Summer Holidays

[Eric]

Yes, Oscar-Eduard, it's nice to be able to paste pretty pictures in. What you can tell from the long thin picture is that the yuppies and the nouveaux riches have over-reacted to their liberation from the trammels of the Soviet Union, and gone in for an orgy of disproportinate high-rise prestige skyscrapers. Luckily, they've more or less left the Old Town (in front of which the turquoise ferry is standing) in pristine form.

I've not yet seen the Moorish architectural inheritance in Granada, etc. One day. I've done many years of teaching English abroad. It's an excellent way to stay in a country longer than only for a brief visit. For instance, I taught English for three years in Finland, which helped me stay there long enough to get insights into the literature of the minority there, the Finland-Swedes. Teaching English abroad can be a great stepping stone to knowledge about other countries and their culture.

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Eric

Yes, Oscar-Eduard, it's nice to be able to paste pretty pictures in. What you can tell from the long thin picture is that the yuppies and the nouveaux riches have over-reacted to their liberation from the trammels of the Soviet Union, and gone in for an orgy of disproportinate high-rise prestige skyscrapers. Luckily, they've more or less left the Old Town (in front of which the turquoise ferry is standing) in pristine form.

Mr. Dickens,

At least they didn't pave over all of their history to put up parking structure and a Pizza Hut.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Anna van Gelderen

I am going to Kyrgyzstan in July, taking a Chingiz Aitmatov novel with me. Several people I told about my trip had never even heard of Kyrgyzstan, so I can be sure it won't be overrun with tourists. We are going hiking in the Tien Shan Mountains for most of the time, sleeping in tents and yurts, washing in brooks and lakes, eating sheep's eyes and drinking fermented mare's milk, the local delicacies. I will probably lose a lot of weight ;-)

oh that sounds wonderful.
I was only once, and for a few days, to that country, must have been about ten or so. Where were we? Can't remember. Dammit.

[Eric]

No, Ms Wilde, you are right. We Brits also have a few monuments left over and haven't turned the whole of London into a wasteland of only a dildo (the so-called "Gherkin"), a big wheel, and mayorial offices that look like a sagging blancmange, the Home Office that looks super-tacky. But planners keep trying to mess up the capital. Whatever you may think of Prince Charles, he does speak out loud and clear for retaining some grace across the skyline of the city.

From my vantage point in a London hotel the other week, I saw the sheer mish-mash of London architecture. To the right, in the distance, the only elegant church steeple; right in front of me, a huge and hideous tower block; nearer, what was left of a Georgian terrace; to my left, the rather odd silhouette of Earls Court.

No, the Estonians certainly haven't yet managed to ruin their skyline completely.

I'd be intrigued to know what Mirabell was doing in Kyrgystan (Soviet, or un-Soviet?) as a kid.

[Mirabell]

Soviet. My granny, who lived in a southern region of Siberia took me to long trips by bus and plane all over the south(western) parts of the USSR. We also went to Ukraine, looking for the village my family fled during WWII. Didn't find it. That's the only trip I remember at all in SOME detail because I have photographs and the memory of that échec stayed with us. After the political landscape shifted we only visited Russian regions. Ah. How I miss Siberia.
Wait. Can't have been ten. Musta been younger. 7 or 8, I guess. 6? Until I became 7 we visited Russia almost yearly, so I can't narrow it down.

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Eric

No, Ms Wilde, you are right. We Brits also have a few monuments left over and haven't turned the whole of London into a wasteland of only a dildo (the so-called "Gherkin"), a big wheel, and mayorial offices that look like a sagging blancmange, the Home Office that looks super-tacky. But planners keep trying to mess up the capital. Whatever you may think of Prince Charles, he does speak out loud and clear for retaining some grace across the skyline of the city.

From my vantage point in a London hotel the other week, I saw the sheer mish-mash of London architecture. To the right, in the distance, the only elegant church steeple; right in front of me, a huge and hideous tower block; nearer, what was left of a Georgian terrace; to my left, the rather odd silhouette of Earls Court.

No, the Estonians certainly haven't yet managed to ruin their skyline completely.

Mr. Dickens,

I adore London, even the comically misplaced gherkin (my first trip there it was still under construction and we couldn't figure out what in the world they were building). Down on the sidewalks of London, in those streets that go every which way, you turn the corner and find another mobile phone shop, or an enchanting little nook that looks untouched by time. People still talk about The Fire as if it happened a week ago last Tuesday, and there are still parts your surnamesake would recognize, as well as parts where I'd swear Bertie Wooster was there not 10 minutes before me, en route to meet Aunt Agatha for lunch, or attend an important meeting at The Drones. I liken London to the house of some dowager, jammed packed every which way with odds and ends from the entire length of her colorful and exciting life.

