Gay Bear Traveler Geek.

Saturday night, to mi left, my best friend, the French speaker in the group, asleep, he’s not up for keeping up with the pace of the last few days, going around the many wine tastings in Lyon after the Beaujolais Festival. To my right, the girl in the group, whose French lessons hadn’t been helpful, wondering if she’d go out that night. My predicament, to go to bed, or step up and see what my French lessons would do for me, knowing that the past few days, I had been letting Sleeping Beauty do all the talking. I said “Let’s get out of here!”
We walked to the Place de Terreaux, which had been pointed out as the area for clubbing. And to our right, a breath taking building, curiosity stroke. We walked up to a group of three guys in there 20’s, and I asked them in my limited French about it. They said “C'est l'Hôtel de Ville, mais ce n'est pas un hôtel” meaning it was the Hotel Ville, but it wasn’t a hotel, which did not make any sense to us at all! So in a matter of a few minutes, the group had grown to about eight people trying to explain us what it was. They helped us figure out that it actually was the city hall.
So then I realized that my French maybe wasn’t not so bad, and people from Lyon had gotten my heart. We hit some clubs, and following the locals around narrow streets, ended up in an Irish Pub. It was super nice, wooden, playing American pop rock from the nineties, and packed! We managed to get a place next to the bar and suddenly there was a guy on the bar asking for a tray with about fifteen shots, I said cheers! Looking impressed by his amount of alcohol! He gave me one and took another! So we started talking.
The guy was with about 10 others and one of them spoke English so I told my friend to talk to that one and I would talk to the others. We talked until the club closed and then continued talking in the street about many things, until one neighbor got mad and threw a glass bottle to the street. But anyway, I managed to communicate with them in French, and it felt great!
What I got from this experience is the power of stepping out from your comfort zone. It’s easy to have a friend doing all the talking while you hide in the background, little alone it’s too easy to stay home and not explore the world! Yet it’s important to take chances, because they bring those magical instants in which you can either stay in the bubble with what you know, or step up and learn, empower yourself, and that’s the beauty of life and the magic of traveling.