Travelling alone + Meeting Miyavi in Paris

Hello everyone,

I hope you're doing well.

In my previous post about travelling to Paris to Miyavi's concert, I had mentioned that it was the first time I was travelling alone, and I wanted to share this with you what it's like.

How did all of this happen? To be honest I was not waiting for it, it was kind of a bad timing.

I had planned to meet my friend at the airport and leave with her to where we would spend our nights.

I was waiting in the plane and sending the last messages to my relatives when I suddenly received a message that my friend's trip had been cancelled ( At that moment the stewart had requested me to turn off my phone ).

For the first 10 or 20 seconds, I was absolutely terrified. I began to fear I might get anxious about all this and spend my time worrying about scenarios ( to be more exact I feared having panick attacks ).

I could either sit down and face my fears or leave the plane and miss the chance of having a great time.

Now that I think about it, I'm very glad I choose to remain on my seat and leave for Paris.

During my trip, I meditated a bit, took a few deep breaths and practiced my regular exercises, letting the thoughts float without following them ( maybe I'll go into further details about this in a near future and also about anxiety and panic attacks ).

I arrived in Paris and had to take the train ( RER ) for the first time. While I kept waiting, I sensed that the little fear had dissapeared and felt the meaning of "the past is left behind, today is day one".

I arrived nicely at the studio my dear friend was so lovely to offer me during my stay.

I found some flowers and bought them, hoping to give them to Miyavi the next day.

Yet during my sleep, I had woken up several times, first thinking it could be fear but afterwards I dismissed it as excitement ( which indeed was the case ).

The following morning, I arrived and stood with the fans waiting. At first, I thought i'd just stay like this but that would have been boring, so I began to chat with a lovely person who had also come alone. It turns out that we had more in common than we thought. 

The next day, after the concert, we went together to  Paris Mangas to attend Miyavi's conference, we expected to not make it but fortunately in the end we had arrived on time.

Miyavi at Japan  FM

All of this was not planned, It was a spontaneous decision made at midnight as we hit the road to go home, so everything that followed was unexpected.

One of the security guards kept looking at me and my flowers and suddenly said:" I know you. you're the girl that gave flowers to Yoshiki. I was looking for you because he wanted to thank you again, he loved it".

I was surprised then I remembered him and had a chat with him. He was very kind to help me out to give my flowers to Miyavi.

Afterwards we decided we could try to find Jared Leto who had come for the fashion week. We've been led outside and found ourselves at the parking, with no idea where the final exit was.

We kept walking until I noticed Miyavi's concert manager. We decided to not take too much notice and thought of waiting there.

Suddenly, Miyavi came out of the door and was about to go in the car when he saw us. My friend approached him, asking for a picture ( which sadly the security refused ) so Miyavi gave a apologetic sign and stretched his hand out to her to say thank you.

On my side, I was a few feet behind,  grasping that he was there, with my flowers in his hand, he tilted his head and with a lovely smile, waved at me and said goodbye ( I waved back of course ).

Again, I remembered the fear I had, and started to see that  I would have missed great things had I decided to leave the plane. In two days, I had seen so much of Paris at day and at night, I had stumbled on Miyavi twice and I never dreamed of such thing to happen ( did miss Jared Leto due to bad timing as we were both at Terry Richardson's gallery ) and had so much fun. I felt happy, strong, capable and all of my inner fears had dissapeared.

If you have been struggling with these type of fears of travelling alone, most of the time it's only our thoughts. Of course, you need to be prepared when you go abroad but travelling alone is also a chance of meeting new people and enjoying yourself. Honestly it felt like an adventure and several times I kept thinking  "I'm having so much fun I don't even have time to worry".

Paris was so beautiful at night, it was the "nuit blanche" so everyone was outside, having fun, bands were singing etc...

Even though it was a very short trip, it was absolutely brilliant, a roller coaster of adrenaline, laughs, great moments and meetings. I thank the people who were there with me, the one I met, with whom we shared our drinks and food and talked as if we had been friends for years. Life is great when you decide to be happy.

See you soon again and take care!