Shakespeare wrote "journeys end in lovers meeting." I met Alexandra in the Vienna train station, on the last leg of my
journey. The 23-year old Peruvian girl was waiting for a train for Berlin and I, for Paris. Within twenty minutes,
I somehow persuaded her to join me for my last week in Paris. It was the best 126 hours of my entire journey.
I learned a lot about the power of Synchronicity and Serendipity with Alexandra. For instance, we met because I wanted to
give away my read copy of "Around the World in Eighty Days" by Jules Verne and saw her sitting nearby. If I did not have
the book, or wasn't done reading it, I wouldn't have went to see if she wanted it, thus I wouldn't have met her.
And five days later at 9pm, just two hours before she left Paris for Berlin, we were meandering through Paris and saw a group of
bagpipers preparing to play in front of the Pantheon. We stopped to listen. After a few minutes of hearing the
pulse-raising pipes play in unison along with four drummers, the busy traffic on the place du Pantheon seemed to stop and
the band started marching down the street! As with the other onlookers that were huddled around the band at the Pantheon,
we started to follow and soon realized we had become a small parade. The feeling of being out-of-place was pushed out of my
mind as we watched the reaction of people we passed. Restraunt-goers would lean up against the windows to see the
kilt-wearing band of 16 pass. Students living in the apartments would hang out their upper-floor windows to cheer us on. A
cook stood in a doorway with a pot and rag in hand to see us.
The parade traveled just a few blocks down the avenue before it turned down a small cobblestone alley. The sound of the bagpipes and large drum revirberated on the buildings. Just as I thought about where this parade might be taking us, we arrived in front of The Institute of Oceanography. The band was there to welcome famous guests of a film festival that started that evening.
A Jules Verne film festival.
I don't know if there was a reason for the serindipitous events on my journey, (there were more!) but I know there is meaning. I doubt I will ever learn the meaning for them, but I have started to pay more attention to them in my life. The search for the meaning is more fulfilling to me than the possible meaning itself.
V i s i t s
1. September 11th - 19th
2. October 28th - 29th
3. November 18th - 25th
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