Euro Pop: Michael, Che, Katy

In Europe we had to search for news in English. One of our reasons for the trip was to shed the nonstop news cycle so we did not look hard but got our occasional fix from the Herald Tribune, now published by the NYT, or BBC. However, we found that we were inundated by popular culture wherever we went. And it was very interesting to see the themes that stood out through our journey.

In Europe, Michael Jackson is still the King of Pop. We were in Belgium for the one year anniversary of his death, which was a very big deal there. TV news reran clips of the funeral and Michael dancing. The cafés and bars bloomed with music videos spanning his career. And man on the street questions were all about MJ. Our friend the playwright, Davey Leers gave a conspiratorial look whenever the KOP was mentioned. He assumed that Michael Jackson was a bond between our two cultures, something that we both well understood.

It made me wonder how Michael’s popularity and charisma survived the media bombardment intact in Europe. Ben, our son thinks it is because the Europeans were able to separate the sensational stories in the press and coverage of his weird personality from the art and movement of a master performer.

Che Guevara tee shirts, graffiti, and posters were everywhere we traveled. I took this to be related to the fact that there is still a Left in Europe. Every day we saw evidence of this, whether it be Andrea Merkel criticizing the French for illegal deportation of Roma, marching in support of low university tuition or keeping pensions and social security at current levels or just people pouring into the streets to protest meetings of fascist organizations. The popularity of Guevara seems tied up with a political system that has room for every voice.

And then there was the ubiquitous cultural train wreck of a music video California Girlz by Katy Perry. This was the number one song of the summer and the music video was as unignorable to me as it was horrible. To her credit, I could not get Rhonda to watch it as she attributed my interest as pure salaciousness. Absolutely everything about the song, video, dancing (?) is awful including the aging (only 39, but looks 60) coked out Snoop Dogg. As Chris Rock said in the old Saturday Night Live skit to whoever was playing LaToya Jackson, “Get your sorry ass outa here.”

I don’t know why anyone would want to watch this thing except from the standpoint that it is so bad that it is good. But pop is pop and once something finds its way into the scene and goes viral there is no program known to cleanse the system. In fact I suspect that this particular video was more available in uninhibited Europe than in the US, because European media is much more explicit and society much more open. Beer gardens with children’s playgrounds, women’s topless and men’s tiny pouch swimming suits, commercials in train stations that use vegetables to portray sex between adolescents, and prostitution, all are within European decency standards. Whatever else, this video shows that the US pop culture industry can dominate at least as well as Goldman Sachs.

Alone Together

The number of guidebooks available for the GR5 and the descriptions we had read had us anticipating many hikers on the trail. We did see quite a few people in certain parts of the Alps, day hikers in and around sites like water falls, mountain bikers and the occasional long distance hikers, but for the most part it was a solitary walk. We were alone along on the trail most days except for brief encounters, all the way through Europe.

We were alone on wind swept passes, in corn fields, in crowds in city squares, among herds of cattle and sheep, surrounded by forests, in silent churches, along canals, on beaches, in gorges, on quiet village streets, and in flower bestrewn meadows. 

We were lost, drenched, cold, hot, hungry, and attacked by insects together. We had foot problems, injuries, skin rashes, undie chafing, and sicknesses together. We learned pidgin Dutch, Flemish, and French together. We learned how to locate hotels, cafes, restaurants, Laundromats, newsstands, and toilets together. We watched movies in languages we didn’t understand, weather reports, ditto, and the world cup matches together. We shared birdsong, and lovely vistas, and beautiful sunny days, and breaks in bad weather, wonderful meals, and sunsets together. Outside of an occasional disastrous meeting, we had delightful interactions with people all along the way, together.

photo by Melanie

We were pals, helpmates, lovers, and the only support either of us had for the entire trip. We thought we should have done this when we met. And we were jealous of our friends Heather and Justin, who took the time to travel together at the beginning of their marriage. Growing as a couple was the most important part of the trip for us. When we related this to other hikers they looked puzzled. The expectation for a journey is that the countryside and people you meet will have the most impact, not that things that change inside your own head will be so important. What we learned is that every journey is a pilgrimage and that what you carry with you after returning home includes much more than memories of the things encountered. For us it was how important and special we are to each other.

Sloooooooowing Down

The trip was all about the European countryside, its inhabitants, villages, food, wine, euro style, art, scenery, fields, farms, forests, mountains and waterways. We knew and anticipated this when we started planning our walk and were not disappointed as we made our way. In fact we were amazed each day at the richness of the culture and landscapes.

One of several things we learned that we hadn’t given much thought to before we started out was how the trip would slow us down. With hind sight we think how could we have not anticipated this revelation? After all, I have been on a number of long back packing trips and have noticed how odd it is to drive a car and how fast life is when I returned. And Rhonda did a long trip through Europe when she was 21. But if you walk for four months the impact is astounding.

photo by Melanie

Slowing down is a well known prescription for the ills brought on by our frenzied age. The question is, how to accomplish it?


Maintaining the primordial pace of a bullock cart showed us a way and opened up vistas we haven’t seen since childhood. Not only the pace of walking, but our small range of activities contributed to the overall effect. When you spend most of your day watching the path and the surrounding countryside, and looking for way marks and the rest of the day are spent washing, eating and sleeping, the anxieties of modern life fall away like autumn leaves. We found ourselves absorbed by bird song, church bells, wild flowers, and butterflies.

This gift from the trip was especially beneficial to me because of my obsessive nature. My food obsession popped out into the open as I stood before windows of bakeries wondering how I could possibly try everything in the place. And this led my usual dog gulp style of eating to become quite noticeable. So Rhonda got me actually chewing again. 

We are both using our new knowledge of slow to guide our way.