Unlike LA, which is a big freeway looking for an off-ramp that's perpetually closed for repairs.

[Eric]

Irene, I don't like the sheer size of London and the miles of depressing higgledy-piggledy suburbs of run-down-looking houses to the east of the centre, e.g. on the way to London City Airport (which itself is small, handy and superb).

But obviously there are groups of streets dotted all over the city that have their charm. All the Georgian and similar white-fronted houses in Bloomsbury, Chelsea, etc. are delightful. The little squares are delightful. But it is still a metropolis, full of bustle and noise, great to visit, though I wouldn't want to live there.

But I take your point about LA. I've never even been to the States, but was already put off LA years ago by being told what you tell, that it's one huge ribbon development with no palpable centre.

That is what I find so satisfying about Belgian cities such as Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, and so on, even Brussels. They have a core to them consisting of the town square. Tallinn also has a small one, as do Riga, Stockholm and other capitals. Helsinki has an imposing square with a huge cathedral and a statue of Czar Alexander II, if I remember rightly. But that isn't a very cosy square like the ones in Belgium. Warsaw and Kraków too have imposing squares, the one in the latter city more impressive than that of the capital.

I like cities with a definite centre.

[saliotthomas]

I shall go to the souther part of the French Alps,a walking distance from Italie,where my familly has an old chalet in an hamlet.The houses of village have been bought by very close friends,all falling instantly in love with the fairy-tale landscape.I go there since i'm 3 years of age,and i need to go every so often to put my brain together.The mountains and the milky way at night as the vertu of putting back the problemes and ambitions to scales(as Heteronym citation metion once)My father being a geologiste,he know the place by heart,and with my brothers,we have been following his step since a very early age,helping gathering stones.
So i shall spent two week with the clan,including long trecks and hugh picknicks.We love to put to shame the usual dry farts moutain treckers ,eater of dry fruits and energy stuff,by setting pantagruelic meal of wine and grilles on flat stones of mushroom,tomatos and meats.The way back(down thanks god) is alway merry and unsteady.

The place is call The Queyras

[Sybarite]

Change of plans – if I go to Barcelona, I'll run around like the proverbial fly with the blue bum. It's my version of taking the Protestant work ethic on holiday – thinking that it's somehow bad and wasteful to not see and do as much as possible in the given time. And then come home in need of a holiday.

I now have nine nights booked in Collioure in late August. To stop. I am compiling the reading list already and dreaming of sun, sea, sand and words. Oh ... and the very good local food. Seafood par excellence.

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Eric

Irene, I don't like the sheer size of London and the miles of depressing higgledy-piggledy suburbs of run-down-looking houses to the east of the centre, e.g. on the way to London City Airport (which itself is small, handy and superb).

But obviously there are groups of streets dotted all over the city that have their charm. All the Georgian and similar white-fronted houses in Bloomsbury, Chelsea, etc. are delightful. The little squares are delightful. But it is still a metropolis, full of bustle and noise, great to visit, though I wouldn't want to live there.

But I take your point about LA. I've never even been to the States, but was already put off LA years ago by being told what you tell, that it's one huge ribbon development with no palpable centre.

That is what I find so satisfying about Belgian cities such as Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, and so on, even Brussels. They have a core to them consisting of the town square. Tallinn also has a small one, as do Riga, Stockholm and other capitals. Helsinki has an imposing square with a huge cathedral and a statue of Czar Alexander II, if I remember rightly. But that isn't a very cosy square like the ones in Belgium. Warsaw and Kraków too have imposing squares, the one in the latter city more impressive than that of the capital.

I like cities with a definite centre.

Working in the middle of LA's financial district, I guess I don't mind the metropolis. To me, it's exciting and energizing to be part of the mad rush and throng of humanity. That said, have you ever noticed that most of the worlds great cities possess two things: a center and a river? LA is working at putting together a very artificial "center" (talk about doing things backwards) which may or may not work, but its river is a sad and pathetic thing. Yet another concrete ribbon and most of the year barely a trickle of a water is allowed to pass through it. I pass over it on the train into town each day and it is a reminder that we will never be London or Paris or Berlin until we nurse our river back to life.

