From behind the Iron Curtain

Friday - May 2008

One more thing about Hamburg - I didn't even know Kathy then, other than I had seen her in a couple of the preparatory meetings we'd been to before we left. Funny how things go.

Yesterday I went behind the Iron Curtain, or what used to be the Iron Curtain before Germany was reunited and the rest of Eastern Europe was freed from communism. I traveled to Rostock, which is in what used to be East Germany - the DDR. I didn't really know what to expect going back to a formerly communist country. But - it has been, what, 18 years since the Berlin Wall came down and the countries were freed from the communist dictatorship.

Is there much difference between a west German city and an east German one? Not very much, from what I can see here in Rostock! The old East German cars that sounded like big sewing machines when they drove down the street are long gone, replaced by Audis, BMWs, VWs, with some Volvos, SEATs (from Spain, Sonya and Kristina), Citroens and a few Fords and Chevs mixed in - just like in the west! There is more of a mixture of both brand new stuff and poorly maintained stuff in the East. The Commies let a lot deteriorate - and the people were too poor to maintain their property - and it either stays that way or a lot of money from the west has been poured in to fix things up. All the usual western retailers are in the best places in town for shopping. They have made sure of that. The chain stores all over the world have the money to drive out the locals.

Otherwise, what is new? Well, I couldn't find a place to stay here in Rostopck - I searched the internet for hours, sent emails, etc., etc. So I arrived without any reservations and asked at the tourist office. They sent me to a place that rents private rooms. It is a place owned by an older lady and she rents a couple of her rooms out to travelers. It only costs 20 Euros and she is very nice. The room is huge - in a late 19th century old home and is quite comfortable. She has all her belongings all over and is, of course, very trusting of everyone. She was telling me she is 80 and has lived through World War II and through communism. The house next to hers was hit by a bomb in WWII and her brother died in a U-boat (submarine) in the war. Communism wasn't as repressive in Rostock as in Berlin. Quite interesting.

I traveled to Warnemunde today, a little town on the Baltic Sea (or the East Sea, as they call it here). There is a nice beach there and a little seaport town, where ships come into the harbor to unload freight or to unload sightseers from the cruise ships. Some of the ships are huge ferries that carry big trucks and cars and let the occupants stay overnight, like a big traveling hotel. Just beyond the horizon lies Denmark, home of our ancestors!

Well, I guess that is about all for now. It starts to get pretty lonely being alone like this without anyone to talk to or share things with. That is the BIG trouble with traveling like this - no one to share things with! So, I'll be calling soon. I'm off to another one of those places tomorrow that keeps changing nationalites over the years - this one from Germany to Poland and back and again. It is a historic place that used to be called Stettin, but now that it is part of Poland, just over the border, it is called Szcezcin. Try saying that one three times fast! It was made part of Poland after WWII to 'punish' Germany and I've read that people mostly speak both Polish and German. We shall see.

A coiple of other observations: if I haven't said it yet, grafitti covers every square meter of blank space alongside the railroads and in train stations and on all the buildings even close to the rail lines. It is often around town, too. It is pretty ugly and disgsusting. But, society seems to have given in to it and there it stays! Too bad. Also, every here and there from the train you see these 'managed' forests, where the trees are all harvested and then replanted in rows, ready to be harvested in another 30 or 40 years. Kind of takes away from the natural look to them, but there are plenty of other natural forests, too.