In 2004 I campaigned with Msgr for a trip to Prague, Budapest and Berlin. He and our travel agent came up with an itinerary that covered all the usual destinations in those countries plus four days in Poland. I asked Msgr why there was so much time in Poland, and he replied, “It has something to do with the Pope, George”. The things I remember were: the death camp at Auschwitz and the horrors it represented, the subway that broke, the fun night in Prague at a club that had native dance and music, the remnant of the Berlin Wall, the magnificent Frauenkirche that was being reconstructed from its ruins, our exuberant Berlin guide, Dagmar, having no place to eat lunch in the middle of nowhere Poland and going to a grocery store for food and then eating it in a field filled with weeds, and running into Fr. Adam in Cracow dressed as a very gay blade.
