Topkapi Palace was “headquarters” for the Balkans for several centuries. The “Sublime Porte.” Much of our work in the Balkans was dealing with the remains to three empires, The Ottoman, the Hapsburg and the Evil. Continue reading Topkapi Palace, Istanbul
These pictures are from markets in Istanbul, including the Grand Bazaar. Continue reading Istanbul Markets
The first time I saw the Hagia Sophia in was in 1994. Sixteen years later I returned to Hagia Sophia and was amazed at the restoration of the mosaics that had been covered from its days as a mosque. Continue reading Istanbul, Hagia Sophia
This is a letter I wrote during a trip to Istanbul from Belgrade, where we lived. The Pictures are street scenes from Istanbul. There are other posts that feature the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Markets, the Topkapi Palace, and Shulyman Mosque … Continue reading Istanbul, 2010
November 10, 2009 Berlin, Germany Dear Friends, It was an attempt to recapture the past, to to relive some of the joy we felt in Berlin in 1990 when we watched bulldozers open streets closed for 28 years, to … Continue reading Berlin Wall Fall (Mauerfall) 20 Years Later
In May 2009 we returned to Prague. It is such a beautiful City I wanted to add this photo gallery taken in 2009 with a better digital camera, along with a letter for that week. May 3, 2009 Prague, Czech … Continue reading Prague, 20 Years Later.
This post shows two areas of Berlin and how they have changed over 45 years. In 1964 when the leader of our student tour told me that Potsdamer Platz has been the busiest intersection in Europe it was difficult to … Continue reading Berlin Contrasts
April 8, 2008, Cairo, Egypt Dear Friends, For the past several months we’ve been trying to pull off the first ever course on blogging in Egypt. There is a lot of concern because bloggers have been the ones who exposed police brutality, sexual harassment and bloggers have given people a voice that is denied in state controlled press. The news moves forward on blogs. At the end of Ramadan two years ago several women reported being groped in public, the police denied it so some women bloggers took their cell phones and photographed the groping. The story was picked up … Continue reading Arab Spring, April 6, 2008, A blogging course.
In 2004 I did an evaluation of the Georgian Media Program. I got the chance to travel all across the country. Here are some pictures from Georgia in 2004. Continue reading Georgia Road Trip, 2004.
This is a paragraph from a 2004 letter. The markets no longer have Stalin icons. I have not found Stalin Vodka in recent visits and the Stalin statue in Gori was torn down after the war with Russia, although I … Continue reading Stalin
On Saturday we took a daytrip to Marko Polo’s birth town, Korcula. We went through Korcula on a ferry in 1997 and have wanted to explore it ever since. Korcula is a very small walled city of gothic construction with renaissance flourishes, built on a rocky spit of land at the end of an island. The spit is less than 1000 feet across. The town is laid out to take advantage of the prevailing winds. The summer “maistral” winds come from the west and the streets climbing from the west wall to the centerline are strait to allow the wind … Continue reading Korcula, Croatia
In June, 1999, about a week after NATO took control of Kosovo Suzi and I visited Prishtina for the first time. For the next two years we would be regular commuters into Kosovo, based either in Podgorica or Belgrade but managing a media program in Kosovo as well as for Serbia. Dear Friends, It was 4:22. The muezzin’s morning call to prayer drifted through the apartment window with a warm spring breeze. “God is great, prayer is better than sleep.” This time I didn’t sigh my own Christian prayer and drift back to sleep. I had an early appointment. … Continue reading Kosovo, June 1999
In 1999 we lived in Bratislava, Slovakia, working in media development for IREX-ProMedia. Prague was just a 3 hour drive from our home. February 27, 1999 Bratislava, Slovakia This week we drove to Prague to represent ProMedia at an … Continue reading Velvet Revolution, 10 years later
In June 1995 we were working on a radio project in Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East for a month. Our friends from Vladivostok were able to visit us in Khabarovsk and we were able to return a visit to them. This is the part of the weekly letter from June 20 that deals with that visit. June 20, 1995 Khabarovsk Russian Far East Dear Friends, Over the weekend we went to Vladivostok to visit friends and see the city after almost four years. We rode from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok on the final leg of the Trans-Siberian Railroad train, … Continue reading Russia, Vladivostok, 1995
In 1991 Suzi and I kept up our contacts with the Russian Far East. This is an excerpt from an end of the year letter I sent to my family in October 1991. We have continued to maintain contact with the folks who hosted us in Vladivostok. Brian’s “Russian sister” lives in Alaska now, with her mother. 1991 is the 250th anniversary of the Bering-Cherikov voyages of exploration from Siberia to Alaska. 1990 ended with a trip by all four of us to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. In April some of the people we stayed with in Vladivostok … Continue reading Russia, Vladivostok, 1991
In November of 1990 we got a call from a friend in Juneau. Juneau was trying to put together the first US citizen delegation to visit Vladivostok in more than 50 years. They wanted kids who could spend a week in a Vladivostok English language school and adults who could accompany them to discuss business relations. Were we interested? Suzi immediately committed the two of us but said she would have to ask the kids. Our friend, Terry, said “You can commit Rich but not your sons?” What she didn’t know was that, after our visit to Prague for … Continue reading Russia, Vladivostok 1990
After our 1990 trip I wrote a long letter. These segments are from Berlin. The pictures are scans from slides, some well faded over the years. Thursday, June 14, 1990 After lunch we crossed into East Germany. We were … Continue reading Berlin Wall Fall (Mauerfall)
I wrote this letter in June 1990. I started writing it on a yellow legal pad on the evening of June 9, 1990, filling in what went before and finishing it in Sitka. Wednesday, June 6, 1990 Ceske Budejovice, Czechoslovakia … Continue reading Velvet Revolution
Twleve weeks before the Berlin Wall fell we were in Berlin. The wall looked permanent. It had grown higher and more fearsome than when I was in Berlin in 1964. I know I wrote a travel diary of this trip … Continue reading Berlin 1989
In 1964 I was a student in Berlin for a week. I was 17 and had an old Brownie box camera. Film was expensive so I only took a few pictures. They have faded but I wanted to add them … Continue reading Berlin 1964
“For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest,” especially one. This is All Saints’ Say. On this day Slovaks visit cemeteries and light candles on graves. Most of my staff members go home to their villages for the holiday … Continue reading All Saint’s Day, Dubcek’s Grave, Slovakia