Here are my notes for this vacation spanning the dates from April 10th through April 26th, 1998. You may click any part of this document to go directly to that desired section, or scroll normally to read all in a logical sequence.

I arrived mid-day in Amsterdam with a five hour layover. I could have, but did not bother to, go into town for a bit except that the airport is pretty great here. There is a huge tax free shopping mall and it is inexpensive, so I just stayed put. When I arrived in Berlin I got to my hotel room in a quaint yet bustling section of the city. I attended an orientation meeting then just slept the night away, getting back on my body's schedule whilst I dreamed of eating a reindeer.

I left Berlin on the motorway that is used for a racetrack twice a year. We had a huge breakfast at the hotel (I could find no reindeer there, but just you wait!) and the road made me sleepy. We saw checkpoint Bravo, that used to seperate West Berlin from East Germany. I always anticipate trouble at borders due to my beard in my passport photo, but after an hour and a half we were into Poland and on our way. Not so quickly go across the border the semi-trucks, lined up for miles waiting sometimes up to three days to pass through the lowlands into Poznan. It's a strange industrial town where almost every family lives in an apartment, often with three generations within. It is considered taboo to not care for the elderly in the home until their deaths. Five more hours and we finally get to Warsaw, Poland's capitol.

We took a four hour orientation drive of Warsaw with a local guide, stopping in the big city park and then again to wander the Olde Town for a while. Here, the Monday after Easter, is also a holiday, so there was very little open. It was rainy and cold but I enjoyed walking around in it. I found the church where Chopin's heart is buried and took a picture of it. I had a picture of his grave in Paris, so I guess I needed one of his heart, too. I went to the main train station and wandered the mall there and saw further on the 1943 Jewish Ghetto Uprising Memorial and the old entrance to the train platform where 380,000 Jews were sent to Treblinka to die. Polish money is worthless outside Poland, and it was hard to spend what little I had left. For better or for worse, there was a casino at the hotel that I was able to throw away the rest of my change in after dinner.

I woke up and it was snowing, but nothing stuck due to the wet ground from raining...still no reindeer in sight. We drove all morning through Eastern Poland towards our next border crossing at Belarus. The snow was coming down hard by now, beginning to cover the fields and trees. At the Belarus (White Russia) border, more waiting and passport security and horrid toilet facilities. Then we were into Brest for lunch. No big deal, this town. We just happened to be the very first tour of the season passing through and they gave us a traditional Belarus bread and salt ceremony and a shot of Russian vodka which knocked me out once I got back on the bus. We stopped later in a forest to use the bathroom as convenient roadside stops do not yet exist in Russia! This entire stretch of highway leading from Brest to Moscow is reknowned for battles fought ranging from the Mongols to Napoleon. We got into Minsk around 6:30pm, with rows and rows of Communist-era style apartment houses all over.

We left Minsk early- the hotel last night was like a morgue, but it was a place to sleep. Lee Harvey Oswald went to college here. There is a lot of history here in Minsk, but we were mainly there to sleep- distances are so vast in this region that it must be broken up wherever you are. Last night I took a walk to photograph the monument here where 5,000 Jews were executed and buried in a mass grave. At noon we entered Russia and the sun was shining although there were still frozen puddles of water all over the ground. In fact, this is the very area where Napolean was frozen out of the country in 1812. This main road to Moscow is a bumpy, almost dirt road. Then, we were all pulled over and made to pay a "natural resources" tax of $70, which no one had ever heard of before. After lunch we drove to Smolensk, one of the most ancient of Russian cities, and I took some photos of the Russian Orthodox Church and then some children came and begged rubles off of me. After a 12 hour drive we approach Moscow, the ground much snowier and standing water frozen.

Yulia, my friend from the Ukraine, met me in Red Square in the morning, but my other friend Kostya I never was able to find! I went into Lenin's Mosoleum at 10am, and after that began a ten hour whirlwind tour of all parts of Moscow. Yulia's father (who stayed with us throughout the day- you KNOW I can't be trusted!) knew Moscow well and knew the subway system well and got us to all points of interest and well beyond. There are some days that we live through that make all the other normal days seem worthwhile, and Yulia is a bright and shining star, a constant joy and inspiration to be around. And, of course, Moscow is a fantastic city. The combination of the two was overwhelming, to say the least. When 7pm arrived and it was time for them to leave on a train for Kiev I was devestated. Never before have I wished so much to stop time and for something not to end. But end it does, and I can only hope that I have left something of what I felt behind me, and that it is picked up and carried away by those that I have left it for.

I spent the last morning in Moscow wandering around missing Yulia. Lunch was eaten accompinied by a classical duet and we left by 1:30pm. We passed through the provincial town of Tver, where Tchaikovsky chose to live and work. Frozen lakes, frozen rivers, frozen towns. It is not even that cold in mid-April, but there is still so much ice! Although it is monotonous, it is rustic and beautiful. It is grey but authentic, and mirrors my disposition. Finally, we get to Novgorod, the oldest of Russian towns, founded in 835 A.D.

