Haifa, Israel. January 2012.
Jerusalem. January 2012
Jordan River Valley, January 2012
Istanbul, Turkey. February 2012
Aronda, Goa. March 2012
Mumbai, India. March 2012
Nowa Huta, Poland. April 2012
Karak, Jordan. May 2012.
Dimona, Israel. May 2012.
Jerusalem. May 2012.
Jericho, Palestine. May 2012
Bethlehem. May 2012
Ari’el, Judea and Samaria. May 2012
Gamla, Golan Heights. May 2012
Paris, France. June 2012
Opole, Poland. July 2012
Mostyn, Wales. September 2012
Berlin, Germany. September 2012
Będzin, Poland. September 2012
Ostrava, Czech Republic. October 2012
Budapest, Hungary. October 2012
Uzhhorod, Carpathian Ruthenia. October 2012
Berlin, Germany. November 2012
Kraków, Poland. November 2012
Mt Olympus, Republic of Cyprus. December 2012
Pyla, United Nations Buffer Zone, December 2012
Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area. December 2012
Varosha, Famagusta. December 2012.
Salamis, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. December 2012
Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area. December 2012
That’s it?
I see the ‘Duke of Lancaster’. In a past life, that ship carried me, one other, and a Norton 750 Commando across the water to Ireland and back.
Isolastic, my aching ass. I can still feel it.
What’s it doing in Poland, apparently still afloat? I would have thought that the beach breakers of Gadani would have gotten her a long time ago.
llater,
llamas
It’s in Wales llamas, and looks to have seriously run aground.
And to the Man in a Suitcase… Are you ever home long enough to pay rent and stuff Michael?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSS_Duke_of_Lancaster_(1956)
I am more a rucksack man than a suitcase man though.
Er… why are you posting your holiday snaps on a political blog? Just asking…
It’s traditional – like most things this time of year.
And because Samizdata has never just been about politics.
Graham, I’m not sure how others will answer but I look forward to the annual Michael’s travels post every year end. We aren’t a political blog so much as a politically aware blog. On at the top left of the page somewhere it says:
Politics is one small part of the conversation at Samizdata. Philosophy is another interest. Economics. Business practices. And always, having fun. I haven’t had a good ‘road trip’ in more years than I can remember. Michael’s travelogues give me a bit of vicarious travel. Granted, I may be an exception, I even have friends send me their vacation pics if they are so inclined.
One of the best parts of Michael’s travel pics is the conversations and answers that follow up in the threads. I’ve learned stuff I never even knew I didn’t know. Enjoy.
…and Michael knows stuff.
And every once in awhile I give posts on space and technology… although as I am currently working on one of the New Space projects (The XCOR Lynx space plane) my wings are somewhat clipped as to what I can talk about.
Goodness, Dale, I scarcely recognised you in a suit! Looking forward to hearing more when the time comes for unclipping your wings.
Graham Asher, regarding Michael’s holiday snaps (although most of his travels come about as part of his work, if I recall correctly), one can see them as a political statement; a sort of whoop of defiance against green puritanism and in celebration of a world in which people do zip around the globe doing useful things with computers just like the future was meant to be. Although I had thought there would be tunnels through the core by now.
The most arresting photo for me was the one of the graveyard in Bedzin. It just seemed very odd to bury people on a slope.
Exactly Natalie. Michael is a bit of hero of mine. I like to travel too, it’s just I hate the travelling bit, well airports specifically, and just sometimes I have been where he has so we can compare notes.
Salamis for instance is amazing, huge 6000 seat Roman theatre and beautiful circular mozaics just lying there with no protection. People could steal these easy I thought when I first went there, and apparently they have. Kyrenia castle has one of the oldest boats ever recovered too,just sat there gently rotting away cos they haven’t the money to preserve it properly (it was knocking about the Med trading in Wine, Olive oil and walnuts etc when Alexander the Great was a lad, and they’ve got it in a room that is less refrigerated than the supermarket next door). It would be a National Treasure anywhere else.
Hopefully come Thursday, I’ll be having a drink with the man. I’m looking forward to it.
Natalie: At a party six months or so ago, I started talking about my previous visits to Poland to David Carr, and this led to us agreeing to go there on a trip for a few days. David wanted to go to Będzin, because it was where his grandfather had emigrated to Britain from between the two World Wars. Będzin was a majority Jewish town then. There are sadly no Jews there now, but we went there and wandered around looking for the Jewish history of the place. There is a Christian church and cemetery on one end of the hill, and a Jewish cemetery that we found on the other end and side of the hill. There are some ruins on the top of this section of the hill. Whether there was a synagogue or other Jewish buildings on the top of the hill, we were not sure. It may be that many of the gravestones were higher up the hill initially, and ended up lower down when the graveyard was desecrated some time after 1939. I am really not sure.
RAB: I visited the Kyrenia boat in the castle in Kyrenia. It didn’t appear to me like it was being terribly badly looked after, and it didn’t seem to be rotting away. Maybe, looking at my photographs again, it could be slightly better cared for, but it looked okay to me for now. Of course, the Republic of Cyprus (ie the Greek south) have put a picture of the boat on some of their euro coins. This is partly an oblique statement on their part that they claim the north, but it is also a statement that they at least also see it as a national treasure.
Lucky boy 🙂
OK, I think it’s time to blow his cover.