I have always wondered what small-town life was like outside of Berlin in the GDR. In this episode of Radio GDR, Bill Blosen and I sit down to talk about his experiences traveling to Görlitz, a small medieval town on the East German-Polish border.

Photos at www.radiogdr.com/30

He went there to visit family as a young man in the 1980s before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bill and I both work in technology and recently got to talking about our respective language skills. When Bill said he spoke German, I mentioned my recent travels to Germany and interest in the GDR and was pleasantly surprised to discover his personal journey behind the Iron Curtain.

He tells us about his grandparents' concern over approaching Soviet soldiers during World War II, their experience with shared housing after the founding of the GDR, his travels through checkpoints at the Inner German border and on the cobblestone Reichsautobahn to Görlitz and the lessons those trips taught him about gratefulness and freedom.

From East German speed radars to tips on getting blue jeans past pesky border guards, Bill's story will fascinate you.