Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf

Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf
David Madsen

This was fantastic historical novel indeed and certainly very unique. It is a story about Vatican during Pope Leo X, known as a patron of Michelangelo and Raphael (but the reason for his affection toward master Raphael wasn’t that much artistic or at least not only related with his artistic abilities if you know what I mean). It is about political situation in Vatican and rise of Martin Luther. Story is told by Peppe a Gnostic dwarf, an incredibly eloquent, witty and likable character.

Book is very carnal, decadent and is not for religiously sensitive, homophobic readers. I like very much that history interweaves with some less known, private things about the characters; later I checked on the net and in textbooks and find out indeed that this novel has incredible level of historic accuracy (including those private little things as well).

The Inquisition, Gnostic philosophy, political intrigues, freak show, poisoned drinks, screams of horror and the ones of carnal pleasure that are coming both from the dark street alleys and the papal chambers … this grotesque image has been paint with blood and semen and in the end you really don’t know if the bad ones were really bad and good guys really that good? Of course you really must dismiss [your own] morality otherwise you’ll be completely lost. I’ve found myself longing to understand and agree with some things but just couldn’t, some things on the other hand were so insane that I couldn’t even forced myself to comprehend. I mean their essence.

I really have no doubts that Mr. Madsen informed himself about the way the Gnostic liturgy has been performed [after all, everything else I was keen to check it turned out to be exactly as he wrote in the book] but then, there’s no way I could understand the meaning of certain rituals. And maybe that could be the “flaw”: Peppe didn’t explain the essence of the rituals while in the same time he’s sending a message directly to the reader (he’s fully aware that you’re holding this book) of a Gnostic ideology and its goals. But he left rituals naked and as such quite repulsive and even ridiculous. Oh and utterly grotesque for sure!

Then it gives one great and quite unique view on the Lutheran schism. I believe he was closer to Lutheranism than Catholicism in spite the fact that he was one of the closest friends with Pope Leo X and lived with him in Vatican. The story of selling (pardon, “preaching”) indulgences was hilarious and indeed he shares the same emotion as we (or should I say myself) about it. It’s so obviously corrupted and greedy and absurd (people purchased indulgences for sins they were about to commit and Church didn’t objected whatsoever!). Then they started to sell indulgences that can be applied to the dead! There’s even a verse about it:

“As soon as money in the coffer rings,
the soul from purgatory’s fire springs”

No wonder Martin Luther rebelled! Who wouldn’t? You know, sometimes I wonder if those high Church officials are believers at all?

And in the end I must mention the language. The novel is pure linguistic embroidery which is beautiful … if you’re native English speaker. However if you’re not [like myself] the novel will require an additional work: browsing thru your dictionary. But this story is more than worth of all “troubles”, you’ll be richly rewarded. This is one of those novels that certainly shouldn’t be missed. Highly recommending but as I said at the beginning this is not novel for everyone.

 

Sticky & Sweet Madonna in Belgrade!

OK so it happened. I’m pretty much puzzled what to think about this concert. You don’t have to be Madonna’s fan to know this is something you shouldn’t miss. Beside I liked her in my youth very much actually. I remember her concerts at the beginning of 1990-es  (“Blond Ambition World Tour” and “The Girlie Show World Tour”) and thinking if I’ll ever see something like this … oh well I didn’t.

I was hoping to go on her concert last year when she was in Montenegro because no one believed she’ll come back in the region. Well she did but it seems that vast majority of people from Serbia who were at the concert in Montenegro decided to stay home last night. Namely there were only 40000 people which is of course far less than what was expected. On the other hand, reviews from that last year’s concert weren’t bright whatsoever. Anyway I didn’t manage to be in Montenegro and when I heard she’s coming in Belgrade I knew it’s now or never (luckily my brother thought the same and gave me this for birthday). As I said that’s something you just don’t miss no mater if you’re not her fan. There are only few artists who are living legends who fits in this category (sadly Michael Jackson is not anymore one of them so I’ll definitively not see him live). I’ve already seen “Rolling Stones” and now after Madonna I really don’t know who could be added in this group? Who is such an institution on the global scale?

Concert itself was true spectacle. Light, laser, computer, dancers, 8 huge mobile LED screens … all effects were absolutely perfect. Of course she is inhumanly fit considering her age. She danced like 10-20 years ago… But then, she wasn’t the same Madonna as she was 10-20 years ago. Her music has evolved and I’m not sure if I like direction she took. She is (and will probably remain) the biggest pop icon ever but the music she’s making now is hardly pop; or if it is it has so many techno spices that it makes special subgenre.

Concert (after exactly an hour delay. That was very surprising. I’m not even sure if she was aware that she’s late) started with “Candy Shop” and really, as much as you were pissed cause you’re standing an hour like an idiot in that moment every negative emotion just vanishes. I mean, the moment when you’re ACTUALLY looking at Madonna only few (tens of) meters from you really shocks you. It does have an impact: at first you are paralyzed like and then you just go wild.

Concert was divided in four parts: First part “Pimp” was homage to art-deco of 1920-ies. After introducing animation she appears sitting on the “M”-shaped throne. The peak of this part is “Vogue” in new design mixed with tones from “4 minutes”.

Second part “Old School” reminding us on her beginnings 1980-ies. I LOVED her “Get Into the Groove” with fantastic paints of Keith Haring (whom I like as well and whose reproduction I even have on my wall). I think this was my favourite part. You know here she was real Madonna, true pop queen.

Third “Gypsy” part was filled with Latino rhythm. There was a Ukrainian Gypsy band who played “La Isla Bonita” mixed with some traditional gypsy songs. It was interesting but I’m afraid that the change of one of her greatest hits ever was so drastic that it became different song. I’m not sure did I like that too much. Later, Gypsies had their solo performance which I’m sure was absolutely stunning in Western Europe, North America or Australia but she came in the part of the world where world’s best gypsy music is producing and I really doubt that anyone was fascinated with that part. I mean common gypsy band in some tavern in Serbian (or Romanian or Bulgarian) province would put more fire and heart in their songs. So the folks here really are used to really go wild with gypsy music so I’m afraid Ukrainians didn’t even produce a sparkle in the audience but hey we are tolerant so we waited Madonna to take microphone. But then when she took she sung “You Must Love Me” from “Evita” which was really slow and didn’t stimulate the mass.

Final part “Rave” was a mix of Far East choreography and visual effects and electronic music and it was OK. It ended with “Give It To Me” which was absolutely fascinating and the very peak of the concert. her commuication with audience was phenomenal during that song, she was giving microphone to the peoples in first raw and whole mass was dancing like crazy. Too bad that climax meant also the end.

There were few very special moments such is tribute to Michael Jackson (this video is not from last night’s show but from London but it was exactly the same so I’m putting it). Indeed, “Long live The King!”

There were no too many shocking things (after all elections in US are over) but since she’s known for her political and ecological activism there were one segment dedicated to this. Namely during video break and song “Get Stupid” which has had the theme global warming, ecological disasters, craziness of consumer society, political dictatorships… there were scenes with Hitler, Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong-il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iranian religious leaders, scenes from political rallies after presidential elections in Iran few months ago including the death of  ‘Neda’ video.
Then there was images of destruction and comes one very curious part. Namely on the big screen along with scenes of destruction and bombing appears US flag. Now, without any euphemisms we are not very fond of American foreign politics in last 15 years (we’ve been bombed, US opinion about Kosovo is completely opposite of ours, those are two issues among many other bead ones) so I was curious to see reaction of the audience but (surprisingly!) there was no any. And then image of Barack Obama appeared and the audience reacted with ovations! I so didn’t expect that and I must say I was thrilled with it. I don’t know if he’ll bring some big changes that will have some positive influence on our lives but I’m so glad to see that change has happened in our minds and that we do have faith in American peoples’ choice.

All in all this was good concert but I did have highest expectations. There were not enough big hits (there were beside the ones I mentioned) “Like a Prayer”, “Music”, “Frozen”, “Holiday”, “4 Minutes”. So the set list wasn’t the happiest one; it was more warm/cold when the crowd sunk into delirium after some hit goes something that calms atmosphere down and so on. Too many average songs spiced with cruel, cold professionalism. Communication with the audience was solid but for our standards not nearly enough (just for the record Mick Jagger talked with us IN SERBIAN!).

Now when I’ve mentioned again concert Rolling Stones had I knew they’ve made standard that (I honestly believe) no one will be able to achieve but I didn’t expect that difference between that one and last night’s, Madonna’s, the grates pop icon EVER will be so enormous!

It was a good concert indeed, it was amazing spectacle and I would regret horribly if I have missed it. But that wasn’t nearly the concerts I watched 15 years ago fantasizing to be there.

 

The Secret Scripture

The Secret Scripture
Sebastian Barry

Irish novels probably rank among my favourite and that must have something to do with the bleak side of me. I mean they are almost exquisitely hard and pessimistic whose characters have such an enormous Atlas-like burden on their shoulders. Then there is a rain (which I love), hunger, poverty and of course omnipresent utterly rigid Catholicism (which I absolutely dislike). So I guess this must be such a fertile ground for producing marvelous books which are staying with you long after you passed them further.

