Chasing revolution Part two

Chasing revolution: drifting through time, space and Eastern Europe.

Introduction Part two

 

So, where’s this Eastern Europe then?

 

That’s a good question. The Eastern Europe that was the bedfellow of the Soviet Union throughout the post war period was a political entity rather than a geographical one. Made up of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and at times Yugoslavia[1], most aren’t actually in Eastern Europe at all. The first 3 are geographically in central Europe, Bulgaria is in the Balkans and also, along with Romania and most of the former Yugoslavia, Southeastern Europe. Confused? I was. No wonder cold war propagandists called them the Eastern Bloc, rather than the Central European, Balkans and Southeastern Europe Bloc.

 

Chasing revolution: drifting through time, space and Eastern Europe (part one)

Introduction

Drifting: 3. To move leisurely or sporadically from place to place, especially without purpose or regular employment: a day laborer, drifting from town to town.

Oxford English Dictionary

 

Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography. [...] For even if months and years appear here, it is in the form they have in the moment of recollection. This strange form—it may be called fleeting or eternal—is in neither case the stuff that life is made of.
Benjamin, Walter. A Berlin Chronicle. 1932.

 

Bulgaria 1989

Setting the scene

It’s probably a contradiction in terms but I’ve always been good at drifting. Not in a sophisticated Guy Debord, Derive way, nor in a Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter style and not even in a Jack Black[1] hobo manner. Instead, my drifting was just an antidote to making any hard decisions and is probably part of my DNA. I drifted through school from one thing to another, then from job to job, then to university and, decades later, even 11,000 km across the world.  And through my aptitude for drifting is how I came to travel around Eastern Europe for 6 months with my then girlfriend, Sheela.[2]