Author: Rich McClear

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Gudauri Ski Area, Georgia.

Rich McClear

Friday was a holiday in Georgia, International Women’s Day.  The Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, GIPA the University where I’m doing some work, takes the holiday for a ski excursion to Gudauri.  ( გუდაური in the Georgian alphabet, the word looks beautiful, I hope your computer can decipher it.)  The busses gathered at 8 AM at the Radisson Hotel on Rose Revolution Square, on the other end of Rustaveli Street from where I am staying on Freedom Square.  I was not sure how long a walk it would be.  I’ve walked it many times but never without interruption.  Rustaveli Street … Continue reading Gudauri Ski Area, Georgia.

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Georgian Military Road

Rich McClear

The Georgian Military Road, an ancient trade route over the Greater Caucasus Mountains.  Pliny wrote of it.  In 1799 Russian Tsar Alexander I ordered the road paved and the rivers bridged as the Russian Empire annexed Georgia and moved further into Armenia.  The road was “completed” (If such a road is ever completed) in 1817.  It is one of the highest paved highways in Europe.  There are watchtowers along the route as it travels river valleys and switchbacks up mountain sides.   The road passes the Zhinvali River Dam and we had one cigarette break the Ananuri Fortress-Monastery which was a … Continue reading Georgian Military Road

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Travel from Sitka to Tbilisi.

Rich McClear

March 3, 2013,  Tbilisi, Georgia Historically travel has always been arduous.  But for a brief period, for a certain social class, travel was glamorous.  “Getting there is half the fun” Cunard crowed in mid-century ads.  Flying, jet setting had a certain cache.  Super Graphics from the airports in early 70’s had fashionable young people in shades and Italian designer cloths smiling as they walked to planes.  Today, at SeaTac there is the graphic of a cartoon character, sweating, lugging a suitcase, looking completely harried.  It’s an honest, and funny, presentation of flying today and brought more than a few chuckles.  … Continue reading Travel from Sitka to Tbilisi.

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Zanzibar

Rich McClear

May 2, 2012 Zanzibar airport Waiting for a plane that is way too late. Dear Friends, Four thirty in the morning and my mobile phone is ringing.  I am tangled up in the mosquito net protecting me from malaria.  Worse yet, not only the phone, but my glasses and the light switch are on the other side of the net.  The phone stops ringing just as I get to it. The display shows a Stillwater, Minnesota number.  When we finally connect it is an old lady trying to call her brother in California.  She forgot California was in a different … Continue reading Zanzibar

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Wildebeest Migration, Kenya

Rich McClear

August 6, 2012 Nairobi, Kenya Dear Friends, Sometimes the much awaited second novel or record album (am I showing my age?) is a disappointment, the first was so good.  Suzi had some fears that if we returned to the Mara after the wonderful safari of discovery we had last April it would be like a second novel.  I shared some of those apprehensions but wanted to go anyway, seeing the same land in a different season. As it happened it was spectacular.  We arrived just as the annual wildebeest (we called them Gnus when I grew up) arrived.  Had we … Continue reading Wildebeest Migration, Kenya

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Nairobi National Park

Rich McClear

May 6, 2012 Shihipol, the Netherlands Dear Friends, When we got back to Nairobi from Mt. Kenya and still had not seen a lion I thought I would give us one more chance.  I booked game drive through Nairobi National Park, which is just on the outskirts of Nairobi, for dawn on Thursday.  It seemed like a good idea at the time but our flight from Zanzibar was canceled and we had to book a later flight getting us into Nairobi too late for dinner and too late to get a good night’s sleep before the dawn trek to the … Continue reading Nairobi National Park

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Roadside Kenya

Rich McClear

This is a letter about the drive from Mt. Kenya back to Nairobi. April 28, Nairobi, Kenya Dear Friends, After rain most of Friday, Saturday Morning was gorgeous.  I got up at about 6:15 to watch the sun rise behind Mt. Kenya, and while the day stayed sunny the mountain progressively pulled its cloud shroud around its peak until about 8, while we were eating breakfast, the peak was completely gone.  By 10 we were on the road back to Nairobi. Our first stop was the equator out on the highway where a tourist trap has grown up around “The … Continue reading Roadside Kenya

