“Goin’ to university” was a cover or alibi, rather than a statement of fact, providing the indolent and the imaginative with richer lives than simply having a job. At Memorial University of Newfoundland (mun ) there were “students” on campus for years who had never taken a course. (I think one of them later became premier.) And of those who did sign up, some descended into the tunnels and were never seen again, or at least not for a good long time. The tunnels were an underground system of campus walkways, like an early mall without the shops. Because they housed the student lockers, the tunnels were the first stop of the day, and they might be the last, too: if there was a stash of comfort food in your locker, say a nickel of grass, you might lose a week down in that concrete warren.

The time had come for our marathon trek through Europe. I was ten, and hated it already.