chosenfugue

Croatia 2: The War and Mostar

this entry was imported in an older format and looks pretty bad, can’t change it. Every silver lining has a cloud. Dubrovnik is another European city that has been touched by war. It’s ironic and fitting that a Balkan area was chosen for some of the filming of the Game of Thrones; a series aboutContinue reading “Croatia 2: The War and Mostar”

Croatia 1: Dubrovnik on the rocks

Hannibal crossed the Alps on elephants, we used Easy Jet. Same comfort and trunk space with equally dramatic scenery, but no peanuts. The clouds conveniently parted on our flight, and the Alps appeared below, the definition of majestic, and a completely different view and feeling then flying over the Rockies or Sierra Nevada- our frames of reference. WeContinue reading “Croatia 1: Dubrovnik on the rocks”

Time for London

Christian Marclay\’s spellbinding installation \”The Clock\” is a 24 hour long montage of thousands of film and television clips of scenes with clocks, edited and synchronized to show real time. We had the fortune to stumble onto it at the Tate Modern Museum in London. Due to the crowds we were only able to watch itContinue reading “Time for London”

College tour and the Cotswolds

It\’s mid Fall, we\’re seniors, we don\’t know what we\’re doing next year. So, it\’s time for college tours. Oxford Cambridge Cambridge There are a lot of similarities between the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. Both are actually a collection of multiple colleges, up to 30+ in each place (Cambridge has 31, OxfordContinue reading “College tour and the Cotswolds”

Scarborough fair, moor or less

The Scarborough Fair, a popular song by Simon & Garfunkel in the \’60\’s is actually an old English ballad. The song is a dialogue between a man and a woman each asking the other to do impossible tasks before they can win the other\’s heart. For example, the woman must make him a shirt withoutContinue reading “Scarborough fair, moor or less”

Liverpool

The first thing the clerk asked us as we checked in to the hostel in Liverpool (the picture above), “Do you like the Beatles?”, but what was strange was as we walked down Lime Street, we kept hearing different Neil Young songs being played from the bars. Neil Young, the 5th Beatle? Well actually, everyoneContinue reading “Liverpool”

Bristol, Cardiff and Storm Callum

Bristol is a quick hour south of Gloucester, but what a difference an hour makes. In every European city we\’ve visited, we\’ve enjoyed the (usually) beautiful and vibrant pedestrian-only shop lined streets, associated with a square or cathedral or along the river (always a river in every town). Gloucester\’s city center, however, was visually anemic andContinue reading “Bristol, Cardiff and Storm Callum”

Wonders; man made and natural

This was written before the Word Press upgrade and it looks bad. Apologies. Our unplanned trip to England has allowed us to visit two sites we’ve longed to see. First was Stonehenge To get to Stonehenge we took a train north to neighboring town of Salisbury, a small town famous for the Salisbury Cathedral withContinue reading “Wonders; man made and natural”

Bonfires, Bands and Beaches in Eastbourne

Our first random location worked out well. Trying to balance out our Schengen time https://chosenfugue.xyz/2018/10/07/schengen/, looking for somewhere easily accessed after our 14 hour bus ride, on the coast and a faded, Victorian seaside resort. Bingo. A two hour layover in London, enough time for a walk past Buckingham Palace, buy adapters and a coffeeContinue reading “Bonfires, Bands and Beaches in Eastbourne”

Schengen

This is a bit of an update from our original post in 2018. In visa language “Schengen” translates to travel math. Actually it is a name of a town where an agreement was reached between European countries to allow free travel between without going through border control. For the tourist, Schengen is an area, prettyContinue reading “Schengen”