Word: visitor
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...German shepherd has turned out to be a pussycat. Instead of guarding against intruders, she welcomes anyone into the cottage of her owners. A mother as of March, Asta also seems homesick. She has yet to set paw into her master's Ford, but leaped happily into a visitor's East German- made Trabant and expected to be driven away...
Driving down a country lane in Poland in early summer, when the poplar trees are releasing blizzards of fluffy white seeds, a visitor comes across horse carts in which families dressed in Sunday finery are headed for a nearby town. Chickens roam in farmyards; geese strut around small ponds. Since fields are unfenced and holdings rarely more than 20 acres, cows are tethered. Twice a day the farmer's wife will put a stool down next to the cow and milk by hand. Because Poland was the least collectivized of the bloc countries, it has a particularly picturesque countryside, including...
Unless, that is, the visitors are young or adventurous. Qualifying on either of those counts -- better still on both -- opens up other possibilities. Staying in private homes is now not only legal -- it was prohibited under communism for ideological reasons -- but also encouraged by the state. ROOM TO LET signs are springing up all over Hungary; private landlords sometimes even + approach foreigners at Budapest railway stations, offering rooms. While prices are generally low in Western terms -- from $10 to $30 a night -- standards vary. A visitor may end up in a turn-of-the-century house with high ceilings...
Accommodations are not the only thing in short supply. In the summer, restaurants, especially the better ones, are often booked days in advance. In Romania and Bulgaria, even a room at a hotel does not guarantee a visitor a seat in the hotel's restaurant. In Poland one may have to stand in line for barszcz (beet soup) and golabki (meat-filled rolled cabbage). In Prague if one hankers after crisp roast duck and three kinds of dumplings at a restaurant with a view of Hradcany Castle and the Vltava River, one must reserve several days ahead...
...independent visitor eager to get out of the capital, the best way is to rent a car. If you don't want to drive, hire a driver as well. The cost should be no more than $100 for a full day, and in some places half as much. In Prague a former Central Committee limousine complete with driver can be had for $6 an hour...