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Yes, I agree with you Hamlet, and others, that there has to be an overlay of later knowledge and maturity, given that the book was written so much later. For example, when he talks about (and quotes from) the recovered journal, he makes a comment along the lines that it wasn't anything like as good as he had remembered it as being - probably what he thought was deep and perceptive turned out to be something written by a kid of 19 who still had a lot to learn!
At the same time, compared with most 19 year olds these days, I think he was well read and able to appreciate literature, history, art and architecture. As another example, his loving descriptions of the glories of Prague were about a place that, at the time of writing, was not a place he had been able to revisit. (I found his feelings of guilt about what had happened to Eastern Europe after the war interesting too, and he wasn't to know in 1977 that even the iron curtain would eventually fall.)
No, a young man of working class background and education wouldn't have been able to make that journey. But I don't see that as a criticism of him, and he certainly seemed to be equally at home in a peasant's cottage or a palace and comfortable mixing with all sorts of people.
I found him delightful company, and I got the impression that the people he encountered along the way did so too.
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