Poland, March 3, 2008

Poland is the only popular democracy that I will pass through, leaving to the south the Czech Republic, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria. Satellite nations of the Soviet Empire, whose populations are moving west, now that they’ve joined the Union. My first popular democracy, then, but also the last country of the European Union, which I’ll leave behind when I cross the Belarusian border – the start of visas.