Music as your Travel Guide

Day 3 of the Indie Travel Project. 

"Do you believe in live after love," is belting from the crackling laundromat speaker.  We can't understand a single conversation around us, but Cher is carrying us through the afternoon.  We're in Munich, land of beer steins as big as your head and menus with entree names longer than the alphabet.  No matter where you were in Europe in 1999, you could not escape the sweet seduction of Cher on the airwaves. 

It felt like a pilgrimage all recent college graduates should take - and so we did it.  Three Illinois born-and-bred girls making a go of it in a few European countries for the summer.  What did we do with our new found freedom? 

Sure we did a few silly, stupid things.  But what really kept us going?  Song writing.

Cher wasn't the only artist to make an appearance in our soundtrack.  We made up songs about the Roman ruins, the statue of David and anything else that could somewhat be replicated by an American song.  "Stop what you're doin' - I'm sittin' on a ruin."  An instant classic.

Many of my road trips and vacations elicit memories of the music that accompanied me through long stretches of open roads or crazy antics, but nothing stands out more in my mind than a couple of friends creating our own ridiculous soundtrack through Europe.  I'm sure the great intellectuals of the Renaissance were openly cursing us.  But 12 years later, I can remember every made up song, each scenic spot and every emotion that carried me through my first big travel experience.

Thank you to my two special friends, who at the time, made me laugh until I cried with silly song lyrics and opened my eyes to what the rest of the world could offer.       

Any songs lyrics you have made up for a special time and place?