Hello everybody
I am Ian Dust, a traveler. I travel around the world, with my guitar because i can.
When i was 21 i went to New York to make it as an artist, i sang in the subways, i sang in the bars, i met a lot of people and of course i did not make it.
But my life of traveling had just begun.
A man in the world
After a month in New York i got low on cash. And to be honest i did not like the city, i could not see peace anywhere. There is just no harmony in a place like that. My hope of becoming the new Bob Dylan was shattered, it was just a crazy idea, made from a very young mind. But anyway, i got out of the plane, out of the airport and took a bus to manhatten. When i got out of the terminal and stood in the middle of 45th street, i was just shocked. I sat down on my guitar case and had a cigarette, trying to figure out what to do, i had no place to stay, no guidebook and my head was not ready for this reality. It was my first time in a city with more than 500000 people in it. I took a cab down to greenwhich village, the only place i knew, because of the music and when i got there, i went straight in to the nearest bar and ordered a beer. I sat there 3 or 4 hours, before my mind was settled. I found a cheap hostel in harlem and everything was good.
I started playing my guitar in the subways and i made alot of money doing that 30$/hour.
I asked around the bars down in greenwich village if i could sing some songs on stage, mostly i got an unfriendly face and then a No. I was allowed to play in one place, i cant remember the name of the bar, but it was in greenwich village. The manager had a crazy way of running this sunday jamsession. He joined all the artist on stage and when they where ready to perform he would say to the audience "if you dont like what you hear, give me a hint and i will drag them of the stage with my cane" and then he raised his cane, it was bent so it could go around the neck of the performer. He stood right beside every artist on the stage, ready with his cane.
I played there twice, and you know, it was just a crazy place.
I figured out that there was no use for me to be in New-york any longer so i decided to go.
I had enough money to travel to Florida for 3 days before going back to Norway.
So i went to Fort lauderdale, got on a buss to Miami, and went from there to Key West.
This was my first meeting with the tropic and it blew my mind.
I lived in Jamaica a while when i was 3 years old, but i dont remember anything.
I saw the sunrise and decided to destroy my ticket back to new york. I still had my open flight ticket from New York - Norway.
Anyway, i had no money. I think this is still the strangest thing i ever done, tempting my faith like that.
But what do you know, i got a job.
I found myself sweeping a parking lot, watering the palm trees, cutting down branches, and playing guitar on the streets. This was the beginning of march.
I did not make enough money to live and eat by doing this so i began looking around for more jobs. I got a job in a bar, The oak beach inn.
Then, without me knowing it, spring-break came, i did not even know what that was. But i made a lot of money. Some days 300$.
Just as you know, if anybody wants to make a lot of money quick. Go to Key West in the beginning of march. There are jobs to be found everywhere. But its very difficult and extremely expensive to find a place to live.
The job was hard, i worked 6 days a week, 11 hour shift.
No eating breaks. We had to eat and smoke in the toilet, if somebody got caught they where fired right away.
And many where caught.
When spring break was over i had saved up 1200$. I was so eager to get going so i took a bus back to New York.
I got out of the bus, went down to Sta travel, bought a ticket to amsterdam and got on the plane the same day.
New York is a good base to travel to and from, because of the cheap flight tickets. New York - Amsterdam/rt 180$.
I looked around, talked to many people and found the cheapest place to stay in the hole city. A christian shelter in the middle of the red light district.
Dont mistake this for a backpacking hostel. This place is more like a mental hospital. The weirdest humans on the planet lives here, i sleept with one eye open.
I found myself a nice bridge crossing one of the canals in the red district, and started playing guitar.
Belive it or not, at this bridge i made at least 15$ an hour. There is just so many tourists walking over these bridges to see the girls in the windows. I did this for 2 months
When i played in the subways in New York, i actually made about 20-30$ an hour. But its not easy to sing down there. The trains are coming and going constantly, no kidding, if you get 1min you are lucky. You cant even hear yourself when the trains are passing.
There is not much to say about Amsterdam, its a filty city. But this is my opinion. Its a city of sin.
What i really liked was my bridge, i got to know everybody in that area. And people got used to this young guy singing on the bridge.
There is so many good people out in the world, you must travel to meet them i think.
I had already spend all the cash i earned in Key West, here in Amsterdam, everything was earned on my bridge.
Then i got my tax money. In Norway, if we pay to much tax we get it back. I got 500$ back. In florida i was told by some irishmen that there was many fishing jobs in Alaska, and that you could earn a years wage on 3 months. I thought about it, and soon as i got the cash into my account, i used my New york ticket that i bought and went back to NYC.
In Nyc, i bought a bus ticket to Vancouver. I had no idea how far away that was. I sat 4 days on different greyhound buses.
And i tell you, never ever will i do that again.
How stupid, and how crazy i was to think 500$, would take a heavy duty smoker from Nyc to Alaska by bus. But everything has a meaning, and everything is already written. So this was how it was going to be.
I came to Vancouver, where i got stuck. I could not go anywhere, and i must say, Vancouver is not a city you want to be stuck in.
I found a cheap hostel and started playing guitar on the street.
Soon i ran out of money and i had to play my guitar 7-8 hours a day to get enough to pay my bed, and to get a burger on macdonalds.
I had a hard time doing this, and i had to sleep under a bridge there to.
After weeks of singing my voice away i went to a hare krishna temple and asked if i could sleep there for the night.
They said yes, and when the next morning came, i did not leave, i said nothing and they said nothing, exept that if i wanted to stay i would have to sign a paper, where i promised to study bhakti yoga. I stayed there a month and then i felt it was time to travel home.
Many things happend on this journey, but the biggest was still yet to come.
When i walked out of the airport in my home city, i got my spiritual awakening. I was no longer that man who left. I was changed. I recived my first cut by the sword of knowledge.
I became a traveler, with no home, and no direction.
I became just a man in the world.
I can tell you now, and anytime, anywhere that i know God, but not the way you might think. But the way as Jung the German philosopher does.