“The Secret Scripture” by Sebastian Barry (Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008) is no exception. It’s beautiful almost poetic novel about personal history but also history of Ireland. And of course such a painful histories they are. Past and present are interweaving through the “Rosanne’s Testimony of Herself” and “Dr Greene’s Commonplace Book”. Rosanne McNulty is a hundred years old patient incarcerated in an asylum (“madhouse”) where she spent a lifetime of many and where she’s writing her story. Dr Greene of course is employee in the asylum and is coordinating process of moving patients into another institution since the current one is about to be demolished. And he’s not quite sure about what to do with Rosanne, whether she should be free woman or kept in the institution. And he starts to write his diary about Rosanne as well but mostly about his life, his marriage, wife, getting older… But Rosanne is more and more becoming his main interest. It’s very interesting to see two parallel stories (Namely Dr Green is not aware of Rosanne’s writing) when he investigates Rosanne’s story from other sources.

“In Rosanne McNulty” (as it said on the books’ blurb) “sly, confused, defiant, passionate – Sebastian Barry has created one of the most memorable narrators in recent fiction” and I can’t agree more. This is surely one of the best books I’ve read this year.

It is so hard to even imagine such a horror people were facing in the early 19^th century, especially if you live in Ireland and you are Presbyterian (not Catholic) woman. Powers priests have had in those times is unbelievable and  the things they were doing I guess in the name of religion, lives they ruined is so hard to digest. However both Rosanne and Dr Green aren’t accusing, moreover they are explaining things from more compassionate and forgiving point of view (I wouldn’t) which is giving fantastic balance between the novel and the emotion the story is producing in reader.

There are no many characters in it which is giving great opportunity to entirely build those few. Portraits are fantastic, no one is without skeleton in the closet (I forgot the expression Barry used) but in spite the sinful past they don’t have compassion toward the ones who are passing through the same misfortune they passed years before. Gosh, such a hypocritical, self-convinced-good Christian society.

This novel grabbed me strongly and I was so greedy so that last 100 pages (which almost half a novel) I eaten in one swallow. And in one moment I shouted … something [I’m not going to tell you what cause it would be such a spoiler] and then I started sprint toward the last page. When I reached it and close the final page I had literally need to stand and applause!

Beautiful, beautiful, novel! Highly recommending!      

 

Dickipedia – A wiki of dicks

OK before you enter this site I’m advising you to empty your mouth and sit preferably on the chair without wheels. I spilled coffee all over my desk plus I was sitting on the chair with wheels. I almost fell. Apparently I’m very late but I just discovered Dickipedia. It’s the same as well known Wikipedia but “slightly” different. It’s “A wiki of dicks”.

It has quite huge list of all sorts of dicks: Political, Entertainment, Sport, International, Media, Miscellaneous etc –dicks and under each category list of them. I must say I checked only few and I’m so bookmarking this site! Each entry starts with usual introduction and at the end goes their title of dick! Then you’ll find history and present live that on numerous occasions confirms their dickness! There are lots of name there. Just to name some with little glimpse of their story:

Hillary Rodham Clinton

“…Clinton’s campaign strategy originally hinged on how many voters would confuse her with her husband. As the candidate pool got narrowed down to Clinton and a black man, Barack Obama, news reporters became increasingly focused on the divide between white women and African-Americans. Clinton decided to take the only appropriate course of action for a woman in her situation: exploit the latent racism among white men. Luckily, just before she dropped out of the race, she was able to salvage her public image by suggesting her opponent could potentially be assassinated.

In 2009, Hillary Rodham Clinton was confirmed as secretary of state by a group of Republicans she bonded with over mutual hatred of their new leader….”

Sarah Palin

“…Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain performed perhaps the greatest political mindfuck in American history by announcing that he had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin celebrated by ovulating…”

Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger)

“…he is a dick who holds a position historically held by dicks, and which actually requires you to wear a hat that kind of looks like a dick… In his first recorded instance of hypocrisy, 14-year-old Joey Ratz (as he was known around “the neighborhood”) joined the Hitler Youth as one of their “future Aryan supermen” or “super-dicks.” The Pope Formerly Known as Ratzinger now insists that his membership in the Nazi Party was “unenthusiastic” and that he refused to attend meetings, which is a lot like saying you’re just a “casual member” of the Klan and only participated in, like, four or five lynchings, tops.

Another notable feat of hypocrisy was Ratzy’s attendance at Saint Michael Seminary while simultaneously training in the German infantry’s anti-aircraft corps. The dickish ability to see no conflict between Jesus’ commandment to love thy neighbor and Hitler’s commandment to violently murder millions of Jews should have served as a sign that the Papacy couldn’t be too far off.

…Benedict XVI has said that rock music is the work of Satan and has spoken out against such pagan/devil worshippers as Bob Dylan”

Of course there is a (real) Dick (Cheney) as well! I just really don’t understand how on earth George W Bush (or the one without W) is missing??? Gosh, he’s not even a dick!

 

Evening with Jostein Gaarder

"The Castle in the Pyrenees" in Serbian

Few weeks ago Mr. Jostein Gaarder, famous Norwegian writer was a guest of Belgrade. He was promoting his latest novel “The Castle in the Pyrenees” published last year in Norway and whose first translation in any foreign language appeared precisely in Serbian by my favourite publishing house Geopoetika. Somehow I think that’s quite fair, that we translated this novel first and to have him here among us. Namely Mr. Gaarder is one of the most popular authors here in Serbia, certainly one of the most popular foreign authors.

My experience with Gaarder’s books is of course related with “Sophie’s World”, novel which completely changed (or should I say “created”) the way I see philosophy. That book has taught me more about philosophy than entire course in my high school. Therefore that certainly was one of the most important books I’ve read during my education. After that I’ve read “The Solitaire Mystery” and I must say I wasn’t thrilled that much (although many of my friends were). And I believe that’s all I’ve read from him but nevertheless I’m sort of looking at him as if there’s no need to write anything else after “Sophie’s World”.

Anyway when I saw that his coming in Belgrade, of course I just couldn’t miss that.

That was the day when Joseph (“for friends Joe”) Biden, US vice president was in Belgrade as well and that meant trouble. Namely we didn’t want that anything unpredictable happens to Mr. Joseph Biden so entire town was blocked. The route I would drive for 10 minutes I had to walk for more than hour. I had to circulate around the city center and if you happened to live there and weren’t at home police wouldn’t let you in forbidden zone. The fact that you live there was irrelevant. No when I think folks who stayed in their homes have been whole day in quarantine, they couldn’t get outside and the blinds had to be closed (I’d prefer be outside the “zone”).

I reached Pavilion Cvijeta where I’ve found zillion people who managed to come in spite collapse in the city.

It was really lovely evening. Mr. Gaarder was in the very cheerful mood; he never expected how many Serbs are learning Norwegian (he talked the same day at the Department for Scandinavian Languages at the Faculty of Philology) and indeed it’s one of the most popular foreign language at the University. (Surprisingly) I DON’T speak Norwegian

Me with Mr. Gaarder (sadly someone called him in the last moment so he turned his head from the camera). May 20th 2009. Belgrade

He talked about his new novel of course (hopefully he didn’t say too much spoilers although I believe I’ve heard some things that I’d prefer not to know prior reading) but also about his other novels, process of writing, some things from his personal life, his views about current geopolitical situation in the world, Norwegian society … etc. It was very interesting indeed. Sadly I was at the balcony and out of his attention’ reach. Namely I was constantly raising my hand to ask a question but he never raised his head so he didn’t noticed me. When signing my book I told him that indeed he is such a rationalist (he said that when answering question about religion) but I never expected that he never raise his head towards the sky, otherwise he would see me there frenetically waving to as a question. Speaking about rationalism I liked how he described process of creating one of the characters in his latest book. Namely there is a clash of two ways of understanding the world: one of the characters is rationalist and explains everything thru the science which is close to his [Mr. Gaarder’s] way of thinking so there were no problems with that character. But in order to create persuasive, real character who represent the other way of understanding the world and existence in spiritual way he had to give her strong arguments. And since that wasn’t the way he represents he had to read books to try to understand better that ‘other side’. So the final result is that now, in comparison with the moment before he started to write this book, he is much more close to those spiritual, big secrets. But still he is more rationalists type. In one interview he said that recently he spoke with one famous neurologist who told him “We know nothing! It’s completely a mystery! And not only that we don’t understand the world, but we never will!”. And those were the words of one neurologist! (here is that interview. It’s in Serbian)

As I said he spoke about his fears and problems and he reminded me on something I used to say years ago: “If I could be born again I would SO love to be Norwegian!” I mean his preoccupation and fears are world poverty, global warming etc. Wouldn’t you love to be a Norwegian as well? At least for a day? Or two? Or few months? Maybe years?

Personally my favourite moment of the evening was one anecdote he said when answering about the question whether the children more intelligent than elders because kids are often very important characters in his books (or something like that, I don’t remember well). He said of course there are kids who are more intelligent than other kids. There’s no generalization and then he said what he heard from one American reader few years ago. He wasn’t sure was it during Clinton’s or Bush’ administration (but you’ll see it doesn’t matter. It could easily be Obama’s as well):

After listening President’s speech on the TV her daughter asked her:
- Mom why President always say in the end “God bless America”? and mother was confused so the girl explained:
- Why doesn’t he say “God bless the world?”

This is one very intelligent kid indeed!

Guy next to me on the balcony was recording the evening so for those who are interested here it is. (Gaarder spoke in English)

1/5

2/5

3/5

4/5

5/5

 

The Ruby in Her Navel

The Ruby in Her Navel
Barry Unsworth

Oh I love this book so much! I was so thirsty for one good historical novel and Unsworth never disappointed me so far.

This book is telling story about 12th century Sicily during the rule of Normans. Curiously I watched few days ago on History channel one series about this subject and it helped me to get wider perspective about what Unsworth wrote here.

