Old photograph 8, 'Jokka' becomes JoAnn...

How I became from Johanna, my dad always called me -Josje , Joke , Jokka called on travelling ,to JoAnn since 1980: This year I travelled most in my life "on a row'", because I was having a "sabbatical' year in between 2 studies. I travelled by train as a backpacker , first to Athens-Greece and from there to Corfu aGreek Island. I was working where-ever I was as a waitress, serving drinks and food, this way I earned my money for my own food and for staying in hostels and travelling around. In that time there were cheap "student-train- tickets , it only took you a long time,before you arrived. somewhere. For example: travelling to Athens took me 36 hours by train. But why not ? I was having plenty of time. Once I slept in Italy in front of a trainstation, in the morning all people who went to their work by train, walked around me and woke me/us up. We were mostly with a group of backpackers, we did not know each other, but for safety we slept ( all in our own sleeping bag) in the open air together. After the night sleep we all went our own travel-way. A very nice time also to knowing yourself better, because you only trust on yourself. I came stronger out of that travel-year. I also met some friends in Rome, a couple Lorella and Edmundo , they still are my (our) friends. We meet once in a while , sometimes they come to Holland or we visit Italy . While travelling I found out my name 'Joke' was difficult for foreign countries to pronounce my name, so I was called "Jokka" and I did not like how that sound. Because my given birthname is 'Johanna' , I changed that year my name in JoAnn. This became my new name and still is............. (tip: doubeclick on the photograp to enlarge)