The night we met, I was cycling through Central Station to meet her, and I hear my name called with a beautiful Spanish tint., I turn around and there is Nizha, with the most radiantly warm smile. We walk and we talk as if we knew eachother before, we had a gig booked at a cafe close to the Red Light Area, and we head there to get a beer and play for the first time together. By the time we got there, the place had become packed and noisy and when we played, noone could really hear us, so I just turned the mic to her violin and heard these beautiful lines she was playing. We played for eachother in a noisy bar and I said, '' hey that's what we gotta get used to with busking, playing in noisy streets with noone listening'. We had a good response from some though, and the bar maids were giving us free beers all night. There was this moment during the end of the night when I had knocked my beer over, and we shared one. We both took sips until it had gone, I don't know why this moment resonates so much, perhaps because it was a sign of how we would be together. Sharing everything as one.
The next day we woke up early where we were sleeping, and still in our pyjamas had a quiet little acoustic jam of some songs. We talked and made plans, and it felt so good to be with her. It was like we were getting ourselves ready for what we knew would be an amazing adventure, lots of cities, and lots of music. We started busking that day, and within 10 minutes we had 15 euroes in paper drops! Another sign it was a great chemistry we had. Over the next few days we would ride, busk, picnic and talk, the more I got to know her, the more I found myself feeling so attracted to her in every way. She is so beautiful, with her Inca Princess'smile and that fire in her eyes. She was playing such sweet violin lines when we were busking, and they would be still be playing in my ears as I drifted to sleep wanting to be close to her. After a few days, we stayed at the garden house in the East. Its a little wooden house on the outskirts of Amsterdam, with nothing but candles, wood fire and greenary all around. We moved all our stuff again, on trams, bikes and a heavy walk. She never complained though, she has a strong travellers heart and would never tire or moan.
We were starting to fall in love, and we made love in the garden house. It was intense. For those first 4 days together, every part of me was aching to touch her, to grab her and kiss her, hold her. We felt so close, and being this busking team of playing together and having this beautiful musical chemistry was bringing us closer and closer. When we made love, I felt that the universe had given me what my heart had always craved for. Here I am in the great Amsterdam, falling in love with the most beautiful girl, she has her violin and bag, I have my guitar and bag and we can go wherever we want and eat and drink and live from the streets of the cities we bring music to! What a life. I felt stronger being with her, I wanted to look after her of course, and always do my best. We were now becoming partners in every way, lovers, bandmates, travelling partners and best friends. Ahead of us was a beautiful summer to fall in love like neither of us had ever known, but always dreamed of.I have always felt I was a lucky bugger in this world, but being with Niz, that seemed to double. The universe seemed to look after us in many ways. We had our low days aswell of course. Busking is so unpredictable, sometimes you play and noone really cares, and sometimes you get a great response, people sit and listen and tell you how good it is that we play here. After a week together, we packed our stuff once again and left the garden house. We were staying at me mate Barts for 2 nights before we headed East to Groningen. We'd had a little slow patch busking, and we only had a few euroes left, and it was grey and rainy. We were wondering how we were gonna get money to get to Germany and try to get into the fusion festival, and then we seen in the sky 2 patches of blue. It was a sign! We packed our instruments, spent our last few euroes on a couple of beers and went busking at Max Eiweplein. There was a good atmosphere, it was starting to brighten up in the sky, and we were playing well. The drops just flowed in, in less than an hour our bag was full! Over 50 euroes, and then as we were packin up, Bart phoned us and asks if we want to play at a party on a house boat. He came and picked us up and we rode with smiles with a legend to an unforgetable night.
Bart has beautiful friends, and around 6 were sitting in this lovely warm boat house, we drunk a beer and then played. They really loved it, one girl was moved to tears! It really was a special night that. After busking to people passing by, this was the first time we played together for an audience, and Nizha played like I had never heard her play before, it was like she was glowing so bright and beautiful, full of life, passion, energy and she was so fiesty and fearless. That whole night, and I found myself falling even more deeply in love with her and when we got home from a very crazy and beautiful night, we told eachother, in a very special way.We were leaving for Groningen and then to Germany the next night, and the next day Bart took us to another house boat to play and he put the hat round again. Another great party and people! We now had enough money to get to Germany, and on that last moment Bart found a spare ticket for Fusion, and it seemed that everything had just clicked into place. From the start of Friday night we were broke and low, and then with that good busk, and those house boats we had a bagful of money and a head full of beautiful memories and a ticket to the best festial in Europe! Again Bart went out of his way to help us get our ride to Groningen, and took us to meet Dani on the outskirts of Amsterdam.
