How Berlin and London Have Changed Me
There’s been one over-riding presence during this summer’s European travel: extreme heat – almost continuous high temperatures with excessive humidity. And most places in Europe do not have air conditioning. It’s helped me to resolve to do almost all of my travel now off-season. Autumn or Spring will be when I pack my suitcase in the future. Otherwise one becomes limp and exhausted.
My ideal for travel adventures is to have the ideal partner. This occurred this summer in both cities.
My knowledge and appreciation of Germany’s rich history and culture is enhanced a hundredfold by my German colleague’s company and conversations. My new little digital camera recorded our trail: Berlin’s new railroad station (the largest in Europe); its “New” Museum, recently reconstructed by a prize-winning architect, and a return to its Pergamon Museum; a lovely four-hour boat ride; dining in the Sony Center and in Berlin’s art deco-area restaurants allowing private dining as soccer fans by the thousands stream from their victorious gathering at the Brandenburg Gate. Oh, and a shopping spree in a huge department store with a whole floor devoted to gourmet foods and cafes.
London was for work, not for sightseeing. A Ukrainian colleague and I made a list of nine items we hoped to accomplish during our five days together. (We finished all but one!) We had a large wing of rooms all to ourselves at Nazareth House near Hammersmith Station. We had a dining area, a kitchen, and a TV (very handy for World Cup matches). We traveled to another dining area to have dinner and supper served to the two of us each day. The Sisters here seem very proud to have such distinguished guests! Our bio sheets were hung on their Bulletin Board.
Our prime target was our book The Joy of Being Free. We decided to add four recent essays by Myroslav to make the contents more contemporary. We did some translating together and Myroslav re-vamped one of the most important essays in the book “Atoning for Communism”. I edited or ‘tweaked’ all these manuscripts to make the essays comfortable for English-speaking readers.
We discussed our book proposal for Georgetown University Press (which we hope to submit by October). We decided to approach President Carter to write a brief Preface because of his dedication to human rights; Myroslav has visited the Carter Center and had his photo taken with Carter. We brainstormed ideas for the new journalism program at his university, along with marketing ideas for his recent six-volume publication of his writings in Ukraine.