Soundtrack To The Zion Europa Express!

Way back in late summer 2009, in their Jordan Lane flat in Edinburgh, this became the 'theme song' of what was coming - a new vision.  Dave & Kate had just moved into the flat and Music began to stir again, this time to do it right:

"its gonna take plenty of money to do it right...  its gonna take time... its gonna take patience and time to do it right...".

Brian, Agnes, Will, Georgie & Brother Mark can already testify to that!

The return of Europe & Music!  This song became very significant during the summer of 2010 when Europe was turning into reality:

"...it all makes sense to me somehow..."

"...and its not what it used to be, no, we're suddenly free to let go..."

"...these are times that come, only once in your life, or twice if you're lucky..."

Another song that found them back in the 'incubation period' of Jordan Lane and which Brother Mark reminded them of in January 2011, Berlin.

The song of Movement!  In the last few weeks before leaving Edinburgh, this became THE SONG!

"...Let me tell you if you're not wrong then everything is alright..."

"...We know where we're going, we know where we're from, we're leaving Babylon, we're going to our Fatherland..." 

"...Oh people if you're ready me say get on board now... and then you praise 'fari"

"...Here you're going in the same direction"

"...And where there's a will, there's always a way..."

Back in the 1980s, when Dave was 7 years old, he used to be fascinated by maps and was especially intrigued by the Eastern Europe area and places like Berlin.  He'd listen to the radio with his friends and they'd study the atlas...  they could name the capital cities to most countries in the world.  This song was a hit at that time and for some reason it always made Dave think of Berlin and wonder what it would be like.  To suddenly hear it come on the radio in January 2011 in Berlin was like deja vu.

Dave & Kate laughed as they began to realise they were in the army Now!  They were SoulJah's on the frontline of a 7-strong army and on the look-out for new recruits.  Jah Rastafari!!!

Many a time when Dave & Kate were feeling stuck and helpless this song would appear...

The 'theme song' to the crushing of ego and return to the Natural State...

The money song... 

First heard back in Barcelona and has been a companion to Dave & Kate ever since...

Berlin - After The Wilderness

By now Dave & Kate were starting to get the hang of this way of life - walking the tightrope.

It's like learning to ride a bike - all about balance.  Enough future to make the next move and no more.  Start looking too far ahead and life has a funny way of disrupting your plans.  Do the next thing as fully as you can and make the jump and life has a funny way of catching you.

The fear of the fall is greater than the fall itself.  Nobody wants to take that perceived risk and so we have a world full of grown men and women still on stabilisers.

This wasn't new to them, they had known it in their heart for some time, but its one thing to sit in a house you're almost certain you'll still be in tomorrow back in Edinburgh with a job to go to each day and regular money coming in.  It's another thing to actually experience the living fact of not knowing where you'll be staying tomorrow or where yor next meal is coming from.

Dave & Kate were beginning to glimpse some order in the chaos...  even if they held off to the last minute with nowhere to stay tomorrow, Jah would always deliver the goods.  At other times Jah would afford them some time in one place and it would always come at the right time.

A House Don't Make Home

During these days, the airports around Europe & the UK were closing as winter chaos was setting in and so even if they had no choice, returning to Edinburgh at this time was not necessarily possible.  Money was running so low they didn't even have the fare for a flight anyway.

For the first time, the prospect of actually having nowhere to stay and being out on the streets of Berlin was a real possibility.  Rather than weaken them this had the effect of bringing out a courage and strength they hadn't yet seen in themselves.  The certainty had never been stronger - they couldn't leave Berlin.

On Sunday night at the Winter's Hotel they had just enough money to book one more night at a basic hotel/hostel in the Kreuzberg area of Berlin, contemplating homelessness.  By Monday afternoon money had incredibly come in and on Tuesday they checked out of the Jugendhotel in Kreuzberg heading for Friedrichshain where they now somehow had got together an apartment for 2 weeks.

The night before Dave & Kate had been chatting about the system and being kids and how parents have to dupe them into feeling excited about school by bribing them with new crayons, etc...

Hash Adam & Jesus (complete with poseable arms and gliding action)

Midway through their time in Amsterdam, they received a package from Edinburgh with winter clothes which they were very chuffed with.  It had been getting considerably colder all the time and they still only had summer clothes and jackets.

