I’ve woken up partially several times throughout the night, starting as we entered Austria and the ticket checker wanted to see tickets.That must have been Villach.That’s when the bozos got on and started reading something in German that must have been hilarious, since everybody was laughing so hard.I don’t know why getting on a train means it’s party time. I just wanted to sleep.That’s not easy when the seats don’t lean back and all the lights are on.Fortunately no one’s sitting next to me so I tie my scarf around my eyes and go for oblivion.That’s AFTER taking my secret sleeping pill.If I want to pass out fast and hard I just start studying Arabic; puts me out like a light, every time.I don’t know why.I wake up drooling and my Arabic language book’s on the floor somewhere.Don’t try this with your laptop.We’ve been stopped a while now.I wonder where we are.WE’RE IN FELDKIRCH!That’s where I had originally planned to get off to go visit Lichtenstein until I found out that the train goes right through Lichtenstein already.Sounds good to me.But that means that I’ve slept the whole way through Austria!Sure enough there’s a little glow on the horizon, meaning the sun’s starting to rise.It all starts to make sense.
The train lurches to a start and I get my last chance for a glimpse of Austria; sho’ is purty.Next thing I know we’re approaching another town but don’t slow down at the train station.The sign whizzes by- ‘Schaan-Vaduz’- that’s Lichtenstein!Then we cross a river and approach another town.This time the train slows down and we pull to a stop at the station.The sign says ‘Buchs, Switzerland’.So much for Austria and Lichtenstein.I’m glad I saw the little I got to see.I may have even passed through Austria before in the night, on the way from Prague to Budapest five years ago, but to this day am not sure.The sun’s rising higher now and a Matterhorn-like peak comes into sight, craggy pyramid like a golden eagle’s beak shining in the sunlight.I thought there might be a lot of snow on the ground since we got so much rain in Ljubljana the last couple days, but there’s none, plenty on the hills, though.
Now that I’m officially out of the Balkans it might be a good time to reflect on the highlights and low points.Yesterday certainly wasn’t a high point, being stuck inside all day because of the rain.It’s better than being stuck outside in it of course.Late night rides are always problematic, killing time waiting before, then trying to function normally the day after.The savings of a night’s rent isn’t always worth it.Then while I was waiting some local guy comes up and gives me a hard luck story about how he only needs €2.70 to get home, and nobody will help him.Since I was feeling good I wanted to believe him.In the US I’d never give money for a hard-luck story to some slob with a slur, but this guy seemed so neat and spoke such good English…I saw him again about two hours later.I guess he missed his train.This time he slides right past without so much as a glance.I know that vacant look, that studied gait, every step a calculated risk, every second a calculated eternity, an algebra with no variables.JUNKIE!He’d lie to his mother to get what he wants, then forget it just as fast.That’s why he’s hitting on strangers in the bus station.But you know all that.Remember Samuel L. Jackson in Jungle Fever?So I decide to follow the guy into the ticket office and see if by some chance he’s actually buying a ticket, but… he’s gone, disappeared, vanished!
Then there was the guy at the bus station in Pristina, Kosovo.I was waiting for the bus when a nice-looking woman comes and sits a few seats away.Well not three minutes have passed until Vitalis man comes putting the moves on, purring sweet nothings under the radar.She blows him off, but politely, much too politely.Does he know something I don’t?Maybe she IS working, but… the bus station?The friend she’s waiting for soon shows up and sits down, so that should quell the rumors, but Vitalis man just gets up and moves a few steps away, lurking watching waiting.I’ve never seen anything like it, like something straight out of the Discovery Channel.The closest thing I’ve ever seen in real life was when Nonay was in heat back in Thailand and Kanoon had to hang right with her till lockup, and even after to make sure no other suitor got in his two cents.Dogs are like that.But this is a HUMAN; at least I think.Thoroughly disgusted I go get on my bus, which is now waiting at the platform.Then not ten minutes have passed until Vitalis man gets on, too!Vitalis man sits right behind me chewing gum so loudly I can’t think.What was he going to do with woman in his spare ten minutes, take her to the bathroom?
