The Long Journey Home

Long Road Home

It has been nearly three weeks since Nancy and I completed final Peace Corps checkout in Bucuresti. I am writing this entry on the Aer Lingus plane as we sail over the clouds that cover the Northern Atlantic Ocean. I can’t but think of the evening back in May, 2005 when, in a plane packed with fellow adventures, we left New York headed to a part of the world we were unfamiliar with. Our expectations where bewildered, our curiosity immense and our commitment complete. That evening, there had been severe storms along the Eastern U.S. coast and as our plane climbed about the clouds, the mass of them turned golden in the angled sun. While the clouds again blanket the space between plane and ocean, no particular atmosphere effects can be seen out of the window.

Our journey since our departure from Cluj has been an adventure in itself. We taken a bit of vacation through Budapest, Croatia, back to Hungary, a side trip to Baia Mare in Romania, a night train to Krakow in Poland, three days stationed in the pleasant Irish village of Skerries north of Dublin and now back to Washington and home.

Croatia was excellent, but hot. Particularly we enjoyed ferrying between the island of Hvar and Korcula. The further one got from the tourist center of Split, the better the prices and the more elbow space. We missed Dubrovnik, a highly recommended tourist center; we’ll wait for an off season for that.

A particular highlight was an afternoon in Split. The heat made strolling unpleasant so we went back to our little room – private homes with a room and a bath are a business for the locals – turned the air conditioner on (no such thing in Romania) and took a nap. Shortly after the nap began, I realized that our room was directly beneath the music teacher’s studio. I spent a pleasant hour listening first to piano and guitar and then to traditional Croatian vocal duets. Later in the trip we found a more professional vocal quintet singing outside our terrace in the town of Korcula and again in Vela Luca. I had never heard traditional Croatian singing before and it was very enjoyable; not as good as Irish, of course, but still much better than most of the performers that inhabited the many eateries throughout our travels. The sea was specatucularly clear and blue, filled with fish. If only the coast and some sand instead of the round pebbles that occupy their beaches. Perhaps they should borrow some sand from east coast of Ireland – there’s plenty of it there.

Eger in Hungary is a tourist spot but with a difference. Whereas Croatia was filled with travelers of all nationalities, particularly Nordic and Italian, Eger was almost completely occupied with Hungarians. Wine, the Turkish baths, an old castle where the Hungarians earned a victory of the Turks, and a quaint old town are the draws.

It’s hard to think that two years ago we had barely heard of Krakow in Poland. Around Europe it is one of the most talked about places to visit and with many good reasons. Nancy and I enjoyed our time there, particularly the friendliness of the people and their tremendous ability with foreign languages, especially English. The Hungarians are not nearly so fluent in language ability as either the Croatians, the Poles or the Romanians. Krakow has plenty of tourists but also plenty of space for them. All nationalities mix in the great square of the city and the monuments to a thousand years of city status surround the old town. We did not have time to visit either the salt mines or the concentration camp reminders of Auschwitz, but we walked beneath the window where Pope John Paul helped to bring down Communism.

Skerries in Ireland was picked off the internet almost blind. It turned out well, on a main commuter rail line into Dublin, not too far from the airport. Our B & B room looked out over the Irish Sea. Three small islands lay just off shore and the town had a paved walk along the beach and to the harbor. The Irish weather was opposite of the Croatian, almost chilly and, with occasional rain, but the food was great and the pubs lively.

Apart from one missed train connection – missed by less than a minute, all our actual traveling was routine. Nancy has given up on trains after a dreadful train from Miskolc to Krakow, while I say that plane travel is my least favorite method of getting from place to place. We are both looking forward to home – it’s been over 800 days.

Our trip is now coming toward an end, back in hot Washington. The adventure that we began on that flight over those golden clouds over two years ago is also ending. It’s two soon to sum up our thoughts and reflections on that adventure, too soon to reminisce. As then, now we know not what adventure we’ll encounter on our return home, only that we’ll try and keep our eyes, ears and mind open to whatever the road brings our way.

Many people have helped us make it through the last 27 months and we know that we’ll need their support in our next adventure. So here is a thank you to everyone who cheered us up with visits, packages, postcards, email, thoughts and prayers.

I’ll continue to write this blog from time to time if there seems some observation worth sharing. For those of you whose main interests where either Romania or the Peace Corps experience, I thank you for reading. It has been a joy for me to do these entries and I hope that you have gained a little from my jottings.