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Here's some photos from my summer 2007 trip to Peru.. yes, I'm just getting caught up on all of that! :)
JB
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Hello,
I'm writing to you from a country that doesn't officially exist (Craig should love this one). I'm currently in Tiraspol in the 'country' of Transdniestr (aka Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika) - a breakaway region of Moldova that declared independence over a decade ago. It functions as a country, has its own borders, currency, government, police force, army, etc. but does not have general international recognition.
At any rate, it's a bit of a Soviet time-machine as things haven't changed that much here - it has been referred to one of the last true bastions of communism. Getting across the border is a bit of a delicate situation requiring extended "diplomacy". There's speakers high up on the lamp posts that play (sometimes) inspirational Soviet tunes while you walk around the main street - this gives it a pretty neat ambience. I get to practice decoding Cyrillic signs again, always a good laugh as you sound out a regular word in a very weird way, then try to figure out what you just said to yourself.. this often leads to some hilarious realizations.
Anyway, I was only granted entrance to the country for a few hours, so I don't want to spend all of it in this dungeon of an internet cafe - talk to you later..... :)
Thanks,
jay |
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OK, so I don't post on here often anymore, but what the hell. Maybe some of you haven't been keeping up with our travels on Facebook, so I thought I'd drop a quick line here (i.e. friend me on Facebook!).
Right now the Broersmas are in Sighisoara, Romania (i.e. Transylvania, the very medieval town where the famous Vlad Tepes aka Vlad the Impaler, later aka Dracula was born), very cool! We've been on the road for a month now, starting in Kiev, Ukraine - what a great city! I managed to get within less than 100 m of Chernobyl Reactor #4, very cool for a physicist - more on that another time. After Kiev, we have travelled through Minsk, Belarus, then Krakow, Poland. From there on to Prague, Czech Republic and Bratislava, Slovakia, then Budapest, Hungary - one of my favourite cities of the trip - we spent an entire week here. From Budapest we took the night train to Brasov, Romania, and here we are... one month later, one more to go!
So travelling with Juliana is not that difficult for the most part. She loves to travel and loves to look at all the new people we meet. She's always flirting with someone-or-other. The one thing I have noticed that has changed is that we need to arrange things a few days in advance instead of just showing up, to ensure that we receive reasonable accommodation at a reasonable price (i.e. sleeping on the floor of the bar isn't an option at this time!). This means too much time on the internet trying to find places to stay, but oh well, such are the trade-offs.
Anyway, I'll be making a real comeback in the Scrabble scene come this new year (my year starts in September, for those not in the know....). Gotta run, talk to y'all soon!
-JB |
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Isn't it wonderful when two people you love get married to each other? I had such a great time tonight. Nice.
-JB |
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This summer I will be visiting this place. Many people believe I am crazy for doing so, and I suppose that is their right (perhaps you also agree with this viewpoint). As a physicist, I can gain special access and get much closer than the few brave (stupid?) people who come on organized expeditions. I'm not sure how close I really want to get, to be honest. To be perfectly frank, the standard 100 m seems more than close enough.
Recently I have often been asked why I would want to put myself at risk to visit this dreadful place whose concrete sarcophagus contains the most fouled environment on Earth, whose very existence destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and continues to do so to this day, exacting the most sinister pain and suffering from those who fall victim to its vile effluence. I'm not sure that my answer would be all that different as to why I went to see the exhumed bodies in the mass graves of Rwanda. Why do people go to see Auschwitz and Birkenau, Hiroshima or the WTC site in New York? I'm not so sure that it's a macabre fascination with death, but perhaps for some it fulfils the need to be humbled and have put life back into perspective from time to time. Perhaps we need to be reminded of humanity's lowest points in order to appreciate the rest. Or perhaps we're just twisted and sick.
-JB |
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