Ok,
So I moved this over here to get out of the support base.

That story about Greece...

Lets back up a little. In the Czech Republic, (then anyhow) there were travel holidays for students. Back in 68/69 the Soviets occupied, I'm told it was the only time the Warsaw Pact was ever used. Moscow felt Prague was being to liberal and had to get tanks involved. It was bad, and a lot of people left. My good room-mate Marty, who was born in Guelph Canada to parents that fled this occupation will be along in a few moments. Now twice a year there's this travel holiday, and it's because two young men on separate occasions burned themselves to death in protest. Jan Palach and then Jan Zajíc started this gruesome protest of what they saw as the end of their futures. They are remembered to this day. Prague is a living library and fresh flowers are always placed by even the most obscure monuments to the human toll history takes upon the city. Because of the future they were denied students today get a great opportunity to travel and tickets are discounted and young people get to leave and see some other part of the world. I was one of those young people in the year 2000.
My buddy Marty had never seen a palm tree, and while that's a low bar for finding a destination we used it as a prompt to head to Sofia Bulgaria and then points south on the school break. Finding our way via sleeper train to Turkey (FYI they want USD at the boarder for your visa) and Istanbul. Bumming around in what was then Asia Minor we then trained to Greece to see Athens but that was not to happen. It turns out that while the Turks were running trains from the 50's the Greeks had not repaired track since the 50's! We could get no further than Thessalonøki, so Saloniki it was and there outside a presupposed temple of Zeus we found Marty a palm tree!
One evening looking for a bar Marty were stopped by a police man who noted we were speaking English to each other. He pointed up the street to a group assembling for what looked like a march. He said, maybe they won't be so nice to you and that we should leave. We asked why and it turns out they were riled up Communists. By riled up I mean they have flags, and the flags were structural timber, like 2x4's with a little bit whittled down to make a hand grip and a red hankie stapled to the end. So they pseudo flags were obviously for delivering more of a beat down than cheering on a chorus of the International....
Marty and I switched to Czech, the policeman laughed at us and we were seen as brothers in the peoples struggles as the organized mob of men and their "flags" passed by. I want to say it's called code switch and we all do this. Once in Oneonta, NY I was (as one does) wearing a kilt at and heading into the mall. I noticed a Buick with a ham radio call sign license and I had stopped to read it and observe what I think were masonic badges and the like on the back of the land yacht. A somewhat elderly couple aghast at the punk (I was not wearing it as formal attire) in a skirt, boots and studded coat
giving their car the once over were frozen. My wife was with me and recounted how it was very tense until I introduced myself with my call sign. Once I was a ham radio operator I was AOK with them and the pleasantries ensued.

We're not one big happy family, unfortunately theres still too many little things keeping us apart. There's big things too, and I don't mean to imply some Utopian fantasy is out there if we'd only X... but there seems to have been a wave of petty mean-ness that has washed across the world of late and it's not been great for the masses I think. Every conversation need not be a battle. I'd much rather cheer on your successes than mine for fauxpas to fling back at you.

So that was Greece! I did have nice ouzo and see some nice sunsets on the bay. We made out way back north to Sofia and then Prague and it was the first time in my life that I came "home" to a foreign city but felt honestly at home. Prague was my town back then. I learned a lot of it during the IMF/WB protests that fall and stayed for a tack on certificate to my schooling.

It's good to travel, you lean as much if not more on your feet than you do in the classroom seat.

N2QFD//Malachi

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mean to imply some Utopian fantasy is out there if we'd only X... but
there seems to have been a wave of petty mean-ness that has washed
across the world of late and it's not been great for the masses I
think. Every conversation need not be a battle. I'd much rather cheer
on your successes than mine for fauxpas to fling back at you.

Indeed. ;)



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