EUROPE ON ONE DOLLAR A DAY
When I got off the plane, I had no idea where in the world
Luxembourg was in relationship to the rest of Europe. I was ready for anything
and everything. In a lot of ways, it felt like I was going home, not like the one
I had left, but like the one of my dreams, where I was welcomed and comfortable.
I left the airport and walked out to the road. I looked at several
directions I could take, and since I had not been to any place in either
direction, I went with my feelings and walked off down the road to the east, or
west, or whatever - I wasn't even sure of that and I didn't care either
way.
I ended up at the edge of Luxembourg City and ran into a
young traveler from England who told me about Youth Hostels and how I could stay
fairly cheap in them. I followed him to the hostel were he told them that I had
lost my membership card. They sold me a replacement card that I would use all over Europe.
I was wide-eyed with excitement at seeing so many new things
and meeting people from far off places. The first night at the hostel found me
staying with a group of German and English students. There was several hours of
singing both American, as well as German folk songs. The group was very open and
friendly to me and tried to give the best advice on how to make my money last
and where to go. I took mental notes and was thankful that I was continued to be
so lucky - finding a hostel and getting so much information the very first night I was in Europe.
It did strike me as odd, that my family wasn't worried about
my whereabouts some 9,000 miles away. I had no address, or any way for them to
contact me. They did not even know if I had made it safely to New York. Yet,
there I there I was, a nineteen year old adventurer all alone with about $130.00
cash left in my pocket but as optimistic as I anyone dared to be. I knew that
someone was looking after me. I believed that it would turn out OK if I just
kept the faith and kept to my own moral life code. (Do not beg, cheat, steal,
or do anything that that would hurt my soul, my mind or my body!)
That first night I
went to sleep feeling free for the first time in my life. I had no obligations to be
any place
at any time and I was debt free. I had no one depending on me for support. I
was free as the wind to fly off in any direction I choose. It would be the only
time in my life that I was truly free of all worldly and family obligations. I felt good about it and
knew that this was the right time and place for me to make this journey. It felt
right both spiritually and intuitively.
The next day I was off exploring the city and watching the
people. It seems that some one always seemed to be able to speak enough English,
so I had little trouble communicating what my needs were. I went to this old
castle up on a huge cliff. There was guided tours for about 25 cents, so I went
along on the tour of the castle. When they came to a bunch of passageways under
the castle I drifted off and took my own path to explore a different route then
the tour group went on. I saw all kinds of additional passageways and they kept
twisting and back tracking under the castle. There was a familiar feeling about
the place. I was never worried even after several hours of wandering produced
more tunnels and dungeon like rooms. I finally found the main passage and joined
in behind the last group leaving the castle before it closed for the night.
I loved the city as it really looked like the Europe that you
see in the movies and on old postcards. I wandered around the city for several
more days then I made the decision to go to Paris in order to see all the
flowers that grew there in April. The song " April In Paris
" kept playing in my head. I just wanted to be able to say that I was in
Paris during April.
APRIL IN PARIS
I walked out of the city and country of Luxembourg and headed
south. I had no maps and very little sense of where I was at, but in my heart I
knew I would end up where I wanted to be. It got very dark and isolated on the
back country road I had taken heading south. It was around midnight. I remember how dark it was. There
was no lights any where and for some odd reason, I had a feeling, that was more
like a fear, that someone, or something, was watching me. It was so dark that I
could not even see my feet as I walked along the middle of the road. My mind
began to activate my wildest imagination and fears. I thought there were aliens from some UFO
there watching me and were ready to take me away with them. My conscious mind
knew it couldn't be a real possibility, but there was this inner fear that made
my heart pound at the thought. I stood still in the middle of the road and felt
the weight of eyes on me. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. The
only sounds that could be heard were some owls. I figured this was not where I
wanted to spend the night alone. The more I walked on the road the more I felt
someone's eyes watching me. I could not shake the feeling and it made it
impossible for me to stop and camp in my sleeping bag in the open fields.
I was getting very tired and sleepy. I had kind of mentally
dozed off and lost track of time when the next thing I remember is a truck
driver stopping to pick me up. He did not speak any English at all, so I tried to
explain where I wanted to go. He let me crawl into the back of his truck and
sleep while he drove on south to within 6 or 7 miles of Paris. It was really
raining real hard. The dark sky would light up with massive displays of lighting.
He let me out on the road about four in the morning into the coldest and wettest
rainy morning I ever can remember. I began to
walk up a hill. When I reached the top of the hill, I saw lighting striking
the Eiffel Tower. It was so beautiful, as the whole view of the city
flashed into my sight with each lightning strike. It was like a movie. I was getting to see it being
filmed live and in person. I felt alive and in love with this city of light that
lay ahead of me. I knew that good things awaited me there. I walked all that day. I was soaked
from the rain but I did not care at all about getting cold or wet. I was in
Paris and I felt alive with energy. It felt very holy and sacred. I was very
much at peace within.
