What better way to chase away the gloom of grey midwinter, than by reminiscing about, and perhaps planning, a summer holiday. The seed of this holiday was in fact sown in winter. A few years ago I had watched the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, parts of which are always illustrated with short…
Tag: europe
Hippy Hippos to Doctor Fish- Athens Diaries Continued
There’s a particular subtype of reels, about arrival to Athens airport– just the sliding doors opening, to the backdrop of some longing music. They’re cheesy as hell, but I will invariably watch them again and again, and save them for later. The only thing that beats them is actually arriving to Athens airport-the long labyrinthine…
Holy Bones and the Unexpected Delights of Almost Broccoli- A Visit to Bari
As already mentioned in our piece about Matera, the first mystery I tried to unravel upon our arrival in Bari was the name of its airport. Known traditionally as Bari- Palese, after the nearby neighbourhood, it was later renamed Karol Wojtyła. You will surely be delighted to know that John Paul II does have other…
(Not) Everything is Carved in Stone- A Visit to Matera
The one caveat I had about going to Matera was the bus- I don’t like travelling by bus, as a rule, I will always go for the train, if such a choice is available. I must also mention the fact that when it comes to Southern Italy, most people, both locals and tourists, will opt…
House of the Winter Sun- A Visit to Málaga
I stepped on the tarmac of Málaga Costa del Sol airport, and I took a deep, hungry breath. I immediately felt it. Plane exhaust. But beyond it, something unmistakable, tugging at the deepest recesses of my sensory memory. Salty, briny, fragrant, almost like an infusion of moss and minerals. I screamed, internally, like the Greeks…
Visiting an Awkward Friend- A Weekend in Bucharest
The flight from Budapest to Bucharest is a brief one-hour affair- hardly has the plane reached cruising altitude that it starts to descend towards the south Romanian plain. Yet, for years, a direct connection failed to take root. More precisely, Tarom, the Romanian national carrier, did have a daily connection, but prices for flights flown…
Ever Changing, Ever the Same- Another September in Hydra
As we arrived on the island. A sentence which is, likely, the most commonplace way to start a piece about Hydra. So, as we arrived on the island, the sky was very blue, the sea was very smooth, and the sun was very high above the horizon, steadily beaming salty, furnace-like heat. It was very…
Old Things for New Times- A Visit to Florence
I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to start this post. Which is not a bad thing, because I have learned something. I have a problem with Florence. It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s more that I don’t know what to do with it. In a nutshell, I was more interested,…
A Little Off the Beaten Track- A Visit to Pisa
It was criminally early on a spring Saturday, and we’d headed south across Europe above a cover of clouds. But as the plane made its descent, I could clearly discern the outline of Pisa, a bit upriver from the estuary of the Arno. We veered out above the sea to line up for landing, passing…
The (Red) Devil is in the Details aka Bruges in the Bloody Rain
So there was this Sunday, and it almost rained. Which is the worst- the sky is grey and you have no idea how it’s gonna make up its mind, and just wait, and do nothing, then order in and idle away your time. The best idling away of time on such days, for me, is…
Pocket Diary Budapest 