On their way back from buying train tickets for Hamburg (their next destination), they collected the package from the agency, and then in a gift shop nearby Anne Frank's house, they found a friend in Jesus.  He ended up leaving with them and so that day they arrived for a coffee and smoke at La Terturia with their winter clothes and Jesus alongside them.

There was a young guy just leaving at the table next to them but he spent a few moments staring at them before he got up and left.

The next day they returned there - this time without Jesus and clothes - but the young guy was there.  He soon introduced himself as Hash Adam, a young Dutch/English outlaw, his weapon of choice being a camera.  He was a freelance photographer apparently.  He didn't appear to recognise them from the day before although they recognised him.  Instead after asking to borrow the Bob lighter, he got straight down to the benefits of hash, which he was smoking, and spent the first 20 mins telling Dave & Kate in great detail all about hash and how to make it. 

He offered them a toke of his joint and was determined to find out if they enjoyed it as much as he did.  They were neither this way or that about it.  It was nice, but so was the weed they were smoking.  They continued chatting, mainly about the system, and when Dave & Kate explained their situation and what they were doing, and how much money they had left.  He looked on in wonder.  Then a long pause....

His face suddenly creased up and he burst out laughing with the phrase "have you guys ever thought about getting jobs?!"  They all cracked up at this but as he left it looked like a guy who had contemplated some of what was spoken.

Meanwhile, Jesus remained with them.  He was supposed to depart and head to Edinburgh from Amsterdam but the bastard wouldn't leave and ended up following them on to Hamburg.

The Truffaut Days

Dave & Kate arrived at the apartment on Rue Truffaut on Saturday afternoon and were soon met by David and his little boy, who they learnt had never heard his dad speaking English before and had never been to the apartment before, hence his shyness.

After showing them around he surprised them by saying he had decided he didn't need a desposit from them as he trusted them and wouldn't be around on the Thursday when they checked out anyway.  They recognised this as another little bit of help coming their way and were able to use that cash now for groceries for the week.

The apartment itself was great, with everything they needed, but at this stage they would have felt grateful for pretty much any apartment.  The fact it had a PC with internet, was close to the Europe area they had been in, and had all amenities close by was amazing.  Still they were faced with returning to Edinburgh on the Thursday if money didn't arrive from somewhere.

They weren't even sure where they'd go after this if it did come.  Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands seemed the most likely destinations, although they had no reason to go to any of them.

The weather responded to their movements too.  The previous 2 weeks in Paris it had remained dry, while they were in hotels and out for much of the day.  The day they moved into the apartment it began raining heavily and did so for most of the days they were there.  They had seen most of Paris anyway and didn't need to go too far. 

Instead a lot of time was spent utilising the free internet and writing emails.

During this time help now came in the form of Will & Georgie, who kindly stepped in and provided new funds for them to remain in Europe.  Dave & Kate had been more more confident it would come this time than the previous week but they didn't know from where.  They felt blessed yet again still not really knowing what the hell was going on.

Parc Monceau

Dave & Kate had discovered a nice little park in the area during their time there called Parc Monceau.  It was probably their favourite and they preferred it over the more famous Luxembourg Parc. 

As they took a walk around it trying to understand how their head and heart could be in conflict like this they eventually sat themselves down on a rock opposite a small pyramid.  A little French boy soon appeared in front of them playing on the rocks.  He was singing to himself and kept looking up at them with a curious smile.  This made them smile.  When he eventually ran off to his mum he kept looking back at them shouting "au revoir!" and waving.  They wondered if this was an omen Paris was saying goodbye to them.

That night they took a longer route to a different internet cafe much further away from their hotel.  They were going there as one last throw of the dice, so to speak.  If something showed up (they couldn't see what) then it was still on, if there was nothing they would book a flight back to Edinburgh as they simply didn't have enough to last any longer.

They never spoke about it to each other at the time but both felt they were sure they'd be staying.  Edinburgh just wasn't an option - it was as obvious as this to them even if it made no logical sense.  They couldn't conceive that this thing was about to die.