Fortunately most of the scenery and the characters were a little more pleasing esthetically.Tops of the list of places would probably be Dubrovnik in Croatia, Mostar in Hercegovina, and Ljubljana in Slovenia, vivid combinations of history, culture, and architecture without so many distractions that all that gets obscured.Tourist high season in summertime might be different.There is more diversity than might be immediately apparent, divergences in time and space amongst people with a common history, up to a point.Slovenia and Croatia could fit right into Western Europe without missing a beat while Serbia struggles to throw off its past, Bosnia struggles to cling to its own, and Albania struggles to pull itself together after dodging bullets for most of the last two thousand years.Bulgaria has ‘sex shops’ to rival Amsterdam and ‘escort’ TV ads till early morning.Dubrovnik even has a nude beach, while not so many miles up the road their cousins in Mostar kneel in prayer on Turkish kilims and loudspeakers call the faithful to prayer five times a day.
It certainly puts the rise of Islam in context, a reaction to permissiveness in the West, an unjust Hindu caste system, and Buddhist passivity to it all.I can’t help but think that this is the image Ahmedinijad and others have of the West.Obviously he ain’t been to Jackson.At least the West’s being honest.If he thinks Iran has no gays he doesn’t know his own country very well.It was a haven for gays before Khomeini, and I doubt they’ve all left, though many have I’m sure.It’s punishable by death I believe.You can’t enforce sexuality, though Islam certainly tries.I just saw the BBC debates on ‘Arab Unity’.Not once did anyone question why this was even desirable, nationalism being essentially systematic racism.What’s wrong with Arab diversity?Palestinians are the sacrificial lamb for racist ‘Arab unity’.Their problems will never be solved as long as they’re an international issue, not a local one.Thai Muslims tell me that Jews are their enemy.I tell them that that’s absurd, too polite to tell them that they’re stooges for political manipulation.But I’ll tell you.‘Islam’ might mean ‘surrender’ religiously, but hardly even the most minor compromise politically.Still I credit Islam for removing personality from religion; they’re way ahead on that count.Of course Arabs and Muslims are two different groups, but the fact that the former fits mostly into the latter only intensifies the issues.
When the train finally pulls in to Zurich, the immediate impression is one of shock.The prices are stratospheric! That’s in the upper stratosphere, right at the stratopause, next to the mesosphere, where temperatures are supposedly about the same as on the ground here.After all the urban legends about the price of coffee in Tokyo or New York, and their subsequent de-bunking by people who have actually left the airport, I assure that a cup of coffee of any kind or flavor will cost you at least three bucks in Zurich.You can quote me.Prices here are as high or higher than any I’ve ever seen, and that includes Reykjavik.I haven’t been to Lagos yet, but I’m in no rush.It’ll be next-to-last, right before Israel.Some Muslim countries won’t let you in with Israeli stamps in your passport.This is where a hostel can save you some real money, since no hotel has rooms for less than a hundred bucks, or have long been booked up.In Western Europe there are guests in hostels even older than me!This is reassuring.
So the big goal in Zurich is to try to spend as little money as possible.In fact, I’m so put off by the high prices that I decide right then and there that I just won’t spend any, or less than usual, anyway.That’ll show ‘em who’s boss.Already I’ve booked a dorm room in the hostel instead of a private room there or somewhere else.Half the time I even end up paying for two just to get the private room since many don’t have ‘singles’.The concept doesn’t exist in the US.We don’t have rooms that small.Except for M6 it’s the same price whether one person or two.A room is just a room and a bed a certain size; how many people you put in it is another issue. There are no ‘kings’ or ‘queens’ either, just twins or doubles, one big bed or two little ones.This is boring, right, but how often do you sleep in a dorm?It’ll make you think.The nice thing about hostels is that you sometimes meet interesting people.The bad thing is that sometimes they feel like the downtown mission, this one especially, both for the institutional floor plan and the people staying there.It seems they’ve got the rooms divided by age, for whatever that’s worth.At least it’s got a kitchen.That helps in a pricey place.They’ve got thick brown breads, too, so that looks like the ticket.I’ll buy a loaf of bread and eat up all the leftover food I’ve been accumulating for the last week.That’ll work for me.