[fausto]

I'm going to Prague for 4 days in August, then to Spain for 10 days. My girlfriend is Spanish so I spend a lot of time over there. Don't know where we will go. Maybe Madrid - where she lives - or a small village near Cordoba - from where she is - or Valencia - where friends have a house. What I know for sure is that the last week-end will be spent in Malaga - where her cousin lives - because we want to go to the Feria.

[Irene Wilde]

This mad, insane, whirlwind cruise thing is approaching rapidly -- less than two weeks away.

Unfortunately, roaming St. Petersburg is out. One must go where the tour goes and only where the tour goes, which is as expensive as it is stifling. And that's if there are no complications resulting from the present political situation.

However, in Copenhagen, Berlin, Tallinn, Helsinki, Amsterdam, and London, we are free to roam as the spirit moves, thank goodness. Besides touring the Anne Frank house, lunching in Bertel Brecht's basement, and seeing what vandalism has been committed upon The Little Mermaid lately, anyone have any literary-minded suggestions for these destinations? Statues? Burial places? Plaques on the wall about who slept where with whom?

Mr. Dickens, Tallinn is looking to be one of my favorite ports o' call -- so compact and medieval. I've found a lovely walking tour and several positive reviews from people who have visited.

Berlin, on the other hand, is looking absolutely maddening. Six hours of our time in port has to be devoted to train rides between Warnemunde, where we dock, and Berlin. I like train rides through the countryside, getting little glimpses into people's back gardens, and whatever local scenery passes by (we get the same treatment traveling from Gatwick to Dover in England), but Berlin is so big and there's so much to see...to be practical one has to cross several items off the itinerary in order to enjoy what can sanely be seen in a day. Tough choices in a city that offers so much.

Anyway, any suggestions are very welcomed.

[Mirabell]

Berlin: you cannot possibly not visit the Jewish Museum. It's adjacent to the Alexanderplatz which any literary minded traveller should visit, although it has changed an awful lot since Döblin's time. There are, I gather, guided tours which explain the changes. The StaSi museum in the Normannenstraße is impressive and very much worth a visit. And then, equally unmissable, the so-called Museum Island, with the wonderful treasure trove that is the Pergamon museum (and several other major/great museums).

That should do it.

[Mirabell]

OR you could visit the Invincible Germany University.


especially if you have been drinking a few too many Weisse

[Sybarite]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

Berlin: you cannot possibly not visit the Jewish Museum. It's adjacent to the Alexanderplatz which any literary minded traveller should visit, although it has changed an awful lot since Döblin's time. There are, I gather, guided tours which explain the changes. The StaSi museum in the Normannenstraße is impressive and very much worth a visit. And then, equally unmissable, the so-called Museum Island, with the wonderful treasure trove that is the Pergamon museum (and several other major/great museums).

That should do it.

I keep saying that I must go back to Berlin soon – my first port of call will be the Prussian museum. For anyone visiting for the first time, there's some very good stuff at the Beate Uhse Erotik Museum near the zoo – miles better than the crapulous sex museum in Amsterdam and more akin to an art gallery. It also includes a fascinating display about Magnus Hirschfeld, the first sexologist.

The Ägyptische Museum up at Charlottenburg, which includes the famous bust of Nefertiti, is well worth a visit too (there's a commemorative bust to Hirschfeld just along the road from the museum too).

There is also, I think, a museum to the German anti-Nazi resistance in Berlin too. And a tiny museum to the wonderful Marlene Dietrich.

I'm also looking forward to visiting Potsdamer Platz, since I enjoy photographing modern architecture.

[Irene Wilde]

Thank you. Berlin is going to be an interesting visit if there is time to take stock, absorb the place, and not get caught up in the frenzy of getting from place to place. I've been trying to explain Berlin's role in the 20th Century to my 12-year-old daughter, especially the division between east and west and the significance of reunification. For an American tween-ager born in 1996, it's a difficult concept to grasp. As for WWII and The Holocaust -- even harder when her Mom can barely get the words out without choking up. How do you explain the unthinkable?

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

OR you could visit the Invisible Germany University.


especially if you have been drinking a few too many Weisse

Sounds like a close cousin of Cannabis College.

[Mirabell]

The Holocaust -- even harder when her Mom can barely get the words out without choking up. How do you explain the unthinkable?

books? give her some good novels to read. does the trick. and visit the jewish museum.

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

books? give her some good novels to read. does the trick.

I think I was her age when I read The Diary of Anne Frank and she'll be visiting the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. The trick is to make sure she knows this is history -- something that actually happened -- without scaring the living hell out of her.

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Sybarite

And a tiny museum to the wonderful Marlene Dietrich.

OMG!!!! Where? Where???