A miracle did come.  Jah had put his troops Brian, Agnes and Brother Mark into action and there was an email waiting for Dave & Kate with an offer of financial help to sustain them a few days longer.  It had only been a few hours since Dave notified them about possibly returning.  If they had went to the usual nearer internet place they probably would have booked the flights before the emails had come through.

At the very last minute Europe was brought back to life - if only for a few days more.

Later that night as they sat eating a Subway again, the song on the radio went "I need a dollar, a dollar, a dollar is what I need...  if I share with you my story would you share your dollar with me".

3 Hotels In 3 Nights

It felt like Jah had delivered a real treat for them that night.  They were so grateful. 

Although it looked increasingly certain they'd have no choice but to book a flight back to Edinburgh the following day, it didn't matter, for now they were fine.

That night as Dave brushed his teeth he saw he was staring at a rainbow in the sink.  The light was reflecting off the running water in such a way it had created a rainbow.  He began to laugh.  They had also noticed that there were three random tiles in the bathroom each with a butterfly on them.

Yet again they checked out in the morning with nowhere to stay that night.  They managed to book a Best Western hotel on Rue de Moscou after another internet trip.  The internet rates in Paris were really swallowing up their finances.

That afternoon Dave sent an email to the folks back in Edinburgh to let them know they'd almost certainly be on a flight there in a day or two.  Dave & Kate felt they weren't to ask for money from anyone, no matter how strongly they felt about remaining in Europe.  They had to put all their trust in Jah.

Europe - The Final Countdown?

On their second and final night at the hotel on Rue d'Amsterdam, no money had shown up and neither had anywhere else to stay for the following night.  Edinburgh was almost certainly on the cards now.

That night they didn't feel to even bother looking for hotels on the internet.  Instead they stayed in and checked out the following morning, leaving their bags at the hotel reception, and headed straight to an internet cafe.  No luck.

All they could think to do at this point was what they'd done before 8 years ago on their first trip around Europe... go on foot round hotels in the area and enquire.  They knew they couldn't leave this part of Paris yet.

They made an error (or was it?) straight away by going into the third hotel enquiring, getting the guy to take the rate down from 95 Euros a night to 60, and paid by credit card for 3 nights... before seeing the rooms.

They knew they couldn't stay there for 3 nights and didn't care if they had a hard time finding somewhere else.  The guy reluctantly refunded the card but that money would now not be available for 30 days while the refund was processed.  Things weren't looking good.

After they'd wandered around for a bit, everywhere far higher than they could afford, Dave suddenly felt a rise of righteous anger at what they were doing - "we shouldn't have to beg like this!  we have every right to live like kings!!".  This outburst broke the momentum, it all felt too much of an effort wandering around like this.

They recognised it was going nowhere and all they could do was return to the internet to see if anything new had shown up.  And there it was.  The one they'd been waiting on.  Just along the road from their last hotel - a great deal on a 4-star hotel for the night.  They would live like King and Queen for a night afterall.

Feeling Musique

As they stepped out to explore the area for the first time, not only did they find everything they needed close by (including a Subway!) but walking down Rue de Rome there were all these luthiers and musical instrument shops.  For the first time two elements of their long-held vision together - Europe and Music.

 Surely all this was a sign they weren't going back to Edinburgh?

Paris - The First 7 Nights (part II)

With two days to go until they were due to check-out the Ibis, they were running low on money and nothing was showing up.

Kate had been trying her luck at the Spanish lotto and now the French one but no luck.  Logically, it looked like they were soon going back to Edinburgh.  But there was no room for that in the vision they saw.

Paris had ground them hard, they'd been all over the city and didn't feel an affinity with any part.  Still whenever the question of what to do next came up, it seemed they weren't to leave yet.

That night at the internet cafe up Jah came up on top and delivered them a very nicely priced hotel in the 8th district of Paris, much closer to the centre.  They got 2 nights and so they took a chance that something would show up in that time to keep alive this Europe thing.

The Little Boy, The Sweet Lady & The 'Game Over' T-Shirt

Strange encounters began to happen.  One day walking through a busy street, a little boy with his mother saw Dave and headed straight for him, stopping him in his tracks with a huge smile on his face.  It was as if they were old friends.  Perhaps they were.

This would also be the start of a number of incidences where they would encounter somebody who'd leave them smiling inside.  It often seemed to happen in the middle of challenging times as if some sort of reminder to keep on.

