Rob West

Exhaustive and exhausting. You really need the stamina of a team of horses to do it all. What you can do, will be rewarding. I promise. If you appreciate beauty and history or art or architecture or gosh, any of the higher forms of human expression, even a little, you’ll love it here.

I had heard so many United Staters talking merde about Paris that when I was given the opportunity to go there, I went not really wanting to go.

My experience once I got there, however, was quite remarkable. I found Paris to be utterly charming, and the people there were kind, and generous, and helpful.

One tip: learn at least a little French. If you try and fail to speak it, that’s 100 times better than not speaking any and expecting those folks to speak English. Just my brief experience talking!

I’m SO going back there.

I was fortunate enough to travel here on my own, and then a year later, work for a company that designed and built Elton John’s website. One of the best times in my life. Living there, working there, playing there, travelling around. Unforgettable.

London feels like a second home to me, and one day, I hope to move there.

Back in 1998, I went and visited what for me is the literary equivalent of Mecca: Dublin. I’m a James Joyce fanatic, and it was very difficult for me to think about much else while I was there.

Highlight of the trip? Having the first chapter of Ulysses interpreted by a single actor, playing all the characters, on location at the Martello Tower. Hot. Even hotter was when he looked me straight in the eyes and referred to me as Stephen Daedalus.

Come on. If that ain’t litgeek, what is?