We spent a lovely 2 days in the East of Holland with Dani, Wytze and their boy Flitz. They live in this amazing squatted hospital building. Their room is an old operating theater and is decorated so cool, almost like a little festival with lights, flying saucers disco balls and a DJ booth, but at the same time being so warm and homely. It is just one big room, and me and Niz would sleep on two single matresses cuddled up close, whispering under the covers to eachother, kissing, holding and feeling like something special was taking a hold of us. To hold her in my arms made me feel so complete, to touch her made my hands tingle, like there was some kind of energy between us bonding us together. We couldn't keep our hands off eachother, and it was becoming more intense the energy with us. We had a few tmes when we would argue aswell, being together 24/7 sleeping on couches, floors and wherever you can, brings you close, you feel like you are looking out for eachother all the time. You become stronger together. Niz is proud, passionate and fiesty, and sometimes we would have our moments, but always end up in each others arms.
We were helping Dani pack for the festival and getting excited about going to Fusion Festival. Dani is a festival pro, and working the coffee bar that is a motorbike, and cooking coffee and cakes in a wood oven is a great way to experience the festival, you meet and speak to so many people, plus you party with a good crew of friends who come with Dani. At the end of the festival you feel like you have really been through a special experience with everyone you are with. We would dance from one tent to the other, always waiting for the drop beat break, then when it kicks back on, dance like hell. Then wonder off to the next stage and see what is happening. There is so much at Fusion, one day we went on a trip around and found this gypsy Indian band, playing incredible music. It was raining, but we just danced on, kissed, smiled and had a great party. We would work on the coffee bar together, with me selling the coffee and Niz looking after the cakes.It can be hard living in a tent with someone you have only known for 2 weeks, at a festival where there is a continuous bass line shaking the ground, no hot showers and people everywhere, you really get to know someone. The more I got to know Niz, the more I loved her. At festivals you can sometimes see the effects of people who party so hard, they look like zombies a bit. Nizha would still shine bright and beautiful like I have never seen before. I was carrying my tooth brush in a plastic bag, and she was carrying hers in a leather toiletries bag, at the festival we started keeping them together in her bag, another silly small thing, but it just resonates as another moment that brought us closer together. We were at Fusion for a week, and then we were heading to Berlin for some busking and adventure! We had heard so much about the city, that we were so excited to go and experience it. The fusion had bonded us in a beautiful way, that we just felt so strong together. With her, I felt able and eagre to face anything in this world. We were on this amazing journey, in love like we have never felt before, we made beautiful music together in the streets, we felt like a truly free gypsy travelling couple.
And God, how I loved her. Whenever we touched, there was an electricity that set our bodies on fire. The energy would get so intense between us sometimes that it was explosive. She brought out the best in me musically, and and in myself. By the end of the festival we had been through some massive highs and lows, rain and sun, had tears watching Dhaka Brakha in the sunshine, danced in the rain from place to place waiting for the drop beat, then dancing on, swimming in the lake in the afternoon sun on the last day, wow. Thinking back now just brings these waves of smiles and good memories from that festival and time together. I have already wrote a big chapter about Berlin that I feel tells most of what happened, and you can read that here http://thedeadseacaptain.blogspot.nl/2013/08/berlin.html But from a persepctive further on, this is what I remember from our Berlin days.......
We would ride the Ubahn and just make eachother laugh as much as we could. I would have these silly faces and nods, and German voices, and Niz has such a good quick wit she would always bounce back so sharp. I just remember laughing so much with her. We spent a lot of days in beautiful sunshine, just laying on the grass, her head resting on me, mine on my guitar, feeling so good and close together. Watching the sun move through the sky, and moving yourself with the sun to get the shade every ten minutes, sprinkles of shade through the glowing green leaves. A cold beer, and falafal from our busking fund. And the busking was going good. Up and down, sometimes pennies, sometimes a bag full. But thus is theee busking way. But we were doing good. We would picnic every day still, find a nice spot. We were spending every moment together, and we never tired, it just grew and grew. It felt strange to be away from eachother when we were. Cos sometimes we would have a little argument over something completely silly, but always end up back in eachothers arms, say we enjoyed our few hours apart, but really we just missed eachother. It had been a month together, and I felt it was impossible to fall in love with her even more, but over the four months we had together there were special moments where I physically felt myself fall in love with her even more and more. It was a strong feeling. She was like everything to me. My girlfriend, my best friend, my travelling partner, my band mate, my true love.....It was good days in Berlin,and on our last day before we headed South to Dresden, Niz found out that she would have to go to Paris sooner than she thought to sort her Visa out and hopefully stay in Europe longer. We were in the car to Dresden and I had wanted to head through Southern Germany and get to Switzerland and then Greece. Nizha was gonna come to, but now her road had changed all of a sudden, and there were these few hours in the car where I was still gonna head to Switzerland, but that just didn feel right at all. I knew I would just miss her like crazy. Didnt make sense. I was a little daunted by Paris, itś hard going there busking, no free transport, expensive in every way, my Francais wasn that great and I just wasnt drawn there at all. I was completely drawn to Niz though, so our adventure would take a U-turn. When we got to Dresden we needed to find a route to Paris. It was hard, there were no cheap trains, buses or car shares and we didn have much money in the busking bag. We decided to head back to Berlin, and then Amsterdam, and then Paris. That was the route we could get cheaply. But we had a nice 4 days in Dresden. Completely different atmosphere to Berlin, but we did some nice busking there, and had a good response. Very classical flavoured city. We learned some new songs, and then got a ride to Berlin.
