Top ten language tips for the hard of thinking traveller

Just because you have a doctorate in speaking English loudly while waving your arms about, doesn’t mean you have mastered the art of communication as you travel around the world. Buying a melon with grunts and pointing may be an admirable skill but you’re missing out if you don’t learn at least a bit of the local language wherever you go. With English being the most international language and native English speakers being the most bone idle of linguists as…

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The Butchers of Eid

Animal slaughter on the streets of Alexandria Warning: sensitive animal lovers should know that this post includes pictures of dead animals and blood, no close-ups but you probably wont want to zoom in. With swift slices of a knife to its tendons the calf collapsed onto her forelegs and the burly team of butchers heaved her onto her side. In seconds the throat was slashed and the calf thrashed upwards, struggling against her severed muscles, forcing the men to jump…

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Capital colours in Albania

The painted buildings of Tirana As joyous as vast expanses of dismal Cold War concrete are it’s nice to make a change once in a while and Tirana, the capital of Albania has certainly put the past behind it with a great splash of colour. Artistically minded mayor, Edi Rama, decided on his election in 2000 that the best way to declare an end to the grim years under dictator Enva Hoxha was to throw a coat of paint or…

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A brief explanation

Dear readers A few words are in order as you may notice a change in my output over the next few months because I am off to Egypt to study Arabic for at least three months. The strict educational term for this is, “a fuck load of work”, hence I may not have the time to devote enough of my ailing brain cells to keeping you up to date with the world’s toilet facilities and other such vital geopolitical issues….

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What we dont know about Ukraine…… or anything

Is it possible to know less about what is going on in a country after you have visited? I certainly came away with this impression on leaving Ukraine. Sure, I learnt a bit about the history, food and the lengths of skirts but what about the big stuff in the news? As with other controversial geopolitical issues such as Israel/Palestine, Syria, Turkey and the Kurds, you only have to read the comments sections on many internet news sources to know…

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Multistorey Glory

Celebrating the treasures of Soviet, multistorey, concrete buildings and their enduring legacy When traveling the former Soviet Union, one of the true pleasures in life is the opportunity of standing under the magisterial, architectural creations that gave us such joyous images of that sadly departed era. A recent visit to Ukraine, Moldova and Transnistria furnished me with the chance to revel in some fine examples of hi-rise construction. In case you are wondering, Transnistria is that delightful corner of south-eastern…

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Soul of the city: Kiev, Ukraine

It took me two weeks to work out what was wrong with Kiev and that’s because, on the surface of it, there’s nothing particularly wrong with it at all. Eventually I came to realise that all was not as it should be. Strolling its boulevards and broad streets, the European will feel at home amongst the grand 19th century architecture, after all this was an era when Tsarist Russia was so enamoured by life to their west that French was…

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Memories of the nuclear age

Ukraine’s atomic past of Chernobyl and mutually assured destruction If there was one day trip to get the warning klaxons honking, you would have thought that a visit to the world’s biggest nuclear disaster in a country at war with Russia would be it. Reality suggests otherwise: the site of the Chernobyl disaster has already become a well-worn tourist trail and the war bit of Ukraine is the best part of 500km away and shows little sign of extending an…

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The dictator has just left the building

A visit to the house of Ukraine’s former president Yanukovych With the success of the Maidan square protests in Feb 2014, President Yanukovych beat a hasty retreat to friendlier pastures with the aid of a Russian helicopter from his property on the outskirts of Kiev (or Kyiv as the Ukrainians would prefer to the russianised version we are familiar with). The citizens of Kyiv immediately jumped at the opportunity to find out for themselves if the rumours of the opulence…

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A week in Assam, India

The village of Charenghi Pathar has nothing to appeal to the average tourist. So effective was this deterrent that I turned out to be the first one they had ever seen there. Although its lack of appeal was motivation enough for me to want to see it, the same could be said of many places, so it was no random event that brought me there. It was the birth place of my dear friend J who had his first opportunity…

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