Rolling Traveler

Your picture for this Sunday is the northern side of Wroclaw Town Square, in a freezing December rain. The Town Square is called the Rynek [RIN-eck] in Polish, and it is the heart of the city in many ways: for business and administration, but also for nightlife. In the summer, it would be absolutely thronged with people, but, as I said, freezing rain.

Looking at this picture now, a few thoughts come to my mind… like why wasn’t I wearing a scarf? And who the hell wears pants that light in Central Europe in winter? Was I wearing long-johns? I better have been, because, I’m just saying: freezing cold, raining, and underclad legs that you’re not moving is a recipe for getting ill fast.

I’m also struck by the color. Any time anyone tries to tell you that the former Eastern Bloc countries are gray or drab, show them this. Even on a dull winter’s day, the colors of the buildings come through. Wroclaw underwent extensive renovation projects to restore this look to the city, and I think they did a great job. It’s a great city to visit for a lot of reasons, and it’s an attractive city too.

But boy, it was cold! Next time, I’m visiting in the summer.

The fever came back today and overcooked what would have been a great post, leaving me staring at a blank screen with a blank and rather fuzzy brain. In the past 15 years, I’ve traveled to over 40 cities in over 15 countries, and I can’t think of a thing to write about except “I’m still sick” and “I hate how antibiotics make me feel”. Considering that I used to teach writing classes, that’s kind of embarrassing.

However, seeing as yesterday I just got this blog of mine restarted after a rocky month, I’m not going to let that stop me. 

It was interesting to see how many friends told me I was probably sick now because I traveled last week. “You probably picked it up on the plane” or “Well, you were away” is what I got. Why is that more likely than my having picked it up from one of my co-workers or students? Or on a commuter train heading for work? Or just from having a weakened immune system due to stress? I find travel can get a little demonized by people when it comes to getting ill. I’m not saying you can’t catch a cold from a fellow passenger, I just don’t think it’s a more likely cause than any other. 

I’ve traveled so many times without falling ill that I never think of travel-related matters as the cause. I look more to myself. Have I been taking good enough care of myself? Did I drink enough water, get enough rest, dress for the weather? Was I careful not to touch my tires during dinner? Let’s face it, wheelchair tires can be nasty, so after I wash my hands for dinner, I try not to touch them. Was I under a lot of stress?

That might be the reason other people make the travel and sickness connection - because they find traveling stressful, and stress does weaken the immune system. Stress is a far more likely contender for the cause of your post-holiday cold than the air on the plane or the passenger with the blocked nose sitting two rows back, if you ask me.

Thoughts?

I thought nothing short of two punctured wheels would stop this rolling traveler dead in his tracks, but it seems that the right amount of stress and a nasty dose of bronchitis can do the trick just as well. This isn’t the post that I wanted to restart Rolling Traveler with, but it’s certainly relevant to my current situation. As is often the case, the stresses and life changes that were keeping me occupied over the past couple of weeks took their toll, and I came down with a what-is-my-name-again? level fever and a racking cough like I haven’t seen in years, leading to another delay in the Rolling Traveler restart.

I haven’t been sick enough to need the doctor in a while, but I definitely needed one this time. I wanted to get a house call, which I’ve never done in Germany. I felt justified: it was 2°C (36°F) outside, and I was dizzy enough from the fever that attempting to get myself and the wheelchair down the stairs and out of the building seemed more like movie stuntwork than an everyday task I’m used to. I had often gotten house calls when I lived in Poland, and gotten a few in Ireland too, so I didn’t think it would be much of a problem here in Germany. 

You’d think after 15 years traveling, I’d have learned not to assume things about other countries.

The joy of travel is the joy of discovering what’s different, but this was one time when I was hoping for the same. Doctors do make house calls in Germany, but only under very special circumstances, it seems. In Poland, pick up any phone book and there are whole lists of doctors who make house calls all the time. I recall the GPs in Ireland make house calls as part of their rounds. In Germany, if you have built up a working relationship with a doctor, they’ll discuss making a house call and if they think you really need one, they’ll consider it.

So it was off to the doctor with me, bundled up so much that I looked more like a wheelbarrow full of clothes for the charity shop than a wheelchair with a person using it… but I made it there and back without incident, so I can’t complain.

Anyway, I’m back, I’m healing, and from tomorrow, I’ll be back talking about traveling again.

All the best,
Derek.

* blows the dust off the keyboard *

At the time of writing, I’m lying in a hotel room, legs under the blankets, trying to get my knees and feet warm after a long walk. The winter sun never quite took the chill off the wind coming in from  the North Sea, but the walk and the company were great.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Rolling Traveler has been rather inactive of late, as I’ve had to take some time off to put my house in order. I’ve also taken the opportunity to rethink the blog somewhat, and I will soon be unveiling the new Rolling Traveler. It’ll still be all about my experiences as a wheelchair user and traveler, and contain good advice for the rolling traveler, but the focus will be a little different, more on anecdotes and personal observations, and less on city overviews and complaints about cobblestones. I’ve found it’s the personal posts that have gotten the better responses.

