On
the tenth day, I was expelled to Yugoslavia without a penny in my
pocket and no official identification. What should I do? Go
forward into an unknown land or return secretly to Austria? I
couldn't accept the idea of returning to Turkey without my paintings
and some personal belongings I'd left in Vienna. I took to the
mountains near Maribor in Croatia, with the idea of crossing
the border at a mountain pass accessible from there. Unfortunately,
the pass was heavily patrolled by the canine corps and passage was
next to impossible. I returned to Maribor the same night and happened
on some Turks who had the same idea. I told them that it was impossible
to get to Austria through the Maribor pass, but that I knew a way
and that I would take them to Austria for a small sum of money.
I, of course, knew no other way to Austria than that which had failed
me just a couple of hours earlier. But I thought that all those
walks I'd taken in the mountains as a youth were certainly meant
for something. So I set off with my little group of trusting Turks
and about six hours later we arrived in Austrian territory without
the slightest brush with the police. They paid up and two days
after my expulsion from Austria, I was back in Vienna with a little
pocket money.
I
first went in search of my car and found it were I'd been forced
to leave it that awful day that I was ambushed by the police. There
was plenty of gas in the tank and the toys had been put back inside!
I waited until late at night to go by the "Down and Out" for my
paintings. The local was up for rent, with handbills plastered all
over the place. By entering the building next store and going through
the basement, I was able to join the basement of the club building
and I succeeded in getting all my paintings out along with my hi-fi,
cassettes and a hundred or so of my vinyl records.
I loaded my car with all these things and sold about half of them
the next day, leaving my paintings with a friend who owned a café.
I got in contact in the following days with my friends, including
L., who were shocked by S.'s comportment and the brutality of the
whole story. Nothing remained in my former apartment and it was
too dangerous to try to take up residence there any time soon, so
I went off to live with a friend across town.
|