I am now two weeks in my travel through Europe and I’ve reached my final destination of Bulgaria! I’ve spent some days in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, had my car break down in Slovakia and visited a friend in Serbia. Meeting new people who doesn’t know my past has given me a thought: When we are around those that we know, friends or family, there’s always a certain expectation. There’s history, memories and habits tied to how we behave around certain human beings. Whenever I meet new people there’s not really any other choice than to be the version of me that I am right now, however joyous, sad or playful I am in that moment. This has been a fresh of breath air as I cannot remember having travelled without knowing anyone that I am travelling with or meeting at the destination. I would say it is easier to get to the core of myself and not be as influenced by my conditioning in this setting.
Playing the unintended way
I was in Krakow last weekend and we ended up at a bar with board games and decided to scroll randomly through their library of games and pick one at random. We landed on ‘Raise your goblet’ and thought okay let’s try it. What ended up happening is that we chose to try and play the game before we read the rules, so we spread out the props consisting of goblets, gems, cards, character cards with special powers and quotes and shield tokens. What happened is that we completely freestyled the game taking turns explaining what would happen next with full confidence that we know the rules of the game, it would look something like this: “So let’s set up, everyone grab a goblet, 3 gems and pick one card and let’s start round 1.” I cannot remember having had so much fun with a board game ever, we were laughing and laughing at all the unpredictable things that would happen, the plot twists and the space for on-the-move interpretations and the worst(best) part: twisting the rules in your favor. We played 5 rounds and the final showdown consisted of a card laying on top of the goblet with a shield token on it. We had to pull the card fast enough so that the shield token would fall into the goblet. I have no idea how the game actually works, but I highly recommend playing ‘Raise your goblet’, or any other game, your way.
I’ve been driving a lot these past weeks, and a good car game I’ve been playing when I’ve not driven alone is to ask everyone in the car to say one word each, put it in Spotify and see what comes up under ‘songs’. It can look like “Mountain sign”, “Sock fence poet” or “Sun asphalt”. It’s brought me to hear things like a contemporary music piece of two humans talking to eachother as they were lizards, a psy-trance song, a lo-fi hiphop beat we freestyle rapped to and an old theatrical song for children about the shop vendor not having any bananas for sale. Naturally as humans we have a certain fear to everything in life that is new and unfamiliar and it’s hard for it to resonate that much at first. That’s why I’m happy to be challenged in listening to new styles of music even though hip-hop is the home I always come back to, I enjoy getting to know other rhythms and ways music can be made. I think a lot of music is acquired taste in the sense that you start liking what you listen to as you get more familiar with the vibe and rhythm.
Do you have a ‘home’ when it comes to music? How often do you listen to music that you are not familiar with?
The flying seagulls
I am now reunited with the group which this time consists of one person I know from before and 4 new personalities. During the next two weeks we will be working in refugee camps, schools and for children with special needs. ‘We are just after your laughter’ is the slogan we are following. I am looking forward to make some lives brighter, if only for a day, but hopefully to have some long-term impact on these youngsters.
https://www.theflyingseagullproject.com/
Thanks for reading, share it with an adventurous soul!
Travelling love,
Julian