[originaltext] (I -- Interviewer; G -- Mr. Green)I: How many different countri

(I -- Interviewer; G -- Mr. Green)
I: How many different countries do you think you’ve been to, Mr. Green?
G: Once I made a count of how many countries I’d hitchhiked through and it came to twenty eight. So if you add on a few more for those where I haven’t hitched, I imagine it comes to about forty by now.
I: About forty! And are there any of these that you feel you really would like to go back to?
G: Two that I could actually live in I think. One would be the west coast of Canada because I think that had everything to offer; It was rich culturally; it was very bright, it had a very pleasant climate, slightly improved on Britain. It had the Rocky Mountains behind, loads of coastline, urn, a lot going on both day and night, a large university, and it was just near America if you felt like crossing the border. The other place I liked, but more for a holiday, was Sardinia, which I found was one of the quietest, most unspoilt parts of Europe that I’ve seen.
I: What is about traveling that makes you want to keep doing it?
G: I think it’s the one time when I feel completely alive every minute of the day. I also feel I have a tremendous amount of experience to bring back every time I’ve traveled, there’s so much to share with other people. I feel I’ve get, sort of, two hundred per cent me to give once I come back. But when I’m actually doing it, you’re free from all the bounds of routine, you’re free from the assumptions people make about you. You’re free from the inhibitions that cause you not to fully be yourself and enjoy yourself because of what people might think and so on.
I: But it can also be a little bit dangerous at times too, can’t it?
G: It can certainly be dangerous if you’re doing it alone. I avoid traveling alone wherever I can. I mostly go with people I know very well and this is part of the travel, er, discovering the person you’re traveling with and discovering the differences in taste and the similarities in taste. But, um the most dangerous situation I found myself in was nearly being knifed here in Devon, in IIfracombe. But apart from that, I was on a train in Hungary where there was a murder in the washroom, and we were kept for 10 hours while they investigated why somebody had been stabbed in the washroom. I’ve also slept, voluntarily, in a prison in Norway and another prison in Germany. Um and in one of them we were looked in and heard the other prisoners shouting and banging on the doors and that felt quite frightening.
I: And I heard that you were even involved in the Middle East war, right?
G: Urn, actually, I managed to get right into the center of the Middle East war through no choice of my own. They wouldn’t let us out of the plane and we were caught throughout the whole war in the country and couldn’t get around at all. That felt as if you were living on a knife edge; we were lying there contemplating quite coolly whether, If there was an air raid, we should actually go into the shelter or allow ourselves to be killed on the spot. And, er, there are certainly risks and I think more so when you do travel alone, so I try and avoid it.
I: Mm. But travel is, er, is quite an expensive business too, isn’t it? How do you afford all this gadding around the world?
G: Well, a large part of it is through my main work, travel is really a side occupation -- a very pleasant one -- my main job is broadcasting. But apart from that, you don’t need an awful lot of money. I’ve found that you can live much more cheaply in other countries, sometimes, than you can over here. Also a lot of my really good friends have places in, scattered all round the world, where they’re very kind and put me up and I try and reciprocate and so on. And you can live very cheaply, eat very little, rough it, sleep in hostels, sleep out, walk to most places, hitchhike and give concerts when you’re on the spot.
I: Do you usually earn some money in some way during the trip?
G: I do a lot of singing and entertain the natives and also give concerts lately that seem to give me enough money to spend several weeks living off the proceeds. Um the broadcasting I do in this country, again, I’m lucky enough to have short contracts and projects, which means that when I’ve done a few of these or just a series like I did recently for Radio 3 which was repeated; um the money comes rolling in after a while and I save it all, gather it all together and take off somewhere else.
I: Mm well, good luck and bon voyage!
G: Thank you very much, David.