too much, just enough, and nothing at all

one month on the road and only three days down with food poisoning. not bad, may be the moving is keeping my mind and body cleared, not allowing it to become stagnant. a point of slight regret: not traveling with a gig. i got the ukulele, but one must be really good to be able to entertains anyone with that gentle instrument. gypsies came into the balkans and settled working at dancers, singers and blacksmiths. now they still dance and sing... and beg. but most are begging while acting, or entertaining in some way. one must always be ready to offer something, a story, a smile, an intelligent dialogue, or a drawing when on the road. those travelers who grow bored, tired or claim that 'this place has nothing to offer' are best to be avoided. its easy to catch the mood of others at times when traveling alone, but you find yourself gravitating towards people and places that are best suited to your sensibility at the moment, and the more tuned in one can become with this sense, the smoother and more adventurous ones travels become. i have been developing a discipline of 'the walk', especially essential to big cities. first one must set a simple goal such as: 'find that music show i saw yesterday to play on that amazing pink guitar that i almost decided to buy', or 'find the best burek in town'. second, go for a walk in order to achieve this goal. third, after trying to get to this initial simple goal you will get into a walking groove and either will achieve your goal or not, but you will be able to keep walking for much longer and find may more things you had no idea you were looking for such as: a hedgehog, a rosegarden in a muslim cemetery, a peeling wall, a cat, a view of the sunset sky, a church, a person. its like a walking meditation, but has a much more chaotic structure in cities then in nature, because as a human being, you will be relation, voluntarily or not to the society you happen to be walking through, and you will probably 'not fit in' since you dont have friends or projects here, and that can get you down, but dont let it get you. writing help, especially writing for someone, in a form of a letter even if you never find it. drinking coffee and people watching helps, and drawing of course. im in beograd now, just got here and will be for a few days. then either to romania for a few days to visit friends i met on the road and stay at their place for free (yay) or right down south to macedonia to join ana on the farm. the to greece. i crave nature, hard work and simple life of stability. it will be a vacation from wandering, a temporary place of settlement. the rhythms of the road.