From 1968 - when I was 17 years old - I hitchhiked through Europe every year with my best friend. The first two years we travelled to Ireland and the following year to Greece. I have many very positive memories of these trips. Above all, I was impressed by the boundless hospitality. I still remember exactly how a Greek man gave us a lift for half a day. He was delighted to show us his Greece. We stopped at a bay and swam in the sea. In the evening, he invited us to his house and gave us a 3-litre canister of homemade olive oil as a farewell gift. It was the beginning of a journey lasting several weeks and it wasn't easy to carry a canister with us whilst hitchhiking. We were delighted with this gift and it was a shame that we couldn't express our thanks properly due to our lack of knowledge of Greek. Should he happen to read this text ...
Χίλια ευχαριστώ για το ελαιόλαδο. Σπάνια υπήρξε ένα δώρο στη ζωή μου που με έκανε τόσο ευτυχισμένη.
This made it all the more important to us to honour this precious gift. After we had carried the canister with us for a good five weeks, an accident happened - I think it was on the Loibl Pass: I was carrying the canister in my right hand when the handle suddenly snapped off. The canister fell to the ground and burst. The precious olive oil poured out onto the road.
I took the pictures of the Acropolis in 2023. The biggest photographic challenge was that the photos not only show tourists, but also the Parthenon. How I longed for the time in 1969 when you could still visit the Acropolis in peace!
