I’m addicted to music. Sounds are prob­a­bly one of the first thing com­ing to my mind when I think of trav­el­ing, from the crowded mar­kets of Latin Amer­ica to the busy Euro­pean cafés, from the sound of silence in the Chilean desert to the sound of the wind on the peak of a mountain.

I always travel with music. Long hours spent in buses, trains, boats, planes and other taught me that music is a pow­er­ful catal­y­sis. Over­com­ing fears, long­ing for a new begin­ning, get­ting the inspi­ra­tion to see more… A song for every mindset.

Stair­way to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)

There’s a feel­ing I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is cry­ing for leaving

This is the “I’m long­ing for trav­el­ing” song. Fucked up lyrics, but great melody. Exactly what you need when you know it’s time for you to migrate again.

Par­adise City (Guns & Roses)

“Take me down to the par­adise city
Where the grass is green
And the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home”

Rage and anger are the key words. Is the grass greener on the other side ? I don’t care much, as long as I get to expe­ri­ence the other side. A plea for a bet­ter life, a bet­ter world, a bet­ter us — isn’t it what trav­el­ing is about, change ?

Le Vent l’Emportera (Noir Désir)

“Je n’ai pas peur de la route
Faudrait voir, faut qu’on y goûte
Des méan­dres au creux des reins
Et tout ira bien là
Le vent nous portera

Pen­dant que la marée monte
Et que cha­cun refait ses comptes
J’emmène au creux de mon ombre
Des pous­sières de toi
Le vent les portera
Tout dis­paraî­tra mais
Le vent nous portera

I remem­ber, a few year ago. The bus had just got in Can­cun, but there were no spring break par­ties. It was pour­ing rain and I was still a rookie in term of long dis­tance bus ride, but hey, I had sur­vived the Mex­ico City to Merida’s 22 hours long trip ! I was lost and scared, sit in the empty bus, the night was dark and so was the weather. Gringo city had lost its tem­per and was show­ing its true face, an overused place turned into a party heaven.

I gath­ered my bags and got off the bus. It was warm and windy. I sud­denly real­ized I was part of a crazy trip which was to led us down to South Amer­ica. No turn­ing back now, baby girl.

The song soothe my mind. It was going to be alright. It was going to be fine. So much to see…

High Hopes (Pink Floyd)

“Beyond the hori­zon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of mag­nets and mir­a­cles
Our thoughts strayed con­stantly and with­out bound­ary
The ring­ing of the divi­sion bell had begun
Along the long road and on down the cause­way
Do they still meet there by the cut
There was a ragged man that fol­lowed in our foot­steps
Run­ning before time took our dreams away
Leav­ing the myr­iad small crea­tures try­ing to tie us to the ground
To a life con­sumed by slow decay

Trav­el­ing is about hope and tak­ing a chance on life. We’re not run­aways. We’re trav­el­ers. We chose to let down a so-called nor­mal life to go see the world. We are dream­ers and deceivers : some under­stand and some resent us.

Some stuffs are to be left behind in order to move on. Don’t try to hold us back.

Mama Call (Manu Chao)

Can’t you hear me mama call
Can’t you hear me crawl­ing
Can’t you hear me when I call
Can’t you see me fall
I’m a long way from home

And yet, we’re human. I some­times miss home, miss my lan­guage (which one was it already ?), miss my rou­tine and my cul­ture. Some nights are darker than oth­ers. Some days are brighter, too. But mean­while, I just lis­ten to this song, and indulge a bit of self-pity.

Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to dis­agree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s look­ing for some­thing”

Fel­low trav­el­ers, peo­ple you meet on the road. Some have a goal, some escaped, some wan­der. Are we look­ing for some­thing or are we liv­ing the moment ?

On a Day Like Today (Bryan Adams)

“Is there any­body out there?
any­one that’s loved in vain
any­one that feels the same
Is there any­body wait­ing?
wait­ing for a chance to win
to give it up and start again”

Decid­ing to travel isn’t that easy. Chances are, by the time you man­age to save the money and the energy to go back on the road, your life was fairly sta­ble. First sac­ri­fice you make on the road to nowhere isn’t spend­ing $$$ on a plane ticket : it’s tak­ing a chance on the future. Nope, no banker, no career adviser to give on a hand and to lend you his cal­cu­la­tor on this one. Choice is yours…

The Pas­sen­ger (Iggy Pop)

I am the pas­sen­ger and I ride and I ride
I ride through the city’s back­sides
I see the stars come out of the sky
Yeah, the bright and hol­low sky
You know it looks so good tonight”

Sit on a bus, pitch dark out­side, fel­low pas­sen­ger sleep­ing. Look­ing at the win­dow to a non-existent land­scape, swal­lowed by the dark­ness. More left to the imag­i­na­tion. Twist and turn, fast dri­ving, a few lights here and there. Feels good and feels safe, feels like the world is in your hand.

Desa­pare­cido (Manu Chao)

Me lla­man el desa­pare­cido
Cuando llega ya se ha ido
Volando vengo, volando voy
Deprisa deprisa a rumbo perdido

Cuando me bus­can nunca estoy
Cuando me encuen­tran yo no soy
El que está enfrente porque ya
Me fui cor­riendo más allá

A map in your hand, the traveler’s Bible in the other, mak­ing a deci­sion about where to go next. The world is yours, go crazy, there’s no bor­der you can’t cross and no city you can’t explore. You became an eva­sive per­son, jump­ing from one con­ti­nent to another, from one bus to another one, switch­ing from a lan­guage to another.

You’re run­ning because you want to, your des­tiny in your hand.

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Look­ing For (U2)

I have climbed high­est moun­tain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found
What I’m look­ing for

Even­tu­ally, one day, you’ll be back. Home ? Maybe. Depends what you call home. You’ll be full of mem­o­ries, fac­ing the chal­lenge to adapt to the “nor­mal” life one more time. Takes a while. But you’ll get bored, and soon will real­ize that there’s more to see.

The beauty of trav­el­ing lies in the fact that there’s always a new world to discover.

Related arti­cles:

1. Five Great Songs About Canada
2. A Cana­dian Mind­set (8÷10)
3. St Malo — A Walled City
4. Pic­ture of the Week: Curi­ous Ant
5. Belize City