Eat, Sleep, Breathe, Travel

'Tis now the season for Christmas markets in Europe

With Thanksgiving behind us, it’s officially time to move on to the holiday season. In the town squares of Europe, this means one thing: Christmas markets.

Generally I’m not one to get overly excited about markets. I have nothing against markets, but I’m not a big shopper, I don’t particularly like browsing, and haggling is not my forte.

That all said, I do like Christmas markets in Europe, especially at night. As I’ve mentioned in this blog before, I lived in Prague for a couple of years, and there was a nice little Christmas market in Náměstí Míru, the small town square up the street from our apartment. There was something about the decorative lights and wooden stalls and folky Central European music and warm mulled wine and medieval setting and small figurines and little grilled meats that made me feel like I was in a storybook. And it’s nice to feel like you’re in a storybook every now and then.

The Christmas market tradition is huge in German-speaking Europe, where the custom originated hundreds of years ago. Wikipedia has a bunch to say on the subject. And this feature on the Time Out website offers a nice rundown of Europe’s best Christmas markets. Whether it's a huge market in the city's center, or any of the countless smaller markets in the little medieval town squares, I give a thumbs up to the Christmas market experience.

 

Photo: Swiv via Flickr (CC license)

Galileo’s fingers resurface in Florence

Some might call it grotesque, but today I’m going to tell you about Galileo’s fingers. For one, I like Galileo; his discoveries and theories changed science. And second, I like fingers; without them it would be much harder for me to type this blog.

Here’s the story:

Galileo, as you probably know, was a famous Italian physicist and astronomer. He invented the telescope, made important discoveries about the motion of objects, and is known as the “Father of Science.” He died in 1642.

Almost 90 years after his death, when his body was moved from a temporary monument to its final resting place in Florence, some people removed three of his fingers (plus a tooth). Why? As it turns out, the people who removed Galileo’s fingers were giving him a sort of saintly honor. Back in the day, it was common for people to remove saints’ digits, tongues and organs; these body parts were considered relics with sacred powers. So, even though Galileo’s controversial scientific beliefs caused great conflict with the Church during his life, his biggest fans held him in such high regard that they treated him like a sort of religious hero.

Eventually, two of the three fingers ended up in a glass jar (along with the tooth). This jar then disappeared around 1905, and its whereabouts remained unclear until recently, when a man bought the jar at an auction in Italy. The auctioneers clearly didn’t know the significance of this jar of fingers (otherwise they would have sold it for much more money), but the new owner was familiar with the story of Galileo, and he brought the jar to the Museum of History and Science in Florence, which happened to already have the third Galileo finger.

Galileo’s three fingers will be on display at the museum starting in March 2010. I’d be interested to see them. It’s not every day you get to look at the actual fingers that built the first telescope.

Photo: Garrettc via Flickr (CC license)

Prague; where Communism needs a museum

A couple days ago was November 17. It was on that day in 1989 that the masses organized in Prague’s Wenceslas Square, bringing about the ultimate end to Communism in Czechoslovakia. The mass gathering was the climax of a whole series of events, all of which became known as the Velvet Revolution. (I always thought that was a great name for a revolution.)

I lived in Prague for two years, teaching English, so I always notice when November 17 rolls around. Today, when I came across this video about the Museum of Communism in Prague, I was reminded of the time when I asked a couple of my Czech students (both in their mid-thirties) if they had been to the museum. To the Museum of Communism. They both gave me blank looks. They said they didn’t need to go to a museum about Communism; they grew up with it.

Good point.

I felt sheepish.

As for the museum itself, I think it’s one of the cooler spots in Prague, at least as far as sights and museums go (to me, the best part about Prague isn’t “sights” per se, it's just walking around and hanging out in the cool medieval streets, squares and parks all over the place). As that video shows, the museum does a great job recreating Czech life under Communism, so those of us who didn’t grow up in that kind of world can get a taste of what it was like.

Also, as the video points out, the museum is next to a McDonald’s. The irony.

