by Peter Wilson

Created on: February 09, 2009   Last Updated: April 09, 2011

A LITTLE BIT OF DYLAN MAGIC

I met Lori, a beautiful twenty year old free-thinking girl from California, outside the youth hostel in Thessaloniki, Greece. I was making my way back to UK from Istanbul after a year wandering and busking where ever the whim took me, just living the dream. Lori was zipping around Europe in a VW Beetle she'd bought direct from the factory in Germany. I was fed up with hitchhiking while Lori wanted some male company and protection after a few bad experiences on the road. We seemed to get on well and enjoyed each other's company and I was immediately struck by her confidence and great sense of fun. So later that same day we set off north, heading for Hamburg from where she planned to ship the car home to the States as was the custom in those far off days. The memories of nights under the stars, of Lori singing Leonard Cohen songs to my uncertain guitar playing, swimming in secluded lakes and rivers or just simply laughing and wallowing in the luxury of care free companionship, still evoke melancholic feelings of delight.

The many different faces of the states that then formed the Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Slovenia all passed by in a wash of excitement. Quite an alien culture so different to the European states they have now become. Wherever we went, young people of all backgrounds were anxious to meet us to discuss western ways and show their knowledge of bands and football teams from England despite the ever present threat from forces of the dictator, Tito. The relative calm of Austria came and went and so on into Germany and to the major port of Hamburg. After completing a mountain of paperwork, the beloved Beetle was finally boarded onto a container vessel bound for the US. It was a strange feeling to be without the third part of our mnage-a-trois, Lori, the car and me, but it also heralded a new start to our adventure. The original plan had been to go our separate ways at this point but a bond had been formed so the only discussion was where next? As it was the year the summer Olympics were to be held in Germany, Munich seemed a logical choice. Little did we know the bizarre events which lay before us.

Time wasn't our master so we made a slow start after visiting the Hamburg tourist spots, including the Rieperbahn red light district, home to the Star Club which gave the Beatles their early break. It was evening before we eventually headed for the autobahn to begin hitching a ride south. Hitchhiking

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