When East Germans were squeezing themselves through cracks in the Berlin Wall, twenty years ago today, I was in Colombia enjoying the preparations for Cartagena's 'independence festivities'; oblivious to their cries of joy.

Even though chinks in the Iron Curtain appeared at the Hungary/Austria border - near Sopron - in August of 1989, I would wait until April, 1992 before I visited the former Soviet Republics; for a tour around what had recently become the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).



I don't think I'd have stayed in Europe, even if I could have predicted the events of 9th November, 1989 but I would like to visit North Korea before the Korean peninsula is reunified.