This piece recounts a transformative summer travel experience in Europe during 1995. The author, an 18-year-old at the time, details the adventures and serendipitous moments that fueled her passion for journalism.
By the time we reached Cesky Krumlov, we were used to sleeping rough. We’d slept at Frankfurt station when we’d accidentally found ourselves in Germany rather than Luxembourg. We’d spent a night wandering the streets in Regensburg when we’d missed the youth hostel curfew. And we’d made ourselves comfortable on a platform somewhere near the German-Czechia border when our train never came.
The next morning, we woke late, roused by the smell of coffee. We followed it to the verandah. The daylight was dazzling. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.Getty Images That moment on the balcony captured the spirit of my European summer of 1995. The year before, we’d been schoolgirls, struggling under the pressure of the HSC and then juggling multiple jobs to save for our gap year adventure. As we stepped off the plane at Heathrow, we were butterflies emerging from the chrysalis, gaping in wonder and intoxicated by our new freedom.We had no safety net. There were no mobile phones, no internet and no email.
We had wild adventures that summer. We danced on rooftops, swam in fountains and snuck into Roman ruins at midnight. We made stupid decisions . We lost things , we hurt ourselves , we looked after each other. We practised handling ourselves in tricky situations. We read the books other travellers gave us. We embraced everything around us with the confidence of the naive.
Memoir EUROPE TRAVEL DISCOVERY JOURNALISM ADVENTURE
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