This day started with a complete tour of Novgorod's Kremlin grounds and then across the city bridge to the section with all the old churches. In the kremlin we saw a pre-Easter service in the Orthodox church, complete with frankenscence and all. Then, 3 more hours into St. Petersberg. This city was beseiged for 900 days during WW2 and over a million people died, but it was never actually overtaken. My hotel is right on the Baltic Sea, on the Gulf of Finland. It is 10pm and it is still light outside- very disorientating. The entire next two days were spent in St.Petersberg. I went into town on the subway, miraculuosly finding my way. I visited the Hermitage, St. Isaak's Cathedral, then just walked. It was Easter for the Russian Orthodox sect so I went into the Church of the Ressurection and saw a bit of a service. The beggers were out in full force! Then, to the Dostoevsky house, where the greatest of Russian authors lived and worked for a time. The next day I took a three hour guided tour of the city. Palaces on almost every block and so much else to see that it, too, overwhelms. It is cold and rainy and bleak, but it is inspiring nonetheless. This is the largest city near the Arctic Circle, and at this time of year it is still light out at 10pm (22:00) with only about three hours of darkness nightly. That is in the summer- in the winter it is light only about four hours a day with only about thirty days of sunshine a year all told. Despite all this it thrives and is the second most populated city in Russia with five million inhabitants. The whole of Russia really looks like a scene right of "A Clockwork Orange", with real milk bars and all!

This morning I drive towards the border to leave the land of the Silver Birch trees. We travel through an area of land that is between the Gulf of Finland on the West and Lake Ladoga, the world's second largest lake, on the East. This area actually bolonged to Finland before 1944 but is now a spa and vacation area for Russians. Vyborg is the point to cross into Finland at. What a difference a single border can make: one minute you cannot drink the water and the next minute you are in the country with the highest hygeinic standards in Europe. Even the air and weather seemed to improve over just a hundred yard long, imaginary border. So into Finland, land of 200,000 lakes and only five million people to fill the seventh largest country of Europe. I salivate for the illusive reindeer...The next morning found me in Helsinki proper, with much to see: the Rock Cathedral, the market square. I finished off the afternoon visiting the small gallery where they had a couple of Gaugins, Cezannes, and one Van Gogh. I mainly just walked around a lot and took a lot of photos. BY five I was on the ocean liner and it left port by 6pm (18:00). I stayed up late on the boat, more like a mall on water, and I followed this group of girls from cafe to cafe, disco to disco (no, I didn't dance), until I was tired enough to try and sleep. My room was actually under water and we were sailing through ice sheets so it seemed choppy. I didn't sleep too well.

I awoke early and went out on deck to see Sweden coming into view. There are thousands of little islands the ship sails through coming into Stockholm and it is quite nice to see so early, although it is foggy and very cold. Oh, by the way, not one mouthfull of reindeer last night because we ate a la carte and not buffet. I am, and remain, totally bummed. I spent all day walking and photographing Stockholm, although after seeing the Olde Town and the section just north of the main river there wasn't a whole lot to see, it seems. If you are there to shop it is like paradise. For me it was just a long, clean-air walk, but I began to feel sick, so when I got to the hotel I slept from early all the way to the morning. I felt better the next day and we travelled south towards Helsingor, immortilized in Shakespeare's "Hamlet", to ferry to Denmark. We passed Lake Vattern, the second largest in Sweden, over 800 square kilometers in size. We stopped by a glass blowing factory- never let pass the oppurtunity for the tourists to spend more money! The Saab company has an automobile plant in this area and, instead of ruining the landscape, the entire factory is underground. You would never know it was there if you were not told as I was. I crossed the channel into Denmark in only twenty minutes. In Copenhagen I walked the streets well into the night. This is a party town in the evening, so it got a little hectic, but the city is beautiful. I think this must be the bicycle capitol of the world, with all the bicycles parked along along the sidewalks.

Driving out of Copen hagen today; this city is really very elegant in the daylight and away fro m the center. Denmark is a country comprised of 400 islands with not nearly that many inhabited. In the countryside you see giant wind-driven propellers generating electricity- very cool and effecient. We crossed the channel and I am now in Germany. The countryside is lovely, even though I have never thought much about Germany. Perhaps Berlin will be a sight? I'll say one thing though: what used to be East Germany is very nice. Nicer than what I've seen of the part that was always "free". An aside: I swear if I hear one more person mention shopping or see one more lost puppy dog tourist look I'm going to scream! In Berlin: it has very good grafitti! It is huge- there are three airports, 130 miles of rivers, 3.5 million people. Naked people lying in the city parks. I stopped and got several photos, even one of where Hitler killed himself (did he? The debate rages!) in his bunker. I can't enjoy Berlin too much- too many fascist memories. The next day I took off from Amsterdam, and you can see from the air all the rows of tulip fields in multi-colored rows, looking like giant flags draped across the earth- very nice.

Woody Guthrie once immortilized the term "hard travelling", and this would have to be the hardest travelling I've ever done so far. Russia is unique and beautiful in its own way, but it is quite severe and should not be undertaken by the weak! I think they like it that way- more power to them...