Visas, Czech Rep. & Poland #1of3

One day we rode the bus and streetcar to downtown Vienna, walked along the Ringstrasse, then walked to the US Embassy on Boltzmanngasse, just a few blocks from the Ring-Strasse, near Roosevelt Platz.

We asked the man at the information desk if there were any reason we should not visit Poland and Czechoslovakia. He opened a book, found a document, scanned it, then said, “The US State Department recommends that no one go to Poland and Czechoslovakia, at this time.” I asked to look at the telegram and when I read it, found it said, in plain English, just the opposite. The man just looked bored, had no further comment, and gave no reason for his misinformation.

As we were leaving the US Embassy building we talked to the Austrian man in charge of security, and the US Marine Guard at the door. They couldn’t imagine why the man at the desk would tell us we shouldn’t visit those countries, they had heard of no problems of any kind.

As we talked, we found the Austrian had been in the German army, and had fought in Russia as a tank commander. We asked when he first knew they had lost the war. He said he was within sight of the smoke of burning Moscow, out of gas, out of ammunition, and had to walk and ride a horse to get back to Germany. He had been drafted for two years, but had to stay for many more, and had been wounded several times.

At the Post Office we made a phone call to one of Daughter Linda’s professors at Cal. State Northridge, who now lived in Poznan, Poland. He said his family was leaving for the US the next day, but we should keep his phone number since a friend who would be staying in his apartment, was the Dean of the School of Law at the University in Poznan. Sounds like a good man for us to know, in case of a problem.

We shopped in two very nice Vienna supermarkets, buying a lot of food items, such as orange juice, Cokes, peanut butter, canned meat, canned pineapple, and everything we could think of, so we could eat without problems behind the iron curtain. A man in the Czechoslovakian Consulate had recommended we do that. He said at best we would have to stand in long lines in Czechoslovakia and Poland to get food, then we might not find much we wanted to buy.