Crazy Communist Tours

Anyone who’s been to Berlin will note the abundance of ‘Trabi Safaris‘ on offer.

In recent years, though, Berlin has had stiff competition from Krakow and Eric’s Crazy Communist Tours.

One distinct advantage Eric has is the crazy terrain of Nowa Huta. In Soviet times, Kracow was just too middle-class for its own good. So the concerned authorities blighted the city with a Lenin steelworks and some Stalin Empire-style housing estates.

The steelworks were a total nonsense, since there were neither raw materials locally nor any immediate market for the product. But it was a triumph of socialist, social engineering, burying the Kracow bourgeoisie under thousands of fast-breeding, Polish peasants.

Nowa Huta fell just short of a worker’s paradise, however. The vast housing estates proved high on crime and low on God, which bothered traditionally Catholic-minded Poles. First there were demonstrations to build at least one church. Then, even worse, the Lenin steelworkers all joined Solidarity and became a real nuisance – right up until the fall of communism.

By contrast, the Berlin Trabi tours offer the thrill of self-drive, but it’s certainly easier and more informative with Eric driving. You will learn, for example, that Trabant is old German for foot soldier and also that the ‘old soldier’s’ hydrocarbon footprint is ten times that of any modern car.

But do the giant test for yourself. Below is a clip from a Berlin Trabi Safari.

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