Another beautiful weekend in Maine

A few perfect fall days

Photos from Freiburg and Waldkirch, Germany

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.

Day trip to New Lanark in Scotland, a UNESCO world heritage site

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.

Photos from my quick trip to Glasgow for the 2023 BASEES meetings

The last weeks have been crazed as I made a mid-semester dash to Glasgow to present a paper at the 2023 meetings of the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies. I had some time to walk around Glasgow and visit Calton Books, the “best wee radical book store in the world.”

Kayaking on the Merriconeag Sound in Harpswell, Maine

A perfect Sunday morning diversion. Glorious weather.

Scenes from Freiburg June 2022

Chillin' in Athens so I can get to Italy

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.

More views of beautiful Belgrade

I am just loving the energy of this city. The weather has been phenomenal. I am the consummate flâneur these days, just walking the vibrant streets of Serbia’s capital city, meeting colleagues, and chasing typewriters.

Sunset over the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers

And more sights from Belgrade

Scenes from Serbia

I wandered around the old city of Belgrade yesterday, soaking in the late October sunshine and reveling in my return to the Balkans. It feels so good to see Cyrillic again.

Scenes from Bologna, Italy

Having lots of fun with my camera! Bologna is one of the most beautiful places on earth IMHO.

The breathtaking beauty of the Maine coast...

I made it out to Land’s End in Harpswell before leaving Maine. There are certainly some things I miss about that state, and being so close to the ocean all of the time is definitely one of them.

Berlin days

The first couple of days in Berlin have been amazing so far. I am sinking deep into the history of the DDR, and trying to better understand the transition after 1989. I met with my brilliant German editor at Suhrkamp on Thursday, had dinner with my dear friend Susan Neiman on Friday, and have hit the Berlin Trödel markets hard this weekend.

In front of a portrait of August Bebel in Prenzlauer Berg.

Berliner Dom by night

DDR-era bust of Marx purchased in the Weissensee trödelmarkt for 3 euro

Two new typewriters from the trödelmarkt: An Olympia Traveller de Luxe and a Prvileg.

the Plaza of the 9th of November 1989

Back in Berlin again

I'm enjoying some time in the German capital, a city I first visited in 1990, almost 30 years ago.  Needless to say, it has changed a lot in the intervening years.  Here is the view from my temporary apartment in Mitte.

Back in Germany

I landed in Germany just in time to catch the last day of the annual summer Kollnauer Fescht.  I lived in this little village in the German Black Forest for a year between 2014 and 2015, and I haven't been back in over two and a half years.  It's nice to see that nothing much has changed. I drank a glass of the local wine, Müller Thurgau, and enjoyed the general frivolity of the street festival. What is so wonderful about these German local events is the intergenerational aspect of the sociality, and the simple merriment of sitting outside and drinking cold beer.