Troubadour: notes from Europe
The author, Ellen Tiberio-Shultz, at Killruddery House & Gardens in Bray, Ireland.
I’m laying on the top bunk of a rickety bunk bed in a hot, humid room that smells like BO. Presumably the BO of the person sleeping in the bunk below. Or possibly of the person snoring in the top bunk across the room. It’s almost midnight in Paris, France and I’m at a hostel. I’ve been backpacking with my best friend (and fellow recent Berklee grad) for the last month and a half, and this might take the cake for the worst place we’ve slept. We’ve had real beds (🙏), pull out couches, mattresses on the floor, and once what we call a “nest,” which is when we use all the clothes we packed in our backpacks to make whatever patch of floor we’re sleeping on as soft as possible. (The nest itself may have been uncomfortable, but the girl lending us her floor was so kind it made up for it.) I’d gladly take a nest if it meant less BO. Alas, this is the life of a backpacker. And I guess it’s better than the night we spent at a 24 hour Starbucks in Dublin. Although maybe not, since at least there it smelled like coffee and we could use the free wifi to watch PS I Love You on our iPad… Anyway, we’re currently in Paris. We spent the afternoon drinking wine on a park bench in front of the Eiffel Tower, which was maybe the best thing I’ve ever done. (Other highlights include: playing on a Dublin radio station, swimming in Loch Lomond in Scotland, and biking from Belgium into Holland.)
Seen while biking from Belgium into Holland: Belgian countryside, near Brugge.
Of the 50 days we’ve been on the road however, we’ve only spent one night “homeless,” 2 nights paying for Airbnb, and 5 in a hostel (including tonight). Mostly, we stay in people’s homes. Sometimes we find people to host us through the “couchsurfing” website, but often we just meet really wonderful and welcoming people. For that I am very grateful. The kindness I’ve experienced while traveling has been overwhelming. One of our Airbnb hosts in Bray, Ireland let us stay an extra night for free so we could have more time to see the town. The vice principal of an elementary school in Edinburgh, Scotland let us stay in his apartment for a full week for free without ever having met us before. (He also invited us in to play for the kids at his school. So fun!) In some cities, like Glasgow and London, we found ourselves accepted into groups of wonderful young women who introduced us to their dogs and took us thrift shopping and cafe-hopping. A man we stayed with in Amsterdam cooked us a full Indian dinner, and we now have a woman in Brugge we call our Belgium mom. We have felt safe, welcomed and cared for in every city we’ve visited. 
Paris, France: “We spent the afternoon drinking wine on a park bench in front of the Eiffel Tower, which was maybe the best thing I’ve ever done.”
We’ve played our music not only in the aforementioned elementary school and radio station, but also in well known venues like Whelan’s in Dublin, tiny unamplified folk bars in Edinburgh, countless open mics, and most importantly, people’s homes. We’ve shared our music with just about every host we’ve had, and I thinks it’s a big part of why we’ve felt so connected to the people we’ve met, and why our journey has been so full of love. When we play for (and with) the people we meet in their homes, we are offering up a very personal and tender part of ourselves. One of the reasons why I love music so much is because when I play, I feel at home. That sounds really cheesy, but it is a very profound thing when I’m hundreds of miles from my friends and family. Being able to share that part of myself with people so closely is a vulnerable and sometimes scary thing, and I think it’s why we are met with such kindness and openness in return. I am thankful everyday for the gifts I have received: music, travel and many, many new friendships.
Ellen Tiberio-Shultz is a recent graduate of Berklee, where she studied Professional Music and Gender Studies. She plans to travel Europe until Christmas time, when she will join her band in Philadelphia, PA.
More about Ellen, her music, and her travels:
