Updates from a Couple of Stragglers!

Well it is good to post some further updates – keep them coming. Bernardka has surfaced (if I had looked later on Facebook I would have seen she has been on holiday), and we have a lovely update from Hans and Margaret …..

Hi Tom,

Margaret and I just read your blog. Nice to be updated on what everybody is doing! Since the Via Egnatia walking experience we spent quite some time working around the house and in the garden. For a few days we visited Athens where we attended a presentation of a special issue of a French journal (Migrance) which is devoted to migration from and to Greece. It has an article by me. We used the opportunity to see some friends, visit a few musea and attend a concert. We also visited the Dutch Institute in Athens and talked there about the Via-Egnatia Project. Maybe they can help us in some – certainly limited – way.

The stunning view from Hans and Margarets house in the Pelion

We have a beautiful house here in Milies (Greece) with a very nice view and get quite some visitors from spring till autumn. Next week we will have 8 people here: one of our two daughters with her friend and our three grand-daughters, plus two other people. So that is what keeps us busy for the moment … and the near future as well: visitors. With some friends we hope to revisit Albania in September. By the way if some of you will ever visit the peninsula where we live (Pilion or Pelion), don’t hesitate to visit us.

 As some of you will know, at the Bitola conference of the VE Foundation a few ‘working groups’ were established. One deals with migration in the VE region. As coordinator of the group I have been spending also some time contacting people, making and discussing plans for our activities. But – I must confess – we are still in the beginning of our work … there is still a lot to do.

Have a nice month, as the Greeks say at the first day of a new month,

Hans

Bernardka confirms that she no longer has that job in the museum in Macedonia. The work was too much for her. She updates us as follows:

Bernardka relaxes on Lošinj - best foot forward?

“Since I came home from Ireland I did nothing very special. had some interviews for my diploma,  I did a day trip to Krnsko lake (in the Alps), sometimes I enjoyed sweet doing nothing… I was very honoured, because my cousin named her newborn baby after me… so we have little Bernardka now:) (Tom Edit – this is very concerning; two Bernardkas! Sounds like there is trouble ahead)

And now…I just came home from Lošinj, Croatian island (ps. I love Croatia:), where I spent a great weekend with my family and boyfriend. Now I am doing ordinary stuff like talking to my grandmothers for hours and playing with my cousins and reading, cycling…

And I am looking forward to see Mateja and Ines again and Mirjam…”

Bernardka

 

 

I think I may have mentioned I was going to the coast yesterday. The weather forecast was wrong and the cloud did not clear as promised. Nevertheless we had a great day on Dorset’s Jurassic coast at the beautiful Lulworth Cove (if you visit England it is a must), and I did swim in the sea with my daughter; we were the only ones to brave it!

A cold swim!

Lulworth Cove looking West

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July Roundup – What Have We Been Doing?

Spoonbill at Lake Mikri Volvi – by Lia

Lia’s having a wonderful and peaceful time in Greece ….

Hallo Tom, nice to hear from you!

Well, just yesterday I went out to a lake to take some pictures and I send you some… It’s from Lake Volvi, near Thessaloniki. It was a wonderful day, and the contact with the nature filled me with energy!

Wader at Lake Mikri Volvi – by Lia

Two weeks ago I spent a week in Buddhist monastery on a mountain in Halkidiki (again near Thessaloniki). It was again a wonderful experience. Learning how to love, to feel compassion about the other people and the whole nature.

After that, I am trying to find what to do with vacations (15-30 August).

That’s all for now. Greetings to everybody, hope you have a good time for the rest of the summer!

Lia

Tim Lunt has been busy …

For the blog, the story so far this summer is :

• Ryanair to Latvia for midsummer with lots of beaches, bonfires and beers
• attended younger daughter Alice’s graduation in Dietetics (see picture). Now she has to find a job !)

 

• sold my car to older daughter Clara
• went to see a Shakespeare play at the Globe theatre in London
• been on some geophysics searches for roman roads in Somerset
• weeded the allotment, painted the windows etc …

Regards to All,

Tim

 The Peace Corps is such hard work for Karen …

I’ve been having fun entertaining visitors from the United States but believe it or not I did do some “work”.  I was a counselor at a girls leadership camp here in Macedonia and it was a great experience.  Not only did the girls learn new leadership skills they became friends with other ethnicities…for many of them they made their first Albanian/Macedonian friend.  I had 10 girls in my cabin and one senior counselor – we had alot of fun and not much sleep – about 5-6 hours per night.   I’ve attached a photo of the girls holding me…not sure why they wanted to do it and it was a bit scary – but I decided to trust them and let them do it.

