If there was a way to capture this smell in a perfume, I would.
I'm carrying a suitcase and bags of leftover food up to Kendon's apartment in Köln, and I'm breathing deeply. I'm not out of breath, but I'd lie and say I was if anyone saw me.
I'm savoring a very specific smell of damp stone and cigarette residue that I've smelled in staircases in 3 continents so far. It reminds me of hostels in Europe and apartments in San Francisco and Hyderabad and Brooklyn and Florence and the Bronx and emerging from subways and stepping into basilicas or museums or theaters or cafes or bookstores or record stores or, or...
It smells like a feeling that's ever-present yet nostalgic at the same time. Like I'm on an adventure with people I love, who are and will be the constant while the backdrops of cafes and paintings and languages and histories fluctuate.
This smell reminds me how much I love my friends.
I imagine the market for this smell is slim... and I might have to learn how to make it myself. Köln is probably a good place to start, right?
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