1957

Start of my apprenticeship. The start of 4 years of being a slave to masters and journeymen. Started to earn money but not enough to live of. Started to get into scams for extra money. Black market dealings with GI's and rebat stamps. All small fry but it gave the needed spending money for vacation. We had 6 weeks vacation a year. It was usually 2 weeks at a time and I used every day of it. I could travel for free or very little money on the trains in Europe and I took full advantage of it despite my parents protestations to go to all those foreign places without speaking the language.
In this 4 years I traveled to Austria, Italy, England, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and France (also small trips all over Western Germany). All foreign trips were by myself, none of my friends had the money for the train tickets. Cost of living was cheap once I got were I wanted to go, Youth Hostels all over the place and cost was usually between 25 and 50 cents a night for a dormitory bed. Also people were very hospitable that many times I got invited to stay the night and in top of it got well feed.
Some trips were just by train and stayed one place, others were by train and taking a bicycle along and exploring the country and the later trips started by train and then hitch hiking through the country.
I meet some interesting people and girls but today I lost all contact with any of the people I meet during this time. The memories are still there and so are the pictures from some of the trips. Too many changes in my life and living a continent away didn't help to maintain contact.