As soon as we got out of the car in Berlin, it felt really good to be back there. I had this feeling to stay while Niz went to Paris and busk with the amp. I knew I wouldnt, but thatś the effect the city has on you. The next day we headed out to do some busking, it was a grey day, and the reality of Paris was settling in more and more. We had a little argument and split for a few hours. I went to the park where we had first slept on the bench that night, and drew some pictures in my book. These 2 Germans were really amazed by them, they couldnt speak much English, but we had this trade of conversation over a joint, and them looking through my book. Then this girl came upto me, and couldnt speak English, but was upset and saying she hates her life. These people you meet. I thought of life travelling on my own again, I went out busking at this bridge and it was terrible. My voice cracked and I lost it after the first line. Felt so wrong playing without Niz. I went straight back to Anjaś where she was, and told her that I may be daunted by Paris, but as long as we are together we can overcome anything. I love you and am with you all the way with this. We found a ride to Amsterdam and spent a much needed few nights there, bracing ourselves for Mordur...Paris.
I make it sound much worse, But I just never felt it was the place for me. They dont really care for busking, itś noisy and the metros are aggressive. It is expensive in every way, and if you don speak French, you just dont get it. I did have some good days there, but I just remember getting to Amsterdam after 2 months in France and thinking WOW! This is the city to be! Itś just a good way of life here if you havent got much money. (As all my previous chapters cover:) Anyway, we got to Amsterdam after a 6 hour ride from Berlin. We were welcomed home so warmly by Bart, who had the bikes waiting and a cold beer. We were only here for a couple of nights before Paris, and it was a good time. The sun was shining, we went out for a busk at Vondel park, we were amazed by the quietness after the noise of Berlin. We enjoyed our set and made a nice bag ful. Felt good being back. On our last night I had this great talk with Johnny who lives with Bart about the Ether and the Universe, smoking hash and drinking heinekin like water. Was a nice night that. The next day we took the bus to Paris.....
We arrived in Paris at 5:30 am, and we felt so hazy and tired. We had done a few thousand kilometres now on the road over the last month. It hurts on the Megabus, no leg room, and your body just aches from trying to sleep while going over bumps, wobbling your neck, you really feel it like. We took all our stuff, and walked over hard cobbled steep roads to try and find a coffee and make a plan. We had 20 euroes between us. A guy on couch surfing who said we could stay with him for a few nights from 7pm that evening. The first stop was a coffee, after walking for around 40 minutes, watching the city slowly start to wake, we found one that was open. I ordered 2 cappacinos and he brings a bill for 15 euroes! I say we cant pay that mate, we were expecting like 5 euroes or something! I said take it back mate, no chance. He said..'But this is Champs Eloise'! Haha, we had ended up on the most expensive road in Paris. There was a Mcdonalds just opening opposite but my pride didn allow us in there. We found one down the road that was just 3 euroes. We sipped that coffee like it was the last one in the world.
The first thing was to get to the embassy and find out about this visa. We were so tired and we used 2.80 to get 1 ticket for the metro that we both huddled through on. We found the area we had to go, and found a bench near. We still had a few hours to pass before it opened. We just lay on this bench, and drifted into patchy sleep. After an hour or so Niz, changed her clothes while noone was looking and got ready to find out if her future is in Europe or Argentina. We went over what she was gonna say, and hoped we would find out more about what needs to be done. Unfortunately the Embassy wasnt much of a help, so we decided to make our way to Pont Neuf, a place I knew a fair bit from my last time here. We spent another 2.80 and huddled through and got to Pont Neuf. We were empty, tired, hungry, we just found this bench in the shade, and we just held eachother. We would not let go of eachother one moment. We took turns sleeping for a bit while the city woke up further, we were getting so hungry. We had 8 euroes left. We had a faint idea where a supermarket was, all our luggage with us. It was around 10am.
Thinking of that first morning in Paris, is undescribable at this moment. Bringing back a lot of heavy and intense beautiful memories with Niz. Just holding eachother so close. Keeping positive hearts. I am gonna leave this chapter here for now, and try and to capture it fully with a fresh breath. Paris was an incredible story of true love that decided where the next road led to.
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