Time for a few general remarks…

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I’ll occasionally post entries to this blog after the fact. These contain thoughts from my notes that have taken a while to mature. I still place them wherever they fit in chronologically, so they appear farther back in the blog. One of these latecomers is in the Hungary section.

And finally, as a reward for everyone who’s read this far: here’s Finland’s southernmost E75 sign (according to my research so far, anyway)—cheers!

One good thing for artists to do is to apply to “artist in residence” programs. For a certain length of time, in a place that’s usually far from home, you get Continue reading →

There’s one thing deserving of mention that’s been underrepresented in my blog so far—and that is, of course, truck drivers and the long-haul freight business in general. Let’s just say trucking, though, since the longest haul on this road is evidently that of yours truly. I haven’t yet met anyone who’s said, “Vardø, sure, Vardø—that’s where my route leads. Not even on Crete. And I’m now starting to think that I might actually be the first person who’s ever driven the E75 from start to finish. Which would be quite a first!

There wasn’t much of any traffic until I reached the Serbian city of Nis. That’s where the E75 intersects with the E80, which originates in Gürbulak. For those who are scratching their heads: that’s at Turkey’s border to Iran. So the E80 brings with it Turkish tractor-trailers. The tea ceremonies I see in the parking lots fascinate me.

So in order to get a better feel for all this, I decided to spend the night at a truck stop in Hungary. Just a couple meters away from the E75’s off-ramp there’s a pavilion encircled by a giant parking area—or at least an area in which to park. The pavilion contains a restaurant, a small shop, bathrooms, and showers. I try out all of it. There are no Continue reading →

There are places that have a special quality them. And this place, where the E75 reaches its terminus for now, is one. But first things first.

The A1, which is what the E75 has been called for many kilometers now, takes me to Gdansk. This A1 ends just shy of the city limits, fraying into the E28, the S6, the E77, the S7, then the E75, and a few more besides. Suddenly, my Europastrasse continues on like a secondary road. I follow it, of course. It takes me straight downtown, Continue reading →

I set out today in Łódź. It’s now six in the evening, and I’ve only made it to the edge of town. The E75 is like a Gordian knot, here. But—unlike in Greece—one with tons of traffic. Back then, Alexander the Great sliced through such a knot in order to free his chariot. Oh, If only I were on the Alexander Highway back in Macedonia—then there’d be some hope….

Everything’s changing. The days are getting longer, and even so, I’m driving away from summer. Driving against the season. But I have to look at this differently: I’m driving away from the summer I’m used to and into Finnish summer! Despite that fact, or precisely because of it, the lakes there will still be frozen over when I arrive in the second half of May.

It’s not just the days that are getting longer—the coffee is, as well. That’s something you really feel. I now have to order a ristretto to get an espresso. How’s that to continue?! The point is: in autumn, the days here will get shorter again, but the coffee won’t.

I usually take pictures until it gets dark. And in that sense, too, I’ll have to figure something out. A friend of mine made a bar chart showing how long the nights are in various places around the time I pass through them. Maybe that’s why the coffee’s getting longer…

The number of dark hours when I pass through each place (chart: Nikolaus Lehner)

PS: German-speakers and learners take note … if you look at just the left side of this graphic, the “bar chart” [Balkendiagramm] becomes a “Balkan chart” [Balkandiagramm].
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