 

Hope you and everyone else are doing well!

Karen

 Ines has been travelling but had some bad luck …

I just came from Czech republic. me and Jure (my boyfriend and husband at once) spent there three weeks in different places (Česke Budejovice, Boubinsky Prales, Praha, Trinec, Brno and Kiyov) around the state. We liked it very much especially the beer (which has high quality), and in Moravia they produce a lot of wine and slivovica (rakija). With pleasure I would send you some photos, but someone stole our camera 😦

I am now going home and most of the August I will spend there, working on fields with vegetables.
What about you? Aha I will read it on blog 🙂

Greetings from Ljubljana,

Ines

Despite a tourism downturn in Ohrid, Katerina is busier than ever …

Hey there Tom,

For me , very fortunately, this tourist season is better than the last one. I don’t know how or why, but I have more work than I did last summer. I hope it stays that way. There are less tourists in Ohrid, that is true, but probably that is bigger problem for those who are used to having thousands of tourist. For me and my micro company and small tours, this season turns out to be great so far.

Katerina

 Mirjam is doing nothing and everything …

I’m not really doing anything right now. Just enjoying summer and spending time on the beach or in way overcrowded city (seems like tourists didn’t hear about all the financial crisis going on). Ok, I also started to study a little bit for exams in September.

In the middle of August I’m going to some village on Croatian- Slovenian border for a ethnological and documentary workshop on influence of Schengen border on life of people living there and I’m really looking forward to see Slovenian crew once again.

But the thing that  occupies me the most these days is waiting for interview for a job in kindergarten on one of the islands. I wanted that kind of job because I would like to try living on island (all the isolation seems so perfect for me right now) and I have a degree in preschool education so this would be a great opportunity to get some experience. There is really not a lot people living on islands (meaning not a lot of children and kindergartens) so this kind of job opens up once in a really long time. But it seems like they already promised someone a job and I’m calling and being kind of annoying just to get a chance. Hope it works out. Interview should be in 3 days unless they postpone it…again!

Hehe for someone not doing anything I sure write a lot, and I can’t wait to hear about others.

Sorry about me being so slow and lazy, I’m in a process of accepting Mediterranean way of life 😉 As you can see I’m doing great.

Mirjam

… Snippets from Facebook etc …

Benson Siwek (honarary VEF’er) has just climbed Mount Olympus in Greece

Carl Hagen hosted a 4th July party and VEF reunion at his house in Holland (on 4th July!)

Holger is still working on the technical report which is a long and detailed piece of work.

Marietta has been working out how to attract funding for the VEF and I am sure we will hear more of this soon.

Christina Kontaxi has been on holiday and has attended a number of environmental events in Greece.

Franz Hazelzet has still had no firm offers for the paintings; I am thinking seriously about it but if you are interested please get in touch with him.

Stellian has been spotted at a fancy dress party, at which Lina was also in attendance. Lina has a new job designing jewellry which looks really cool http://www.laloorna.com/ . I guess Ivan and Nayden are busy with their field schools at the moment as you can see from their website .

Wim has also been looking at ways to fund projects and Mirsa has been giving many concerts and has been in touch with the school at Dardhe with news to come of that at some later date I am sure.

There has not been much sign of Bernardka since she came back from her trip with her Scouts to Ireland; maybe the Leprechauns took her? There was a report of her working at a museum in Macedonia but this cannot be verified.

Bernardka’s New Job?

Laura seems to be busy but as my Italian is only slightly better than my almost non-existant Greek I can’t update you, but I am sure she is happy.

Mateja is very busy and has just celebrated her birthday (29 July). She was working hard on her dissertation but has now been to lots of events and appears to be singing as much as she can.

Over to me. It has been a month of very hard work. As we have had generally lousy weather in July I have not missed much by being indoors. I was lucky enough to have five days with my (almost all grown up) children in Fort William and Glencoe at the start of the month, climbing many mountains in good weather, and drinking in some of the wildest bars in Scotland, with great music playing; yes I embarrassed them by dancing. Of course I have also been enjoying the Ashes cricket matches, with England doing very well so far.

Patrick, Hannah, Harriet & Tom – Ben Nevis in background

I have had a lot of form filling to do with my eldest daughter and my son who both want to join the Army as officers after university; my daughter to be a doctor and my son to join the Infantry. With the war in Afghanistan having taken over 20 British soldiers’ lives this month that fills me both with pride and some trepidation, but it has to be done.

