I’m home from my journey.
However I need time to write up the trip and talk about everything I saw (it will probably be spread out across several days). I also need to upload my pictures to Flickr.
The picture attached to this entry was a lucky shot—on my way home, I passed through the Dresden-Neustadt Bahnhof, and while waiting for my train, I was lucky enough to see a steam engine chugging down the tracks the opposite direction. I wish I could have gotten a picture from the very front, but my ICE was arriving in a minute, and I wanted to sit in a specific part of the train so that my connection in Weimar would be easier (scheduled for 12 minutes, but was actually 2).
Of course, by telling you where I connected, I’ve basically told you that I went to Poland—my 22nd country. The coolest thing about my trip though was that I did something completely different: I crossed the frontier on foot. That is to say, I took the train to Görlitz, a perfectly charming city in Germany, got off the train and then walked across the river and into Zgorzelec, Poland.
Along the way I also did something three times that I wasn’t legally allowed to do. Finding out that it was illegal the fourth time I tried to do it was a major annoyance. More on that later.
Anyhow, there are a few things I wanted to address briefly before I jump ship:
First, Happy Chinese New Year! We had a brief party at my office complete with pork dumplings and other treats on Friday. The party was right before I left for Poland.
Secondly, yesterday (Saturday) was the 20th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding. This was the first of the three news events that I can remember quite clearly in my mind (Matthew Shepard and September 11 are the other two). Sixth grade—and the day stopped for me—I watched the news all after noon with a guy named Tijis (I wonder whatever happened to him?). Space and Oceans are two of the few things that stop me in my tracks because both go on forever—or at least they did when I was a kid.
Well, whatever it is you did that was illegal must not have been too bad or we wouldn’t be hearing from you.
I look forward to finding out what it was.
Hey Adam! Glad you got to check off another place in the world that you’ve visited. This weekend was Pride Film Fest, which was great, wish you could have been here to watch with me. There was actually a documentary film about gays & Poland, and the next night I watched films and had dinner with a guy from Poland and his boyfriend, so that’s a strange coincidence. And I’m very disappointed in you Adam, doing illegal things. I always think of you as such an upstanding citizen! Heh. Can’t wait to hear more about your trip!!!
Some of the Poles I saw were really cute… but most everybody was bundled up because it’s incredibly cold here….
The illegality annoyed me…