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47 degrees north, 28 degrees east

by Adrienne Wilson on

I never cease to tire when reading people’s wacky and bizarre tales found at the Degree
Confluence Project (DCP). You’re bound to find something new, another story, success and
adventure in finding possibly nothing, if only maybe yourself, a cow, a middle-class neighborhood in the burbs, or
maybe even a run in with border patrol. I envy these people, determined in their quests to seek out latitudes and
longitudes in spots tucked away in Romanian fields with a GPS device. And Romanian fields is exactly what
Phil Sharpe saw when he arrived at his latest confluence of
47 degrees north, 28 degrees east. The
area sits right outside of the Moldova border and is frequented by a passing farmer or two. Apparently Phil
hung around too long making brief simple Romanian conversation with a friendly old gentleman, while the last one he ran
into became pretty hostile. We’ll say poor communication.

His confluence story gets better as he makes a dash for the van and tells his partner to speed off only to be
greeted by the police up the road. They were overly suspicious of his high-tech camera, used to photograph the
confluence and his satellite photo of Romania and it’s bordering countries. Imagine trying to explain that to someone
in a foreign language. It’s plain hilarious and luckily things worked out for Phil and his pal who later took
a picture with the police.

Hands down, Phil has one of the best stories at DCP, I’ve seen in a long time.

Drinking Palinka

by Adrienne Wilson on

I haven’t a clue what just triggered this memory of drinking
Palinka, a home-made spirit distilled
from fruits like apricot and plum, but thinking back on the first time makes me laugh and
smile. The three of us gathered around a small table in the kitchen of one of the families we were building
for in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. After a long day of hammering (mostly my thumb) and working on new homes for and with our
gracious hosts in part of Habitat for Humanities International Global Village program the Palinka sounded like a great
idea. Our host family joked and said if you were sick the Palinka would be sure to make you feel better. None of us
were sick, but having never tried the Central European brandy we were all eager to take it down. Let’s just
say I’ll never forget that more slightly burning and warming feeling I encountered and they’ll never forget the
expression on my face.

With my memory of the Palinka in place I decided to do some hunting of where I could possibly get my hands on
some here or learn how to make some myself. Didn’t find any step-by-step instructions on how to create the beverage so
very loved in Hungary
and Romania, but I did see other topics of interest.

Check out this story on the battle between Hungary and Romania for the rights to the drink. If you ever plan on
heading to this part of the globe make sure you try some for yourself. In small portions of course.

Mount Athos

by Kelly Amabile on

Last week, Vladimir Putin took a previously cancelled
pilgrimage to a male-only monastic community on
Mount Athos in Greece. He visited the Russian Orthodox monastery of Saint
Panteleimon, pictured here, one of over 20 monasteries that make up Mount Athos, the oldest monastic republic still in
existence.

Located on the Athos peninsula of Chalkidiki, east of Thessaloniki, Mount Athos is home to over 1,500 monks of
Serbian, Bulgarian, Russian and Romanian decent, who are entitled to Greek and European citizenship, regardless of
their country of origin. By order of the protocol of the monastic state, only men are allowed to visit, and even female
animals are kept to a minimum on the Holy Mount. There are specific
instructions on how to request a visit to this center
of eastern orthodox monasticism, which looks like a beautiful place, although I guess I’ll never know…anyone ever
been?

The Macedonian Heritage site gives a
comprehensive history of the holy city, including descriptions of the art and architecture of the twenty distinct
monasteries. There is also a handy link
to Mark Dubin’s trekking guide 
of the region from a 1993 Lonely Planet guide book.

Prague Getting Packed

by Erik Olsen on

It was just a few days ago that I was talking about
Prague and the Velvet Revolution and how I regret, just a wee bit, the fact that I didn’t make the move there in the
early 90s (it sounds like it was so much fun). I was thinking when I wrote that that the whole Prague as tourist
destination thing was more or less holding steady, that with other places in Slovenia and Bulgaria and Romania opening
up, that Prague was seeing a decline in its visitation. Wrong.

According to this piece in the International
Herald Tribune (IHT), the numbers for Prague
tourism are skyrocketing. Yup, the annual number of tourists in the Czech Republic (7.4 million last year) is expected
to almost double within the next five years, according to the business research organization Eurobarometer. If
that pace continues, tourists will soon outnumber the Czech population of 10 million. And if it continues (that is, if
it doubles) every five years for the next 100 years, then (let’s see…where’s my calculator) the number of tourists
visiting Prague in 2105 will be 242 billion! Holy Kafka, Batman. That is going to make for some very crowded
bars.

Krakow’s Salt Mines

by Adrienne Wilson on

Salt mines might not ring a sound for an exciting stop on your next vacation, but the mines
found in Krakow are by all means worth a visit.  I’ve been to a salt
mine or two before in Romania, but they didn’t look anything like the ones found in this CNN piece. The
Wieliczka Salt Mines in
Poland are only a stones throw away from Krakow and it’s more like an underground city than anything. Not too
long ago the mines used to be a station for Nazi’s manufacturing aircraft parts, but these days it is used for
banquets, weddings, and conferences.

Galleries, chambers, lakes, murals, and ballrooms can all be found in the seven century old mine with extremely
unique designs. So unique that the mines have been protected by UNESCO since 1978 and nicely funded. Dazzling
chandeliers and figurines also made of salt crystals can be found nestled into the ceilings and the walls of
the mines.