Last week’s trip up Victoria Peak, Hong Kong. ArcticTropic has now returned to Hong KOng from  the People’s Republic , so we are now able to upload photos and video. Several new posts appearing soon.

As I was getting ready to leave Debrecen, Hungary , I met a  group of backpackers checking into the hotel. When they found out I was going to Romania – from where they had just returned – they warned me to stock up on food – the markets there were almost empty – the only meager supplies reserved for citizens with ration cards. Though the evil Dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and his vile wife Elena had been overthrown and executed 9 months before, Romania was still struggling to begin a market economy.

I boarded a night train from Debrecen. During the night we were awakened by the Romanian border guards who stamped a visa into my passport. Clocks were turned an hour ahead

Dawn broke over an endless wasteland of factories and slag heaps of coal.

Around 8 AM the train arrived in the beautiful Medieval town of Sighisoara, Transylvania – where Count Dracula once reigned.

My hotel – The Steara .  After walking though the desolate,beautiful streets, reminiscent of 1910, it was a culture shock to see MTV Europe on a satellite TV in the lobby – playing DJ Jazzy Jeff’s  “Parent’s Just Don’t Understand ”  – featuring spoled American teenagers riding their parent’s Cadillac through Beverly Hills.  Romanian kids certainly did not undersand – what they were complaining about.

Dinner in my room that night – with food bought in from Hungary – sardines,bread,cheese,Mongolian Vodka. Currency – Romanian Lei is on the table.

Lining up for meat.  I didn’t see any, but perhaps they were expecting a delivery.

Window shopping behind the recently collapsed Iron Curtain.

A Gypsy Woman selling wooden spoons. I was compelled to buy one after she was about to give me the Evil Eye. Most Gypsy women do not want their picture taken as it  ” Steals the Soul ”  and will cast a curse upon the photographer. I was reprieved.

Many people were reluctant to speak to foreigners. Under  Ceaucescu’s Securitate – all contact with outsiders was to be reported within 24 hours under pain of being sent to a labor camp.

FInally , some food – fresh melons.

Roma in the marketplace – mostly selling off household items for cash.

The most common form of transportation in Sighisoara. 20 years later Romania is a modern market economy, but the evils of Communism will never be forgotten. After two days in Romania, it was time to return to New York. I boarded an overnight train to Belgrade Yugoslavia , where I could not leave the station because I did not have a visa – and then on to Vienna to catch a flight Stateside.

Late on a Sunday night, I boarded at train from Krakow that would arrive in Kosice, Czechoslovakia ( now Slovakia ) the next morning. This Soviet train going from Paris to Moscow, passed by but did not pick up passengers.  I shared a compartment with construction workers – we spoke in broken German while swilling vodka the whole night. Once a bottle was opened, the cap was tossed away.

Kosice was peaceful in the early morning, though there was no place to eat or even have a coffee.

Art Deco Proletarianism.

” Truth ” for the Working Masses.

Punk Concerts – Catching up with the times.

Open discourse. This picture was actually taken in Prague.

Fresh picked harvest.

Late in the morning I boarded another train for Debrecen,Hungary. Finally,I could sit down for an excellent kitchen cooked meal.

On the vast plains near Fuzysabony, Hungary. The flat lands stretch thousands of kilometers eastward to the Urals.

The next part of the journey was an overnight train ride from Prague to Krakow, Poland. I was in a sleeper car- comfortable but crowded.

I checked into a fine hotel that was 90,000 zlotys a night, about $ 8.40.  Free elections were being held – Poland had the first free elections about a year before.

Walesa, one of two Poles responsible for the collapse of Communism , ( the other being Pope John Paul II) was President at the time, and lost the election.

Comrade Stalin on the line from Moscow !

Wawel Cathedral – Where John Paul II was Cardinal.

The Black Madonna.

The exchange rate was very advantageous for those with Western currency. Hotels for $ 8, lunch 25 cents, a dollar for dinner. I treated an entire bar of college students to a round of vodka for $2.50.

