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I’ve just wrapped up a 30-plus day road trip through Central and Eastern Europe, and I’m eager to tell you all about it. The problem is I’m not sure where to start or how to describe it. It was all so spur-of-the-moment. It started out as a short jaunt up to Leipzig to see my friend (and Czech translator of this blog), Irena Duda, participate in her first triathlon, and it carried on from there. That’s not to say I didn’t have some goals. I wanted to cross off as many of the “Ten Places To Visit In 2019 (If You Happen To Be Me)” – especially Ukraine -- that I’d listed at the start of the year. I also wanted to visit my friends Colin and Deborah, who have a house on a remote island in Greece. But how I got from A-Z, I left more or less to chance.

If you’re a fan of Bruce Springsteen, particularly the song “Hungry Heart,” and have always been intrigued (as I have) by the line “I took a wrong turn and I just kept going,” then this post is for you. Besides the “heart” part of the song (I don’t have a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack), that line pretty much sums up the trip.