Danube River from Devin Castle. July 2019
[from FB post: November 5, 2019]
Reflections: Over 30 years ago I had traveled "behind the Iron Curtain" -- fairly out of the box for that time. I was in Bratislava and was exiting then Czechoslovakia by boat on the Danube to Vienna. It was one of the worst immigration moments in my life because suddenly the border officials weren't sure they were going to let me on the boat. The minutes clicked by and the boat was going to leave and still they fussed and puzzled over my passport. Finally, they said OK and I bolted up the quay to the boat and was literally the last person who jumped on and it departed.
Fast forward to this past summer. I was in now "free" Slovakia and I wanted to take the cruise up the river to Devin Castle (on the border with Austria) which previously was off-limits. I found there was a boat leaving in 5 minutes. The woman sold me the ticket and said "you'll have to run". Again I found myself dashing up the quay to hop on a boat sailing up the Danube. I was the last guy on the boat before it departed. [see: Beijing to Athens]
I only remembered this when I was posting these photos and I thought how odd to relive almost the same experience with thirty years in between.
(Note to self: avoid future boat travel on the Danube leaving Bratislava)
I think this might have been one of the most intense "reliving a bad memory" experiences I have ever had! The story remains classic for me. What are the chances of the same thing happening in the same place so many years apart?
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