Why and when I began study Spanish?

Learning Spanish, one of the best decisions of my life, I must say...Some of you maybe have heard this story of mine...It is a story of special significance to me, so I tell my story of Spanish here once again.

It was in the 80's I made 6 times Interrail with my friend. We diveded Europe into 6 different zones to get to know well the European culture, the most important things in every country. In every zone of ours there were couple of countries which we visited during that particular trip. At that time I was not so interested in Spain. So Spain was among the countries of my last or second last Interrail.

Well, when we arrived in Spain we noticed we should speak at least some Spanish. To be able to order food, the specialties of the country. That always counts when traveling. So we bought a Spanish phrase book of Berlitz, and began to study and use Spanish when in Spain. So called "Word-Spanish". And guess what? After this trip I was so interested in Spanish that I took at the University various Spanish courses during following 5 years. At first year "Spanish 1", second year "Spanish 2", then "Understanding Spanish". Then I got an admission to study Spanish at the Department of Spanish. The last 2 years of my University studies I studied Spanish very intensively.