Hitchhiking made me fall in love with Europe – for me, Brexit is an affair of the heart

After setting off almost 50 years ago to hitch a ride across the continent on a mission to visit all 28 EU nations, Paul Gosling has built his life and his family in Europe. Now Britain’s looming departure from the bloc has thrown him into an identity crisis

Fifty years ago, it was fairly unusual for anyone to have left the country except to go to war (Paul Gosling)

It was 45 years ago that I left Britain for the first time, to hitchhike around western Europe. I was a different person and the continent was a different place. Today, Europe is about to become a different place again. Brexit – assuming it goes ahead – will change the EU, as well as the UK.

Back in 1974, I was embarking on a big adventure – I gave up my job to live in a tent for several months. Exchange controls to protect the pound meant I could only take £300 in travellers’ cheques, plus £30 in cash, yet I was determined to spend a long summer away.

This was years before visa-free travel, so I wasn’t even certain I would be able to enter some of the countries I wanted to visit. Much of the continent was under fascist dictatorship, while the eastern part was subject to Soviet Union domination and beyond my imagination.