Fort Lauderdale News from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 101

3J NewsSun-Sentinel. Sunday, January 24, 1988 STEPHEN BIRNBAUM el off 6OM Eiirop Syndicated Columnist Americans are including Communist nations in their idea of what constitutes the Old World. white Sf 7 j-t i I i 5 New York Times photo Shoppers in Budapest, Hungary, browse in the many bustling, well-stocked vegetable markets. Visas to visit Egypt obtainable in Israel My family and I are going to Tel Aviv, Israel, for about 10 days. We're considering going from there to Cairo for three or four days during our stay.

Can we obtain visas in Tel Aviv to go to Egypt? Also, is it possible to rent a car for a land tour from Tel Aviv to Cairo and back? A You can get a visa for travel to Egypt at the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv (54 Bazel telephone 03-546-4151). It's also possible to obtain a visa at the "IsraelEgypt border, but this isn't advisable as you might encounter problems and delays. You also can get a visa before you leave the United States by contacting the Consulate of Egypt, 2300 Decatur Place Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20008; 1-202-232-5400. Other Egyptian consulate offices are located in New York, San Francisco, Houston and Chicago.

The visa procedure takes from one to two days, and you'll need one passport-size photo. All border checkpoints between Israel and Egypt operate 363 days a year (they're closed on Yom Kippur and the first day of Id-Al-Adha). Commercial vehicles are not allowed to cross into Egypt from Israel and this includes rental cars. However, there are public buses traveling between Tel Aviv and Cairo, and the fare is about $17 one way or $32 round-trip. There are also many tour packages available combining Israel and Egypt, and you can get information about these from the Israel Government Tourist Office, 350 Fifth New York, N.Y.

10118; 1-212-560-0650. You might want to note that you can take any amount of non-Egyptian currency into Egypt, providing it's declared at the time of entry. All currency that has been declared can be taken out of Egypt on departure except for $30 per person per day, which must be spent in Egypt. More detailed information about crossing between Israel and Egypt is available from the Israel Government Tourist Office (address above). By HENRY KAMM The New York Time Not all that long ago, a correspondent reporting from Central and Eastern Europe would get the occasional letter from enterprising but somewhat timorous readers that made him feel that he ought to be asking his editor for hazard pay.

Such writers would inquire, in direct or circumlocuted terms, "Is it safe for an American to come as a tourist to such dangerously Communist places as Poland or Hungary?" My standard answer was, I recall, something like: "It's safer for an American than for a Pole or Hungarian. Come ahead." Such letters don't arrive any more. Instead, Americans do, in increasing numbers. So do Western Europeans, who also were not immune to anxiety in the past. Curiosity has got the better of them.

Whether it is that every traveler has been to Paris, Rome and London and is looking for new European horizons, or that the search for roots is leading Americans to the soil of their ancestors, whatever political system prevails a Esychological barrier has crumbled, a airier dating to the Yalta Conference that ratified the East-West division of Europe. Many an American traveler's notion of Europe has been extended to include all of the Continent. This clearly enhances a richer, less partial view of Western civilization. A Continent that does not encompass the places where Copernicus and Bach, Chopin, Liszt and Mahler, or Rilke, Brancusi and Kafka were born; a Europe imagined without masterpieces such as the cities of Prague, Dresden or Budapest, is a half-measure indeed, a realm of the mind diminished to the point of distortion. Eastern and Central Europe Hungarians, Czechs and East Germans are pleased to have it recognized that their countries don't lie that far east; Vienna is east of Prague still offer the visitor from the New World a vision of what springs to his mind when he thinks of the Old.

The West is changing Sure, Venice has not sunk yet and Notre Dame de Paris still stands on an island in the Seine. But there is no use pretending; unprecedented material well-being, unbroken by war for a record stretch of 42 years, has dramatically diluted the character of the cities of the West. They have urbanized much of the surrounding countryside, their tempo has accelerated, attention to detail has shrunk, manners have coarsened. First reinforced concrete, then the International Style of glass and steel, have unbalanced once harmonious urban ensembles, in the beginning filling the gaps caused by war, later replacing buildings that survived the work of the Luftwaffe, Royal Air Force or U.S. Army Air Corps with taller, more prof- itable structures.

