Kotor Saturday Market
When we were teaching at the Kotor Journalism Summer School a visit to the Saturday Market was a regular event. Not only for shopping but to gather sound for radio pieces. Continue reading Kotor Saturday Market
Author: Rich McClear
Lovcen and the Njegos Valley
Lovcen is the mountain area where Njegos Petrovic is buried. His tomb is in one of the pictures. It is the second highest mountain. When he was asked why he did not choose the highest mountain he said that someday a prince greater than he would come and he would take that place. It happened. TV came along and the highest mountain is dedicated to the antenna. The Njegos Valley is where he grew up. It creates wonderful cheese and ham. Continue reading Lovcen and the Njegos Valley
Lake Skadar
Lake Skadar, or Lake Scutari in Italian and Lake Shkodër in Albanian, straddles the border. It always seems fog bound even though the coast, over the mountains, is sunny. Kevin found an old Soviet hovercraft that was a gift from the Russians to Tito. Continue reading Lake Skadar
Flying Over the Coast
We often flew from Belgrade to Tivat, Montenegro. The plane is a prop plane that flies over Podgorica and Lake Skadar. It crosses the coast mountains over Petrovac and flies up the coast past Sveti Stefan, Przno, Budva and lands at Tivat. On the return it flies over the Boka Kator, Lovce n and Cetinje. Continue reading Flying Over the Coast
Durmator, the Tara Canyon and Interior Mountains
Durmator is a National Park in Montenegro with the highest mountains. The Tara Canyon is the deepest canyon in Europe. Biograd Lake is also a national park. Continue reading Durmator, the Tara Canyon and Interior Mountains
Cetinje
Cetinje is the old royal capital of Montenegro. It was protected by mountains from the Turks; in that way Montenegro could maintain some degree of independence. Historically the capital is not in Podgorica because in the late 1800s Cetinje had … Continue reading Cetinje
Budva Riviera
The Budva Riviera is the coastline between Budva and Sveti Stefan. It has beaches and hotels. Continue reading Budva Riviera
Budva
Budva is a walled city on the Adriatic. We first visited here in 1972, shortly after it was leveled by an Earthquake. You can see cracks in the city walls and in some of the buildings. Some of the cracks … Continue reading Budva
Boka Kotor Beach
This is a nice beach near the entrance of the Boka. The forts from the Napoleonic wars were also used by Austria to guard the Boka Continue reading Boka Kotor Beach
Our Lady of the Rocks
In 1997 I first visited these islands. I have been back several times. Here is what I wrote then. June 1998 We visited the Church of Our Lady of the Rock which sits on an artificial island where the four … Continue reading Our Lady of the Rocks
Parast
Parast is an old Venetian town in the Boka. It sits just opposite the narrow point of the inner bay and had a fort above the town. Now it is a place for people to spend the summer. Continue reading Parast
Kotor Ferry
The ferry crosses a narrow neck of the Boka Kotor making the drive from Budva to Dubrovnik about an hour faster. Continue reading Kotor Ferry
Skala Kotor
This is the road from Kotor to Cetinje. Someone once asked the Prince-Bishop Njegos Petrovic how long it took to travel from Kotor (then part of Venice) to Cetinje, the capital of independent Montenegro. He said “For a friend, about 6 … Continue reading Skala Kotor
Russia, The Prelude: Moscow and Leningrad, 1985
In July 1985 our family traveled to the Soviet Union, Leningrad and Moscow. This was our first exposure to Soviet life and, while we had not intended this, it provided a baseline against which to judge our later experiences. These … Continue reading Russia, The Prelude: Moscow and Leningrad, 1985
Greencastle, Ireland (the old home place.)
In the summer of 1993 Suzi and I took my mother to Ireland to celebrate her 80th birthday. Her father was born, raised, and ran away to sea from Greencastle in Donegal; at the mouth of Lough Foyle, the choke point leading to the port of Londonderry. Her actual birthday was in September and on her birthday I sent her a letter recounting some of the stories we heard in Ireland. Many of the stories are the ones I grew up with, but we heard them from a different perspective and told a century after they happened. My grandfather … Continue reading Greencastle, Ireland (the old home place.)
