19 May 1999

Hi all,

Just to let you know we managed to get back to Denmark intact after
23133 kms on the road! I have to catch up on four months of email so
it is going to take some time but I will get around to replying to all of you soon. Meanwhile here is a short gist of what has happened since Istanbul ten days ago…

After Turkey we zipped thru Bulgaria since we only had a 24-hour
pass. Spent 4 hours of that day in a garage fixing pipes to the
diesel pump. So did not see much of that country. We had more time in
Romania – 4 days. First day on the Black Sea coast, second day in
Bucharest, the third day driving to Vlad Draculs castle and the
fourth day driving through the countryside to Hungary. We had to zip
thru Hungary as well which was a pity. I was sent back at the Czech
border since I did not have a visa and we had wrong info from the
embassy that I could get a transit stamp on the border. I could not
believe it when I got the info – it was too good to be true, I guess.
So we drove back to Vienna and we spilt up. A friend and I got out of
the bus and spent a day walking around Vienna. It was the only W.
European city on this travel that really made me wish to return there
for a longer period of time. The next two days were spent on the
road, hitchhiking from Vienna to Berlin, nearly 1000kms. That was
quite an experience – I have hitchhiked in Denmark before but across
countries is totally different. Or at least that is what I thought so
I had not hitchhiked much on this travel. Anyway it was good to
overcome that fear as well. It is amazing the kind of people you meet
on the road. From Berlin it was half a nights drive and then we spent
a few hours in a Danish city before arriving to a mega party here
about three hours ago.

I know that is a really sketchy account of what has happened since we
left Turkey but I am really tired for now so please bear with me
until I am able to find some time to put the whole trip together.

Denmark is surprisingly warm and sunny – we hear that is bound to
change tomorrow. We are still finding rooms, unwinding etc. But it
looks like there might not be much time or space before we launch
into the next part of the program.

My work permit in Denmark expires in 10 days and it will take a long
time to process a new one. I am not yet sure what that might mean in
terms of my stay in Denmark over the summer but apparently it is okay
to overstay while the permit is being processed. Will see. Have run
out of passport pages (one more dream fulfilled !) so I have to hop
over to Kobenhavn sometime soon to get a new booklet or additional
pages.

Wokay, headache calls for attention. Will write more in a day or two.

Take care,
Arvind