Real-estate developers have much to answer for. So do purveyors of fast food. Communist Europe, to its regret, has not yet found such prosperity. A Rip Van Winkle waking in Bratislava, Szeged or Cracow is not likely to get lost on his first stroll in the city where he fell asleep. There are exceptions, of course.

Warsaw was so fearfully devastated by the German Army and S.S. that a new city had to be created. A sentimental luxury that Poland afforded itself was to rebuild a copy of the Old Town, at huge expense and perhaps a bit too prettily. It was an understandable gesture to help a nation wounded in body and soul to find solace in its past. The opposite has taken place in Bucharest Spared by the war, a residential section near the center of Rumania's capital is being laid waste by the grandiose ambition of its present Caesar, Nicolae Ceaucescu, to build for himself in his lifetime a monumental avenue lined with palaces, high-rise residences and statuary.

A sense of the old But the visitor whose first ideas of Europe stem from parents or grandparents reminiscing about the Old Country, or from the novels of Proust or Mann, is likely to find a greater sense of continuity with the settings of those works in the cities of the East than of the West. There are more cobblestoned streets, stuccoed facades and old-fashioned street lamps and fewer neon signs and parking meters. The traveler also will find reminiscences of the old in the prevailing manners. More than in the courtliness of manners, however, an American is likely to encounter in Communist Europe an extra measure of real friendliness among people, from hotel clerks and waiters to police officers on the beat or taxi drivers, that stems from their positive feelings toward the United States. It has been rare for many years in Western Europe that, on being asked his nationality, a traveler gets a warmer smile when he discloses his American origins.

Meeting the people There also are the strong family links across the Atlantic between many Poles, Slovaks and other people in Eastern Europe whose relatives went to the United States when poverty in their countries was great and emigration easy. Many a friendly conversation has begun with the disclosure by a person of whom I have asked directions that he has an uncle in Brooklyn, or with a cab driver who has just returned from visiting his sister in California. Conversations with strangers are a joy of travel in these parts. Although the Iron Curtain now is made of much gau-zier material, there remains a thick line drawn across the Continent dividing it into two political camps. In Poland and Hungary, which are most liberal in allowing their people to travel abroad and where fear of chatting with a foreigner is largely absent, conversations begun on a sidewalk may well lead to sitting down for a cup of coffee and a longer talk.

In the more restrictive countries Rumania, Bulgaria and East Germany most local persons would think twice before doing so. It would be insensitive for an American to offer an invitation more than once. In Rumania people legally are required to report contacts with foreigners to the police within 24 hours. Although this is more honored in the breach than in the observance, a chat, casual for the visitor, weighs more heavily on the Rumanian's mind. Often people in Eastern and Central Europe have told me how amused they were by Americans saying to them, by way of a compliment, how different they find their countries from the Soviet Union.

This is not received as a compliment in Prague or Budapest, and even less in Warsaw. Poles, Czechs and Hungarians, for instance, take it for granted that they share far more with countries that, like their own, have been shaped by Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment and all the political and intellectual stirrings that flowed from the French Revolution, than with a nation that progressed from Czarism to Leninism and Stalinism. They consider the intended compliment as testimony to how much the rest of the world has forgotten their past and accepted their condition as dependencies of a power that they consider alien. While politics is far from being a forbidden subject, and people in Eastern and Central Europe often impress Americans with knowing more about the United States than Americans know about their countries, these tend to be dead-end conversations. It is in culture, and particularly in the non-verbal branches of the arts like music and painting, where the East-West meeting ground is broadest.