12th Century Sicily was perfect place of harmony between Muslims (Saracens) and Christians (both Catholic and Byzantine) under the rule of King Roger II of Sicily. Roger drew round him distinguished men of various races, such as the famous Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. The king welcomed the learned, and he practiced toleration towards the several creeds, races and languages of his realm. He organized a multiracial, multinational kingdom in which Arabic, Byzantine, Lombard, Jewish, and Norman cultures produced a brilliant cosmopolitan state. As such he was probably the most able ruler in 12th-century Europe.
This harmony is lovely metaphor of the present days views of multiculturalism and the reasons for its end 9 centuries ago are sadly the same ones why nowadays multiculturalism can’t find fertile soil.

We can see how some of the magnificent monuments that still exist have been built under the influence of all three religions which is undoubtedly the reason why are so beautiful. Also we can see glimpse of medieval politics: and there Serbs are entering on the stage (I was quite surprised). Indeed Unsworth is great historian, Serbs were preparing rebellion against Byzantines. The story goes that King Roger financially supported that rebellion to distract Manuel I Komnenos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire to attack Sicily. Indeed Serbs haven’t been presented in such a perfect light but then, who could be completely positive in 12th century, age of bribes, lies, intrigues…?

Unsowrth beautifully paints emotion in Christian hearts after disaster of Second Crusade as well as perfectly clear picture how greedy, bloodthirsty crusaders were and how their reasons and actions were non-Christian. I’m glad they lost it (I know this must sound silly) and I am Christian. On the other hand I always had huge respect toward Arab culture and their contribution to the science. After this novel, even more.
You really have to ask yourself how on earth those men of church thought they are leading Christian life? All what they’ve done was lies, bribes and murders. There is one fantastic scene when man of Church, near Pope is convincing one of the character to do something very non-Christian under the fresco that is showing King Constantine how he kneels before the Pope offering him Eastern Kingdom. What Unsworth didn’t tell (and how could he considering that he would jump out of the entire book) and what I’ve saw at that series on History channel is that the same fresco have been used as a proof that Catholic Christianity and the Pope have legal right to take Eastern Empire and few centuries later it has been proved that the fresco is a fake. Knowing that, the scene of convincing that character to do something (I’m avoiding spoilers) under the same fresco has quite profound and obviously hidden meaning.

And of course there is personal story of love, loyalty, betrayal, dreams, lust … oh you name it! But all this (no matter how previous sentence sounds) couldn’t be more far from cliché.

Beautiful novel! I’m highly recommending it!

 

Depeche Mode (not) in Belgrade!

I can’t believe the concert has been cancelled! Dave Gahan has been transferred to the hospital minutes before their show in Athens (May 12). I really hoped he’ll be fine until May 20th when the show in Belgrade has been scheduled.

However, yesterday the group announced they have been forced to cancel a further four shows on their Sounds of the Universe tour due to further complications from Dave Gahan’s severe bout of gastroenteritis.  One of those four concerts is Belgrade

Gosh I was so thrilled when last year it has been announced that DM will FINALLY have concert in Belgrade. Now I’m looking at my ticket hoping it will be used someday soon that the tour will be rescheduled and we’ll get new date.

 

Blackbird

Blackbird
Larry Duplechan

Recently I’ve read somewhere that all coming-of-age stories are sort of “Catcher in the Rye”. Indeed “Blackbird” reminded me on the “Catcher” (it was mentioned in the book as well) but with one huge difference: I hated “Catcher in the Rye”; I’ve found Holden Caulfield as THE most irritating fictional character I’ve ever met. The conclusion might be that I hated “Blackbird” and its main character Johnnie Ray Rousseau as well. On the contrary: While I was reading “Blackbird” I couldn’t get rid of the feeling (as blasphemous as it probably is) that “this must what “Catcher in the Rye” supposed to be!”

It’s a YA novel with such a likable main character. Jonnie Ray is obsessed with pop culture and therefore I had a feeling that this book is an homage to music and film (or should I say movie?) industry of the mid 20th century. Of course that can’t be since the novel has been published 23 years ago. But the music references (after all the novel itself has been named after the song of The Beatles) made me doing little search since my knowledge wasn’t that high leveled.

“Blackbird” is so sentimental novel; the plot is simple but the language is beautiful. I was bursting out laughing in the public transport (and earned several strange who-still-reads-book-anyway looks); I simply love Duplechan’s sense for humour (which tells lot about me since the book is from 1986). I’ve read about the novel that it has character which I can’t agree more. He [Johnnie Ray] is so sincere when he talks about his emotions about people that he loves and about those he fantasize. His descriptions of longing, first touch and then sex are so real so honest, never augmented and never sensationalistic as if it was allowed you to peek thru the keyhole. They are just as they really are. You can really recognize the feeling. Of course regardless of the sexual orientation. Of course!!!

I almost forgot to mention that Jonnie Ray is homosexual which is not big deal, plus he’s black which is even more no big deal  but then one should keep in mind when the novel is published and the plot is settled in the mid 1970s in rigid Baptist American small town where “black boy can’t kiss a white girl” (parents would immediately send her on the other coast) and that image of small American town I liked a lot [not the town but the way it has been described]. I must say that the part when he came out to his parents was very moving, very sincere. The way his parents reacted and then how they decided to “solve the problem” with a little help from the youth minister of his church was nothing but scary; totally unbelievable. The way society handled with teen pregnancy, homo (and hetero) sexuality, religion, teen suicide, queer bashing, child abuse, has been described fantastically. It’s sad that those methods and that way of public thinking can be still found nowadays.

This was fast, easy and enjoyable read.
Little Sister’s Classics. is doing great job re-publishing novels that have left traits in gay/lesbian literature when it wasn’t easy publish books that have any drop of homoeroticism. Of course from present perspective you can even ask yourself why it was big deal to publish novel like this or even skip the fact that main character is homosexual (like I almost did with this one) but I presume that then, the they were pioneers. I really like appendixes that are included in these new “Little Sister’s Classics” editions with letter correspondence between author and publisher, reviews in newspapers when the novel has been published and interviews with the author. It helps a lot to the reader to create full picture about the time when novel appeared.

 

Leningrad Cowboys in Belgrade

9th May is Day of Victory over fascism and also Day of Europe and as such is celebrated including in Serbia. When I say celebrated I mean that all European embassies participate in some projects mostly cultural. So in the main pedestrian zone here in Belgrade each of European embassies has had its stand where citizens might get known closer culture of certain country. Cynical as Serbs became toward Europe in last few years the comments were more like “I rather see and feel personally your culture than to look brochures” and I agree. Truth I traveled most than vast majority of my compatriots but still I’m finding all this embassy-activities kind of hypocritical.

Anyway mostly everything we were hearing, getting and associating with Europe and “European values” (as if we here live according to some Martian values) have some bitter taste of insincerity that’s why I wasn’t interested whatsoever to go and see what’s happening in pedestrian zone in last Saturday. But I was preparing to go on something different the same day in the evening. It’s European and is very welcomed!

Like many, I’ve heard about Leningrad Cowboys for the first time thanks to amazing Aki Kaurismäki and his movies “Leningrad Cowboys Go America”, “Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses” and the “Total Balalaika Show”. That only because I’m huge Kaurismäki fan. And then on my last year’s trip to the north (Finland) we were watching “Total Balalaika Show” in the bus. They were fantastic. It’s one of those concerts that if I would have to pick one to see most probably I’d pick that one. They were performing along with Russian Alexander ensemble (160 members) in Helsinki with 70000 spectators. It was absolute craziness!

They are Finnish band whose members look … well I have no idea what word to use here. Just observe the photo. Their hairstyle, costumes, stage… and their repertoire is from Russian folk songs (which I adore!) to rock and roll performing immortal hits of The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin … etc. It’s such an original approach and condemned to produce fantastic experience!

Needles to say that I was utterly thrilled when I heard they are coming in Belgrade! And LOL on the entrance I saw almost entire crew from the trip. People who I haven’t see, nor hear for months! “We couldn’t miss this!” everyone said.

Sadly, sadly, sadly the promoting campaign before concert wasn’t nearly as it should’ve been! “Leningrad Cowboys” are completely unknown for Serbian audience. My friends who were at the concert with me would never go unless I didn’t talk about it. Therefore there were not as many people as I was hoping to see. And the hall organizers picked was such a bad choice: It’s huge and with seats!!! Why on earth seats??? So of course the very first sentence Tipe Johnson said was: “Get your butts off those seats! No one is sitting where we are coming from!” and we were obedient! and then they started: “Back In the USSR”, “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Gimme All Your Lovin’”, “Whiskey In a Jar”, “Perfect Day”, “Easy Livin”, “Smoke On the Water”…

Communication with the audience was fantastic (which is very important for us. I don’t know if that’s the case everywhere but we generally have some impression that something was lacking if the concert was phenomenal but communication with audience poor). Anyway Johnson spent good part of the concert among us in the audience, was calling one kid on the stage to play special tractor-like guitar, was giving microphone to see our vocal abilities…

For the end as an icing on the cake was Tom Johns’ “Delilah” and then “Those Were the Days”. Then they left the stage but we refused to go so they came back with “Eloise” and David Bowie’s “Starman”.

Tipe Jonson said: ”I don’t know do you know but we know that we are for the first time here in Belgrade! And we are very glad to be here and you will be glad as well for being here tonight because you’ll say one day to your grandchildren that you saw “Leningrad Cowboys” when they played in Serbia for the first time!”

Not sure about grandchildren but I surely do have what to talk about!

