Water Music

All true music lovers will know that access to music is not a luxury but a necessity. When you travel, the availability of your favorite songs become even more important. Like food and water, music becomes a need. Regardless of the way in which you travel, music always adds value and enjoyment to your trip. You can be traveling by bus, train, car or motorbike in your own country – with the right music, it is always better.

On a foreign visit, the presence of music enriches your travels even more. Listening to familiar music while discovering exciting new places transform the experience into something magical. Songs that you might have listened to hundreds of times before add beauty and unique memories to a vacation. They become the soundtrack of your trip. After the holiday, you listen to the same songs again. Immediately it carries you back to the scene where you had listened to the music while traveling. You experience the place again and remember what you had seen, whom you had met, what you were talking about and how you felt. The music gave your journey meaning.

One of the biggest mistakes I made during my first trip abroad was not to take music with me. Even in those days, at the end of ’92, flights from South Africa to Europe were not cheap. I borrowed an old backpack from a friend. Maybe ‘ancient’ is a better word to use, since the pack still had a frame on the outside. However, budget limitations did not allow me to buy a fancy and light new rucksack. My flight was scheduled to leave Johannesburg International Airport on 25 November. It meant that I would arrive in England at the same time the season would finally don the cold coat of late autumn. That knowledge motivated me to buy a new sleeping bag. I decided to use my old hiking boots since the little bit of money I had left I wanted to keep for surviving the European winter. Knowing that my trip would only be for three months I reasoned that I would not need music. If only I had listened to my heart and not my mind. However, once again, the shortage of money did not allow me the luxury of buying a new Walkman.

Not long after the start of my trip, I realized what a mistake I had made to leave my music at home. I coped without music for six weeks. How I lasted that long still remains a mystery to me. Then, in Gdansk in Poland, I could no longer ignore the need for music. I bought a small portable radio and tape player. Tapes were cheap. I stocked up on a dozen tapes, from U2 and Marillion to the Doors and the Rolling Stones. Even though the quality of the radio’s one speaker was poor, it sounded like the best hi-fidelity sound I had heard up to that point in my life.

I did learn my lesson during that trip. Since then I have never traveled without music. I have also promised myself that I never will. Moreover, today, as opposed to those days, you do not need much space to take music with you wherever you go. With mp3 players, you can take all your favorite albums along. You can even make your own compilations and have your personal soundtrack ready for the journey. So, don’t wait, just go.

As a baby the author wasn’t given milk when he was unable to sleep. He was given music to listen to. From that day on his love for music only intensified. His favorite saying is: ‘A moment without music is like a lifetime without love.’ He is constantly in search of new music and great artists. Learn more about the world of music and mp3Â’s at his site called http://www.bestmusicmp3.com