Photo: THEfunkyman via Flickr (CC license)

Ghostly trees in London’s Trafalgar Square

I’m feeling green today (maybe because it’s “Green Week” on NBC, and I’m wearing a green shirt), so my 
eye was caught by a story about trees in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Square has always been a great place to meet up, hang out, protest something, or people-watch. This week it’s also a great place to look at giant trees from a Ghana rainforest and to reflect on what is happening to similar trees all over the world.

It’s all part of an environmental awareness art installation done by a woman named Angela Palmer. She calls it the “Ghost Forest,” because the trees are dead and there’s something creepy and dramatic about how they look lying on their sides in the middle of Trafalgar Square with their gangly roots showing. As Angela says, the roots sort of look like nerve endings. It’s a little morbid, maybe, but I think that’s the point.

There are ten of the trees in all, surrounding Nelson’s Column. They were all taken legally from a rainforest in Ghana, where 90 percent of the forest has been destroyed in the past 50 years. At night, green laser beams in Trafalgar Square show how tall the trees would be today if they hadn’t been cut down.

The Ghost Forest installation will only be in London for a week. After that, the trees are going to be shipped over to Copenhagen, where the world’s leaders are all meeting to talk about climate change.

Photo: Roberto Arantes via Flickr (CC license)

Records fall all over the world

Could you use a hug? If so, you should have been at London's St Pancras Tube station yesterday, where 112 hugging commuters broke the Guinness World Record for most people hugging for a minute.

The group hug was one of many new records broken on Guinness World Records Day, which has only been around since 2005. I guess it’s a way for Guinness World Records to call attention to itself, and for people around the world to come together in the name of breaking weird and obscure records.

For instance, in London a man broke the record for pulling a double-decker bus with his hair. In Auckland, New Zealand, a man blew a malteser candy 11.29 meters with a straw. Sadly, it was a disappointing day in Sydney, Australia, where they fell short of the world record for most people in bikinis. I'm sure it was fun anyway.

Milan, Italy had a big day. Not only was it the site of the longest ever platform-to-platform bike jump, it also saw a man set the record for the fastest to eat a bowl of pasta (one minute and thirty seconds).

Other records broken around the world included the most people in a sauna, the fastest 40-meter human wheelbarrow race, and the fastest time to peel and eat three lemons, among many others.

I always like when the world takes a moment to share an experience together, even if it's for nonsensical things. It’s a nice symbol of what we have in common, and it shows what fun we can have when we put aside our differences. And it's a great excuse to make the largest ever mosaic of Michael Jackson using paintbrushes standing on end.

Photo: akumi800 via Flickr (CC license)

A nice domino effect in Berlin

In case you missed it, yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Germany, this whole year has been one long celebration of November 9, 1989, the day it was announced that residents could travel freely between East and West Germany and Berliners went out and knocked down the Wall.

Yesterday’s festivities included speeches, parties, and plenty of reflection on what it all means, but one element of the day caught my attention the most: giant dominos.

As a kid I always liked setting up and knocking down lines of dominos. So when I saw that the organizers of the Berlin celebration had set up a giant domino spectacle to commemorate the fall of the Wall, my interest was piqued.

More than a thousand “dominos” were built for yesterday’s event, lined up for almost a mile along the line where the Wall once wound through Berlin near the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. The eight-foot-tall dominos were decorated by artists, cultural institutes, and local schoolchildren.

I think it's a very cool concept, and it looks like it was quite a sight to behold. The fall of the dominos, which took less than a minute to unfold, symbolized the fall of the Wall itself as well as the chain reaction it set off to bring about the end of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Yesterday was a good day in Berlin. And a good day for domino lovers.

Photo: Montero Sierra via Flickr (CC license)

Fear of flying? Get an iPhone

Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic have found a cure for the fear of flying. It’s an iPhone app called Flying Without Fear.

They say one out of every three adults has a fear of flying. That’s a shame, because it’s tough to travel to other continents without getting in an airplane. I hate to think of people missing out on seeing the world just because they can’t get there.

So this new Virgin Atlantic app sounds like a great idea to me. I don’t have an iPhone, and I’m not afraid of flying, so I won’t be using the app myself. But it definitely sounds cool.