Check back here on Monday, December 15th to see where my rolling travels take me next. Till then, all the best,

Derek.

As I’ve mentioned in a few posts recently, I’ve been having a little trouble with the German rail service, Deutsche Bahn. The trains are not fully wheelchair accessible, and while there is a service that you can order to help you get on and off, if anything goes wrong with the order, you can end up being stuck on the platform, unable to get on your train. Problems with the booking of the service do happen, especially, it seems, if you make the order in person at the station.

Even if you’re a more mobile wheelchair user who can get out of your chair, or make small jumps and drops in the chair, you might find it difficult to travel: on one recent occasion, I was actually prevented from getting on the train I wanted by a station worker, even though I said I’d get myself on with no assistance. He said it was too dangerous, and that I couldn’t get on alone, but that since I didn’t have the assistance service booked, I would have to wait till they had time to help me.

On a good friend’s advice, I wrote to Deutsche Bahn and asked for clarification of a few points. Is there any way to get confirmation of booking the mobility assistance service? Is a wheelchair user required to book the service, or can we travel alone, unassisted, at our own risk? Is there any legal basis for a station worker to prevent a wheelchair user from getting on the train if they are unassisted? And what should a wheelchair user do if they want to travel spontaneously?

I am very curious as to when and if I’ll get an answer, but I do think this is the way to go in situations like this. Ask the questions in writing, get the answers in writing, keep it all official and then be able to say definitively what one should do in a given situation. At the moment, all I have to go on is what friends and station workers have said about the Deutsche Bahn services, and that’s just not enough of a clear answer.

Winter has taken a firm grip on northern Europe this year. The last couple of weeks have been colder than usual for the area and the time of year, with temperatures below 5°C (in the low 30s F) during the day, and below freezing at night. We’ve also had snow. I’ve gone winters in Dusseldorf without seeing a single snowflake, but this year it seems we’ll be getting more than our normal share.

On Sunday, I went to Dusseldorf’s Museum Kunst Palast with two friends from Hannover, and while it was particularly chilly, there was a bit of blue in the sky that made it feel less wintery. However, while we were inside, snow-laden clouds rolled in, and we emerged into a particularly heavy snowfall: clumped flakes in a strong wind leaving next to no visibility, and a completely white courtyard.

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As I’m sure you’ve noticed, my planned week of posts about the great city of Austin didn’t materialize. The past week was a tough one, tougher than I’ve had in a while. Work proved extremely stressful, as some long-brewing problems came to the fore and took all the joy out of the job. Two of my pupils also got into a fight during a class that was being observed. My day off started well with a tour of historic Aachen, but ended badly. A one-hour train journey took clear two hours, and involved three angry conversations with jobsworthy rail workers who wouldn’t allow me to board the trains I wanted. On top of all that, or rather because of all that, the back pain that I’ve been suffering from lately intensified, so even if I’d had the time to research and write the posts I wanted to write this week, I wouldn’t have had the energy for it. All I wanted to do come evening was sleep, and in the end, I decided not to fight it, but to rest up and come back stronger next week.

There are times when it’s good to be stubborn, and take on the world, despite long-term illness or other problems. During rehab, for example, being strong-headed is a good thing. However, it’s also important to recognize the days when you need to take things a little slower.

So, in the coming week, I’ll be posting about Austin, and the things to watch out for in the weird-in-a-good-way capital of Texas. I’ll also explain why a waterproof wheelchair might not be the best thing in the world. I hope you’ll stop by and join me in exploring one of my favorite cities in the world.

Every year, just before my birthday, my mother’s aunt Jenny, a great woman who was a huge part of my childhood, would ask me if my back hurt, because of an old wives’ tale about the back hurting just before one’s birthday. It became a sort of gentle running joke between us: “How many times has his back hurt him?” instead of “How old is he?”; “My back’s that sore that I better get some presents tomorrow.”; and “You’d swear he had a birthday coming up, the way he’s complaining!” I still think of that every year, just before my birthday, and if I’m honest, I miss hearing it.

I’ve not been thinking of Aunt Jenny today because of any connection of the day to her life, but because today I developed a very uncomfortable back pain, and upon being asked what might have caused it, I thought immediately of my 35th birthday, just over a week passed. I thought of how she would have blamed the birthday, said I was late, or told me that was proof I was born before my time (which is not true: I was a late birth). The thought gave me a little comfort. I’ve always found the wheelchair and the associated pains easier to deal with when I can laugh at them a little.

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