The cheap flight from Berlin to Paris was hard to pass up though I’d romanticized the notion of passage by train and though train is the more environmentally sound option, I wanted to make the most of my time in both of these cities. I arrived in Paris at the apartment of friends from high school who I hadn’t seen in over a decade, now employed by the US Embassy and set up in quarters befitting of aristocracy. My, how people change!When first venturing out, I spent a good hour sitting atop the Trocadero in awe of the Eiffel Tower. Brian Eno and Robert Fripp laid a backdrop of hazy atmospherics as the sun beat down from high above the imposingly elegant edifice. In the evening I set to climbing the tower up to the first level and then onto the second. Just before eleven, I raced back across to the Trocadero from which I watched the spectacular sparkling light show that happens on the hour.
Paris stuns with its wide boulevards and majestic architecture and I spent four days wandering with the sounds of Parisian jazz and folk songs in my ears, the taste of my first escargot on my lips, and a growing longing to return home.On the plane ride back to New York I sat next to a young woman from Switzerland who was in the middle of a five month long vacation --including her first visit to the United States --that she’d saved up for and was taking, by herself.
We shared our recent experiences. I gave her a tour of some of the music that had served me well those past two weeks. I explained to her that thought the trip was thrilling, I’d become lonely and was ready to come home. She, now having been away from home close to five months herself, explained to me that this loneliness is something to be fought through, like a sort of sonic barrier meant to be shattered.
Yet another barrier to be broken through on the trajectory towards the sort of worldly enlightenment which international travel may help elicit. Until the next time, the songs of my journey well help conjure that spirit of the adventure I refer to as being my: “Tune Week European.”
Read More...
Not Yet Rated