It starts with a video of Richard Branson (the billionaire sort-of-eccentric chairman of all the Virgin companies). He eases your fears and tells you what to expect in your flight. Then you can access all kinds of frequently asked questions, with topics including airplane noises, turbulence, and so on. You also get relaxation and breathing exercises.

Like many fears and phobias, the fear of flying stems from people’s imaginations rather than any real danger. Flying, of course, is far and away the safest way to travel. But that doesn’t mean people have any less right to be scared. One of those people, it turns out, is none other than Whoopi Goldberg. Whoopi actually took Virgin's Flying Without Fear course, and she has heartily endorsed it. And if you can't trust Whoopi, who can you trust?

Photo: Jake Mates via Flickr (CC license)

No English spoken here

I’ve blogged about Eurovision before. That’s the biggest music competition in the world, the original American Idol.

But today I learned about another music competition in Europe, one with a unique take on Eurovision. It’s called Liet International, and it’s all about minority languages. A minority language is basically just a language spoken by a minority of the population in a region. Many of them are dying languages, spoken only by traditionalists and people’s grandparents.

This year’s Liet International competition took place this past weekend in Friesland, a province in northern Netherlands. Musical acts included everything from a Friulian guitarist to a Sardinian hip hop group known as Dr Drer & CRC Posse. In the end, top honors went to a Sami rock group called SomBy. They’re from northern Finland. The Sami are a people indigenous to Scandinavia, with their own Sami language and customs.

For most of the contestants, singing in the minority language of their homeland is an honor and an important homage to their cultural heritage. Many of the musicians dressed up in traditional clothing for their performances. I like this whole twist on a music competition. I like the idea of carrying on the culture of one’s ancestors, doing one's part to make sure that the customs live on. I also like watching people rap in low German.

In any event, now that I know about the Liet International competition, I’ll be sure to pay attention when it rolls around next year. My money’s on De fofftig Penns.

 
Photo: Sean Rogers1 via Flickr (CC license)

Summer's end for Celtics

Well, it’s just about Samhain time.

While the rest of us are dressing up like zombies and/or Elvis for Halloween, the traditional Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-en) will be honored in Ireland and other areas with a Celtic history.

Samhain is an old Celtic tradition, and a precursor to our modern Halloween. The word means “summer's end” and for the Celts it was the dawn of the new year. They believed that on this one day the boundary between the living and the dead was weak, so the dead could come and hang out. Some of these dead spirits would play tricks on the living people; others might even cause them harm. To appease these spirits, the druids in the society would sacrifice animals.

Today, people still celebrate Samhain as an homage to the old traditions (but as far as I know, they no longer sacrifice animals). In Dublin, there's an annual Samhain Parade to honor the day. The parade follows a path through the city, usually ending up outside the Temple Bar area. The spectacle involves all the things you’d expect from a parade celebrating a holiday that spawned Halloween: monsters, druids, dragons, samba performers. The festivities end with a stirring fireworks display.

It all sounds like a fun event to commemorate ancient Celtic traditions. But it does beg the question: where’s my candy?

Photo: readerwalker via Flickr (CC license)

Eight lanes of picnicking in Sydney

It’s not often you get to sit in the middle of one of the world’s most iconic bridges and eat toast and jam, but that’s exactly what 6,000 lucky people experienced yesterday in Sydney, Australia.

For two hours on Sunday, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was closed to traffic, covered in real green grass, and turned into a giant picnic. The purpose of the Breakfast on the Bridge event was pure fun, which is a great reason for anything. It was also intended to raise publicity for Sydney tourism, which can only lead to more fun.

This video provides a nice overview of the event. The video shows everything from panoramic helicopter views, to interviews with government officials and picnic-goers, to a girl petting a large cow.

By all accounts, the picnic was a great success. I, for one, support these kinds of events, if only because I like the idea of temporarily turning functional city space into something other than what it’s meant for. As I write this, and as you read it, there are undoubtedly many cars driving on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. But less than 48 hours ago it was covered in grass and breakfast eaters.

It makes you wonder what similar events and attractions could be featured in other cities. Maybe a twisty slide down the Eiffel Tower. Or a movie projected against the side of Buckingham Palace. Or water polo in Venice’s Grand Canal. The possibilities are endless.

Photo: Rgtmum via Flickr (CC license)