 

Northern Adventures – part 3 (St Petersburg)

OK after being absent for quite some time and have had some health issues, after having uncompleted text on my hard disc for months and with a little pushing from my friends it’s a high time to sit and finally finish part 3 (the last one) of my Northern Adventures.
(in this post there are 29 small photos and they are clickable for enlargement. If you don’t see (and want to) all 29, refresh the page)

I should say that St Petersburg is a place I was dreaming to visit for ages and to be honest I didn’t expect I’ll have a chance for this any time soon. Naturally when that chance appeared I just couldn’t miss it. Therefore St Petersburg supposed to be the pearl of this voyage.

Everyone who has read Dostoyevsky (and I presume that readers of this blog have read at least few of his books) have one image of St Petersburg and I was truly hope I’d have a chance to see the other ones. After having mostly fantastic weather in Finland (something that quite surprised Finns as well) my hopes were quite high that it will be the same case in Russia. However weathercast wasn’t promising whatsoever: first day – rain; second day – heavy rain; third day – heavy rain. I was on hot line with my friend in Belgrade who were informing me everyday of the trip if there’ll be some changes. The answer has been always the same. I do love rain indeed but you REALLY don’t wish rain in place you are dreaming about for so many years.
When we crossed Russian border and enter in Leningradska Oblast (!) it was early in the morning, morning where sun was struggling with clouds so I thought “OK, hope dies last” and while we were approaching to St Petersburg through kind of spooky Karelia the weather was moving from bad toward worse until finally it didn’t appear in all his beauty that Dostoyevsky wrote about. I couldn’t believe; I’m finally here and it’s raining and everything is gray. In the distance we could see church towers trying to break grayness with their bright domes (not very successful I’m afraid). In the end I decided I’m not allowing rain to spoil my dream!

After arriving in hostel we had to make a plan very fast. Spend only 3 days in St Petersburg is a sin but it was take it or leave it. We selected as a main destinations of each day Pushkin, Peterhof and The Hermitage. So we decided to go first in Pushkin. It was mostly cloudy so we thought to leave day with heavy rain for museum. Majority of my fellow travelers have noticed how my friend and I are organized so they decided to do whatever we do. In one moment we noticed one huge group of familiar faces are expecting from us to show them direction. I must say I wasn’t too happy with that. I mean I do have one “rule” on the trips which is going alone or with someone who has the same interest as I do. After not too long we heard “Wait for us! Can you slow down?” grrr! But we finally filled some kind of small bus. I didn’t pay the ticket at all, actually I didn’t have a ticket. Chauffeur was selling the tickets on the entrance of the mini bus and since we were big group with members who just had to put their butts on the seat (as if 8000km of sitting is not enough) he took some amount of rubles (without giving any ticket I believe but I’m not sure), closed the door and start the engine. Those mini buses are actually kind of cool stuff cause it’s much easier for maneuvering through the big city. However, finding right stop is small adventure. It seems there is one area where the stops are and you just have to find right line. I did have a guide where I checked for the number of the lines but the situation on the ground was quite different. Namely there were much more busses we could use than what guide listed. Curious thing was that the ticket price varied while all buses looked almost the same *shrug*

Anyhow we didn’t have time to experiment so we entered in the first mini bus with the note Pushkin-Tsarskoe Selo.

First day: Pushkin-Tsarskoe Selo
The original estate at Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s Village) was a gift from Peter I to his wife Catherine in 1710, and from around 1725 she started to spend more time here. It was under Empress Elizabeth and Catharine the Great that the place began to take shape being expanded and aggrandized.
The centerpiece is the vast 1752 to 1756 baroque Yekaterininsky Dvorets (Catherine Palace), designed by her favourite architect Rastrelli. It gradually became the favourite country estate of the royal family. In 1837 Russia’s first railway line was built between St Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo to shuttle the imperial family back and forth.
When you enter the complex you’re finding yourself in a magic park full of sculptures and lovely small buildings in which you can see exhibitions, concerts and that kind of events. The magnificent parks and gardens of Tsarskoe Selo were created out of dense forest by thousands of soldiers and labourers. The park’s outer section focuses on the Great Pond. During summer it is possible o take a ferry to the little island where is Chesma Column that commemorates the Russian victory over the Turks in the Aegean.
And then suddenly you’re finding yourself absolutely speechless before lavish imperial palace. I knew it’s beautiful and saw many photos but standing there was just as if I’m dreaming…

Oh and awaking was quite abruptly: the line to enter was one of the biggest I’ve ever seen! Even thought to stand there and wait, quite possibly for hours was terrifying so *blush* I didn’t. I took my friend and just stand some 50m from the entrance (behind us there was a line of hundreds of meters). However after 15-20min we noticed that nothing was happening; no one was entering in the palace and no one is exiting. I still don’t understand what was happening but apparently organized groups were entering without problems while others were waiting for Godot. OK I tried to enter saying that I saw my friend from the groups enters the palace (which was not complete lie; she was going in exchange office) but a KGB-looking man asked me about my guide’s name. I’m an idiot! Why I didn’t say Elena? (there MUST be some Elena who works as a guide) I said “I don’t know her name” and got the answer “In the line!”. I tried to explain but all he was saying was “In the line!” (generally speaking I’m stunned how many people don’t speak any foreign language. Here even grannies know some (very rudimental but still) English) so I was in the line. At least scenery was breathtaking, that grayness has started to disappear so we all hoped that weathercast will be wrong!

Eventually line started to move and then inside it was absolute chaos with buying tickets, again standing in line, groups with guides have had priority (just like outside) etc. I don’t know, but there must be some better solution than “In the line!”. Anyway we managed to pass all barriers and entered into another world. The palace was indescribable. After third or fourth room you’re starting to feel dizziness with all that light, gold, luxury. Interesting thing is that rooms actually have been beautifully restored (!). Palace has been devastated by the Germans and there are photos showing rooms (and the exterior of the palace) prior and after the Germans. It was almost completely destroyed!. There are numerous (but really numerous) rooms with all sorts of themes and colours but The Amber Room was something really special. Room is completely covered with gilded woodcarvings, mirrors, agate and jasper mosaics. The exquisitely engraved amber panels were gifts from Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia to Peter the Great in 1716. But these treasures were plundered by the Nazis and went missing in Kaliningrad in 1945, becoming one of the art world’s great mysteries. In 2004 the strange hoax was revealed: the Amber Room was destroyed in a fire in Kaliningrad while under Red Army actions. Those responsible for the loss were so terrified of Stalin’s reaction that an elaborate myth was created of its disappearance. In 2004 president Putin and German Chancellor Schröder presided over the opening of a new Amber Room, restored largely with German funds.

Oh the curious thing was that there were lack of organized groups which spoken English. Majority were in Russian and then there were several in Spanish (evil grin). Naturally I joined one and silently translating to my friend what guide were saying. Guide was so sweet, Of course she noticed I’m not from her group but she didn’t mind. I had some question as well and she was quite happy to answer them. Moreover when they were moving into other building she mimicked me “Are you going?”. And then one (big) lady from the group who, I can bet wasn’t that interested in the story guide was telling, approached me and told me how she can’t listen properly because I’m in between her and guide. I started to laugh “What, my presence is so deafening?” She wasn’t pleased with my answer. Of course I remained with her group and she started to pointing my presence to others in the group but they didn’t find that annoying whatsoever. I wonder how would she react if she knew I’m not even Spanish (because my Spanish professor (who is Spanish herself) said that I looked completely as her compatriots)?

Second day: Peterhof
This most stunning of the tsarist palaces around St. Petersburg was first built by peter the Great (and it is also known as Peter’s Palace). Over the years his successors continued to build and expand to create the astounding ensemble seen today. It all started after the victory over Swedes at Poltava in 1709 when Peter decided to build a palace “befitting to the very highest of monarchs”. After his visit to Versailles Peter expanded his ambitions and employed more than 5000 labourers, serfs and soldiers, supported by architects, water-engineers, landscape gardeners and sculptors. Work proceeded at a frenetic pace until Peterhof was officially opened in 1723.
Indeed Peterhof is the most popular day trip from St. Petersburg for visitors. And that has its price, sometimes quite huge and I’m not talking about money but about nerves! Namely again we faced with “In the line” (it seems that’s the most used phrase in English) so we were obedient (sheep) and after a while we noticed that there are two lines: one to buy a ticket (some 300m long) and equally long line for entering the palace after (!) you buy the ticket. It was unbelievable. So my friend and I decided to split roles: I’ll wait in line to buy ticket and she’ll be in line to enter the palace and after I buy the tickets I’ll join her. And so we were standing in unmovable lines for ages. Eventually when I reached the girl who sells the tickets she spoke with her lovely voice: “No ticket!”; “No ticket!!! What on earth that suppose to mean?” and she explained: “Now only Russian people”. “I’m Serbian! It’s the same! Serbs-Russians-Brothers!” It was pointless. Oh, she can’t be serious!!! But she was! She was painfully serious! Apparently we were late some 30 min to catch time that allows us, non-Russians to get inside and therefore we had to wait some 90 minutes. The catch is maybe there are some note about that but ALL bloody notes were in Russian!!! So what’s the point inform in Russian people who are not Russians and therefore probably don’t speak Russian that they have special term to enter the palace! Gosh I was furious! We lost almost an hour waiting in the line to find out that we have to come in about 2 hours!

