In the Summer of 1988, I did a great trip with one of my very best friends from school, Berna Baydarlioglu (see pic 1) hitch-hiking from Bodrum through the antique Lycian coast (South of Turkey) to Side, Antalya. Before the road trip we prepared handmade painted jewellery and knitted bracelets to sell to cover expenses. Our favourite place was Olympos, a small antique city by the beach side. This place was so virgin you could swim even naked in its waters. We met with fantastic people from all around the world, having an unforgettable trip...
I used to have many musician friends and most of them were playing at the music venues those days. Sometimes, I used to join on rehearsals to play with them. I was picking it up quickly, so I bought a Hohner Steinberger bass guitar (see pic 4) and took some lessons from Ahmet Güvenç. Later on, “Zarpatan Muma’s” music band formed with four members. We were playing punk music cover songs.
In the Spring of 1989, I spent a few weeks in Oxford, England. The purpose of this trip was improving my English, but I took advantage of being very close to the Wimbledon Tennis tournament and waited all night on the queue to get tickets (see pic 5).
In 1991, my father got his retirement pension and gave me some money. This was a great opportunity; I took a month break from school and travelled with Interrail by myself. On the road I visited my two cousins in Graz and Nice and stayed at a friend’s place in Rome, Paris and Madrid. I visited Florence, Venetia and Budapest, staying at convents free of charge. I never forget meeting with wonderful people in trains. It was a marvellous trip.
In the Winter of 1992, I was on the road again crossing the Turkey - Greece border with my friend Troy Smith. A week before the trip came up out of nowhere saying to each other “Let’s go to Paris by hitch-hiking!”, so we did it. We were both highly free spirited adventurers. We took the bus to Edirne, and from Edirnekapi we hitch-hiked through Alexandropolis, Athens, then Patras to Brindisi by boat, later on straight up crossing Mont Blanc to Paris. We met with incredibly nice truck drivers from Turkey that drove us little by little closer to our destinations. It was a great experience for both of us.