I bought one of those
long loafs of French bread, it must
have been over three feet long. I put it in my pack. I also bought a small
bottle of wine, so I would have a container to put water in after it was emptied.
I was not fond of wine but it was the only thing I could find to drink that I
trusted. I ate and drank as I walked all over the city and watched the people. I
felt very comfortable there and for some unexplainable reason, I seemed to know my way around.
I did not get tired.
I found each new street and turn
exciting to see and observe. It was almost midnight when I found a run down hotel next to the Seine River. I
got the room for five francs, or about one dollar and twenty five cents back
then. I had
the very top floor room, up 13 flights of stairs. It had no rest room, or shower,
those were down four flights from the room. The room was around seven feet long
and five feet wide. The ceiling came down to three foot at the window and was
just above the door when you walked into the room. It was clean and had a bed
and a view from a window, I was pleased.
WRITING POETRY
I woke up early and began to write my poetry after I meditated.
I looked out my window expecting to see the city but found instead that I had a
view of the roof top art studio next door. I was even joyous over this. It felt perfect. I thanked God for being there and got
dressed to go out to see the city without being encumbered with my back pack and
sleeping bag, like I been the day before.
The first thing I wanted to do was find the all the old
churches and museums. I had no trouble finding either one. I sat for some time
in each church, just feeling the devotion of so many people over the years.
There is something special about old churches that brings such inner peace to
the spirit. I said my prayers of thanks to God and my Guru for taking
such good care of me. I wanted to stay in those churches and not leave but I
also wanted to see so many other sights. I knew each church like it was an old
friend that I had come back to visit. I never felt so at peace in my whole life
up to then.
I went to the famous museum,
the Louvre. The place was huge.
It was so large that I had to come back over the next three days to see it and
still failed to see but 80% of it. I had wanted to see the famous painting of Mona Lisa but
I found
out that for the first time in history, it was not there. It had been loaned to
New York for the World's Fair. I never got to see it and felt it was odd that it
was in New York when I had been there.
I remember tourist buses coming to the museum and all the
people getting out to see the entire place in less then one hour. There was a
joke I heard at a youth hostel about a young track star from Japan, who did a
"sub
four minute tour of the Louvre". I thought at the time it summed up how most
people visited museums and churches. They did not sit and spend time to absorb
the energy of such sacred places. I always felt that they had missed out on the true experience that
was offered.
NOTRE DAME
I next went to see that grand church that sits so saintly
along the Seine River, The Notre Dame. I was in
awe of its sacredness. It was truly a sanctuary for God. I went inside and looked for a
stairway that would take me up to the roof. I found one that was hidden from the
public and went up as far as it would take me. There was a window which I was
able to climb out onto the roof. I then climbed even higher onto the very utmost
part of the structure. The view was all that I had dreamed it would be. I sat
down on the roof so as to not be seen from the ground and meditated there. I felt the holy vibrations of that great church coming up and all
around me. I spent a great part of the day up there and then climbed back into
the window and left. I can still see the view in my mind today when I think back
on it. (If any one tried to climb out the windows today they would no doubt
be arrested as terrorist suspects.)
One cultural problem I had to learn about was how the French
people went to the rest room. I needed to go and was told that this funny
looking structure on the corner of the street was a men’s water closet( rest
room ). It was a metal wall that was only about six feet tall and had no wall
structure from the ground up to about two feet. You were to walk inside this
rounded metal fence and pee on a wall were water flowed down on it. I was not sure of how private it was going to be with
hundreds of people walking past it, but I had to go and I decided that "
when in Rome, do as the Romans do ". Well this was not Italy, but I figured
the same would apply to this situation. I finally relaxed and was standing at
the wall when the traffic light turned red and a double decker bus - loaded
with young
college age American students pulls up next to this wall. The next thing I
realize is that cameras are sticking out of the bus windows shooting photographs
of me standing at the wall. I did not know if I shouldn't smiled or hidden. I did not
move and waited until the light changed green before pulling myself away from
the wall to zip up and leave. I guess I must be famous in someone's photo album
back in Kansas or Iowa.
I watched the night life and saw the street artist's doing
their masterpieces on the sidewalks with chalk. I enjoyed sitting in the out
door cafes very slowly drinking my cup of coffee. I would write my poems and talk to
strangers who sat near me. I thought of myself as a beatnik. I told myself
that I was absorbing the whole emotional experience around me for future poetry
and writings.
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