“Everyone wants to leave,” I wrote in my diary, commenting on the events of March and August 1991. “Everyone except us.” Most of our friends and relatives spent days, weeks, even months planning how they would leave. There was a wide range of possibilities: falsifying documents, hijacking boats, crossing the land border, applying for a visa, finding a Westerner who could invite them and guarantee their stay, borrowing money. People hardly gave thought to the purpose. Knowing how you would get somewhere was more important than knowing why.
