Part 2 Where did my actual state of mind come from? Well! Now to think back! As a child, not having seen and experienced anything else before Probably, I always felt that something wasn’t working well around me. And of course, I couldn’t define my thoughts People seemed a bit to superficial, not deep enough But the feeling of wanting change got stronger and stronger in me X When I was 16, I went on a bigger excursion for the first time alone I went to another very small town 300 km far away by bike A kind of Woodstock-festival took place there Very many different kind of people, hippies, punks, normal youngsters like me It was a completely new world to me and very strange These were people, I had seen only on TV so far And nearly everybody there could play a music instrument I must admit I envied them And it was not before 20 years later when I learned my first music instrument myself X However, what I didn’t get at this music festival was satisfaction It showed me that something was very wrong in my world at home But it didn’t any kind of concrete answer Therefore, I had to for it elsewhere From that moment on, I was unsatisfied with everything around me I had never hated school before and went there to meet friends But now, I couldn’t even meet friends there Most schoolmates either didn’t want to listen to my dreams Or they just laughed at me, or they said that I was stupid Yes, I think I was just different I didn’t want to live my life in a secure, golden cage One gets everything in Germany, even freedom of speech but no freedom of mind In Germany, everybody is expected to be conform to the system And I think I still have not found what I've been looking for all these years X Summer holiday arrived. I was 17 years old and nothing could hold me anymore. I wanted to discover the world I dreamt of Genova How many Italians had begun their voyages from there? My English was very poor at that time And I didn’t speak Italian at all But I thought, like all other young people at that age, I thought that the world belonged to me X The sun was shining for me Even if it was raining Shorts, sandals, a rucksack, sleeping back and a little bit of money That was all I needed to feel free for the first time in my life Of course, I didn’t go by train, bus or airplane I did hitchhiking And when it got night, I slept where I was or wanted Sometimes, I had to wait for an hour for someone to stop But I got nearer and nearer to Genova Or maybe, Genova got nearer to me? X Of course, Genova of today looks completely different I should have been disappointed but I wasn’t Even so the city looked grey and dirty Thousands of tourists, people being dressed in suits and ties going to work in an office, just like in every other town in Europe At a moment, I asked someone to help me to find the beach He looked laughing at me Probably, he thought ‘’What a stupid tourist!” But he said “My dear, get on the train! 30 km to the east or west!” However, I first went straight ahead, to the place where the city and the ocean met Because I had never before seen the sea x the sun was going down sunrays reflected in oily water lights being switched on behind me nightlife beginning in the city me, as a boy from the countryside the next wonder nobody really cared for or looked at me I was as extraordinary or normal as anybody else and for the first time of the voyage, I took a train because I couldn’t find a sleeping place Further to part 3! Back to list!