Impressive I have to say that I'm truly impressed by your travails. Drenched in sweat or not, that was pretty impressive to hike 7km uphill. Luckily, when you get back to DC, you'll only have to go to one of those "touch-up" gyms.
Cold Okay I'll give you that the glacier is gorgeous! But is it worth the cold? Some might argue not. I'm glad you're having fun though! Luckily you can thaw out in Khartoum.
I enjoyed your Argentina blog. It reminded me of my time there. My blog is looking for some good travel photos. If you have the time email us some at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com
Continued fun on your travels,
Eric
Can't believe you really are there... James, so nice to read your blog. I won't miss a single entry about your trip to Argentina, I can assure you that. Can't believe you are right now in my beloved Buenos Aires... Are you sure you haven't photoshopped your face in The Tortoni picture? It is strange to know that you really are there, walking down the streets where I grew up!
Sorry it is raining so hard (I saw on TV that a big soccer game between Boca and River was suspended, so it must have been a truly big storm!) but glad that you still got to see interesting things in town. Buenos Aires is indeed beautiful and you will see it in its full splendor when the sun shines again.
All the best my friend, and have a wonderful stay in Argentina!
Marina
eerie This sent chills down my spine. To have your entire life monitored and always being treated like a potential traitor, I can't begin to imagine how I'd feel. I think I would look at my file out of some sordid sense of perversion. But that's just my masochistic nature.
Vienna Hey,
If you want to go for a concert in vienna - there are lots of guys walking around selling tickets. You can preview the shows - by going to the standup area for 15 mins the previous day and then go the next day for the full show.
I loved the gardens in the palace outside the city - the hapsburgs palace.
Love the pics
Thanks Eso, thanks for the insider insights! That helps me understand things a bit better. I did see the plate you mention (I actually discuss it in my blog entry)... I wish I could have understood Czech TV, though!
Czechs don't like to praise people whose are still alive. There will be enough time after they will die ;)
Also Czechs blame Havel for some economic and politic decisions he made as president.
And Czech aren't big on pathos, anyway :)
About Dubcek - reform communists were still communists, you know. :)
There is plate at Narodni trida, where students were attacked by police in 1989. Czech tv is full of programms about 20th anniversary of Velvet revolution.
"Mr. Kessler, tell me another story!" Your pieces are so eloquently told through the eyes of a story teller. Come visit my class any day-- my geeks would LOVE your stories!
Shadow Cities Andre Aciman is a brilliant commentator on triggers to memory... being a thoroughbred Proustian, he has often commented on the shadow of a city. Nazım Hikmet had such an epiphany in Leipzig, the sunset triggered the memory of home. However, what Aciman goes on to describe is even more far-reaching. He posits the idea that on returning to the 'remembered' place, there won't necessarily just be a sense of homecoming, but of a further involuntary memory of the place in which the memory stirred. Read Aciman's False Papers: Essays in Exile and Memory. That 'Shadow City' thing happens often in Bar Italia or in Louis in Hampstead! http://entartetemusik.blogspot.com/2008/09/bar-italia-part-of-shadow-city.html
Composer's Graves Ah... another cemetery addict. And so marvellous that you saw some of the 'cubist' architecture. There's a fabulous example quite near the Staroměstské náměstí with a black madonna on the outside of the building. I was once kissed by a bellboy from the Four Seasons there. http://entartetemusik.blogspot.com/
I blame Thor Heyerdahl for my wanderlust. When I picked up his tale of the Kon-Tiki adventure in third grade, I knew I wanted to explore the world beyond the rural Midwest. Since then, I have had the opportunity to travel extensively, even living abroad for extended periods. And I continue to venture forth whenever I can.
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Sheldon
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Impressive
I have to say that I'm truly impressed by your travails. Drenched in sweat or not, that was pretty impressive to hike 7km uphill. Luckily, when you get back to DC, you'll only have to go to one of those "touch-up" gyms.