As a Portuguese-born but Australian-naturalised young man, I travelled during my university gap year of 1977 from Australia to Europe to revisit my country of birth and to tour western and northern Europe, mainly on the back of a pre-purchased second class Eurail pass. This is the account of that journey but not only. The central idea of the memoir is to relate a significant experience at the age of 23 and to reflect on that from the perspective of 45 years later, as well as to draw links to other events and preoccupations held during my life, such as important issues of love, identity and self-judgement.