Another beautiful weekend in Maine
A few perfect fall days
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I have lived in this part of Germany for roughly sixteen months over the last 8 years, and the natural beauty of the place still astonishes me. I went to the Münsterplatz Market on Saturday and enjoyed a lovely evening in the Black Forest Town of Waldkirch that evening. Yesterday, I went to the Freiburg Schlossberg Festival and caught a great snap of the sunset.
I was so excited to finally visit New Lanark, the home of Robert Owen’s utopian socialist experiments in the early 19th century. This place could be seen as the birthplace of every social movement to improve the working conditions of industrial workers in the last 200 years.
Since it was early April, the place was very empty and we spent a few hours wandering around the exhibits and really reading everything. It was the perfect day trip from Glasgow.
I’ve just returned from a quick dash to Sofia to do some research in the National Library, celebrate my ex-mother-in-law’s 85th birthday, and write a little about how the country still celebrates 8 March as International Women’s Day. It was a very busy and over scheduled trip, with visits to three history museums, but I am always happy to be back in Bulgaria, even if only for such a short while.
The beginning of my spring break…
A perfect Sunday morning diversion. Glorious weather.
Last Friday and Saturday I visited the source of the Danube River in the town of Donaueschingen (the Donau is the German name of the Danube) as well as the beautiful Sigmaringen Castle which towers over it a bit further downstream.
On July 4th, I visited the “Karl Marx and Capitalism” exhibition at the German History Museum in Berlin, twice in one day. I did the exhibition first in the morning, and then went back in the afternoon for the guided English tour. It was a really good exhibition, and remarkably well put together and thought out. It was very text heavy, so there weren’t a lot of images, but I enjoyed the presentation of Marx’s ideas within the context of their time.
The German History Museum also conducted an interesting survey of Germans and their opinions of Marx in 2021. Not surpassing, the East Germans have a much more positive vision of Marx than those in the West. I am posting some highlights of the exhibit here, but if you happen to be in Berlin this summer, it is well worth a visit.
So after a week of COVID isolation, I tested negative just in time for the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Since I was not at home in the U.S. to hit the streets for a protest, I went to Christopher Street Day in Freiburg instead. We also went to a massive flea market (and I bought three new typewriters) and on Sunday we went to to see the Marriage of Figaro at the Stadttheater Freiburg. Lots of escapism!
And I found a great article about Alexandra Kollontai!
Since I have a lecture at the European University Institute on December 8th, I needed to first come to Greece because the Italians won’t let me in from Serbia. So I am taking in some sights outside and trying to avoid the crowds. Thankfully, late November is the low season in Athens, and most of the famous sites are relatively empty. And the weather is glorious.
Yesterday, on my hunt for information about Yugoslav typewriters, I found myself at ADLIGAT, the Society for Culture, Art and International Cooperation in Belgrade. This place is a bibliophile’s dreamland; they have over one million books and various exhibits and displays about book cultures from around the globe. They also have an impressive number of typewriters on display, many which belonged to famous writers, including the wonderful UNIS tbm de Luxe, which was manufactured in Bugojno from 1971 to 1991 under a German license and was exported with 92 different keyboards to nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I’m told they have more than 100 machines in storage, and I am lobbying for a special typewriter room! Below are some photos from my visit, but they simply cannot do justice to the magical nature of the place. Visit if you can!