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Published: June 16th 2006
OK, boys and girls, lets take out our maps of Europe and review the journey so far.
On the far right, you’ll find the Black Sea. Just to the left of it, you’ll see Romania. Now keep your finger going left thru Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia (if your map says Yugoslavia, throw the map out…..like the Yugo in the USA, that country does not exist anymore), Hungary, Slovakia (remember those countries that start with “SL” and end in “IA”), Czeck Republic (another reason to throw that map out is if its still shows Czechoslovakia) and finally Germany (which has been one big united country since 1990…so if the map shows 2 Germanys…again toss it out….tho I did like the East German national anthem). Right now, I’m in a city called Gorlitz which probably is not on your map but find Dresden and go to the right…..Gorlitz is directly on the River Neisse….which is the border between Poland and Germany (if your map does not show that border then list it as a collectible on eBay cause your map is probably over 61 years old!). As a matter of fact, the eastern suburbs of Gorlitz (which is now the furthest eastern
German city) on the other side of the river were German until 1945 when the allies gave it to Poland. So much for lebensraum!!!!!
It was a dark, rainy, misty 8:15 AM when I left the boatel in Bratislava. You could almost hear the 3rd Man Theme as my leather coated taxi driver drove thru the deserted streets, past the rumbling streetcars to the train station which was built in a (now crumbling) heroic socialist style. I was booked on an international EuroCity train so expected one of those sleek new German trains…..but no….it was one of those rebuilt Hungarian rail cars without compartments. At least it was no smoking. People young and old were dragging their luggage thru car after car looking for empty seats as I smugly told some middle age ex-party member that he was sitting in my reserved seat!
Rolling into Prague (where another couple hundred people tried to find the 5 empty seats) I spotted a great example of how to show the nationality of a train car after a country splits in 2…….In Czeckolovak days it was the white letters “CZD” on a red background…so after the divorce, the Czechs simply
Bratislava castle
the view from my boatelpainted the “Z” red to have it blend into the background!!!! Now the (west) Germans have spent a gazillion Euros trying to bring the “east” up to western standards since 1990, but they must have run out of money for train paint because as soon as we crossed into Germany, I started seeing cars with the markings “RB” which is the abbreviation for the old East German ReichsBahn!!!!
Finally, I have to signal out some of the gorgeous scenery going thru the Czech Republic and up to Dresden. A lot of time was spent paralleling rivers, and riding thru scenic gorges and valleys. Looking out the window and listening to great music on the iPod was truly relaxing. Every once in a while there would be a castle on a hill, a monestary, a church on top of a mountain or a chalet tucked in between some trees. If only life could be as uncomplicated as it seemed for that short while today.
Anyway boys and girls, that ends our geography and history lesson for today, the 10th of June.
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