Museums and art galleries, opera houses and concert halls are wonderful places for getting to know people. For an American, the cultural life of Eastern and Central Europe is an eye-opener. Where at home can he enjoy first-rate performances of opera at $2 or The Communist countries present a strong case for state subsidization, not only by enabling companies to put on fine productions, but also by bringing in a public that is a much more representative cross-section of the population than gathers at Lincoln Center. Stephen Birnbaum welcomes questions from readers. Although he cannot reply to all of them individually, he will answer those of general interest in this column.

Write to Stephen Birnbaum, in care of NewsSun-Sentinel, 60 E. 42nd New York, N.Y. 10165. BEST FARES Lowest round-trip airfares as of Jan. 17.

NEW BOOKS THIS WEEK 1. Cracker Festival, North Fort Myers, Jan. 30 to Feb. 7, pays tribute to the Florida cowboy and is held in conjunction with the re-enactment of the Battle of Fort Myers. Call 1-813-997-9111.

2. Manatee Festi INFORMATION PLEASE Kiwanis start travel series The Kiwanis Club of Fort Lauderdale has launched its annual series of travel films and lectures. The 1988 programs at the Main Broward County Library, 100 S. Andrews Ave. in Fort Lauderdale, are each scheduled at 2 and 8 p.m.

and include: Jan. 28, Undiscovered Europe. Feb. 18, Norwegian Saga. Feb.

25, Hawaii. March 10, Blue Ridge Parkway. March 24, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Kiwanis Travelogue tickets are $4 each for matinees and $5 for evenings. Season tickets are $20.

For a brochure and ticket order form, write Kiwanis Club of Fort P.O. Box 1398, Fort Lauderdale 33302. publisher for $15.45. The price includes $1.50 for postage and handling. Contact Impact Publishers, 10655 Big Oak Circle, Manassas, Va.

22111, or call 1-703-361-7300 for credit card orders. Room at the inn for Fido A dog may be man's best friend, but have you ever tried to book yourself and your best friend into a hotel? Robert and Dawn Habgood have, at places all over New England. And they have compiled the results into Traveling With Man's Best Friend, a 280-page guide to hundreds of inns, hotels, mtf-tels, bed and breakfasts, and resorts that welcome pets. The book, which costs $10.95, is the second in a series. The first book covers California; an updated version is planned.

Each is available from the publishers, Dawbert Press, Post Office Box 2758, Duxbury, Mass. 02331; Guide to exotic shopping Here's a book that people with a nose for shopping in Asia probably will want to look into. Shopping in Exotic Places: Your Passport to Exciting Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore (Impact Publishers, $13.95) has shopping strategies and travel tips about making the most of a visit to those areas. The book covers Asia's shopping centers, department stores, emporiums, factory outlets, markets and hotel shopping arcades where visitors can find jewelry, leather goods, woodcarving, textiles, antiques, cameras and primitive artifacts. The authors are Jo Reimers, who leads shopping tours to Asia, and Drs.

Ron and Caryl Krannich, who have lived in Asia for 20 years. The 469-page book is available through the Banana Republic Travel Office, 1-800-772-9977, or through the Miami FtUud7 WmI Market Inl'l Hollywood Palm Bch. Atlanta $138 $138 $138 EA.PA EA EA DL DL DL Boaton $178 $178 $178 AAPI. DL DL.EA EA Chicago $158 $158 $158 ML BN ML PA ML Denver $238 $238 $228 CO CO ML UA Honolulu $598 $668.01 $668.01 PA AA AA DL DL Houaton $198 $198 $198 PA.CO CO CO UA Las Vega $236 $218 $238 EA TW" DL DL AA LoaAngalaa $238 $278 $308 DL TW PA NawOrloana $158 $158 $138 CO CO EA EA Haw York $158 $158 $158 CO.EA EA.PI DL DL DL.PA TW.AA Orlando $58 $58 $58 PA.BN.PI Pl.DL TW.DL EA.DL EA.BN BN.PI Philadelphia $158 $158 $158 AL EA EA.AL EA AL DL Phoenix $212 $238 $238 ML CO.MLDL SanFrancleco $238 $238 $238 PA.EA CO. EA EA UA DL DL Seattle $238 $238 $308 EA TW DL DL Waahington $158 $158 $158 EA.UA TW.CO EA.PA BN' EA val, Blue Springs State Park, Jan.

