I slung my backpack over my shoulders and walked out of the baggage claim area, stopping at the tourist information desk for a bus schedule before stepping outside.
I was standing on the steps of an airport somewhere in between the
Rhine and
Moselle valleys in western
Germany. I had an 8-day rail pass and 700
Deutsche Marks strapped around my waist, and my clothes and necessities in the bag on my back.
I was
free.
I knew one person in the entire
country, and he was hundreds of miles away. I didn't speak the
language. I didn't have any reliable means of communication with anyone I knew. I didn't even know where I was going to sleep that night.
But right there, right then, I was free and alive, in a truer sense than I ever have been before or since. For the first time in my life, there were no limits. I could have gone anywhere, done anything.
It was the most burningly intense
elation I've ever felt.