Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. My Irish grandfather always told me it was no use going to Ireland on St. Pat’s. All the good bands were in New York, Boston or Chicago. The Dubliners had their own annual gig in … Continue reading Dublin Goes Green (It’s the eve of St. Patrick’s Day.)
This is continuation, from the same letter I posted from yesterday. It is early for Easter but I thought the two posts should go together. Easter, 2001 In front of St. Marko’s church are stalls selling Easter candies and beautifully … Continue reading Belgrade, Easter 2001 (continued from post before)
April 15, 2001(Easter Sunday) Belgrade, Yugoslavia Dear Friends, Religion in Serbia is struggling to find itself after 45 years of official atheism followed by 10 years in which being a Serb, Croat or Bosniak was defined by religion since appearance … Continue reading Lent and Easter in Belgrade
Carnival is over. In some places it continues into Lent with the funeral of Vaal (Carnival) which starts penitently enough but becomes a second bacchanal. We experienced something different in Belgrade. As an excerpt from this letter from May 2009 … Continue reading Carnival Lisbon, Apres Carnival, Belgrade
This is Fat Tuesday: Carnival. I went back through my files for stories about Carnival and came on this letter from Dubrovnik written in March 2000. Dear Friends, Polka, not samba, not calypso, not second line, not even “Carnival in … Continue reading Carnival in Dubrovnik
After a good night’s sleep in Freising, Germany (on my way to Tbilisi) fueled with two double espressos, I took off to see the oldest brewery in the world, Weihenstephan. This brewery has been in continuous operation since 1040. People have been brewing beer a lot longer than a thousand years and there is evidence of brewing at this site since the mid-700s, however the monks in this monastery kept records of their beer going back to 1040. In 1802 the Bavarian Kingdom nationalized the monastery (before Marx had the idea) and it is now part of Bayerische Stattsbraueri. I … Continue reading Weihenstephan Abbey, the oldest brewery in the world
This is another trip through my archives to Reims, France. The cathedral has some nice stained glass windows by Marc Chagall. These pictures are from 2001. Continue reading Reims, France
Strasbourg is one of the “Capitals” of Europe, every year the European Parliament packs up from Brussels and heads for Strasbourg, which is also the home of the European Court of Human Rights. I suppose it is appropriate, being on the border between France and Germany, and having changed hands several times in the past two centuries. We visited in 2001. I found these slides going through my archives. Continue reading Strasbourg
This is a second look at Old New Year. If you want more background please look at yesterday’s post. 2001, In Belgrade right after the fall of Milosevic: We’ve been dropped back into the holiday season after it has ended … Continue reading Old New Year, Serbia
This is Old New Year’s Eve, January 13. Today and tomorrow I’m posting about this strange holiday from letters I wrote between 1996 and 2011, today 1996 – 2000. 1996: “Old New Year” sounds like an oxymoron, but in Macedonia … Continue reading Old New Year, Macedonia and Montenegro
New Year’s Eve is not my holiday. I’ve attended New Year celebrations in lots of places, but mostly as an observer, not a celebrant. The forced gaiety makes me uncomfortable. This year I observed New Year’s celebrations in Anchorage. Each … Continue reading New Year’s Eve, Albania — Anchorage
Tallinn’s tourism agency touts the “best-preserved medieval center in all of Europe.” It’s not completely medieval, and that makes it interesting. Architecture in the old town runs from medieval through baroque and Russian empire style (the Tsar built a very “Alexander Nevsky” cathedral and an opera house in the old town) to Art Nouveau. The mix is what makes the Tallinn old town interesting. Tallinn was founded by Danes (In Estonian, Tallinn means “Danish Town. “) German knights bought Tallinn from them and pretty soon Tallinn (Germans called it “Reval”) was in the Hanseatic League, acting as middleman between the … Continue reading Tallinn
This is Albania’s National Holiday, Flag Day. On this date in 1912, 101 ago today, the Albanian Flag was raised in Vlora, Albania, marking the nation’s independence from the Ottoman Empire. Albania is one of the countries I can call … Continue reading Albanian Flag Day, 1993.
