A tender breeze

I took the train after lunch time. It was the first time that I was travelling in train alone for so long and going to a new country with a different language. I could speak french easily, even english (not as good as I wish) but italian was far from my mouth. I was not afraid, there were a lot of expectations inside of me and I felt an obligation to watch all the time the moving window. Warm colors, some houses, one or two cows, and the SEA. The french mediterranean coast is a dream in different kinds of blue, you can feel the salt under your nose and if you close your eyes, lightness comes as easy as a fish. I try to read some pages from Genealogy of morals, but it was quite impossible, definitly I wasn't in the mood for understanding, I was existing over contradictions. The train stopped at Nice for 2 hours and I decided to move on, to walk because my legs were weighty than ever and my eyes were snoopy in this unknown city. I didn't have any map, only the train station as a reference so I walked around for a while, going up and down by the shy pending streets. In France it's very common to find arab and asiatic restaurants and that was all that I saw, lots of food and foreigners as me.

I took the next train, my destination was Rome and this time I was travelling in an italian transport. All was different, people were noisy and they spoke musicaly. I could understand some words, even I tried to speak but it was just a whisper. It was a night train and I was told with insistance to be careful in the nigth with my things, with my camera and the money. Often, the italian night trains are dangerous because they are thefts when people is sleeping, as well a friend of mine, a brazilian boy who was waiting for me in Rome, suffered these haggle. Stories in my head were turning around and difficulty I could close my eyes, I slept for a couple of hours and with any sound my senses were in alert. In the early morning the train was in his final destination, where Evo was waiting. I was so glad to find my camera and the money with me.

We spoke in spanish, sometimes in french and I learnt little words in portuguese. Rome is a very big city and reminiscences from the past are still there, living in the architecture of a Modern and Ancient style. Ruins from a powerful empire contrasts with buildings from the fascism era, with the trams, the metro and the thousands of motorcycles. It's a visual adventure being in Rome. Evo and I went to encounter a friend of him, Mario, a libanese violinist. He lived in a student residence near La piazza di Spagna. Inside, an old chapel and nobody else than us. They began to play, Evo is also a violinist. J.S.Bach had the main role in this moment, the sound was living in every corner properly and I just couldn't beleive being in this event. Undoubtedly this moment changed my life (for the ones that know me, you know what I am talking about!).

We walked for hours, I saw people and objects, but it was difficult to understand, from History I learnt some details but life style, symbols and culture, everything was going out of the oven, it was hot and not edible. As too much is not enough, discovering mean Rome in this trip. I stayed in the residence where Evo used to live before leaving this country and I met his friends. Metaxya, a girl from Armenia (the country of course, in Colombia there is another Armenia) and Goran, a boy from Bosnia-Herzegovina were my closest findings. They had something that is rare in Western Europe, they live with joy and they have ambitions, they want to create and build their way with their own hands. Life for armenian and for bosnian people has been violent in all the senses. Genocide, wars, lack of justice. Some of the young people went away, searching oportunities and running from the trace of the past. They were students, as me, and we shared a great time together. Metaxya and her mum's delicious candys, her english-italian-armenian accent, her easily manner to smile. Goran and his bosnian combinations for breakfast (great for my B-day!), life with no complications, partying in Rome with Giuseppe, dancing Shakira and crossing big rats on the streets in the dark of the night.

One year ago I was in Rome eating gelato from other dimensions.

To Metaxya, Goran, Evo and Ana.

*foto de Mrs Jacob