Athens, Enriched
Couch surfing is one of the most fantastic ideas I've ever heard. From www.couchsurfing.com, people can connect with natives in a city willing to host them for free. I've met and had great conversations with not only native Athenians, but also other travellers. (Obviously, staying at a hostel offers far more of the latter than the former.) The only two flaws I see are that, (a) you have to begin the process at least a few days in advance, contacting a potential host, and obviously, (b) there's the "psycho factor." But I seriously doubt the couch surfing community would be as huge as it is in Athens if psychopaths were making the circuit.
It's hot and humid. I'm blatantly a foreigner, pretty much the only person with freckles and sweating like a maniac. I leave the trench coat with my big bag. The first day trying to carry that thing around was like torture. The sun here is a powerful thing, with heavy rays, and it doesn't help that I didn't bring any shorts. (Not, mind you, that I really own any shorts except for swimming.) At the same time, I keep wishing that this short-lived complexion of mine might stick around for a while. It's like looking at someone else in the mirror: some estranged brother of mine with a beard a little too long. But I know full well that two days of normal life will render me just as lily white as I always have been.
And this is a shame, because I like this man I'm becoming. Physically, emotionally, spiritually I feel great... if a little anxious. All in due time, and not long in coming. But I want these subtle changes to stick, even the physical ones. I can't let these things fade like a tan. I'll be going to Istanbul tomorrow, so we'll see what changes its experiences -- and its sun -- will evoke.
It's hot and humid. I'm blatantly a foreigner, pretty much the only person with freckles and sweating like a maniac. I leave the trench coat with my big bag. The first day trying to carry that thing around was like torture. The sun here is a powerful thing, with heavy rays, and it doesn't help that I didn't bring any shorts. (Not, mind you, that I really own any shorts except for swimming.) At the same time, I keep wishing that this short-lived complexion of mine might stick around for a while. It's like looking at someone else in the mirror: some estranged brother of mine with a beard a little too long. But I know full well that two days of normal life will render me just as lily white as I always have been.
And this is a shame, because I like this man I'm becoming. Physically, emotionally, spiritually I feel great... if a little anxious. All in due time, and not long in coming. But I want these subtle changes to stick, even the physical ones. I can't let these things fade like a tan. I'll be going to Istanbul tomorrow, so we'll see what changes its experiences -- and its sun -- will evoke.
posted by Ghostwind | 8:54 AM
9 Comments:
It is what it is. Finally got past my hate of blogs to read yours. Sounds like your finally growing. Good.
-Rob
So one little post wasn’t enough, sorry man.
Joe told me that you admire me. That struck me as funny. I couldn’t understand why in the bloody hell you would admire me. I am the bogged down day to day American existence, the mundane that people like you *were* *still are?* find to be interesting from the outsider’s perspective. It kind of wrecked me to hear that from Joe. I thought you and me were friends, solid, deep, good friends, almost even brothers, but that didn’t enter my head. It was odd Eddie, it was damn odd.
I’ll tell you what, I admire you. Not for doing your journey. I think your journey, from my perspective is life-changing, wonderful, awe invoking, and magical. In the same respect, as honesty is that nasty habit that I usually don’t muzzle, I think it’s manufactured. You don’t go with the intention to find yourself, at least not from my perspective. You find it when you find it. However, that being said, it does seem like you have grown. Good. You needed to. I admire you for admitting that. I admire you for change. I admire you for standing in the face of history, among structures that reminds man of his insignificance, and feeling something. Maybe that’s a bad way to put it, but it is what it is.
Maybe I’ll use this to say what I’ve wanted to say for years. I don’t have your email, so if it’s public then so be it. I’ve spent the better part of four years being pissed at you. Pissed because i was jealous to a certain extent of the life you lived. You got to do things that I wanted to do, live the way all of us wanted to live. I was mad because you always seemed to over intellectualize life around you. I was mad because sometimes it seemed like no one was important enough for your attention, like you could care less about your friends until it was convenient again or you were bored. Pissed because I thought you had no handle on the world around you, yet seemed so worldly. Pissed because you didn’t work, and from my background, I can’t wrap my head around that.
That all being said, I wish I couldn’t told you before you left, told you at some other point, but I didn’t. I truly do love you man. You have been a part of my life for a long time, and hopefully for a long time to come. I miss you. I’m not going to apologize for what I have typed here, because I don’t think you would want me to. Between us you and I, we have always valued above all else honesty. You call me on being an asshole. You call me on being too prideful. You call me on being too egotistical. I didn’t do the same, and for that I am sorry.
But now, I read your words, and I realize that you manipulate words like Steve’s rubrics cube; but I see something in them I haven’t seen in I want to say five or so years. Corny, but I see Eddie. That lanky son of a bitch that would wax poetic for hours on the most insignificant but important things. The young man who took me to a church we both needed at the time. The guy who stood next to me when we buried my best friend. The guy who had tears in his eyes when he saw me as a father. The guy who put words on paper to make my family suffer less when we needed it most. The guy who sat in (fill in a late night restaurant) with me in every stage of my adult and pre adult life and worked to figure it all out. The guy who listened to me bitch, and who bitched at me. The guy who showed me his deepest anger and pain, and shared mine as well. Fuck yes Eddie, goddamnit it is about time!
This place isn’t the same without you, but so what, you knew it would be that way. You needed to be where you are, and for that I am grateful that you decided to go. Remember though as the wheel turns, you cannot find what doesn’t wish to be found. Breath, experience, feel. Don’t force it. I remember you saying the same thing to me in the past, and you and I both know, your advice is most often sound. So listen kid, walk down dusty roads paved in past’s forgotten. Someday, you’ll be back around this way, and I’ll listen to your tales. Until then keep collecting them.
All my love.
Rob
Eddie
http://rsf-fulk.blogspot.com/
For you.
...every word that I wanted to say just vanished.
take my speechless wishes for a bright growth.
An.
Well Eddie I finally played catch up reading your blogs. My, my Edward you have been busy. Even still your skill as a writer amazes me. Your words make the world you are seeing so much easier to visualize. If you don't get published one day there is no great justice in the world. On a side note I've started to read Promethea, good recommendation my man!
It's odd when you were discribing the monestary that's how I used to imagine them, my template for the generic monestary if you will. It's good to know that those places actually exsist and it's not just my imagination.
And just wow. Eddie getting a tan. Talk about one hell of shocker if you still have it when you come back. Then we get to switch you and Jad out at parties like on hidden camera shows.
I wait in anticipation to read your blog when you get to Jerusalem. Though I also think this is when I will be most concerned for you.
Take care man, can't wait to see your lanky ass back here.
Love,
-Joe
Eddie, you continue in all of our prayers here in LA. Rob, I feel blessed to witness your love poured out. Blessings on both of you young men.
Mom
http://rsf-fulk.blogspot.com/search/label/Eddie%20The%20Long%20Way%20Around
Hope you like E III.
Good to see your journey is going well.
Dearest Edward,
I too have fallen behind in my reading of your postings, due to having been out of town for weveral days. So here's to catching up:
It is interesting to me that hte term "couch surfing" has such a different connotation here in the States. I certainly like your new definition better.
Wish we had a pciture of your "traveled" look as it may indeed disappear in short order. Your description of yourself makes me miss you al the more, but as usual I understand that you must take your time.
I was discussing with Angelica that I feel I must now call you "Edward" as you seem so changed, and "Eddie" just doesn't seem appropriate somehow. Hope this is agreeable with you, my son.
I love you,
D
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