When I first graduated in 1990 I got my first teaching job in Czechoslovakia on the Hungarian border in a town called Komarno.. There wasn't much to do there of an evening. I used to wander down to the Europa Hotel in the high street on the edge of the bridge across to Hungary.
It was a grim old place. With a cigarette kiosk in the lobby. There was a lady with blue hair and gold teeth behind the kiosk selling cigarettes which made my teeth brown. . I would go in and sit in the retaurant which was pure Third Man. A set of gypsy musicians who would come to tour table and arch their heads and bow down to your table while you made your way through your evening meal.
Chicken and chips a brothy stew. A bottle of beer. A cigarette ar your table surrounded by the music of dream and myth. It feels like a dream now. Listening to Beirut always take me back to that Post Communism year. There's both celebration and memory in what they do. They're a rare band. They tell us why we travel. To learn and give witness. Collective memory.
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