The five places that changed my life: Veteran TV journalist George Negus

BERLIN

At 24, after five years of high school teaching in ultra-conservative Queensland, I took off to Britain and Europe. In Berlin, I climbed to see two young uniformed Germans goose-stepping on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall. The only obvious differences were uniforms and weapons. They could have been twins – but were enemies. Why? It made no sense to me whatsoever. I returned to Australia determined to work my way into political journalism and haven't stopped asking, "Why?" ever since.

NEW YORK

I never thought I'd interview Bill Clinton at an IT conference in Adelaide. After our lengthy exchange he sent a personal note commending my book, The World from Islam. Three years later in NYC he welcomed me to the UN launch of his Clinton Global Dialogue with the smiling words: "G'day! How's Adelaide?"

RUSSIA

In 1991, my partner and fellow journalist, Kirsty Cockburn, turned a half-decent idea to journey across the Russia into a bold international project. In the six weeks it took my crew and I to complete the 13,500-kilometre journey from Vladivostok to Moscow, bumping along virtual "goat tracks" in four-wheel-drives, we witnessed the dissolution of the Soviet Union and creation of the New Russia. The trip became a successful two-part television series and photographic book: Across the Red Unknown – a journey through the New Russia.

TUSCANY

The year 2000 took me away from standing in front of a television camera for a much-needed family sabbatical. I'd been bugging Kirsty incessantly, telling her that if I didn't spend a year of my life in Italy I would be letting myself down. I was able to spend some much-needed, unbroken family time with Kirsty and our two sons (now 31 and 28). I thought, wrote and listened not just to my own voice but to others, read European commentators and had European conversations in badly broken Italian.