Oh well we used those 2 hours in best possible way. We were marveling Peterhof’s park and fountains. I’ve never been in Versailles so I can’t compare but Peterhof left me speechless. Of course the most impressive is magnificent Grand Cascade, a symphony of over 140 fountains engineered by Peter himself. The central statue of Samson tearing open a lion’s jaws celebrates (as so many things in St. Petersburg do) Peter’s victory over the Swedes at Poltava. Shooting up over 60m it was unveiled for the 25th anniversary of the battle. From the Grand Cascade goes a canal, Water Avenue crisscrossed by bridges and bedecked by smaller sprays, leading from the palace (Grand Cascade is in the front of the palace) to the ferry dock in the Baltic.
The grounds at Peterhof include Upper, Lower and Alexandria parks, covering vast area of more than 600 hectares. As well as the numerous palaces and fountains there are three-lined avenues, wooded paths and the Baltic shore. The grounds next to the Great palace have been designed to be laid out in the French style with geometrically arranged flower beds, sculptures, summerhouses and pergolas. As I said fountains are just amazing and countless, there are so many that you really have to think hard not to repeat a wish if you wanna make one with each fountain! Beside magical Grand Cascade there is an imaginative variety mostly concentrated in the Lower Park, includes triton and lion fountains, dragon fountains with checkerboard steps, and smaller fountains with fish-tailed boys blowing sprays through conches. Most playful are trick fountains such as the Umbrella which “rains” on those who come too close.
So those 2 hours of waiting weren’t that bad after all.

Grand Palace is an imposing edifice, although with 30-something rooms it’s not nearly as large as a typical tsarist palace. It has been transformed during the reign of Tsarina Elisabeth when a third storey and wings with pavilions at either end have been added. I don’t know what more I should write about royal palaces. Basically the story is pretty much the same as the one about Catherine’s Palace in Tsarskoe Selo: luxurious and breathtaking…

Third day: The Hermitage
The Winter Palace which is located in the historic center of the city used to be the Imperial residence. Several rooms in the palace were used to house unique works of art, and these rooms came to be known as the Hermitage. Later more buildings were constructed for the growing collections – the Small Hermitage, the Great Hermitage, the Hermitage Theatre and the New Hermitage. All these buildings now make up the State Hermitage – an enormous museum of art, history and culture.
Someone told me years ago if someone wants to see all what is in the Hermitage (and spend reasonable amount of time for each object) one would have to spend two years in the museum. The museum is a monster! My friend asked me “How can you use such a word for something so magnificent?”; well I don’t mean in negative way. I mean it’s horribly demanding, you literally need to be physically prepared as if you’re going to compete in the Olympics but also you have to know what you wanna see; you must have prepared priorities because there’s no way you can see everything. I was in shock when I completely accidentally peeked into some secondary, even tertiary corridor far away from the main halls and in the moment I was turning away my head I froze: “Have I just saw Van Gogh there in the corner?” It was Van Gogh, and then Gauguin , etc they are placed somewhere where I never thought they would. Of course there is a special room for them as well but that part on the lower floor is so easy to be missed. Then the next thought raised “Gosh! What have I missed so far in those countless other hidden corridors?!” So you can imagine what’s in the main halls!

I’m not going to write about how I felt; I don’t think I could. I mean just to write the names like Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rafael, Caravaggio, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Monet, Picasso, El Greco, Van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin ….. should be breathtaking (and those are only painters and few sculptors and there are so much more!).
If you scroll down you’ll se an image of my computer and “The Dance” by Matisse. It’s one of my favourite paintings and I was so eager to finally see it. It’s was on third (last) floor… I knew it’s big but I couldn’t imagine how big until I finally enter in the hall where it hangs! It was on opposite wall of the huge hall and it occupies the entire wall. It looked like a mural. I really couldn’t believe I was standing there, even now while I’m writing this  (tomorrow will be) exactly 9 months later I’m shivering.

* * *

In between those main daily destinations I was cruising through the city hungry to see as much as possible. When I said cruising I meant literally: the best way to see St Petersburg in all its beauty is from the river (which mostly doesn’t look like a river but the sea). Neva is enormous and I can only imagine how the city looks when the river is frozen. St. Petersburg is built on 42 islands at the Neva delta where the river flows into the Gulf of Finland and it has it has over 300 of bridges! That’s why its most famous nick is “Venice of the North”.

I’ve never been in Moscow but I saw St Petersburg as an example of Orthodox Christianity splendour! It is very different from what we have here in Serbia and I was little stroked, it reminded me on those cathedrals in Western (Catholic) Europe. Indeed we have the biggest Orthodox Temple in the world here in Belgrade but it’s not nearly like those churches in Russia. I’m not saying this in any negative way, I was just surprised. And when I saw how impressive churches are I was thinking “Oh God, please make they have candles inside instead of those machines where you put the coin and the small light turns on” (First time I saw those machines in Spain and I was shocked, even disgusted. At first my mind refused to believe they’re replacing candles. I mean even duration of time when the light bulb is on depends on the amount of money you put in. I found them utterly non-religious). Honestly I was deeply happy when I saw candlelight in those magnificent temples of St Petersburg. I was surprised that someone who is accustomed on different kind of religious beauty was so emotionally overwhelmed in those temples.

There are countless number of churches in the city but the most important are the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ (The church is known as “The Saviour on the Blood” because on that place Alexander II of Russia was mortally wounded and the church is erected as a memorial to him), the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan (that was modeled after St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The church was dedicated to the victory over Napoleon in Patriotic War and General Kutuzov is buried in the cathedral), the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, St Isaac’s Cathedral (The largest cathedral in the city and the larges church in Russia when it has been built. During Soviet Union it served as a museum of atheism!!!).

Of course only three days for city like St Petersburg is not nearly enough to see all what is offered. But it was surely enough to say that this is the most beautiful place I ever visited. Hopefully I’ll be back one day…

* * *

From Russia we continued our journey and the next stop was Riga, capital of Latvia.
It’s really cute town, especially its old part with lots of cobbled streets and lovely architecture. Sadly we spent only few hours there before we continued journey to Krakow once again.
The roads were horrible and we arrived in Krakow few hours later than it was planned and therefore I was late to visit Auschwitz. I really wanted although my friends who were there advised me not to go because I would be so horribly moved that the feeling will gloom all positive emotion I’m having from past three weeks. Some of them still have that feeling in the stomach only when they heard I was aiming to go there and they visited the camp years ago. Anyway since we arrived late I had to modify my plan and go in “Wieliczka – Salt Mine”, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s absolutely incredible, it reaches 327 m depth and is over 300km long. Everything there is made of salt: passages, staircases, tunnels, statues of historic and mythic figures and the new ones (like Pope John Paul II) or scenes from the Bible like Journey to Egypt or replica of Leonardo’s “Last Supper”. We had great guide, she was fantastic and beside she gave us incredible amount of information she was enormously funny. I had to mention her here because she was really very nice memory from that visit. Oh and indeed everything is sculptured in the salt rock – I licked it *blush*.

And that was almost everything I have to write about my fantastic Summer 2008 journey.
I hope you who were brave (or crazy) enough to read the entire story will find it interesting. I know I will keep coming back to these three posts to refresh my memories.

 

Northern adventures – part 2 (Lapland)

From Tampere we continued our voyage further on the North, to our main destination: Lapland!
(just like in previous post in this one as well you can click on small photos to enlarge them. also you might need to refresh the page if you don’t see all of 27 clickable photos)

Our next stop was in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland. I couldn’t believe but it supposed to be the biggest town in Europe (it lays on huge surface). I’d never thought so but it is what I’ve read somewhere. Anyhow many of Rovaniemi’s visitors come to cross the Arctic Circle, which lies 8km north of town. This has also become the “official” residence of Santa Claus, who lives in a tacky complex of tourist shops and ho-ho-hos most cheerfully as the euros roll in!

The town itself is quite uninteresting. After the complete destruction by the Germans in 1944, it was rebuilt from a plan by Alvar Aalto (the most famous Finnish architect) with the main streets radiating in the shape of reindeer antlers, something impossible to notice on the ground.

I had one interesting discussion with one guy in Rovaniemi’s church abut history of the town. Namely I knew that Germans lived there and they lived very happy lives with locals, namely Finns were German allies in the war against Russia. There are numerous objects in museum about that and I must say I was very surprised how lovely symbiosis between Nazis and Finns were in Rovaniemi. Eventually when Russians were unstoppable German (but also Finn!), residents on Rovaniemi decided to leave the town, and they set up the fire. Indeed almost entire town has been destroyed but that wasn’t result of combat or something similar, it was actually decision made by both Germans and Finns so that Russians find only ruins. But Russians never reached Rovaniemi (what a bummer). Therefore everything in the town is new.

The most interesting thing in Rovaniemi is one of the best themed museums I saw, Arktikum. Arktikum is absolutely breathtaking even from the first look: it has beautifully designed glass tunnel stretching out to the lake shore. It is one of the Finland’s best museums. Exhibition spaces include superb static and interactive displays focusing on Arctic flora and fauna, as well as on the peoples of Arctic Europe, Asia and North America. The level of information is very impressive; this is really a place to learn about the unique northern environments. There are also good displays of canoes, dwellings, fishing materials and costumes of various northern peoples, including very good exhibition on the Sami. There is also room devoted to the history of Rovaniemi itself. A scale mode shows the destruction wrought by the Axis retreat in 1944.

And Arktikum is pretty much all you have to see in Rovaniemi. Since it is so far north there were no nights and we were roaming through the streets in the center and we were the only ones. No locals, no open bars no anything. Only tourists equally confused by the empty streets, indeed it was close to midnight but it looked like it’s 5pm. So we basically waited to continue our journey and that time we used for some shopping.

Our next stop was Santa Claus village. As I said it is totally tourist trap but we were willingly jumping in it with smile on our face. I don’t believe in Santa Claus, I never did (I feel like a moron cause I’m writing this) but saying such thing there was worse than any blasphemy. Cynical I am I tried to spoil everything with asking about background of the village and I found out that everything there is private, it has an owner and will soon go on the stock market! However no one paid attention on those facts so I didn’t have too much choice and decided to pretend that Santa exists.

