Monatsarchive: Juni 2018

Surprised and pleased to see Dubček here. My immediate reaction was shouldn’t this be a statue of a Romanian Dubček? I don’t know who that would be. My next thought was, who would be an American equivalent? Really draw a … Weiterlesen →

It’s easier to see from the back, but those are shackles being burst from the upper pair of arms. I like this sculpture. It feels powerful, and worlds away from the idea of encouraging Americans to vote for Democratic Party … Weiterlesen →

This is called „Rebirth“ and is one of the weirder public sculptures I’ve ever seen. The people standing in unison is a good representation of the masses of people who overthrew Ceauşescu. But the most noticeable thing of course is … Weiterlesen →

A very professional docent informed me as to where the Roman artifacts and the treasury were, downstairs, and the WW I exhibit was, on the first floor. I told him I wanted to see the WW II exhibit. He said … Weiterlesen →

As I was leaving Belene this man was heading into town. When I saw his tractor I did a double-take, he saw me and shrugged, I reversed the car and he graciously pulled over. When I asked if he spoke … Weiterlesen →

When I was a child and people talked about the Iron Curtain and political dissidents imprisoned in far away places like Romania and Bulgaria, when spy novel authors like Alistair MacLean or John le Carré had colleagues imprisoned by Eastern … Weiterlesen →

This was not an unusual sight, both to the west of Sofia and in the east between Turkey and Romania. Where it gets interesting is when you come around a bend doing 80kph and there is someone going the other … Weiterlesen →

So if you asked me to name a world-famous symbol of the US, I’d say Statue of Liberty, or Empire State Building. England? Big Ben or Tower Bridge. France? That’s easy! Eiffel Tower. Germany? Brandenburg Gate. Bulgaria? … Bulgaria? What’s … Weiterlesen →

I walked through the cemetery looking left and right along the rows, trying to get a sense of the number of graves.