Part 12   at the end of the camp and the bicycle excursion, I moved back to Budapest   during the time of the camp, I had become famous, especially because of my unconventional teaching methods which were not always appreciated by adult students   generally, one could say, I lived the life of a student   not much learning but many parties   I really enjoyed my life   x   the country, Hungary, was not rich at that time, communism had just ended and people had to get used to capitalism   during communism they had had to bow to their political superiors, now they had to bow to their economical superiors   during communism everything belonged to the state   now, one would say that the people of a country are the state, however, reality looks different   there is not much difference between a kingdom, a dictatorship or even a democracy   there are always upper classes and lower classes, it’s the upper classes who make decisions and use the wealth of the state   those, who had been in decisive positions during communism, now tried to get a hand on everything what was privatized   x   communism from an economical point of view doesn’t work well, that’s the reason why it broke down   but it gave everybody work, now during capitalism, many people lost their workplace because they couldn’t adjust to the new conditions   these people then looked for scapegoats and found them in foreigners, gypsies, homosexuals, Asians and Africans   and there are always politicians who try to benefit from the distress and hopelessness of the people   during communism, nationalism was nearly forbidden, so the Hungarians didn’t have the opportunity to digest their guilt of the second world war, of having helped to kill half a million Jews and gypsies   but now in capitalism and democracy, they could openly be racists again, and they did so   x   the change went slowly, a bit like a slow avalanche   at the beginning, it was a small part working a bit like a Mafia organization, they made their first money by fraud   then they began to buy company after company   the different churches willingly joined in because they were promised financial support   they praised the old history distorted, great kings and so on   in the end, they came to power, rigged the elections and trampled down everything and everybody which and who was in their way   x   after two years in Hungary, I wanted to learn another language   around this country, there are nearly only Slavonic languages   therefore, I thought it would be the best to learn the mostly used = Russian   of course, I didn’t want to go to Russia but I chose Ukraine   so, I took my dog and bag again and went east   x   I went by train   and when I had crossed the border and then the mountain range of the Carpathian mountains, I got off the train   nearly immediately, still at the station, a policeman asked me where my tourist group was and where I belonged to because under communist rule, one had to ask for permission to leave one’s living place   do they still live under communist rule? – I thought   x   my plan was to go by foot from the north-west corner of Ukraine to the Red Sea   this means around 700 kilometres   most of the rivers in this region lead to the Red Sea   therefore, I decided to follow the running water   x   the official shops in the villages mostly had long empty shelves   only the special shelf for bread was half filled   real business was done on the private or black market   in one of those official shops, I saw three jars at the end of the long shelves   when I got nearer, there were 2 jars with jam and one with meat   I nearly felt ashamed to buy one of these because then, there were only 2 left in the enormous shop   x   on my trip, I came to a bigger village   it was Friday afternoon and I knew I had to buy food because at the weekend every shop would be closed   there was a small shop, loud laughter and shouting could be heard from outside   when I looked inside, I saw 3 elder women drinking vodka and on the table there were sausages, tomatoes, bread, cheese, and other fine food   they saw me and told me that the shop had already closed   I begged them to sell me some food because I didn’t have any food any more   I think one of the women wanted to make a joke with me, the foreigner. she filled a lemonade glass full of vodka and put it in front of me   then, she looked at me and said: Drink!   I had not eaten the whole day and looked a bit worried   again, she pointed at the glass and said: Drink!   so, I took the glass and emptied it in one sip, put the glass down, didn’t breath but immediately ate a piece of tomato   at first, they were totally silent, then they began to laugh even louder than before and one woman put her hand on my shoulder saying: like my son!   I left the shop with a big bag of food which they had given me for free   I walked till the next forest, the vodka had its effect and I fell under a tree totally drunk   I woke up the next morning in the same position     Part 13   Back to list!