Gosh, nowhere else in Finland is there such an unadulterated shrine to commercialism. The Santa Claus Main Post Office is here, and it receives half a million letters each year from children all over the world. I must admit it looks absolutely lovely and in spite it was 1^st August inside was everything Christmas-like. As tacky and trite as this may sound, it is all good fun and you can send a postcard home with an official Santa stamp (I really loved that!). Also for 7 euros you can arrange to receive a personal letter from Santa with a calendar which will be delivered at Christmas and I’ve done that. I told you that I couldn’t fight and decided willingly to jump in the trap).

In a nearby building is the home of Santa himself. To reach him you have to pass through the tempting shop and then enter in something like a cave with lava beneath your feet, enormous clock above your head, you can hear how the time is ticking out, the sound is actually more like from house of horror that from the Santa’s house; and as an icing on the cake comes that equally terrifying “Ho!Ho!Ho!” (no I didn’t have miserable childhood, actually it was quite opposite!). Therefore, you can meet Santa, shake his hand, he will ask you “Where are you from my friend” and then he’ll think how absolutely fabulous is that we are from Serbia (“no shit! What is so fantastic about it?”) and that he’ll come to visit us in December and until then we should behave good (“Hello!! I’m 30 years old, I can’t be good! And we aren’t celebrating Christmas in December!”). And then one dwarf will take a camera and make a memorabilia you’re suppose to worship; memorabilia that costs 30 euros! The price is however the same if five (or more) of us is on the photograph so of course we decided to fill the photo and pay 6 euros each. I guess there’s no need to mention that it is NOT allowed to take your own photograph. How very much in the spirit of Christmas!

The main thing here in Santa Village is actually the Arctic Circle, called Napapiiri in Suomi. The Arctic Circle  is the southernmost line at which the midnight sun can be seen, at a latitude of roughly 66.5° north. From here and up on the north sun never sets in midsummer and never rises in midwinter. Even though the Arctic Circle can be crossed by road at several points in Lapland, the official Arctic Circle marker is right here, conveniently painted on the roadside – and built right on top of it is above mentioned the “official” Santa Claus Village. My friends and I were having great fun crossing the line painted on the asphalt (supposedly marking the circle. Supposedly because the Circle can actually shift several meters daily) in order to be awarded with Arctic Circle certificates (which cost 4.50 euros and which I paid).

Before I leave Rovaniemi I must mention amazing buffet we had in nearby hotel. I shamelessly admit that we eaten that bloody breakfast as if it’s our last one. We looked like we just escaped hunger in our own country but hey who wouldn’t: several types of cheese, hams, all sorts of vegetables, several types of breads just baked, fried bacon, and sausages, meatballs, pancakes, all sorts of fruits, apples, grapes, oranges, watermelons, melons, mangoes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, yogurts (fruit and regular), zillion sorts of jams, muffins… oh and I believe there was part with “healthy food” (with cereals etc) but I didn’t go there. OK I had intention to skip it but I figure out it will be stupid so yes there was beans as well *blush* I still can’t believe I eaten beans for breakfast!

And so we leave Rovaniemi with full stomach to continue our journey in deep Lapland. Our next stop was Inari, capital of Sami people. Inari is small town which lays on the banks on Lake Inari (I think second largest in Finland) and is pace of another beautiful museum; Siida. The exhibition brings to life Sami origins, culture, traditions, lifestyle and present-day struggles. There is a timeline introduction to the history of the area and a superb, detailed display on the Arctic environment, flora and fauna. Outside is an open-air museum featuring Sami buildings, handicrafts and artifacts, including several dastardly traps for bears, foxes and wolves. Sadly we didn’t have much time for museum because we had to catch a boat to Ukko Island, sacred place for Sami people.

The island of Ukko is 300m long, 100m wide and no less than 30m high. The name of the island is Ukonsaari which means “Ukko’s Island” or “Old Man’s Island”. In Inari Lappish the island is called “Aijjih”, which means “Old Man” but also “thunder”. Aijjih, “Thunder”, was the most important pagan god of the Lapps and Ukonsaari Island was one of his shrines.

One of the last traces of the cult of Aijjih may have been the custom of throwing a coin or two into the water near the island while wishing for a favourable wind. On the island is a cave which we couldn’t enter (while my friend and I were searching for it and trust me if we were successful we would enter and don’t know what would Old Man say (or even worse, do) on that especially cause my friend was female and the island was forbidden ground for women). Before shrine cavern has been discovered, semicircle of reindeer antlers has been found which was exact as on some woodprints. Woodprint portrayed a man worshiping a “seita” (Lappish stone idol) surrounded by a pile of reindeer antlers. Aijjih was probably worshiped with similar rites.

Small excavation in the shrine cavern has discovered, aside from animal bones, a small silver ring adorned with filigree, most likely a fragment of an earring or brow ring. Similar rings have been found in eastern Russia, where they probably date to the first century A.D. The use of Ukko Island as a shrine may thus date back as much as a thousand years.

Ukko Island is one of Finland’s most important ancient monuments and is protected by law so every activities beside visit are forbidden.

I’m fascinated with Sami culture (something I knew nothing about before this trip and sadly I can’t say I know much even now. Why I didn’t bought some books about them I’ll never understand. It was late reaction ) so I’ll write more about them.

According to stone carvings and archaeological evidence, this region was first settled soon after the last Ice Age around 10.000 years ago. The early inhabitants were nomadic people: hunters, fishers and food-gatherers, who migrated with the seasons. They hunted wild reindeer, fished and harvested berries in the summer months, and traded meat, clothing and handicrafts.  I bought shaman drum (I just had to) and two mugs (kuksa) made of birch.

Early Sami society was based on siida, small groups comprising a number of families who controlled particular hunting and fishing grounds. Families lived in a traditional dwelling resembling the tepee or wigwam of native North Americans. It could be easily set up as a temporary shelter while following the migrating reindeer herds.

The natural environment was essential to the Sami existence: they worshiped the sun (father), earth (mother) and wind and believed all things in nature had a soul. The starts and constellations provided mythology – North Star, the brightest in the sky was the pillar of the World. The Sami believed in many gods and their link with the gods was through the shaman, the most important member of community. By beating a drum, the shaman could go into a trance and communicate with the gods. The drums featured in drawings depicting life, nature and gods, usually with the sun as the central image.

Traditional legends, rules of society and fairytales were handed down through generations by storytelling. A unique form of storytelling was the yoik, a chant in which the singer would use words, or imitate the sounds of animals and nature to describe experiences. You can buy CD with yoik accompanied by instruments.

Many Sami legends remain, including those of miracle-working witches who could fly and transform themselves into strange creatures. Conspicuous lakes or rocks became holly sites and the island of Ukko is precisely being best known of these.

And Ukko is really magical. It was very windy and cold day (Inari Lake is frozen 7 months in a year and when it’s not it’s very cold!) but it was worth of all troubles. Indeed there’s nothing more than nature but nature is breathtaking! And of course there is a history hidden it that beauty. Near Ukko island is another one which served as a graveyard. Namely in ancient time people believed that dad should rest I peace, far away from settlements. The idea has been abandoned when wild animals started to dig graves searching for bones.

We were sleeping in Kaamanen, small village some 30 km north from Inari. And there’s nothing much I should write about it. It’s a place full of bungalows on the lake shore. Of course it has sauna sop it was possible to run away from it straight into the lake. The nights were fascinating indeed, I mean there were no nights. I spoke with our hosts and they reminded they also have 6 month without day. I would really like to see that!

Oh I shouldn’t skip Sami fashion which is fantastic but horribly expensive. You can see part of it on the pictures me modeling (click to enlarge).

And this is something I wanted so badly but 300 euros was price way too high for a souvenir :

Next morning we continue our journey more on north, on the shore of Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean! We were hoping to see herds of reindeers on the road but we saw occasionally few examples (and since I was up on the floor in the bus I mad horrible photos, however I’ll take some from my fellow travelers). Day was cloudy and rainy from time to time.

We reached Ocean in Grense Jakobselv, NATO’s eastern most mainland-based surveillance of Russia. It was very strange feeling. The ocean was dark-grey with big waves and only you can hear was wind and occasionally some sea bird. I was standing on the shore expecting to hear voice of Dejan Đurović (Serbian readers will understand). I couldn’t believe I was there. Of course I had to enter the ocean; in Serbian official name for Arctic Ocean is Northern Icy Ocean and he so justified its name. The feeling was as if some mad dog is biting my feet! And my dear friends made me to go back into the ocean because „photograph wasn’t good“. Of course they were good! *grrr*

Later we visited Kirkenes, the biggest town in the area also famous for King Crabs safari. Suddenly the day was sunny but the wind was so strong and it was quite cold. However children were playing on the main square were was some entertainment park; and almost everyone wearing short sleeves! I couldn’t believe! It was some festival, they were celebrating something (i wouldn’t be surprised if the occasion was first sunny day of the year!). Some folks have found whale meat but as usual I was sightseeing and wasn’t interested in sitting in restaurants (or in this case under a tent). They said it’s lovely but when I heard the price I couldn’t believe. I mean I knew Norway ios horribly expensive country but I never expect it’s expensive that much! I went in a hotel in toilet and there I saw postcards and thought to send few so I asked do they have stamps and how much it is. The answer was 5 euros! I had to ask twice and the guy said in perfectly normal voice the same thing: 5 euros. For bloody postcard!!! Should I mention I didn’t send anything from there.

