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
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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
Nikšić and the Ostrog Monestary
Kotor
Kotor is a World Heritage Site. It is a walled city that had been part of the Venetian Republic, and then part of Austria until the end of the First World War when it became part of Yugoslavia, and then … Continue reading Kotor
Sveti Stefan
Sveti Stefan used to be a village. Under Tito it became an exclusive hotel hosting the likes of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Margaret and Robert McNamara. We first visited in 1972. We were allowed to wander the … Continue reading Sveti Stefan
Podgorica
We lived in Podgorica for a year from Autumn 1999 to Autumn 2000. It was a pleasant enough town but the best part was living an hour from the coast and an hour from the mountains. Continue reading Podgorica
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
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
Berlin Wall Fall (Mauerfall) 20 Years Later
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
Prague, 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.
Berlin Contrasts
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
Arab Spring, April 6, 2008, A blogging course.
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.
Kosovo, June 1999
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
Velvet Revolution, 10 years later
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
Russia, Vladivostok, 1995
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
Russia, Vladivostok, 1991
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
Berlin Wall Fall (Mauerfall)
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)
Velvet Revolution
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
Berlin 1989
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