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Mt Kenya

Rich McClear

This is the second half of that family letter from Mt. Kenya. We’re on the second half our safari now, at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki, 7,000 feet up the slopes of Mt. Kenya, which is 17,000 feet high.  Yesterday morning I stood, jacket on, outside my room, 75 feet north of the equator, looking up at snow. Snow in the equator.  The equator runs through the bar.  The dining room is in the Northern Hemisphere, reception, the gift shop, and services are South of the line.  The Safari Club was started by the actor William Holden and … Continue reading Mt Kenya

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Masi Mara, Kenya

Rich McClear

This is the first half of a letter from Mt. Kenya National Park.  It deals with our trip to the Masai Mara.  The second half of the letter will be in the post from Mt. Kenya.   April 27, 2012 Nanyuki, Kenya (Mt. Kenya National Park) Dear Friends, Victor, the deputy chief of the radio project for South Sudan, asked me why Americans want to come to Africa to see animals.  It’s people he is interested in.  I gave some feeble answer about how we had seen elephants, (Barbapapa) lions (Lion King) and hippos (Hungry, Hungry Hippo) in kids’ books … Continue reading Masi Mara, Kenya

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Nairobi

Rich McClear

March 24, 2012 Nairobi, Kenya Dear Friends It’s not what I thought.  I’m sitting just a few kilometers south of the equator.  It is the time of the equinox with the sun directly overhead, and it is pleasant 78 degrees midday.  Sundown comes like switching off a light switch.  No twilight at all.  Evening breezes mean I sleep with the windows open with no need for air conditioning.  The birds and the sun wake me after sleeping well.  Welcome to Nairobi. Nairobi is over a mile high.  The combination of proximity to the equator and the altitude makes sunburn a … Continue reading Nairobi

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Telc, Moravia, Czech Republic

Rich McClear

We have been to Telc several times.  It has a nice outlet store for Bohemian crystal, even though it is in Moravia.  Each time it was overshadowed, in the letter, by other places or, in one case, by a traffic accident.  A Lada hit me while I was stopped an intersection, no one hurt.  So the pictures will have to tell the story.  The first time we were there in 1990 it was rundown but you could see the beauty under the dust and in spite of the faded paint.  The last time we visited in 2002 it was gloriously … Continue reading Telc, Moravia, Czech Republic

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Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Rich McClear

April 27, 2002 Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic Dear Friends, We’re spending the night in Ceske Krumlov on a drive between Bratislava and Zagreb.  Ceske Krumlov is nowhere near the direct route from Bratislava to Zagreb.  Suzi and I have not often taken direct routes and we are the richer for it.  Ceske Krumlov is a fortified city protected by a meander in the Vlatava (Moldau) River.  We were last here in spring 1990 during the election that legitimized the Velvet Revolution.  The city was not yet a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  That came in 1992 along with some restoration funds.  In … Continue reading Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

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Rovinj, Croatia

Rich McClear

October 1, 2011 Belgrade, Serbia Dear Friends, A week ago in Rovinji, Croatia, I went to sleep and woke up to the sounds of waves lapping at the sea wall three floors below our apartment window.  As the morning progressed I could hear gulls calling, flocking around the boats that had been seining all night for sardines, now coming into port, their wakes made the slap against the sea wall more pronounced.  At 7 AM the church bells at St. Eufemia called the city to wake. If you go to the window, just then, you can see the sun rise … Continue reading Rovinj, Croatia

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Vukovar, Croatia

Rich McClear

Note, Vukovar was the first major victim in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.  It is a border town on the Danube, in Croatia but, before the wars, with a slight Serbian majority.  The Serbs finally took the town over but after the Dayton Accords the town was administered by the UN before being turned over to the Croats, 13 days before we arrived.  Our job was to work with the Serbian radio stations in the region to make sure they got licenses from the Croatian government and to help assure that the rights of the Serbian, Roma and Hungarian … Continue reading Vukovar, Croatia

