Category: Uncategorized
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Home: this must be the place
Home is where I want to be,Pick me up and turn me round,I feel numb, born with a weak heart,I guess I must be having fun Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) Useful feedback from a trusted ally about my recent Warsaw post got me thinking about the roll that ‘home’…
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The Train Was on Time: Poland and Lithuania by rail
“Soon can mean in one second, Soon can mean in one year.” Heinrich Böll – The Train Was on Time What is this special type of anxiety that travel can provoke? The lady at London City Airport, repeatedly asking the airline staff what time we’ll be boarding – “you said ‘three minutes’ three minutes ago”, then…
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Gdańsk & Malbork: where history happened
Gdańsk is an artist’s dream. Its waterfront a haven of activity, primed for a watercolourist in carmine, vermilion, chestnut, cinnamon, cream and brick. Akin to Bruges or Amsterdam, it suffers from a similar deluge of tourists (says the tourist), noticeably attracting budget airline weekenders. I hear more British accents here than anywhere else in Poland. It’s also…
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Białowieza: Searching for Silence
“Ah, look! Scratch marks from a wolf! They’re fresh, too.” Joana, my guide, points to a fallen branch, across which are clearly visible lacerations. Paw prints create a pattern in the surrounding mud, which even to my untrained eyes looks to be only recently made. From the paw prints, my eyes follow a trail up…
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Warsaw: Contrast & Compromise
My introduction to Warsaw came as an 11 year old through Ian Serraillier’s children’s novel The Silver Sword, a story of hope about a family whose lives are turned upside down by the decimation of the city by the Nazis in 1940. I recall how much I loved the book – probably the first novel…
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Lithuania in colour: Vilnius & Kaunas
Waking up in a city and country that are entirely new to me and realising that I’ve barely researched the place, let alone made any plans for my time there, brings the gift of a blank canvas. As blank, that is, as is possible given westernised preconceived notions of ex-Soviet countries being cold and bleak.…
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Searching for Golgonooza: a ramble around William Blake’s London
The silence in Tate Britain’s room 7a, the William Blake Room, could be mistaken for reverence if there were anyone else in it. But it’s empty. And it’s small. Just the eleven artworks – etchings and paintings – are on show here. This, I feel, is emblematic of our failed collective acknowledgement of someone who…
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Descending the ladder: a sunny stroll around Harringay
“That’s rank, fam”, says Kid A to Kid B, casting a look of revulsion at the shopping trolley loaded high with cellophane-wrapped joints of some-meat-or-other that is blocking the pavement outside one of the halal butchers on Turnpike Lane. He’s not wrong, fam, and he could say the same about the chicken bones and pigeon…
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Istanbul (not Constantinople) Part 2: Boats and cats and minarets
“If one had a single glance to give the world, one should gaze upon Istanbul.” Alphonse de Lamartine. As alarm clocks go, the 6.20am call of the Muezzin that reverberates around Istanbul is as gentle as they come. It also makes for a rather evocative reminder that my plans each day will involve the peace…
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Istanbul (not Constantinople) Part 1: Blizzard on the Bosporus
“Why they changed it I can’t say, people just liked it better that way” Istanbul (Not Constantinople) – The Four Lads With tendrils spread out among the hidden ruins of two previous versions of the city it serves, Istanbul’s swift and gleaming metro system provides a contrary first impression to the ancient megalopolis above ground.…
Tom the Curious: Ramblelogue 