Finally Getting a Start
My first Grand Tour, Dec 1986 – Jan 1987
Sleeping under a slot machine was how it started
On an overloaded ferry to Calais
The French dockworkers go on strike every Christmas
And there was just one overbooked boat going every day
Four classmates plus me in Paris, bleary-eyed
Seems it’s just us plus a whole lot of police
A week of student riots had chased the tourists away
And good hotels were renting wonderfully cheap
Chorus
Hello Europe, it’s good to be back, I’ve missed you
I was six years old when last time we did part
Seeing every corner of the world is gonna take a long time
And I sure am glad I’m finally getting a start.
Arriving in Luxembourg on the afternoon train
The backpackers all trek youth hostel way
By the time we check in, new friendships are made
And evening plans are getting underway
Dinner shared from backpacks – a 10-nation smorgasbord
Then it’s off to the local pubs for a chat and a brew
A lazy evening swapping tales while winter howls outside
Some locals tell us stories from World War II
(chorus)
The further south the train takes me, the colder it gets
In Munich it’s minus 10 and falling fast
The streets shine bright with Christmas lights, my toes are freezing through
Ahead I see the hostel at last
I walk into the common room, it’s way too dead for me
Just scattered groups each holding their own space
So I pass round my guitar, and an instant party forms
Playing tunes, swapping tales and warming the place
(chorus)
To Salzburg with friends from the hostel the previous night
We arrive and our little group, it starts to grow
Our third day there is New Year’s Eve, there’s a dozen of us now
Watching fireworks by the castle in the snow
At 2 AM it’s time for a tipsy stagger across town
Cause my train to Hungary isn’t gonna wait
Changing trains at 6 AM while Vienna sleeps
Then across the Iron Curtain on New Year’s Day
(chorus)
Into Budapest, a city coated in black
From the coal that everyone still used then for fuel
Grocery stores with empty shelves, and bullet holes in the walls
From the `56 uprising ‘gainst Communist rule
Long evenings chatting with the locals there
Frustration, dreams deferred expressed by all
“Once we were the heart of Europe, now we’re all cut off
Will we live to see the Iron Curtain fall?”
(chorus)
A 16-hour train ride to Berlin overnight
Crossing Czechoslovakia and East Germany, too
Almost arrested when our documents weren’t just right
A Slovak border guard helped us safely through
Lost in East Berlin, our visas soon to expire
At last, exhausted, the border crossing’s done
By the Reichstag I climb to look back over the Wall
Fresh snow in the minefields glitters in the sun
(chorus)
A party island ringed by an ocean of grey
The glitz and glamour of West Berlin’s surreal
From pub to pub we wander under the Ku’Damm’s bright lights
Never staying out long in the winter’s deepening chill
The boat pulls into Harwich, almost back home
A brisk wind blows straight in off the North Sea
A short train ride to London, back at school again
But the road is still there, calling to me
(chorus)