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Thursday, August 8th - Dresden to Czech border, return, 8510 km
It is so exciting to get up knowing that I will be cycling into a new country today. It will be the first time I have cycled over a border since the Luxembourg/Germany border five weeks ago. Heiko is up early and busying himself with cleaning and other chores. Ralph is up to, getting ready for work. I am the next one up so that I give Ralph the space he needs to get ready. I have no chance to say goodbye to Richard and Soren who are still sleeping. I thank Heiko for putting me up and he wishes me luck with my riding.
Then it is off to Czechoslovakia! It is 50 km to the border from Dresden. The terrain becomes hillier as I ride south along Highway 17. There are forests and villages that remind me of my first day in East Germany, south of Saalfeld. It is warm again today but not as hot as yesterday. And further from Dresden there are more trees which provide me some shade.
There is a huge queue of cars lined up to cross the border. I am not typically a line jumper but it looks tome like this might take a couple hours just to reach the Customs Office. I glide along the shoulder, passing over a hundred cars to reach the inspection booth at the border. As the border guard finishes with one car I quickly ask why there is a hold up. He isn’t having a good day either. You need a visa to cross, he snaps impatiently. Since when? I ask. Starting today, he answers. Can I get one here? No, you have to return to Berlin or Bonn to get one from the embassy, he says, turning his attention to the next car.
I am flabbergasted. There was one visa requirement when I inquired in at the Canadian embassy in Oslo 13 days ago and Soren, Ralph and Richard needed no visas last weekend. Well, I don’t like it but what choice do I have? There’s no room for negotiation. I have run smack into an invisible wall. This is the first time I have had a problem crossing a border, but I guess this is what a border is all about, the right to turn someone away without reason.
It is a discouraging ride back to Dresden but there is not sizeable town nearer the border and I will need to catch a train into Berlin first thing tomorrow if I want to see Prague. I have told Mom and others I will be in Venice in the first week of September and time is running out. I mull over possibilities as I ride. The time passes soon enough. I waste no time looking at the scenery going back.
Heiko is not at home when I ring, but yesterday he told me his door is always unlocked and if I was in trouble I could always return. The man is a saint, or at least I assume he is as I hustle over the cobblestone streets in the centre of town to his place. I bring my bike and bags inside and help myself to a shower.
Ralph comes home from work as I am toweling off. He is only slightly surprised to see me here. I explain what happened and he advises me to find out as much as I can in Dresden before returning to Berlin. He’s a level-headed guy, but there are no pay phones that accept international calling cards in Dresden and I don’t want to leave charges on Heiko’s phone without asking. Besides, it’s too late to call the Czech embassy today. I check the train schedule I had thrown out this morning. The first train leaves at 11:15 am for Berlin.
It’s Ralph’s turn to make dinner. Heiko will be late anyway. He’s at a community meeting of some sort. We go grocery shopping and make a stir fry with vegetables and chicken on my suggestion. Richard and Soren have returned to Berlin today so I have Ralph’s attention tonight. He’s from the west, somewhere near Frankfort. His family was originally from Saxony but they fled to the west side as the Russians were approaching in 1945. Still, he feels like an outsider. The locals don’t appreciate his family’s history. They only see that he came from the west side of the country to take a job here that could have belonged to one of them. They make no effort to befriend him. They are trying to spread the hardship around by being hard on me, he tells me, but he adds that both sides must be willing to suffer together if reunification is to work. He hopes it does.
Heiko comes in around 8 and is quite concerned for me when he sees me. I ask if it is OK that I sleep here another night. He says he doesn’t mind at all. He has obviously had a long day. Ralph and I go for a walk once Heiko has his dinner. The sun has just set but the sky is still light. We stop for a dessert at a café, something Heiko cannot afford to do so Ralph is happy not to have to eat here alone.
I am more curious about him the longer he talk. I ask if he has a partner. He is seeing girl who works at his firm as a receptionist. He asks me if I have anyone. I tell him I don’t, that it’s hard to date while traveling. He just laughs. I haven’t been open about my gayness because I am not sure how he would react. For the same reason, I don’t ask him about Heiko. Heiko doesn’t look like the kind of guy who dates women, but I have been surprised before. We walk back to Heiko’s and Ralph retires to his room to read. I chat with Heiko a bit before doing the same.
PHOTO 1: a walled town above my route to the Czech border
PHOTO 2: town of Dohna half way to the border
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