Driving from to can be an adventurous undertaking providing you with insights into Slavic culture and mentality. I have travelled a number of times to Kiev by car to visit my friends and on every trip there were various interesting situations along the way. Once I was waiting at the German/Polish border checkpoint when a journalist and a cameraman approached me. The journalist shoved a microphone in my face and after telling me that they were from a local TV station working on a news story on the relationship between Poland and Germany, he asked me: «You are driving to Poland alone in your car, arent you afraid it might get stolen?» Can you imagine his face when I told him that I was travelling to the Ukraine and no, I was not afraid someone might steal my car for a number of reasons some of which I listed in my reply to him. I dont know why the media are so obsessed with reporting how dangerous it is to go to East European countries when in fact its probably as safe as anywhere else in Europe and the real danger might well lie in the way the media form public opinion. Sometimes travelling through Poland can be really quite interesting and pleasant. The vast majority of the people I encountered were very friendly and open minded. Ive made it a habit on my trips through Poland to approach any person, using the Polish phrases Ive learned and the response is almost always: «Oh, pan bardzo dobrze mowie po-polsku» (The gentleman speaks very good Polish) although my vocabulary is very limited to say the least. Now, if someone from Poland comes to the country I come from, we expect them to speak very good German and we would never make the effort to say a single word in Polish. Why exactly is that? When you go to another country its like visiting your neighbours in their house and you want to respect and honour their hospitality. Why dont we do the same when we travel abroad? I know many Germans who would say «Well sure, German is a much more important language than Polish.» Is that really so? How do you measure the importance of a language? Is it a question of economic power? I dont think so because when I travel as an individual and I meet another individual I honestly believe that they are just as important as I am and when Im in their country I at least make the effort to say Hello, excuse me I have a question in their language. That is really not asking too much, is it? But it tells the other person that I respect them and that Im glad to be in their country otherwise why would I go there in the first place? Trying to learn some Polish can literally open doors. Let me illustrate this with another episode that happened to me later that day: As I was getting closer to the Polish-Ukrainian border I decided to stop for the night because I was pretty tired and darkness was approaching fast. In the town of Jastkow I stopped at a small privately owned petrol station for fuel and directions to the nearest motel. Of course I used my readily available phrases in Polish and the man at the station answered in Polish too. Because I understand much more than I can say myself I had no problem in following what he was telling me. When I thanked him he asked me where I was from and when he learned that I was from Germany, he switched to German which he spoke fluently. He said his name was Leszek and that he had worked for a year in Munich as a musician. We soon found lots of topics to discuss and I didnt realize how fast time was going. After an hour or so his wife suddenly emerged and demanded that he called it a day and came home. When his wife saw me, Leszek introduced me to her and she scolded him for having wasted my time with his talk. Leszek agreed with his wife and decided that I should stay in their house which was located a few metres behind the petrol station. It didnt take long to convince me and so I spent the night in Leszeks guestroom. When I got up the next morning my hosts were already waiting for me at their table laid for breakfast and it was almost as if we had known each other for ages. The only compensation the couple would accept as a token of my gratitude were some bottles of German beer and some chocolate for their little daughter. Needless to say our two months of marriage have been wonderful. We both enjoy sex, although we are a bit naive. So far we haven't ventured beyond strait missionary inter- course. I want to do a little experimenting, but Kathy wants to go slowly. I'm not in any hurry, anyway. As it is, Kathy is a handful. Although shy and reserved, she heats up fast. It must be all those years as an ugly duckling. Her pent up passions are very close to the surface. All she needs is a little rubbing here or there and a passionate kiss and she gets super horny. She especially likes to have her large breasts played with. As I said, I was looking forward to showing off my beautiful new wife to my friends. I thought it might be fun if Kathy bought a new outfit for the game and party. I told her to get something real sexy. Something that would make my friends green with envy. At first Kathy was lukewarm to the idea. The more I begged her and one night of passionate sex changed her mind. The day before we left on the trip Kathy went shopping with her friend at the office. I ask her to show me what she bought but she told me I would have to wait for the game, the little tease. The drive down was uneventful. We checked in to our hotel late and went right to be bed, after a nice twenty minute role in the sack. Kathy again teased me about her outfit for the game. The most she would say about it was, "You wanted me to look sexy for your friends. I don't think you or they will be disappointed." We slept in late the next day. We were to leave for the game at noon. The game was at two. I got showered and dressed first. I called two of my friends that I knew were staying at the hotel and made plans to meet them in the lobby. I told Kathy to meet me down there when she was ready. I left Kathy in the shower and headed downstairs. I met Jim and Dave in the lobby and we sat down and renewed acquaintances. We talked about business and politics and swapped a few recollections about the past. Before I had a chance to tell Jim and Dave about Kathy, I notice that something had their attention.