30 to 31, 35 miles north of Orlando. Call 1-904-775- 3663. 3. Gasparilla Days, Tampa, Jan. 31 to Feb.

13. "Spanish plunderers" invade Ybor City Jan. 31 and "take over the city" at a Pirate Fest Feb. 6. Ybor City Fiesta Day is Feb.

13. Call 1-813-228-7338. NOTES NEWS DOLLAR EXCHANGE Disney World plans events Olympics and art in Calgary As of Jan. 18, 1988 Currency Per $1 U.S. U.S.

equiv. Australia dollar 1.40 .7095 Belgium franc 35.33 .0283 i Canada dollar 1.28 .7765 Denmark krone 6.45 .1548 JPranc franc e3 Greece drachma 133.77 .007475 Ireland pound 1.5791 Vast ahcM" 163 Ct Italy lira 1234.56 .000810 Mexican peso4 2173.91 .000460 Portugal escudo 137.02 jEraii paeeia Sweden 6.05 tsais ZZJZZZWJ ZZ. W.German mark 1.68 .5936 Sourer Dwk International The Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, from Feb. 13 to 28 won't be all ski jumps and bobsledding. An Olympics Arts Festival is being held now through Feb.

28 in Calgary, with more than 600 performances and exhibitions. La Tragedie de Carmen, produced by Peter Brook, will be performed on Feb. 17 to 20, 22 and 23 at the University Theater, and the Shaw Festival will present You Never Can Tell from Feb. 23 to 27 at the Max Bell Theater. The opening night gala will present the Calgary Philharmonic playing a newly commissioned work and Canadian-born pianist Oscar Peterson playing his own composition, Olympic Jazz Suite.

The Juilliard String Quartet will perform on Feb. 1 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Other events include an Olympic Film Festival, Feb. 5 to 11, and works by the Joffrey Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada and Les Grands Ballets Cana-diens. Tickets, which range from $4 to $40, can be obtained by writing Arts Festival Tickets, Box 1988, Station Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 4E7r or by calling 1-403-230-4488 and charging them to Visa.

For more information, call 1-403-261-3344. Walt Disney World has scheduled two special events next weekend during the final days that two Florid-ians-only special prices are in effect. A new outdoor laser show called MumiNations will premiere on Saturday at Epcot Center. The show, staged over Epcot's central lagoon, will run every night year-round. On Friday, Disney management will break ground for a new Epcot Center pavilion called Wonders of Life.

The new attraction will be the largest pavilion in the center's Future World section and will include a ride through the "human body" and a flight simulator experience similar to the new Star Wars ride that is a hit at Disneyland in California. Metropolitan Life is sponsor of the Wonders of Life pavilion, which will open in late 1989 on a site between the present Horizons and Universe of Energy pavilions. Disney's Three-Season Salute Pass, good for unlimited admissions to both the Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center theme parks during May, September and January, costs $65 for adults, and $55 for children ages 3 through 9. A Florida resident special price, effective through January, offers admission to either theme park for $19.50 for one day, $37 for two days. Both the three-season passes and day tickets require proof of Florida residency.

Fares are subject to availability and may change daily. Advance ticket purchase, time and day, length of stay and other limitations may apply. Fares do not include the local fuel surcharge collected by some airports. 'Indicates one or two stops, but no change of plane. "Indicates connection (change of plane) AA American Airlines Inc.

ML Midway Airlines Inc. AL USAIR PA Pan American World BN Branlff Inc. Airways Inc. CO Continental Airlines PI Piedmont Aviation Inc. DL Delta Air Lines Inc.

TW Trans World Airlines Inc. EA Eastern Air Lines Inc. UA United Airlines Inc. Sourc Tht Trmnt SwvkM WvWon ol OmctH AJrn OuMw OAQ Ho-tronte Edition nd Thomw Cook Traval, U.S.A..