Towards the end of their time in Barcelona as they were visiting an internet cafe each day with little luck in finding appropriate accomodation for Paris, the woman at the counter began to recognise them.  On their last visit there (she didn't know this) and feeling a bit worn out, she offered them a sweet from the packet she was eating as they paid up and left the cafe. 

The 'Game Over' t-shirt is something else.  A few weeks before they left for Barcelona, it caught Dave's attention from a tourist shop window as he and Kate were filming on the streets of Edinburgh.  It didn't seem to mean much at the time but then fast forward to Barcelona where they would continually see the same t-shirt in a variety of souvenir shops there.  What does it mean?  Maybe nothing at all?

EXODUS: Movement of JAH People!

On Mon 4th Oct, Dave and Kate handed over almost all they had - house, job, possessions, personal security - to life, said goodbye to those around them and with only enough money in the bank to last them a month, fell further into the Rabbit Hole. 

All they knew was that they MUST go to Europe.  They didn't know why, for how long, where exactly, nothing... only that an urging was calling them to continental Europe.

Using Kate's HP Intel Dual Processor Widescreen raft to cross the North Sea, they landed on the shores of Barcelona that same night.  They were welcomed by a grumpy bus driver and a smart-arse Russian at the hotel reception.

Barcelona was the chosen destination (or did it choose them?) after Barcelona football strips frequently showed up around Edinburgh in the weeks leading up to their departure and references to the city seemed to appear on tv at timely moments.  One day in Edinburgh Dave found himself roped into the first game of football he'd played in about 10 years with some Spanish students.

As they sat eating tuna paninis in a fast food place that night in a foreign land, the song on the radio sang out:

"Here I am, this is me, there's nowhere else on earth I'd rather be
 Here I am, it's just me and you, tonight we make our dreams come true
 It's a new world, it's a new start
 It's alive with the beating of young hearts
 It's a new day, it's a new plan, I've been waiting for you
 Here I am..."

Before Boarding

The story of how Dave & Kate came to board the Zion Europa Express stretches back to late 2006.  Back then they were living a life much like anyone else.  Then again, maybe not. 

Dave was out of work and devoted to music, somehow trying to make a living out of it.  Kate was in work, doing an admin job she didn't hate but wasn't fulfilling either.  The underlying feeling was "there must be more to life than this".  They had gradually found themselves withdrawing from the world... losing contact with friends, not interested in going to the pub every weekend as their peers did, questioning all of the usual stuff people do, and instead found themselves searching for something else.  The trouble was they didn't know what they were looking for.  They never chose to be like this, to feel this way, to search for anything, it just seemed to happen by itself.

During the winter of 2006 the 'search' brought them to a variety of spiritual sources which had the effect of shattering their world view.  The world as they knew it up until that point had collapsed and what was left they didn't really know.  The attention turned inwards and from seeing that the world around them was not what they had believed it to be, they began questioning their own identity.

The person creates the world as he/she sees it and the world creates that person.  Which is first?

On this realisation all hell broke loose!  The year of 2007 was a year of endings and a new beginning.  Dave's mother died suddenly and completely unexpectedly in March, aged 47, which in turn caused a chain reaction of events... too many to mention but in November Dave & Kate were forced to move from the flat they'd been in for 4 years and this seemed to mark the beginning of a period of calm after the storm.

Kate continued to work as she had while Dave found himself going deeper and deeper into himself.  Everything dropped away, including the desire to make music, and for the next 2 or 3 years it remained this way.

In July 2009 they moved flat again and this now seemed to mark a new phase.  Pretty soon after moving in Music started to announce itself in their lives again.  Europe was also now on the horizon.  They had no explanation but they couldn't see themselves remaining in Edinburgh once they left this flat.  Italy felt like it might be a possibility.

Still they carried on as normal until in the spring of 2010 Kate started to feel increasingly trapped and frustrated in her work.  One day in the kitchen expressing this, the words came out of Dave's mouth very casually - "why don't you just leave then?".  A few months later and that's exactly what happened.

Europe was calling them and they knew this was the time.  They had somehow known this was coming for a long time.  There had always been something about Europe and particularly since a trip they had made there back in 2002.

This time was very different...