The View From My Window
This is the view from my window through the seasons and across the years. It is what I come home to. I have posted this so that when I travel I am never more than a click away from the view from my chair out my 12 foot window wall. As you can see, it’s ever-changing. Continue reading The View From My Window
Batumi, Georgia
Sept 21, 2012, Batumi , Georgia, Batumi, Georgia is what Wildwood; New Jersey would be if Wildwood were built in the LED era rather than the neon era. At its most outlandish it is a combination of the fantasies of Georgian President Misha Saakashvili and Donald Trump. At its best it is a fine old Black Sea town with wrought iron balconies reminiscent of New Orleans interspersed with Turkish shop houses and pencil thin minarets. Batumi is a border town between Georgia and Turkey. It’s been governed by both, as well as the Russians, Soviets, Byzantines, and a host of … Continue reading Batumi, Georgia
Tbilisi Opera House
Breaking News. The Opera House, newly restored, opens on Sept 16, 2013 for its 162nd season. I will miss it, I leave Tbilisi on Sept 14. In a 2004 letter I wrote: “The Opera House looks like it came from the tails of Scheherazade, which have probably been preformed there many times.” In 2005 I wrote: “On Thursday Lika took me to the Opera. It was the opening production of the season, which meant, in Georgia, the opera is Abesalom and Eteri (Esther) by Zakaria Paliashvilli. It is kind of the Georgian national opera.” “The plot is sufficiently operatic; a … Continue reading Tbilisi Opera House
Rose Revolution Square, A Transformation.
Rose Revolution Square is still under re-construction. It had two anchors, The Hotel Iveria and the reviewing stand for Mayday parades. One is gone and the other utterly transformed. In 2004 I wrote: “Georgia has some of the screwiest modern Socialist Realism on the planet, including a massive, several story high multi arched reviewing stand for May Day parades that looks like what Le Cobisier would build if he had a commission from McDonald’s. Locals playfully call it ‘Andropov’s Ears.’ Andropov’s Ears is where President Saakashvili reviewed the troops last week and made his saber rattling speech on Adjara.” Andropov’s … Continue reading Rose Revolution Square, A Transformation.
Arab Spring, April 2011
The bridge cleaned up. April 15, 2011, Cairo, Egypt I got into the cab in Cairo and was shocked; the driver was wearing a seatbelt. I hadn’t seen this before. I put mine on. He smiled and said “New Egypt.” New Egypt is being stuck in a traffic jam near Tahrir Square and seeing a citizen in a white t shirt step forward, waving a cigarette like a baton, directing traffic. People are taking responsibility. One friend said “They used to own Egypt, now we do. We have to take care of it.” Or as another said “Before we … Continue reading Arab Spring, April 2011
Arab Spring, Feb 11, Mubarak Steps Down
On February 11, Hosni Mubarak stepped down as President of Egypt. Suzi and I were in Doha, Qatar that night and went out on the streets as soon as we heard he had left power. We were watching the events on Al Jazeera in our hotel room. I looked out the window and across the bay I saw what looked, to me, like a large number of cars for that time of night. We could hear a lot of honking so we set out from the hotel on foot to see what was happening. Doha is a strange place. To … Continue reading Arab Spring, Feb 11, Mubarak Steps Down
Arab Spring, January 2011, Suzi’s Story
Suzi’s McClear was Chief of Party for USAID’s Media Development Program in Egypt. Tuesday, January 25 was a state holiday, Police Day. That day a group of demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square protesting the government. It was a large demonstration but many people thought not much would come of it. The local press tried to ignore it but Suzi got an email from our son, Kevin, who said that international media said Cairo looked like a war zone. From her perspective it was a quiet day. Two days later, Friday, prayer day, a traditional day for protests, social media activists … Continue reading Arab Spring, January 2011, Suzi’s Story
Shulyman Mosque and New Mosque, Istanbul
Topkapi Palace, Istanbul
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