ODESSA UKRAINE
Known as “Pearl of the Black Sea”, the city was founded by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. It was named for the Greek city. It is unique for a Ukraine city. Its historical architecture has a style more Mediterranean than Russia. Odessa has some of the most notable buildings and statues. A statue of Catherine the Great is one of the city’s central landmarks. The theater is considered one of the world’s finest opera houses, having acoustics that allow even a whisper from the stage to be heard. The residents have traditionally been wealthy.
PALOUSE COUNTRY
Palouse not only offers great photographic landscape opportunities with its rolling hills, but it is adorned with barns and other farm buildings dotting the fields—many structures are abandoned and on the verge of decay. The time had come for me to make that a destination when I learned that the old barns were rapidly disappearing. I wanted to witness and photograph this place before it was transformed.
Unlike so much of agricultural America, this 4,000 square-mile Palouse rolls, undulates, and presents a textured patch-work quilt of greens, browns, and yellows. The little town of Colfax absorbs most of the overnight guests.
PORTUGAL AND SPAIN
Lisbon, a city of history and mouments, is one of the oldest cities in Europe founded in the 12th century. The Castelo de St. Jorge, a citadel sitting atop a medieval fortification, can be viewed throughout the city. Cable cars glide from the lower to the upper part of the city. We visited Sintra, the ancient summer retreat of the royals.
A side trip took us to Salema on the Algarve coast then on to Seville for a flamenco lesson. Further stops included Ronda (first bull fight ring), La Alhambra (gardens), Ubeda (olive oil), Toledo (gold), Madrid (Royal Palace), and Barcelona (Gaudi), Figueres (Dali), and Girona (Roman walls).
PROVENCE
Painters have used Province as a source of inspiration since prehistoric times, Van Gogh, for example. There is something special about the light-defused landscapes. Other draws are the Roman ruins, arches, aquaducts, and columns; the French villages, with their shop windows and markets; the abbeys, the sunflowers, and the never-ending fragrant lavender fields.
The Camargue is a region of wetland and wildlife bordering the Mediterranean, which supports a large flamingo population. The white Camargue horses are sometimes used in the bullfight. Arriving at Chateaureynard on July 14th Bastille Day, we participated in the celebration.
ROME & POMPEII
Rome’s history pans 28 centuries while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC. Famous artists, painters, sculptors, and architects made Rome the center of their activity, creating enduring masterpieces throughout the city, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Forum, and Vatican City.
In 76 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupted killing approximately 2000 people. It buried the city of Pompeii in eight to nine feet of volcanic ash. Toxic gases were expelled. Bodies were encased in hardened ash in the exact position they were in at the moment. Mt. Vesuvius continues to be an active volcano.
RUSSIA
St. Petersburg, a magnificent imperial capital, is a city of 101 islands. It is bright, sunny, and surrounded by water on the Gulf of Finland. It is home of the Hermitage, the Summer Palace of Peter the Great, St. Issac’s cathedral, and the Church of Resurrection Of Jesus Christ. Along the river were the villages of Yaroslavl, Kizhi, Goritsy, Mandrogui, and Uglich finally arriving in Moscow from the Neva to the Volga.
In Moscow’s core is the Kremlin, home to the president and tsarist treasures in the Armoury. Outside its walls is Red Square, the home to Lenin’s Mausoleum and St. Basil’s Cathedral, with its colorful, onion-shaped domes.
SOUTH BEACH
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach. Other names are The Blue & Pink, The Beach, The American Riviera, The Sun and Fun Capital of the World. In the 1930’s, an architectural revolution arrived bringing Art Deco and Nautical Moderne architecture. “Until the 1980’s Miami Beach was a peculiar mix of criminals, Cubans, and little old ladies.” While many of the Art Deco buildings were lost to developers, an area of almost one square mile was saved as a cohesive unit by a group of activists.
SRI LANKA
Flying into Colombo, we stayed at the Galle Face Hotel, a heritage hotel over 100 years old. In the morning we flew into Jaffna in a Russian plane. There were scars remaining from the recent civil war against the Tamils. The ancient city of Anuradhapura was founded in the 6th century BC. The Lion Rock crouches in red splendor, another UNESCO site.
In Kandy we attended the Perahera festival, a procession of decorated elephants moving the Buddha’s tooth from one temple to another. The disappearing Veddah tribe prepared a meal for us consisting of deer meat buried for weeks and served raw.
STEAM PUNK
Steampunk is a trend using fiction or science fiction emphasizing anachronistic technology. The era of H. G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and Jules Verne is often its basis in literature. It denotes works when steam power was still widely used. There, the time is set in Victorian era England or the American Wild West. A typical outfit may include leather vests, Victorian bustiers, safari clothing, monocles, backpack time machines, weaponry, jewelry based on technology. Science fiction writers were the first to speculate on the development of steam-based technology or alternative histories.
THAILAND
Probably the most remarkable sights in the country are the Buddhist temples. Wat Pho is Bangkok’s largest and oldest surviving temple dating back to the 16th century. The Reclining Buddha inside is one of the largest Buddha statue. This gold Buddha is 150 feet long and 50 feet high. Monks are omnipresent since many boys go into the monastery at least for a few years Monks serve the community and in return are supported by it.
The Chao Phraya River cuts through Bangkok. There are houseboats for living space and with the tangle of traffic the river can be an alternative form of transportation.
TURKEY
Ephesus, one of the largest Roman archeological sites in the world, was named for the Temple of Artemis (550bc), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Now only a single column remains. The often photographed Library of Celsus has been partially rebuilt. Istanbul is the largest European city. It spans two continents connected with the Bosphorus Bridge. The Tapkapi Palace was the home of the Ottoman Empire with its 100-room Imperial Harem residence. Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar are also within the city.
VARNA, BULGARIA
Varna is a seaside resort situated on the Bulgarian Black Sea. It was historically known as Odessos as in the ancient Greek.
We visited the home of “peasants” in Mada and were greeted at the door with a pull of bread dipped in sauce as a welcoming gesture. The table was spread with local delicacies, and the wife demonstrated how to prepare the famous Bulgarian banista (cheese and egg pie).
Outside the village is one of Bulgaria’s most famous sites. At the end of a wooded trail winding up the Madera rocks is the 8th century relief of the Madara Horseman with his dog. A UNESCO site, he is featured on the cent coin.