that I ran into her at all. I think the next post, Hungary, will have a better chance of being a better post. A lot has happened here. But I will get to that after I’ve had some time to reflect.
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