One group find out lamb roast and wanted to taste part from the ribs but the butcher didn’t want to give them that part so one of them sweared in Serbian. Butcher who was grizzly-sized man with grizzly-like face and with knife huge enough to kill grizzly said in cracked voice „What did you say?“ (in perfect Serbian!). He couldn’t believe his ears and of course he gave them discount and free drink. I don’t remember his name but I know he’s Muslim refugee from Bosnia and he couldn’t answer the question how on earth he ended there.

How strange this is; in Bosnia he would see enemy in us but there on far European North he almost didn’t burst in tears. And yes in some distant land, in foreign culture you forget all animosities and longing for someone who can understand you, who knows how you feel when people around you don’t catch the point of your joke. After such things you really wonder why all those suffering? Why war when you’ll find yourself hugging in tears your „enemy“?

We left Kirkenes and Norway and slowly start our way back home. We slept in Kaamanen and next morning continued journey to Oulu in the Gulf of Bothnia. We didn’t have too much time to spend there so we just walked for an hour or so. Oulu is lovely town with beautiful open marked which was full of people since it was sunny day. On the open marked there are many red wooden houses (like in Porvoo). Apartments are fantastic. Every two buildings have their own parks (closed by the fence) in between of the buildings. And if the building are on the bank of the channel, channel has been used by residents of that buildings. I saw water scooter „parked“ in a front of the building. How odd is that?

After relaxing little bit in Oulu we started our journey to Russia and magic St Petersburg, but about that in part 3…

 

Northern adventures – part 1

OK finally I managed to reach computer and write my impressions about the Summer trip on the European North. Gosh, I’m so full of emotions I just hope I’ll be able to stay focused. Oh and you can click on the small images if you wanna enlarge them (they will be opened in another window). Also maybe you might need to refresh page if you don’t see all small photos (there are 24 clickable pictures).

Beside the fact that the trip was absolutely amazing it was quite hard; I mean almost 8000 km in a bus doesn’t sound very tempting, right? But on the other hand there’s no way I’d be able to see so many things and cities in any other way.

Anyhow our first stop on the trip was Krakow in Poland. It was my second time in Krakow and I had high hopes I’ll see everything I missed first time but the weather wasn’t my friend. It was raining horribly and it was quite cold. I remember Krakow as a magnificent town but I must admit that rain has spoiled the picture. Anyhow I didn’t want to surrender myself and in spite the rain (and without umbrella) I was walking thru the streets. My goal was Czartoryski Museum and “Lady With an Ermin” by Leonardo da Vinci. This will be the very first Leonardo’s painting I’m going to see and I was so excited (was it raining at all?). I’m a huge admirer of Leonardo’s work and I had a chance only to see his models of airplane, bicycle etc but never any of his paintings. I tried to walk calmly thru the museum and observe exhibition with attention not thinking about upcoming meeting … I’m afraid I failed. I’ve noticed one work of Peter Breugel and one of Rembrandt but even then “Lady With an Ermine” was on my mind. And then, in one dark room I saw it. It was under pale light which was actually in harmony with her elegance. She was lovely. Gosh standing before Leonardo is indescribable. That was perfect introduction into what waited me on this journey…

Next morning we continued our journey and next stop was Tallinn, Estonian capital. I was hoping that my Estonian friends I met few months ago here in Belgrade will be there but sadly they weren’t. However we exchanged text messages with few tips, what is a must in Tallinn. We had few hours before embarking on the ferry and that was quite enough to enjoy in old Tallinn. Oh I was aiming to buy famous Estonian liqueur “Vana Tallinn” but I wanted to avoid shops in tourist zone so I went into information center to ask for nearest supermarket with normal prices so I asked a girl who worked there “Where can I find Vana Tallinn?” and she replied “Oh you have found it!” at first I was puzzled but then I realized what she’s thinking. Namely in Estonian “Vana Tallinn” means “Old Tallinn” and indeed we were precisely there!

Old Tallinn is on the UNESCO World heritage list (as well as old Krakow) and it was obvious why: town is beautiful with all its walls, sweet colored houses, churches … you can really feel the history. And the view on the Gulf of Finland from the tower of St Olaf’s church is magnificent. Also from there you can see Tallinn “on the palm”. It’s small town (whole Estonia has population of about 1.3 million which is almost half of Belgrade’s population) but really beautiful. I must admit that I liked the most Russian Orthodox church of Alexander Nevsky. Again, the church was another fantastic introduction of what is waiting me on this journey.

We left Tallinn with very positive emotions. The town is beautiful as well as its people. They are usually very good in English, very polite and are willing to help. The town was full of tourists but somehow it contributes to the whole image and there are only few places where tourists aren’t spoiling the image.

Few hours on the ferry Tallinn-Helsinki have been good intro to create an image about Finns. We had fantastic time, very warm and sunny and almost all passengers were sitting outdoor, sunbathing and … drinking … drinking a lot! There were duty free shop on the ferry and the main product was alcohol. The journey was few hours (don’t remember exactly) and during that time one couple which was sitting near our table has “killed” two bottles of whiskey (sorry if noticing that was rude but I just couldn’t help myself). I was very curious if they will be able to stand up when we arrived in Helsinki. Gosh it was as if they were drinking mineral water! When we started to leave ferry I was shocked when I saw that almost everyone is dragging several boxes (!) of alcoholic drink with themselves. Almost everyone (regardless of the age) was red in face, with silly smile while staggering. But look on those boxes of drinks made me think “Is Finland expensive that much!”.

First image of Helsinki was quite surprising. I was imaging everything will be perfectly clean in perfect order, almost sterile, that you’ll feel kingdom of rules from the very beginning. I remembered that my foreign friends were very surprised that Belgrade is full of people in 2am. They couldn’t understand what people are doing on the streets and in bars in that hour. They couldn’t believe that we aren’t going out before 10pm, that real action in the city begins after midnight. Anyhow I imagined Helsinki will be something opposite of Belgrade. What I saw was very “Belgradish”: town was full of people! What I liked so much was the images of parks (and Helsinki has lots of parks) filled with people picnicking and drinking of course; they were lying on the grass and sunbathing (sadly here walking on the grass in the parks is not acceptable, maybe it’s even forbidden; that’s why I was longing to do that there!). And then night has fall on Helsinki (“night” is something that includes bright, red sky only for an hour and then it’s becoming brighter and brighter) and of course I wanted to see night life in Helsinki. What I saw has left me speechless: streets were full of people, mostly young ones and it was 2am! That was something I so didn’t expect to see here. And moreover, I don’t think I saw one single sober person. Everyone was drunk, majority completely destroyed, lying everywhere in the parks, on the streets, on the friend’s shoulders etc. but don’t get me wrong: somehow the atmosphere in the town was cheerful. When I’m talking about drunkenness I don’t have any negative thought (after all I do drink). But what I liked the most is that everyone of those drunk people was drunk for themselves. No one is harassing anyone (not sure the same would be here). I felt as if I’m looking some performance Helsinki is greeting me with. Next morning came with thought “the city has made love and the streets are crumpled” I was thrilled!

Our hostel was near Russian Orthodox Church, the biggest Orthodox Church in Western Europe (FYI the biggest Orthodox temple in the world is here in Belgrade, but we aren’t part of “Western World”). Near  to our hostel was an open market and I really love those things. It was crowded and the prices were generally quite high. However you can have perfect (and surprisingly cheep) breakfast there. Namely market is on the coast so part of it was with small boats where you can buy fruits of the sea and other fish specialties (I’ll recommend a salmon with everything fisherman will suggests (I remember garlic)); “dry” part of the market will offer you numerous of berries and among them the most intriguing cloudberries, something I saw for the first time (I’m quite sure we don’t have Serbian word for such thing) and which is apparently very typical for Finland.

From there you can catch the boat to Suomenlinna. Set on a tight cluster of islands, this UNESCO World Heritage Site (the “Fortress of Finland”) was the scene of a major event in Finnish history when the Russians seized it from the Swedes in 1808. The greatest fortress of the Swedish empire was founded in 1748 to protect the eastern part of empire against Russian attack. It was named Sveaborg (Swedish fortress).

After a prolonged attack, Sveaborg was surrendered to the Russians after the war of 1808, and renamed Viapori. Thanks in large part to the superb sea fortress, the Finnish capital was moved from Turku to Helsinki in 1812. It remained Russian until Finland gained independence in 1917 and the present name was chosen in 1918.

Beside its obvious historical value, Suomenlinna is a fantastic place for picnicking. We had beautiful sunny days in Helsinki (something not very common) and the locals were using every single ray. It was almost exotic image of numerously multiplied “Déjeuner sur l’herbe” (nope, no naked ladies you dirty mind!). Indeed there were loads semi nakedness since “cold water” is not the same for some Finn and for someone from the Mediterranean: sun is shinning, therefore let’s go swimming … in the Baltic! The ones that weren’t in the water were lying in the parks sunbathing.

