The comeback kid: Europe!

by Jerry Guo on

That’s the conclusion reached by columnist Paul Krugman in today’s New York Times. He argues that Europe is actually doing much better than what lots of pundits and politicians in the states are making it out to be. Case in point: employment has increased more in Europe than stateside since 2000.

We’ve of course seen more concrete evidence of this recently, in all of our postings about European travelers coming to New York for bargain shopping. It’s a fact now that the Euro is rivaling the dollar in world dominance, and that the European economy is just about as big as the US economy.

Krugman’s column ultimately argues that it’s possible to have your cake–and eat it too. The Europeans have universal health-care and a guaranteed safety net for the poor, but they’ve managed to do this without having their economy go down the drain. As for Americans, we’ll always have our cute version of Europe: Canada!

33-year old Czech woman is a 13-year old boy in Norway

by Iva Skoch on

If there is anything to learn from this truly bizarre case, it should be “do not overestimate cultural differences.”

Barbora Skrlova, 33, duped Norwegian police, classmates, child care workers and teachers for four months into believing she was a teenage boy named “Adam”. She went to school and all.

The kids in “his” classroom thought the boy was a “little strange”, but since they were brought up to be tolerant of different cultures, they didn’t think much of it.

The masquerade in Norway was just Barbora’s attempt to escape from an investigation in her home country, the Czech Republic where she was a key witness in a child abuse scandal. Wait, it gets worse.

Last year, Skrlova was found at a house in the Czech Republic during a raid by police investigating the child sex abuse case. At that time, she–successfully–posed as a 13-year-old girl called Anicka.The adults involved were said to be members of The Grail Movement, which follows the teachings of a 19th century German mystic.

A couple of days ago, she was deported from Norway back into the Czech Republic where she is being investigated.

Spain versus Portugal. Can we get along?

by Iva Skoch on

Before going to Portugal for New Year’s, we were advised that we shouldn’t even try to speak Spanish there. If you don’t speak Portuguese, stick with English because the Portuguese don’t like using Spanish, even if they speak it.

I didn’t realize how deep is their resentment toward the Spanish until I saw this sign spray-painted on a building in Alfama, Lisbon.

I feel for you, Portugal. In the early nineties, there were similar signs in Prague: “Shut up, or stay in Germany.”

Want to get around the Prado Museum line?

by Iva Skoch on

I promise I will stop writing about the painfully long lines everywhere you look in Madrid, starting with the lottery lines to the King’s cake line, but seriously…look at this line at the Museo Nacional del Prado. People as far as the eye can see! I haven’t seen a line of art lovers this long even at the Louvre.

Granted, Prado is an amazing museum featuring one of the finest art collections in the world and I understand people want to see it. What I cannot understand is why everyone is waiting in line (for up to 8 hours, I hear) to purchase tickets if you can get tickets online and bypass the line entirely.

Please, do Velazquez a favor, and do not give up on him. Next time you are in Madrid, go to an internet cafe, buy a ticket in advance and get around the people who clearly enjoy queuing up.

Dakar Rally, another victim of terrorism

by Iva Skoch on

On our way from Portugal to Madrid last week, we saw a lot of trucks on their way to Lisbon for the annual Dakar Rally (previously Paris-Dakar). Unfortunately, the next day, they got the sad news that the Dakar Rally was canceled for the first time ever, because of terrorism.

Four French tourists were murdered in Mauritania on December 24 and nine of the Dakar Rally stages happen to go through Mauritania. The organizers feared they couldn’t provide sufficient security.

As an alternative, Dakar Rally organizers are considering a race through central Europe this spring. Czechs are big fans of the rally so I am sure they would be psyched, but replacing a race through the Sahara desert with a race through some “bad roads of Europe” is kind of a stretch, isn’t it?