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Zagreb, 1997, Operetta at the Presidential Palace

Rich McClear

This is from 1997.  I threw in the picture of the necktie shop in this tranche of photos, just because it seemed to go with the uniforms. May 11, 1997 Zagreb, Croatia Dear Friends, We’re in our eleventh week of wandering Europe after the evacuation.  We had planned to be gone two.   We’ll be in Zagreb another week before traveling to Vienna to get visas and then to Serbia as IREX plans our alternative lives for us. I still enjoy being awakened by church bells at 6:00 AM.  Since it’s summer they seem louder with the windows open. Earlier in … Continue reading Zagreb, 1997, Operetta at the Presidential Palace

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Zagreb, Croatia

Rich McClear

This letter included my first impressions of Zagreb. I took the pictures in this post in 2001 and 2011.  We had been evacuated from Tirana and had been traveling for two months on only the carryon bags we got out with.  We were working TDY jobs for our IREX as needed.  We had just come from Prague. Zagreb, Croatia April 25, 1997 Dear Friends, Sometimes something you learn in the first hours visiting a place can prejudice you against it before you have a chance to really get to appreciate it.  That could have happened to me in Croatia.  According … Continue reading Zagreb, Croatia

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Mali Ston and Ston, Croatia

Rich McClear

May 23, 2004 Mali Ston, Croatia, Dear Friends, Mali Ston is on a cove, not spectacularly beautiful, but restfully pretty.  Mali Ston is not distinctive compared with other historic towns along the coast.  The reason to go to Mali Stone is to eat.  Big busses bring eating tours to Mali Ston.  This weekend a busload of French Tourists came to sample local seafood and wines.  The cove has oysters and mussels and the local wine is from the next valley.  The town makes much of its income from seafood wedding feasts.  I’m allergic to seafood but everyone assured me that … Continue reading Mali Ston and Ston, Croatia

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Croatia

Rich McClear

Some of my Croat friends will take exception with putting Croatia in the Balkans.  Driving to Zagreb from Slovakia I once said to a friend “It is good to be back in the Balkans.”  He scowled and said, Zagreb is not in the Balkans, the Balkans are south of the Sava.  He than thought a minute and said “So Zagreb’s airport is in the Balkans, but Zagreb isn’t.”   Metternich is supposed to have said: “The Balkans begin at the Rennweg.”  More commonly the Viennese aphorism is “The Balkans begin in the third district.”  I will take Metternich’s definition. We have … Continue reading Croatia

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1000 years of Hungary

Rich McClear

August 20, 2000 Budapest, Hungary Dear Friends, One thousand years ago today Hungary was established when King Stephen was granted the crown by Pope Sylvester.  Today there’s a party going on.  One week ago Suzi and I were sitting on the beach at Milocar in Montenegro, with no idea we would be here.  Since then I’ve been in Bosnia, Croatia, and Italy.  Today Suzi goes back to Podgorica while tomorrow I go to Bosnia, Austria and Romania.  Don’t ask. At the end of the week I was feeling pretty punk.  When I got back from a meeting with an ambassador … Continue reading 1000 years of Hungary

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Szabor (Statue) Park, Budapest

Rich McClear

These are paragraphs from a 2003 letter: In Hungary the Internationale is best represented in Szabor (or Statue) park, a collection of Socialist Realism artifacts outside Budapest.  While the park is not difficult to get to it’s sometimes difficult to find.  I asked the Concierge to mark it on a map.  She couldn’t find it and wondered why it was not in the center of town.  I said; “Well, I don’t suppose you would put it in the middle of Hero’s Square,” which is where some of the original work really did sit.  She laughed.  Finding the road is not … Continue reading Szabor (Statue) Park, Budapest