October Break (Part 3)!

Written 10/28

Tuesday (27^th Oct.)

Tuesday night was a blast. Shelley, Nerese, the guy that they found on couchserfer.net and I hung out in my hotel room for about an hour. I drank beer and the girls drank a bottle of wine. I drank a little too fast and had a little trouble acting normally for a little while. But it was ok. I just tripped on a word every once and a while. We went out to this bar close to my hotel. It was a nice place where the guy plays every Sunday. He’s a singer and a piano player and used to be a pretty successful freestyle basketball player, doing commercials and seminars and stuff. But he quit that. He’s actually really good at music. They asked me to get up and play songs! Of course I played Avery and Hot Damn. I also played Image of You but I messed up tons of cords and lyrics. Then Andrea (the couch guy) and I jammed. He sang while I played piano. He asked me if I knew My Funny Valentine. I said that I kind of did. I started doing something in C minor and he asked me, “What key?” I said, “C minor.” I thought now we were going to do something new and improvised and that he decided not to do My Funny Valentine. But he started singing the song and I only knew like half the cords. Even though we didn’t play it how it “should” be played it really sounded awesome. He has a great ear and changed with the cords I was playing. I kept switching up the way I was playing and it was incredibly fun after not being in front of a piano for so long. I don’t think Andrea was too happy with the fact that the song sounded different but I was doing the best I could. Let’s just face it; I don’t know many covers. Shelley said she really liked Hot Damn and preferred it to Avery, which she said was more typical, “a sad love song”. Or something like that. I didn’t know what exactly to think of that. And she kept saying my music was “formal”. Didn’t get what she meant at all. But whatever. The girls and I were joking around more and more as the night progressed. I mentioned that it felt weird to not have my fanny pack since I left it in the hotel. She made a weird face and said in a funny voice, “I don’t have my FANNNY paaaiiiik, I doon’t hayyve my FAAAANY paaiiiik.” God I was laughing so hard. Then one of those random, improvised a capella songs started between the three of us. I don’t even know what it was about but it was fun as hell. On the walk home, Andrea asked us what we were doing in the bar before we left. We told him about how we break out into song sometimes. So I started another one, beginning it with, “The Unbelievable Wall”. The three of them joined in and we had an awesome time on our trek back to my hotel. I kept accidentally nudging Shelley and every time she would say something like, “Stoddy just had sex with me,” or “Oh no, I’m pregnant.” The last time my arm lightly brushed her arm, she said, “Stop making out with me!” Hahahaha it was incredibly funny. Then it came time for me to say goodbye. They told me to NOT let this pass and to make sure to keep in touch on Facebook. I said of course I would keep in touch! As they were walking away, Nerese said, “And if you get sad tonight, just say Razzle Red.” It was a great parting note. So funny. I miss you Nerese and Shelley!

Wedensday (Oct. 28)

I’m in Nice, France right now. People are swarming everywhere, eating the hostel’s dinner, typing on their computers, reading, chatting and drinking. I’m taking a break from trying to make friends and writing this right now. I did make friends with the family I was sitting with in the train cabin today though! We realized we were going to the same hostel!

I played for about thirty minutes on the baby grand piano here earlier tonight! I was upset that it was as if the sustain pedal were constantly held down but it was nice to play. A French man, probably 60 years old came over to me and we basically played a game of charades as he tried to explain to me what song he wanted me to play. He kept sitting down and very poorly running his hands down the piano before playing the melody he wanted me to play. I found it funny. But I got the hang of the first melody and he was really happy. He then started to play the “Strangers in the Night” song and once I recognized it, I took his place and did my best with it. He was so pleased. I forgot what to do after a little while and he helped me with the melody. He patted my back a couple times after I stepped away from the piano to go get some food.

I met Michael, a fellow lone Australian traveler, Jessica, another Austrailian and this other guy who told me he really liked my piano playing. He told me that supposedly artists can sign up to play music for a set period of time and in return for the show, get a discount on their room. I lit up and asked the front desk. They said that isn’t in affect anymore. It got me thinking that a lot of people must have just gotten up whether or not they had anything planned and no matter how unprepared they were, demanded to get a discount. All right, I should get back to socializing. It’s hard in here. There’s a lot of noise and lot of people. Tomorrow, I’m going to walk about two miles to the beach and hang out there all day, writing, swimming and relaxing. Nice is the place to do it. And I need to take a day off from traveling and just do nothing but think to myself. The day after tomorrow, I’m taking a train to Barcelona to finish off my travels with a little Film Festival. I’m slightly worried about the festival. Hopefully it’s not invisible like the opera. Cause I’m actually not sure where it is exactly. Wish me luck!

I’m getting used to this whole way of life. It’s fun being able to say what the hell, throw caution to the wind and take off to somewhere else. It’s true. Not everyone gets to see the world like this. I’m lucky. And I honestly am really trying to capture all the moments, good or bad, big or small and remember as much as I possibly can. As I might have said before, this trip and everything that has happened before this in Greece and at the islands is like my own story that I’m writing. And I’m the main character. I keep thinking that. So even if I missed a train, a part of me would smile cause I kind of feel like I’m entertaining my readers, or viewers, however you want to put it. That is a big reason why I’m writing this blog too. It’s a good way of reminding myself to treat this experience as a real life story that gets better as I stuff it with more and more interesting things.

S.