Tag: europe
-
K IS FOR KOMÁRNO, SLOVAKIA AND KOMÁROM, HUNGARY
K IS FOR A KLUTZ IN KOMÁRNO, SLOVAKIA AND KOMÁROM, HUNGARY Miro had arranged to meet her on the Elisabeth Bridge at midday. Before leaving the house he double-checked he had the ring in his jacket. The box caught in his pocket as he pulled it out, he fumbled it, dropping it to the floor…
-
J IS FOR JYVÄSKYLÄ, FINLAND
A STORY OF JEOPARDY IN JYVÄSKYLÄ Jyväskylä is the Athens of Finland, so they say, due to its role as an educational centre. It was the name given to it in the The Kalevala, the epic poem of collected folk lore and songs by Elias Lönnrot that is considered the national epic of Finland. Juriitta was…
-
H IS FOR DEN HAAG (THE HAGUE), NETHERLANDS
A LETTER OF HOPE FROM DEN HAAG (THE HAGUE), NETHERLANDS 28th July 1899, Den Haag, Netherlands My Darling Alix, I hope you are keeping well in my absence, and that our new arrival, Maria Nikolaevna is not giving you sleepless nights. I long to be back with you and our girls in the Motherland and…
-
G IS FOR GLASGOW, GREAT BRITAIN
A STORY OF THE GARDEN FESTIVAL IN GLASGOW, GREAT BRITAIN It had been a glorious summer. Glasgow didn’t get many of them. Perhaps it was fate that the year of the Garden Festival was the warmest and driest summer that anyone could remember. The festival was meant to regenerate the wastelands that had been left…
-
F IS FOR FAMAGUSTA, CYPRUS
A STORY OF FOLLY IN FAMAGUSTA, CYPRUS ‘Not even Turkish Cypriots are allowed in,’ my guide Ferhat tells me as we peer through the barbed wire. Beyond lies a golden beach, straight out of a tourist board advert with the deep blue Mediterranean lapping gently on the shore. Look closer though and things don’t look…