Psellus Does the Byzantine Commonwealth: My Balkan Adventures

Started by Queequeg, December 09, 2015, 09:22:01 AM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages1 2 3 4 5 6
User actions

Queequeg

December 09, 2015, 09:22:01 AM
Well

A lot of people I've encountered have suggested that I start a blog on my travels, so I think I'm going to use Languish as a kind of proto-blog for posting stories and whatnot.  I'll probably start with a longer recollection of my (horrible, terrible, nightmare-enducing) time in Vlore, Albania, but for now I'm planning on what to do in Hungary.  I'm leaving for Budapest from Belgrade on Monday, and I've never been in Hungary and don't know nearly as much about it as I do the Balkans.  Anyone have any Hungary tips? 
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

mongers

#1
December 09, 2015, 09:28:54 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on December 09, 2015, 09:22:01 AM
Well

A lot of people I've encountered have suggested that I start a blog on my travels, so I think I'm going to use Languish as a kind of proto-blog for posting stories and whatnot.  I'll probably start with a longer recollection of my (horrible, terrible, nightmare-enducing) time in Vlore, Albania, but for now I'm planning on what to do in Hungary.  I'm leaving for Budapest from Belgrade on Monday, and I've never been in Hungary and don't know nearly as much about it as I do the Balkans.  Anyone have any Hungary tips?

Fly in, what ever you don don't try crossing the land border, if necessary hide in the back of a truck, one of your nearly made Albanian friends might be able to help you. :)
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Savonarola

#2
December 09, 2015, 09:31:48 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on December 09, 2015, 09:22:01 AM
Anyone have any Hungary tips?

(Recycling this from a previous post)

If you can, see a symphony at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.  It's a beautiful hall and the Hungarian orchestras are excellent.  It's small, though, so get a reservation early.

I liked the National Gallery; but from what I remember the Hungarian artists seem to have an awfully gloomy outlook.

Buda Castle is a must see. 

I enjoyed the palatial coffee houses with Austrian pastries at Hungarian prices.

They sell candles shaped like Stalin at the Museum of Totalitarianism.  Make Languish proud, comrade.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Barrister

#3
December 09, 2015, 10:30:28 AM
My two favourite places in Budapest were the Terror House museum, and the big statue park with all the old communist monuments.  :)
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Queequeg

#4
December 19, 2015, 01:47:39 PM
Is Syt still in Vienna?
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

11B4V

#5
December 19, 2015, 01:56:11 PM
This thread is bullshit without pics. :mad:
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

katmai

#6
December 19, 2015, 02:06:21 PM
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Syt

#7
December 19, 2015, 02:07:29 PM
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Queequeg

#8
December 19, 2015, 02:53:22 PM
I'm going on Monday.
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

katmai

#9
December 19, 2015, 02:55:31 PM
Dang Syt, your calendar is booked with Languishites this Dec. :P
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Queequeg

#10
December 19, 2015, 03:46:34 PM Last Edit: December 19, 2015, 03:57:45 PM by Queequeg
https://www.instagram.com/concreteluvr69/

This is my Instagram if anyone is curious about my Balkan travels.  I can post some highlights. 


https://www.instagram.com/p/-wt7VSvGlA/?taken-by=concreteluvr69

This is Gardosh Tower, in Zemun.  It's one of my favorite buildings I've ever seen. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/-bq1bfPGuD/?taken-by=concreteluvr69

This is Grachanitsa, a wonderful Orthodox Cathedral dating to the Serbian Empire in the ethnic Serb enclave of Grachanitsa.  You can't really take photos inside most Orthodox churches.  In the case of the Pec Patriachate, however, I had a one-legged nun escorting me through the church and she was easily outfoxed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-YYcb-vGlY/?taken-by=concreteluvr69

This is Prizren.  It's probably the most scenic town in Kosovo, but it didn't feel as connected to the west as Pristina, and I had fewer friend there, and it seemed a lot more Macedonian Albanian in its religiousness and Ottoman-ness.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-TvA-TvGlw/?taken-by=concreteluvr69

I know some Albanians I am very fond of, but Albanians as a whole are insane.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-RH__VPGpD/?taken-by=concreteluvr69

This was maybe the best bottle of liquor I've ever had.  It was aged perfectly.  Sweet, relatively light, fruity, kicked like a mule with it's ass on fire.  We finished it in like, 40 minutes.  My second bottle was not as good, but the good monks made up for it with the wine.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-OBkg_PGkK/?taken-by=concreteluvr69

TAKE THAT ONE LEGGED NUN.
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

Syt

#11
December 20, 2015, 01:39:30 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on December 19, 2015, 02:53:22 PM
I'm going on Monday.

Aw, that's a shame - I would love to meet you, but this pre-Christmas week I'm pretty booked between work and social gatherings. :( I don't suppose you'll have another stop between Christmas and New Year's?
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

alfred russel

#12
December 20, 2015, 03:31:29 AM
I cant believe that no one got the concretelovr69 account name before you, spellus. Vonmoltke must be crushed.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

There's a fine line between salvation and drinking poison in the jungle.

I'm embarrassed. I've been making the mistake of associating with you. It won't happen again. :)
-garbon, February 23, 2014

Martinus

#13
December 21, 2015, 02:05:48 AM
What's a "Byzantine Commonwealth"?  :huh:

Admiral Yi

#14
December 21, 2015, 02:21:32 AM
Sounds like a Crusader Kings themed joke.
Print
Go Up Pages1 2 3 4 5 6
User actions