Music corresponds well with travelling. If you have an instument or know how to sing a tune, or beat a rhytm, you make people you meet on your travels happy. It is also a way to earn money and to make you safer, especially when travelling alone as a woman, as it switch the focus away from who you are and over to music.

In 1991, I was still a poor student, with an urge to travel the world. Many times my friends and I had agreed to go on interrail, but it was always cancelled. Eventually, I decided to go alone. However, I learnt; “you are never alone when you bring a guitar”. It became a life-changing journey, where I grew stronger, got many friends and had a lot of fun.

Here are some photos of me and Carlos from Brazil, playing in the streets of Lisbon. We eventually became a trio: Carlos, who played the rapid and rhytmic brazilian songs, so people could clap, me playing the sad songs, so people could cry and Silke, from Germany collecting the money. We were allowed to stay for free at the hostel, and played there every night for a week.