An anxious wind is blowing over Europe. More than two million Europeans have died from Covid in the past two years. However, it is not Covid that worries them these days, it’s war. Europeans have long memories.
The war in Ukraine has brought refugees to their cities, caused food prices to rise and fuel to become expensive. They fear this coming winter. Will there be starvation and death as happened in the past? People thought the war in Ukraine would last no more than a month. Now, there is no end in sight.
My husband and I spent the European summer in Scotland, Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest, Kraków and Berlin. At the Polish-German border, I am mistaken for a Ukrainian refugee. In Berlin, I fear we may never get home. They are extraordinary months.
Before we leave for Europe, friends are surprised we are planning to visit Poland, as they think it is too close to the war. I reassure them, and myself, that the medieval city of Kraków is about the same distance from the Ukraine border as Christchurch is from Auckland. It is surely out of reach of a long-range Russian missile.
Nevertheless, we cancel our plans to go to Lublin, further north of Kraków. as a beautifully preserved old town with a blend of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture, Lublin is a town I had long wanted to visit.