Ines’ mountain marathon in June has inspired me to enter for the Karrimor mountain marathon in October which will take place ‘somewhere in Wales’; I should hear soon if I have a place.

Finally, let’s all try to keep in touch one way or another, be it by email, Facebook or this blog. I know that the Via Egnatia Foundation is developing its plans and we can all play a part in that over the coming months. There is a lot of work to do, and I am sure Marietta would appreciate any support or assistance that you can give. We need to be ready to do more work next year as things move forward with greater momentum. My apologies if I have missed people out of this update, but I only have certain information. Be sure to mail me next time!

 

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Via Egnatia Desert Island Discs

On the best radio station in the world, BBC Radio 4 – you can get it on the internet and satellite – we have a programme called “Desert Island Discs” . It was first broadcast in 1942 and has had many famous people on it including princes, princesses, presidents, scientists, musicians, sports people, and actors. Anyone famous or leading in their field. The guest has to choose the eight pieces of music they would take with them to their desert island.

I thought about some of the music I listened to on the Via Egnatia and the music that made me think of those wonderful times we had. Here are my Via Egnatia choices, linked to YouTube. I hope you enjoy them.

Maybe you can think of what you would take with you if cast away; eight records only mind, and at the end you have to choose just one to rescue as the tide sweeps up the beach and washes the rest away!

The Dubliners – Seven Drunken Nights (very old!)

I learned this song with my Irish family although I sometimes stumble over the verses (it was the horse I was missing). Memories of a great night in Broshka, and this is specially for Kate.

 

 

 

 Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star (1979)

I played this whilst sitting in the sun at Elbasan waiting to go the hot springs with Tim and Wim, anticipating the Albanian Virgins. It brought back a lot of memories of a long hot summer when I was sixteen.

 

 

 Afion – Anadolka (2008)

Whilst I did not have this music with me, I have been introduced to it since my return by Mateja and Bernardka. Afion play traditional Croatian, Macedonian and Bosnian songs and are very engaging. This song has a gently building tempo which reminds me of the build up of dance tempo at Dardhe.

 

 

 Simon and Garfunkel – Kathy’s Song (1965)

I had not listened to Simon & Garfunkel for such a long time, but their music on my iPod really affected me in Albania. Whilst Homeward Bound was often on my mind, this is my favourite; a wonderful love song, performed brilliantly.

 

 

  End of the Final Antiphon of the Kneeling Vespers – Capella Romana (2005)

I was really intrigued to learn early on that Nayden sang Byzantine chant. It is something that I have grown to like over the last year, particularly after seeing Capella Romana at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Hagia Sophia, in London. I wanted to offer “The Fall of Constantinople” as it was on my mind and the anniversary fell in May, but all I could find is this, which is still very good.

 

 Going Back – Dusty Springfield (1966)

Dusty Springfield was one of the most successful female artists of the 1960s. She also saw success with the Pet Shop Boys in the 1980s. She died of breast cancer in 1999. Her sensual voice made her a successful soul artist. Her voice gets right through you and her songs are some of the best ever written by the leading song writers Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Carole King etc. Bacharach kept writing for her. This song is for those of us who feel younger than we are Karen. I listened to her most days on the walk.

  Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones (1971)

Needing no introduction this is the opening track from the brilliant 1971 album “Sticky Fingers” – the original LP had a pair of jeans with an actual zip as I recall. This is the song that we should have played late at night at the bar in Radozda but they did not have it. Let’s rock!

 

 

 Sweet Home Alabama – Lynard Skynard (1974)

This is classic American rock and was inspired by the great Neil Young. There are controversial references to Alabama Governer George Wallace who supported segregation, but the band said “The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn’t notice the words ‘Boo! Boo! Boo!’ after that particular line.” We danced to this at the Jazz & Blues bar in Ohrid on our final, momentous party night. Karen still listens to it on her balcony.

 

 

 

 

 On the desert island you are allowed one luxury. I thought about this for a while. Apart from the Angels singing to me, having a bag of clothes to change into, or that great Macedonian Alexandria wine, I decided to go for a guitar and a teach yourself guitar book so I could strum away whilst waiting to be rescued.

You are given the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare and must choose a book. I chose the Complete History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich, which would never fail to keep me entertained, and his good humour would come through, even in the parts about the bad emporers.

Finally, the cruellest blow of all, you are asked to choose the one record you would rescue as the sea swept in. This is just too hard, but I had to choose one and it would probably be Kathy’s Song. I could happily listen to that every day until the boat came to rescue me.

What are your Via Egnatia Desert Island Discs?

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