Mostar

Bosnia-Herzegovina

June 3, 2015

Dear Adventure Travelers,

Did you know that for a small fee of a mere 25 Euros, you can personally perform a (supervised) high dive off the most famous bridge in the Balkans?   

The Stari Most or Old Bridge of Mostar, built in the Sixteenth Century, stands 25 meters (82 feet) above the Neretva River.  By comparison, the Olympics Platform Dive is a measly 10 meters (33 feet).

In 1993, during the Civil War in the former Yugoslavia, the original bridge built by the Ottomans was destroyed.

The elegant bridge was rebuilt in 2004 and is the most recognizable landmark in the country.  There’s a lot of history here.* 

Trebinje

(Pop 36,000)

Semi-Autonomous Republika Srpske

 Bosnia-Herzegovina

June 8, 2015

My kinda town, Trebinje is ...

Quiet off-the-tourist-track …

Shady town square …

Café to read a book...

Attractive lived-in Old Town …

Path along the Trebišnjica River… go fishing … row a boat …

16^th Century Arslanagić Bridge …

Pizza … pastry … café … to read a book …

My kinda town, Trebinje is …

Zagreb   (pop 790,000)

Republic of Croatia

May 25, 2015

Rain!

Every  day.  Day after day.   Hour after hour.  

Raining! Hard!

Will I ever see this city?

I do manage a slightly damp early morning stroll and find impressive Austro-Hungarian architecture.

When the sun makes a brief appearance, I venture up to the Antiques Market where I dig up some piano music.  I pause at a café and nurse a cappuccino while taking candid shots.

Longyearbyen

Svalbard (Spitsbergen)

August 7, 2015

Sawatdee krop,

I arrive at the airport in Longyearbyen.

It’s 10:00pm.

The evening sky is overcast.  The clouds are bright.

A young guide greets me at the airport.

“When does it get dark?” I ask him.

He smiles and responds, “This is as dark as it gets.”

“Wow! I know my geography.  I am above the Arctic Circle!” 

Grodno (Hrodna, Гродно, גראדנ)

Grodno Region

The Republic of Belarus (Белару́сь)

September 10, 2014

The Family Lifschitz: “Ich Baink Noch Grodno”

In 1902, Jehoshua Lifschitz bought a one-way ticket.  All the Lifschitz Family purchased travel tickets.  “One-way!”  Jehoshua’s brother Schmuel bought a one-way ticket as did his brother Yitzchak, his sister Lena and Jehoshua’s wife Pesha Tziril. Lifschitz nee Lubitsch.  I think she was a relative of Ernst Lubitsch, the German motion picure director who was born in Grodno.

They left Grodno, their home town, traveled overland   across the Russian Empire (horseback? cart? train?) to the Baltic Sea where they boarded a ship (more than one?) bound for the dangerous, often disease-ridden “steerage” crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.   The Atlantic crossing took at least eleven days.

The Lifschitz Family was not alone.  Between 1900 and 1914, eleven million immigrants from Europe made the crossing, 85 percent of them in steerage.  Steerage was the lowest fare and passengers sometimes were housed below the main decks of the ship.

Immigrants landed in New York, or Boston.  If they were sick, they may have been refused entry.  So some stayed aboard the ship and traveled to Galveston, Texas.

They arrived.  Most stayed.  They never looked back.