Tales of a Brother Errant

Personal experiences with native of foreign countries. Confidence tricks I have been exposed to. Various experiences with taxi drivers, on buses, trains, and ships. In more detail my travels to sacred places like Fatima, Lourdes, Mt. Athos and Mt. Sinai; and travel in Israel 1964 and Iraq, Iran, and Syria in 1966.

I have enjoyed solo travel and would like to encourage others to try it. So I have recounted interesting experiences i have had with persons in Columbia, Turkey, Tunisia, Guatemala, Ecuador, China, and Kenya. When traveling solo, I was the victim of various confidence games in Italy, Spain, Argentina, and Ecuador. Traveling solo means taking public transportation, so I have included my encounters with taxi drivers in Italy, Israel, Nigeria, Lebanon, Mexico; some bus trips in Italy, Egypt, Western Samoa, Greece, and Mexico. Then trains trips in the United Staters, Japan, the Orient Express from Venice to Istanbul, Switzerland, Eguypt, and Kenya. Also local ships and ferries in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as my first Atlantic crossing on the "Christoforo Columbo" in 1955. The final chapters are personal experiences in more detail, such as Fatima, Lourdes, Mt. Athos, and Mt. Sinai; an extraordinary summer session in Jerusalem in 1964, and travels in Iraq, Iran, and Syria in 1967 . The final chapters are about my experiences in archaeology, on land but especially underwater in Spain and iIaly.

I was born in San Francisco, CA and attended Catholic Schools. In 1936 I joined the Institute of the Christian Brothers. In 1941 i graduated from Saint Mary's College of California with an AB; in 1952 from Catholic University of America with an MA and PhD; in 1959 an MA from the University of Notre Dame. I have taught university level since 1946 and at Saint Mary's of California from 1949 to 1985. I became a Professor Emerictus in 1985. From 1966 to 1988 I was an underwater archaeologist with expeditions in Spain and Italy. I have travels extensively in all 5 continents.