From our tasteful, environmentally sensitive, climate change aware president.
On 3QD, On the Road: Post Soviet Museum Circuit
Read my monthly travel article now live on 3 Quarks Daily.
Quotes: “A Major National Emergency”
Most interesting to talk with a range of people in Dublin this weekend about the Republic of Ireland’s prospects in the event of a British crash out of the EU on 31 October (besides getting a crash course in hurling as Tipperary took down the good guys, Kilkenny, in the national final yesterday).
Now this morning, from the Irish Independent, “A senior Irish government source said last night ‘People might start realizing that Leo Varadkar is not engaged in project fear as he has been accused of, but actually that in 74 days we face a major national emergency if this is not resolved.'”
Travel Days Home
After starting out in April with a month in Vietnam and a brief stop in Thailand, then spending the brief Finnish summer by Lake Saimaa, and brief excursions into Russia, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and a brief bump through Paris (here, the state of the Notre Dame Cathedral today)
it’s time to head back to the farm in Appalachia. We’ll be bouncing through Dublin, Ireland at the weekend, then back to the US next week.
I’ll be working up a post on Viktor Yanukovich’s Межигір’я residence in the meantime, and you can see all the photos we’ve posted over the course of the trip on the EarthPhotos.com page Around the World Slowly, 2019.
Hotel rooms and apartments and a 13 inch MacBook aren’t the ideal environment for post-producing photography, so over the course of the coming autumn, once we get back to a big desktop computer,. we’ll have much more photography and commentary from the eleven countries and four months we’ve spent on the road.
And be sure to look up my next travel column at Three Quarks Daily on Monday.
Riga’s 700th Anniversary …
… was way back in 1901, and they “Jubilee of the city” with 44 pavilions housing some 775 exhibits. From the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, my favorite:
#9: “Pavilion of B. Hermann’s company of sanitation equipment.”
Kyiv Again
Have spent a most engaging four days in the Ukrainian capital. Went out today to Межигір’я, the residence of overthrown President Yanukovich. Just remarkable. I’ll try to muster substantially more photos in time from the road, as we’ll be leaving tomorrow. Межигір’я, meaning something like between the hills, is a tribute to excess.
President Yanukovich lived at Межигір’я on his official salary of 800 Hryvna/month, about $1000 at pre-revolution rates, while upkeep of the grounds ran closer to $4 million/month.
Ukrainian folks have been most engaging. I’m sorry to leave.
Kyiv
The first time we visited Kyiv was in the month of March. There’s quite a difference in summer. Here are just a few low-res snapshots from day one. No post-production, no links to larger versions yet, just a few random shots from walking around town.
Dollars? Euros? Rubles?
The Maidan Square looks lovely at night.
At Maidan Square.
St. Sophia’s Church. Parts of it date from 11th century, most from 18th.
St. Sophia’s Church detail.
The Maidan.
Along the Dnieper River.
Pedestrian bridge across the Dnieper.
Friendship of Nations arch, from 1982, Soviet era.
Behind the lucky couple, St. Michaels Monastery. Unlike St. Sophia, which is a museum piece, St. Michael’s holds services.
And the exterior of St. Sophia.
