TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Sunday, May 8, 2005

4:02 PM
Posted by jodi rose

sunday morning, spent the day reading in bed.
journey by moonlight, anton szerb.
gorgeous, philosphical, melancholy, desire, yearning.
perfect.
p118.
'what you do doesn't matter. do whatever you feel like. above all, do nothing. trust yourself to chance. surrender yourself completely, don't plan things.'
indeed that's easy at this point.
greatly recovered equilibrium and ability to be in the world in my own skin. a momentary lapse of concentration. early night, strange dreams, morning flights of fancy.
p142.
'and again he had the feelin that the really important things were happening elsewhere, where he was not; tha the had missed the secret signal. his road led absolutely nowhere, and his nostalgia would gnaw him eventually, remain enternally unquenched, until he too departed.'
ahh existential melancholy in paris. brought on yesterday by my hour long traipse through the metro, following the 5 changes advised by a friendly guard when the station i needed was closed. too tired to imagine an alternative, walked endless tiled corridors, found myself waiting for another train. reminds me of the scene in matrix 2 when hugo weaving is banished to a spotless metro station, seeing all the people waiting as the train rounds the corner.
in the hammam the other day, the gommage women all round and full physical presence, when it was my turn to be scrubbed, a few of them came over and laughed together, not unkindly - i imagine they were saying I could be doing the scrubbing - and then my gommagier started singing a gorgeous arabic song, totally transformed the experience.
what now, ah yes, wandering along the seine listening to some of the many bridges. after all, that's what I'm here for.