translate English to German: However, the trains were too full of small traders and speculators, and after considerable trouble, I only managed to get into third class. I was sitting between some men who often travelled back and forth on this route (their passports, though recently issued, had only a few pages free of border-crossing stamps); they were drinking vodka and I didn't blame them: spirits were the only way of enduring such a journey.
Gedanken über Ost- und Westeuropa, aufgeschrieben unweit vom geographischen Zentrum Europas, in Vilnius.