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Excerpts from postcards sent in July 1987, Dean's World Tour I:
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Prague, Czechoslovakia
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Tallinn, Estonia,
Soviet Union
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Prague, Czechoslovakia,
30 June 1987:
Dobry den! (Good afternoon)! As you can see, Prague
has plenty to offer the enthusiast of old beautiful buildings. Luckily,
it is one of the few large European cities to escape the ravages of both of the
world wars. Consequently, it falls high on my list of Europe's
most beautiful cities, along with Edinburgh, Scotland
and Venice, Italy.
Brenda (from my travels in Eastern Africa) visited me
when I was at Gary's home in Frankfurt.
We caught up on what we've been doing since we went our separate ways from Nairobi,
three months ago. She, Gary and I played guitar and sang for three hours
one sunny afternoon in a local park.
While in Germany,
I got around mostly by hitchhiking, about 500 miles from Austria
to Frankfurt and to Czechoslovakia.
People seem to pick up hitchhikers more readily than in the States. Austria
is far worse for rides than Germany.
I walked and waited six hours for a ride there, whereas in Germany,
most of the 9 rides that I had came within 5 minutes of waiting, although twice
I waited nearly an hour.
Nashledanou (goodbye),
Antonin Dvorak
Jindrichuv Hradec, Czechoslovakia,
05 July 1987:
Dobry den! (Good afternoon)! Beautiful scenery and old historic
buildings are nice, but where my trip becomes most meaningful is where I best
connect with people, especially local people. My workcamp begins today,
but I arrived a few days early to this old village
of Jindrichuv Hardec and already I
have had many good opportunities to get to know the Czechoslovakians.
Among other kindnesses they've offerred me, they've invited me into their homes
for wonderfully prepared meals, while others have kept me more than full of
smooth but strong Czech beer at the local tavern. One attractive young
woman, an artist who spoke no English but doodled a lot of pictures on scrap
paper for me, bought me a half dozen beers -- a few too many. Vladimir,
an archeologist, who will lead the work we will do on renovation of a church
built in 1330, has fed me, housed me and taught me some things about Czech
history. Jan and his friend Jaroslav, whose aunt has served me fabulous
meals, have given me insights into life here in the Czech
Republic. They have travelled
extensively in America,
participated in workcamps there and will now lead the program and discussions
we will have at this workcamp amongst 23 people from 10 nations.
Many local people are looking forward to meeting us and practicing their
English, a rare opportunity for them. Last night, a quite shy young lady
wanting to do just that invited me into her home for a tasty meal of goulash.
Everything looks promising here. The work should keep us busy and it
seems worthwhile.
I still await word from the Chinese Embasy about my visa. Iam afraid
to get my hopes up only to have them squashed. I have gone through a
great deal of time, effort and expense to arrange this tip to China
and if one piece in the puzzle is missing, all that effort will have been lost.
Peace and love,
Nashledanou (goodbye)!
Antonin Dvorak
Budapest, Hungary,
16 July 87:
Yo regelt! (Good morning)! After a lot of run around, I have
everything I need to go to China
via the Trans-Siberian Railroad except my Soviet visa. Time is drawing
short and if the embassy here doesn't soon receive word from Moscow
on how to issue my visa, I won't be able to go, and I may be out hundreds of
dollars, and two months of effort will have been for nothing -- except "experience".
My Czechoslovakian experience ranks among the highlights of my past 17
months. I had a great time on the workcamp with an excellent mix of
people from 10 nations; but aside from that, a number of the Czech people
seemed to go light years out of their way to do kind favors for me. There
are several good examples, but one in particular was a young lady, Zdenka (or
Cindy), married with two kids, who spoke no English, but treated me on one
occasion to more beers than I prefer to consume, and on another occasion to a
grand tour of Prague, with a nice lunch and some gifts from the museum where
she worked as an artist. The only way we could communicate was by hand
signals, artistic doodlings, and a half-dozen words of German we shared in
common.
I was invited to the homes of several different Czechs for meals, and some
of them gave me other gifts as well. It was only a five block walk, but
the Czech leader of our work camp insisted upon getting up at 4:00 AM ti druve ne ti tge traub statuib,
I must have met a dozen Czechs who treated me to something and wouldn't let me
spend my own money.
The chemistry between the people at camp was magic as well, but there's no
place left on this card to describe it to you. The saddest thing in life
is that even memories of the best times must eventually fade.
Serbusz (see you later),
Petofi Sandor
Budapest, Hungary,
21 July 1987:
Yo regelt! (Good morning)! Hungary
is having a drought too. Everything is turning yellow here. It's
strange because not so far west from here, West
Germany has been deluged with rain this
Spring.
I played guitar and sang in the streets of Budapest
and collected $38 worth of tips in one hour and 20 minutes ... that's enough to
live very well in Hungary
for several days. A policeman stopped me and told me to move to the
square where street musicians were permitted to play, but there were too many
musicians there already and I was due to meet a friend, so I didn't
bother. Besides, it doesn't do any good to make too much in Hungarian
currency, since I'm soon leaving the country, and it can't be exchanged for
another currency. I feel strange taking money for something I would
normally do just for fun, and yet I was amazed at how much I could collect in a
short time, although perhaps I was just at the right location among a bunch of
spend-happy tourists.
Serbusz (see you later),
Deano
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