November 28 is Albania’s Flag Day, marking its declaration of independence in 1912. The Albanian Community in the US is celebrating Flag Day on November 27 so it does not conflict with Thanksgiving. This is from a letter I wrote … Continue reading Albania Flag Day, Letter from 1995
I became interested in Art Nouveau living in Bratislava and within an hour of Vienna where Nouveau and Secession buildings captured my fancy. Having seen them I needed to see some of the buildings of Antoni Gaudí . The first 8 pics here are Gaudi buildings, including the Holy Family Cathedral, Sagrada Família, a must see in Barcelona and Casa Batilo and Casa Mila. I took these pictures in 1999 on a very early digital camera that had limited storage capacity. I find it hard to imagine that I can shoot thousands of pictures now on one card. Early digital cameras … Continue reading Barcelona Nouveau and Gaudi
We arrived in Riga Monday night and walked through a snowy city. By Tuesday it had warmed up, morning fog hid the steeple tops and we walked through slush. The embassy district of Riga has one of the best collections of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe, built for the German merchants who ran the economic life of Riga around 1900. Michael Eisenstein, father of the Soviet filmmaker, was the architect of many of them. In Riga it’s easy to see Art Nouveau as the bridge between the empire style and art deco. The district centers around Alberta St. The district … Continue reading Riga Nouveau
Modernist Marc Chagall, cubist Jacques Villon, and tachist Roger Bissière are all there, mixed with art from the Gothic, Renaissance and Romantic periods. It’s the play of light on the works that I find so fascinating. They are the stained glass windows in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Metz. Gothic does away with the need for structural walls, allowing artists to work in walls of glass. The cathedral soars with light coming through colored glass, creating shadows and shafts. Outside the light plays against the exposed structural members, the flying buttresses. At night the outside is floodlit to stunning effect. Pictures from … Continue reading St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Metz
At first I thought it was a mistake to rent a car in Malta. It was almost midnight; I was tired and had to drive on the left with a stick shift. I usually drive a stick but I am … Continue reading Malta
I’m not sure of the theological meaning, but Pope John Paul II has been turned into a pillar of salt. In Genesis it was Lot’s wife who became a saline pillar. Her sin was looking back at Sodom, the home from which she was being evacuated by angels before its destruction. The Wieliczka mines in Krakow Poland are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We took a bus to the salt mines and went on the tour. We went down about 438 feet, although the mines go down much further than that, and walked for about three kilometers underground. The wondrous … Continue reading Salt Pope, Krakow, Poland
Each town in Malta has its Festa, dedicated to the town’s patron and church. Festa season runs from April to September. Festa starts on Saturday with booths, food stands, fireworks and brass band concerts (a tradition carried over from the … Continue reading Festa in Malta
“For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest,” Especially for one. All Saint’s Day 15 years ago at Dubcek’s grave. This is All Saints’ Say. Today Slovaks visit cemeteries and light candles on graves. Most of my staff … Continue reading Alexander Dubcek’s Grave. All Saints Day 1998, Bratislava, Slovakia.
The depth of snow varied on our drive from Vilnius to Riga. In some places it was just a dusting, a bit of white on top of still green fields. In Northern Lithuania we saw a farmer with a horse … Continue reading Halloween in Riga, Latvia, 2003
In Tallinn, there are architectural rings. Right outside the old town is the “new town” a mix of modern steel and glass and Stalinist “wedding cake” architecture. Beyond that are working class Tallinn neighborhoods that consist of almost all old wooden buildings, single family dwellings, shops, workshops, and wooden apartment houses. Many have carpenter Gothic touches and are painted in different colors. The most famous of these neighborhoods is Kalamaja. I hope that at least some of these neighborhoods can be “protected,” as the old town from the modern “new town” encroachments. More than the German styled Hanseatic League old … Continue reading Wooden Tallinn, Estonia.
Our friends Dave and Carol Lam took us to Baarle when we were working in the Balkans. We wondered about the possibility of ever being able to draw borders that reflected ethnic realities. Dave said he had something he wanted to show us, the municipality of Baarle in Belgium, or is it the Netherlands? The map of Europe has many geographic anomalies. But one of the strangest borders runs through Baarle. The town is divided between the countries, Baarle-Nassau is Dutch and Baarle-Hertog is Belgian. The dividing line is anything but straight, or rational. The border was set in the Treaty … Continue reading Soft Borders, Belgium and the Netherlands at Baarle.