Ode to freedom
Today is Sunday. And I arrived at Nantes. And again this city shows its incredible charm. By doing nothing, just by the fact of existence.
I walked to the historical center and then went to the very specific area where all those giant mechanical animals are stored. Why do I call that area special? First of all, it really has different taste (in comparison to the historical sights). And second: I've met an amazing person there, Hugo.
You know, when you arrive at some new place you may have certain expectations. At that time, when I came to Nantes for the first time, I had no expectations. The trip itself was kind of weird: I went there with a plane from Luxembourg. Just because train tickets were twice as expensive!
And it was just an amazing sunny weather, no rain at all. I was walking around the city and realized that there is a modern part. For the whole day, I had a strong wish to play guitar. Probably that led me to the bank of the river (just in front of the Elephant main "cage"). I heard someone playing guitar and singing. To be more exact, I thought that someone is listening to cool music. Only after I tuned my ear a bit, I realized that it was live music.
I came to that small "park" and saw a guy playing and singing. It was beautiful. He was all in the process. There were around 5 people sitting/semi-lying on nice curved benches around who were listening and enjoying. I took a place near a guy with tattoos with a kind of criminal look. Though he was doing supporting vocals (with low volume, just me could hear that) very nicely.
I listened to the music for about half an hour. Then I started freezing. It was windy but the music was the main point in the whole scene of the sunset, river, trees, people walking buy, reggae vibe, synergy of people thinking deep inside themselves about something very important and what usually can't be shaped in words.
I got up from the bench and approached that guy. I said that the music is incredible. Then I asked him if I could play his guitar. The chat has started. But not only that - another layer of understanding between each other also started like a bridge joining in St. Petersburg. That small chat continued to the late night in the bar sharing very important life insights and discussing bright (and dark) moments of life. That feeling, you know, that you knew each other before but for some strange reason didn't meet before.
It may sound a bit "book-like" and maybe even like a cheap emotion pretending to be cliche. But it was not. When I met Spanish guys in Japan the feeling was the same. From the very first moment, you feel something that is somehow shaped not by yourself, not by your chat partner but by the universe itself. And this is like a flow helping to share deep emotions and important thoughts (that you thought you would never share with someone you know just for a couple of hours).
So, today I visited that place. There was a couple standing and looking at the river. I didn't disturb them. It was a heavy rain so I was just walking by. Evening lights are drawing emotional pictures on the water when you look at that from the bridge.
I remembered how I was sitting in my coffin-like (about 9 sq.m.) room in Tokyo and the neighbor next room (basically, just like 50 cm from the place my laptop stayed) came late with some Japanese girl. I wanted to kill them both, yeah. But it was somehow funny.
I also remembered that I was doing some street singing in Tokyo as well. The NII is located just in front of Imperial Garden (though I have been to Imperial Garden just about 3 times... what a shame). It was January, I guess. I realized that I can bring an acoustic guitar, some bento, take a seat on a bench in front of the Garden and play some music. That's what I did. It was my first experience to sing on the street and meditate while other people were passing by. I don't remember exactly how many times I did that but every time it was really refreshing.
Thank you, Nantes, for refreshing my memories. Thank you for letting me know Hugo. A true man with the brave heart. Take care, bro.