During my working years, on several occasions, I was assigned projects in what was then considered “hard-core” Communist countries. We always went there with certain assumptions — the house or hotel room would be “bugged,” we would be followed, and we would have to be extra careful about breaking any “rules” that changed at least daily.
Years ago, two of us were assigned to one of these countries for a couple of months and we seemed to be handling it pretty well, except for the restaurants. To call them mediocre would be a major compliment. I mentioned that to one of the clerks in our hotel and he became very excited and told be about a brand new restaurant that had just opened on the outskirts of town — he claimed that it had an “exotic” foreign menu. Well needless to say, both of us were very interested in checking out the new place to eat. I think it was the very next night that we decided to go there and after work, we went back to the hotel and got all cleaned up and put on clothes that would be appropriate for an “exotic” restaurant. We went through the lobby and the valet had pulled our car up to the front door for us. There were two or three guys hanging out in the lobby — I recognized them because they had been following us everywhere we went since we got there. I always waved and spoke to them, but they never acknowledged my friendliness.
Anyway, we got in the car and started to the restaurant using the directions the hotel clerk had given us. My friend was driving and I was navigating. When we pulled out of the hotel driveway, a car fell in right in behind us — more of our friends that we were used to by now. We drove, with me directing, and I figured we had to be close to the restaurant, but the area we were in didn’t look like it would have any kind of a restaurant. So we stopped and asked a policeman and he sent us off in another direction and gave us landmarks to look for. We wound up in a complete dead end. We turned around and our friends following us also turned around and then pulled out from behind us, and took their place slightly ahead — my friend looked at me and I looked at him and I said, “follow that car.” And we did —directly to the restaurant.
I don’t remember if the food was good or not, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t worth all the effort it took to get there. Our “guides” waited in the car while we ate. After the meal, we all headed for the hotel.
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