Train Schedule for all of Poland.

End of The Line – A Place of Pure Evil.

Auschwitz-Birkenau. I took far worse pictures that are inappropriate for this forum.

Berlin, a few days after  reunification. Parts of the Wall still stand, soon to be chooped up into millions of tiny pieces for sale at $ 10 each.

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Spoils of the Cold War for the Western victors – the symbols of  non-existent East Germany – swept into the Dustbin of History.

The Dresden Cathedral, still blackened and destroyed by American bombing n 1945 – soon to be restored to its’ former glory.

The First Free Election in a United Germany.

The Reichstag – in 1990, still burned inside  -in 2000,  after restoration, was the seat of German power once again.

The River Spree.

The Trabi – a car that ran on a 2 stroke engine ( like that of a lawn mower ) and had a 15 year waiting list

In October of 1990, just after official German Reunification, I traveled from Berlin, in the former East Germany, to Czechoslovakia ( now two nations) ,Poland,Hungary and Romania. While today the Eastern countries are much a part of the modern world, the East 20 years ago was a group of lands newly awakened from a long and stifling slumber.

In the next few days, ArcticTropic will feature a photo series  – Eastern Europe at the Fall Of Communism – to be interspersed with our regular adventure news and updates. Eastern European travel at the time was an adventurous undertaking, given the lack of infrastructure, the lack of any understanding of tourism and the unfamiliarity of many people with the outside world.

The 30 kilometer Mag-Lev Train RIde to Pudong International Airport takes 8 minutes at 461 KPH – that’s 285 Miles Per Hour ! Compare that to sitting in a cab on the way from Manhattan to JFK !

I jumped on the End of the World Train (or in Spanish, El Tren del Fin del Mundo) this morning.

The three-seat-wide train was equipped with a voice recording that provided us with details on all the locations we passed through in Spanish, English and Portuguese; it was a sight-seeing tour, history lesson and language class, all wrapped into a one hour, 4.3 mile ride.

The sun didn’t rise until 10 a.m. and the day started off with heavy fog; heavy fog that never lifted. It created a certain, sort of Transylvanian, effect for the train ride as we passed through areas where prisoners once worked.

Argentina was very close to losing Tierra del Fuego to Chile due to its lack of population during the early 20th century. In order to keep the island, the Argentine government decided to populate it, but because of its isolation and cold temperatures, convincing people to move, would be difficult. The solution, build a maximum security prison and populate it with hard criminals. Its distance from any city and its surrounding waters never rising above 40-degrees Fahrenheit, made the island an ideal prison location.

The End of the World Train was originally built to transport the prisoners from the prison through the forest where they worked and as far as the most south-western tip of Tierra del Fuego, which is where the Pan American Highway begins, or ends, depending on which way you’d like to look at it (the Pan American Highway connects Tierra del Fuego to Alaska). The prisoners’ job was to cut down trees; the timber was used as fire wood, to extend the rail road and build more buildings.

During our ride, we passed through what is known as the “Tree Cemetary,” an area where the prisoners cut down almost all the trees and most never grew back.

Ushuaia’s beaver population out-numbers the amount of people and their damn-building habits is another cause for the decline in tree regrowth.

The trains’ first stop was at Pipo River. Pipo was a prisoner who tried to escape and couldn’t survive the islands’ weather conditions. He was found dead along a river that is now named after him.

Our second stop was at Roca Lake. It’s named after Julio Argentino Roca, a politician, a General and two-time President.

There was absolutely no wind, fog covering the snow-capped mountains and the lake was transparent and mirror-like. It was eerie and at the same time, tranquil.

The trains’ final stop was literally, at the end of the world. It was as far as the rail road stretched and a mere 11,000 miles from Antarctica. Beyond this point, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans converge.

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Although Vietnamese trains are slow, they’re a great way to see the countryside and meet people. At midway in the journey ,travelers stop for a lunch break. ArcticTropic leads to all adventure destinations in Vietnam.