# Journal Entry (Special for the Forum)



## OzzyShiraz (Jul 19, 2008)

19·7·8

  Café balcony, smoking section, _tarde tranquilo,_ soon as penguin-outfit waiter gets back I´ll order a beer and a stiff one, light up, and see what happens around here at night.  Pen a little light fare for the riding va-room.

  Waiter just took off.  He was cool, but he must be new.  He recommended a few drinks, but didn´t have the answers when I asked what was in ´em.  Strapping young lad.  So far I´m the only one up here in the balcony, but it´s durned early by local standards, maybe closing in on 1900 hours.

  This is a little weird; directly across the way is a glowing, gleaming Hush Puppies outlet store, complete with 6-foot beagle, or hound or whatever they are with brown over their eyes and ears.  I didn´t even know they made Hush Puppies anymore.  Maybe ´round the corner there´s an Osh Kosh jeans outlet, who knows?

  O!  Coupla _gringas_ down there using the payphone...wait, no, my mistake, just dyed hair.  Cuties, though.

_Holy cow._  That´s a heckuva drink he brought me.  It´s beautiful, yellow as lemon-rinds, full of lemons, actually, and _strong._  Luscious. It´s called ´caipiroska´.  Where do they get these names?

  Well, my friends, after a day-and-a-half on a bus, I think I´ll have to change my profile information.  Banged on through the Tropic of Capricorn and then some, so, in the grand scheme of things I´m really not ´way´ South anymore.  Just plain South, I suppose.  Jeez, maybe North, depending how you see it, eh?

  The long bus ride wasn´t so bad, for a 32-hour affair.  I lucked out as far as the people sitting next to me, till the very end.  Tiny young local girls, clean and delicate, smelling of light fragrances and talking softly on their cellphones.  The final stretch, though, the very last 6 hours, odds caught up with me and an enormous snoring dude whose elbow came well onto my side took the seat to my left.  I would have scolded him, but it was the ´end´ of the trip, he was easily twice my size, but mostly it was his babyface that kept me from shaking him awake.  He seriously looked like a dozing child, and, after all, he couldn´t help being born enormous, so I laid halfway in the aisle.

  We arrived at 5:30AM, a dubious time to arrive in a new place.  For the first time in nearly a year I consulted my guide-book and phoned some hotels.  Only one lady answered, old by the tones of her voice, and sleepy.

  ¨Good morning,¨ I said as easily as I could, ¨I´ve just arrived and I´m looking for a bed.  Just myself, one person.¨

  ¨No,¨ she said with tired bitterness,¨This is no time to be calling.¨

  Huh.  So that´s the hospitality business around here, is it?  Got half a mind to call you back _right now_ and cackle like The Joker into the phone.  No, but no, that´s not my way.  Anyhow, the skunk-air of early morning quickly shifted to lilac as I met a friendly cabbie who took me to a cheap hotel.  Cool.  I crashed hard a few hours to catch up on ´z´s, I´ve never really been able to sleep on busses or planes unless I was passed out pissed.

  Just before noon I woke up with a smile, seeing that strong, golden Tropical Sunlight bathing everything.  It was this very Sunlight, the need for it, which had drawn me North in the first place.  And, eureka!, here it was.

  I wasted no time getting into it, and strolled a while along the shoreline.  Beautiful rolling sea, couple surfers easy-riding light waves, a little black dog had a mouthful for me but he was grinning and wagging his tail.  ¨_Tranquilo,¨_ I told him, ¨_calma.¨_ I strolled easy, smoked a couple fags, and found out a few hours later that I´d got a little sunburn.  Tsk, tsk.  I´m too salty for that, I should´ve known...breezy-cool or not, this is Tropical Sun, Sun´s home-court, if you will, and not to be taken lightly.

  So, another little nap and here I am, night has fallen, I´ve got my balcony overlooking the ´pedestrian passage´, a beer, a...what was it called?...a caipiroska, some Danish rolling tobacco, and an easy feeling in my heart.  Feels good around here.  I like the Tropics.

  My goodness.  There are some kids playing violins down there!  They´re damn good, too! Holy Hiccoughs!  They´re playing ´Water Music´.  Wow.  I may never leave.  Especially not if that maid at the hotel---

  A-ha!  You almost caught me there.

  That´s all horsefeathers, of course, I _am_ going to leave.  I´m at too exciting a crossroads, y´see, here at the meeting-point of 3 nations.  3 fine ones at that.

  Hmm.  Life is funny, eh?  Certain spells it sure as heck seems like the World is out to sabotage ya, might as well give up ´cause you´ll never make it.  But then the storms pass, and by and by comes along Fortuna and Providence once again.  Everything´s allright, it´ll all work out.

  My writing friends, tonight I shall leave you with this, a quote from one of my heroes, as the violins break into Mozart and the beer and caipiroska break into my bloodstream: _If you´re not living good, travel wide._

  Some people say that life is the same everywhere.  Those people are fools.


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## Chessrogue (Aug 13, 2008)

Traveling is where you can find something new within yourself you never knew existed...


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