... truly on the road?

I am slowly becoming aware of my actions and while my feelings and thoughts have travelled already many thousands of different roads ...physically I made it from Tallinn (Estonia) to Cherkasy (Ukraine)!

13 rides, all kinds of kind drivers and from a rainy night in our tent in Lithuania to appartments from babouchkas and aunts ... the road, the road ... on the 10th of July we travelled more then 800 kilometers in 12 hours ... drivers would stop before raising our hands; coffee, ice cream and lunch were given to us ... No need to reach at any point, no given time to be present ... I feel I recieved a most precious gift ... TIME.

We spent a truly nice day in Minsk with Alex (a Belarusian student in Tallinn). The last dicatorship in Europe, felt by its people in many ways, no competition, slightly changed soviet symbols are on every corner, the 'for Belarus', 'for Lukashenko' propaganda is big and colourful according to advertisement strategies ... To much attention for a Lenin statue in front of an unpowerful parliament provokes distrust by the guard ... last protests in March 2006 were brutally repressed, internet is not an easily accessible freedom ...and while prices rise, with an average salary of 300 dollar, vodka gets cheaper ...
We left this 'socialist country' but its enormously beautiful open spaces continued after the Ukrainian border and many warm memories came when I crossed the river Desna. I travelled for several days on rafts on that river when I was the first time in Ukraine in September 2004 and still have very good friends from that time! Coming from Gomel (Berlarus) we passed close to the Tsjernobil area, so not a good place to stay ... the contamination is still very present, people are still suffering from the disaster ... Small villages, colourful houses, waterwells and goose ... how could those people who sell fruit and vegetables from gardens and forests along the road be helped with foreign aid? Would I be able to stand alone along a road for a full day without anything to read? ... Russian language becomes familiar, I slowly start to master the new alphabet, the cyrillic and try hard to pronounce the new sounds. I accept the fact that when travelling the world I am not able to communicate everywhere in many words, I am present in silence and observations but I often do think and would like to shout ... learn languages and teach languages ... knowing that a child learns them best before it is nine.

Even my own experience is yet not enough to make me fully aware of what is happening ... I made it to Ukraine in three days with 26 euro and 2 dollar (21 euro for the Belarusian visa), We escaped from tourist areas, lived with local people, tasted local food like borsht, pure pig fat and home made cakes ... and I saw, I saw a lot ... millions of sunflowers smiling, faces of young and old, churches from the in- and outside ...

We currently live at the lake, or Cherkasy Sea, and await Carina's father who is arriving tomorrow to go to a small village ... on 15th of July we have entrance tickets to Russia ...