August 2006
The journey that Kay and I recently undertook from Istanbul to Helsinki — with stops in the cities of Plovdiv, Sofia, Brasov, Bratislava, Krakow, Gdansk, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn — lasted a month and became a test of endurance. At one point, in Tallinn, Estonia, I seemed to be failing the test when my body told my mind, “Enough, already” and refused to keep up the pace. It took a couple of days of long afternoon naps and long nights of sleep before I felt myself again.