Here I must say that I never saw so many tattooed people than in Finland (and especially in Helsinki). Without any exaggeration I can say that on every person without tattoo comes five tattooed (I’m talking about young population 15-35 years). It’s incredible! Also, since I’m watching Eurovision Song Contest I knew that Finns like hardcore sound but OMG, there is entire hardcore culture in Finland. Beside tattoos Finnish guys like either boldness or long hair in both cases leather with lots of metal adds. There are several boutiques that are closer to ironmonger’s store than to clothes store! For someone like me it was like a masked ball. Also I’m not sure if I’d feel comfortable to ask here in Belgrade someone who is bold (or with long hair), tattooed, totally pierced and in leather with an image of tough guy for direction or for some museum; or even if I’d asked I wouldn’t expect that he would be able to help me. Well not in Finland, those tough guys are very friendly and polite … you just have to accept that “dress code” as something very normal and relax

Another thing I’ve noticed (especially (but not only) on Suomenlinna) is that Helsinki is full of young couples with kids. It was incredible how many under 25 (or so) have kids! They were with equally young friends (also with kids) observing their offsprings with beer in one hand and cigarette in other and enjoying the sun. It was such a great image and if I think further about this phenomenon the only reasonable explanation that is falling on my mind is an image of that alcoholically destroyed people on the streets of Helsinki Friday night LOL. Of course I’m joking but then beside so many young parents Finland has very high rate of divorces (I’ve read that somewhere. Yep, I tried to inform myself quite detailed before the trip) so I’m going to let you think about this…

From lovely Suomenlinna I went on another Island, Seurasaari. It’s another lovely place where locals are going during sunny days. It’s really lovely place with beautiful pine forest and nice beaches but that wasn’t the reason why I went there. Seurasaari is also an open-air museum. You can buy the ticket when entering on the island but it’s not obligatory if you don’t want to enter into the houses on the island. Of course I didn’t want to miss that. The concept of this museum is quite unique (later I found out there are many museums in Finland with the similar concept): on the island there are numerous 18^th- and 19^th- century traditional houses, manors and outbuildings from around the Finland. Guides are dressed in traditional costume and are demonstrating folk dancing and crafts such as spinning, embroidery and troll-making. I thought that houses were build on the island following the pattern of the houses from certain region of Finland but I was wrong. Every single house on the island including the church is authentic! That means that all houses have been moved from around Finland on the island. Every house has a guide who can tell you story about original inhabitants of the house. It was incredible because along with the house you can see some personal things of its first owners. I was thrilled with the whole idea.

Oh and there while I was speaking with one of the guides she said “t…” and then stopped and said “also”. I had to ask her “did you wanted to say tambien?” and she said “Yes!” and then next 15 minutes we spoke in Spanish. My friend told me I have “nose” to smell Spanish; it seems she’s right

Of course I had to visit fabulous monument of great Finnish composer Sibelius. It wasn’t windy when I was there but people are saying that when wind blows thru the monument, you can hear music it makes.

Near the monument is Olympic Stadium where Olympic Games 1952 took place.

I was roaming thru the city and I must say it’s beautiful place. Architecture is fantastic, I mentioned Orthodox Church already but there is also Lutheran Church that dominates city’s landscape. Beautiful town indeed.

Next day I went in Porvoo, the second oldest town in Finland after Turku. Officially it has been town since 1346, but even before that Porvoo was an important trading centre.

There are three distinct sections to the city: the Old Town, the new town and the 19^th-century Empire quarter, built Russian style under the rule of Tsar Nicholas I.

The Old Town district was largely built after the Great Fire 1760. It’s an alluring warren of narrow, winding cobblestone alleys and brightly coloured wooden houses. The distinctive row of shore houses along the Porvoonjaki were first painted with red ochre to impress the visiting Kind of Sweden, Gustavus III, in the late 18^th century. They were originally used to store goods traded with German ships but many are now Porvoo’s prime residential real estate.

The striking stone medieval cathedral dominates the Old Town and has an important place in Finnish history: this is where the first Diet of Finland assembled in 1809, convened by Tsar Alexander I, thus giving Finland religious freedom.

Porvoo is also the place where I tasted Salmiakki ice cream. Salmiakki is something utterly Finnish and usually quite disgusting to the rest of the world. However I loved it. It’s a strange mix of salty-bitter-sweet-who-knows-what-else taste. Ever since a friend of mine (who I met on this journey) sent me few years ago I loved it and was very lucky that my friends are hating it, which means that all Salmiakki is for me *evil grin* Of course I loved the ice cream as well while my friend couldn’t even look at me knowing what I’m licking.

When I came back in Helsinki I sadly didn’t have much time to visit more museums so I decided to spend this last day in Helsinki feeling the town’s heartbeat … and was scared cause I thought it needs reanimation: it was Sunday and all magic has vanished. Helsinki was deserted by its people! At 10pm there were no one on the streets, bars are closed … “dealcoholisation” was in progress, tomorrow is a working day and therefore there will be no action tonight and streets will not be beautifully crumpled next morning. Nope, not Belgrade after all…

Next day we continued our journey. We were driving through the regions with lakes and our next destination was Tampere, but before that we made few hours pause in the National Park Evo, between Helsinki and Tampere. Nature is beautiful, dense forest and lakes and Finnish army on the bikes. The image was silly. I mean there was a huge line of uniformed, armed bikers in the middle of the Park. They were look like everything but military forces; they were even in the mood to chat with us; relaxing drive thru the wood, the only what was missing was headphones lol (I was wondering how would they react if some petard would explode; I wouldn’t be surprised if they would vanished in the bush. I just couldn’t imagine their smiling, relaxed faces in the combat … oh ignore me). Beside “military forces” much dangerous were mosquito forces! Indeed I was warned in the guide that we are going in Finland in the time when mosquitoes and other bloodsuckers are most aggressive. Therefore I had repellents but if you leave any spot unprotected with the repellent they will find it!

In the park we saw several private homes (and were even invited in one). That’s really a pure luxury. It’s absolutely fantastic, house is just as if you are reading some fairy tale, hidden in the wood, usually red with white windows (wooden of course); grass around the house is perfectly shaven; there is a brook and the bridge and garden with chairs … it’s really beautiful. Oh and of course: its royal highness: The Sauna.

It seems that every house has its sauna (probably not but it’s very close). Public ones (including the ones we had in our hostels, yep we had sauna in the hostel) are either divided on male and female saunas; or there are separate open hours for men and women.

Sauna is a place where family is gathering and invitation to go in sauna is something you mustn’t reject. It’s actually an honour to be invited by your host in their sauna (no, I wasn’t invited but was informed before my trip). So all this sounds lovely until one point: I remember before this trip I was reading guide about Finland and the part about one Sauna in Helsinki which also have a swimming pool. There was something like separate hours for men and women (I was wondering why’s that?) and bathing suits are optional in the pool (I thought either guide has a printing error, or something’s wrong with my English) and not allowed in saunas. And then I realized: Of course! You can’t not be naked in sauna! (here in Serbia we do have saunas and no one is going naked; I can only imagine what would happened if someone would enter without anything. In Finland not even towel is allowed). For Finns that is perfectly normal. They will most definitively say “How can you go in sauna with anything, even underwear!?”

I don’t have problem with nakedness; quite opposite actually (and no, I’m not pervert) so of course I couldn’t miss sauna, otherwise that would be incomplete Finnish experience. On the other hand it would be very odd to go with your host family in sauna naked. But indeed Finns are strict about nonsexual character of sauna. The sauna was originally a place to bathe and meditate. Proper sauna etiquette dictates that you use a ladle to throw water on the sauna stove, which then gives off the steam. At this point, at least in summer in the countryside, you might take a bunch of fresh, leafy birch twigs and lightly strike yourself. This improves circulation, has cleansing properties and gives your skin a pleasant smell. When you are sufficiently warmed, you’ll jump in the sea, a lake, river, pool, then return to sauna to warm up and repeat the cycle several times. If you’re indoors, a cold shower will do (that’s what I have done). The swim and hot-cold aspect is such an integral part of sauna experience that in dead of winter, Finns cut a hole in the ice and jump right in! (would probably skip that) The final key ingredient is the sauna beer, which always tastes heavenly.

Finns will prescribe a sauna session to cure all ills, from a head cold to sunburn. The earliest written description of the Finnish sauna dates from the chronicles of Ukrainian historian Nestor in 1113. There are also numerous references to sauna-going in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.

Sauna is one of the most essential elements of Finnish culture and therefore no joking about it: It’s steamy but NO sex!

After enjoying nature in Evo National Park and won battle against mosquitoes we continued our journey to Tampere. Here I’m reaching the spot where I have to mention horrible problem I had. Namely I had for the first time a horrible toothache that started in the bus while we were still in Belgrade. It was really unbearable and all those days I described I was under antibiotics and filled with all sorts of analgetics. Everyone in the bus wanted to help so I took numerous pills, was chewing clove (it’s a method used among African tribes) and finally drink huge amounts of (several sorts) rakija (plum, peach, etc brandy). Nothing helped so I had to go to visit a dentist. Because of bureaucracy (even in Finland) I had to wait eternity to sit on the chair. Eventually dentist has done what he had to do but the effect came only after several days. I had to go in hospital again few days later in different town where they gave me prescription for very strong pain killers (you can’t buy strong pain killer without prescription in Finland) and in huge package (100 pills) to cover entire trip (some two weeks more from that day). It was really horrible experience and something that has marked part of this trip.

Anyhow, I was so exited with Tampere because I was supposed to see few dear friends of mine, BookCrossers and meet new ones. First day in Tampere I met Rea/CatharinaL (also regular reader of my blog) and few more BookCrossers (I’m just horrible in memorizing names *blush*). We were in Panimoravintola Plevna, a superb and spacious brewery pub in the converted Finlayson cotton mill buildings. It’s fantastic indeed. There I was brave and taste for the first time Mustamakkara, a sturdy black blood sausage which my friend Rea described like this: “looks suspiciously like something a very sick person would find in his toilet bowl” so now you realize why I need to be courageous to taste it. However it’s lovely, that evening I ordered something else but after I tried it (someone else ordered mustamakkara (see pic)) I recommended it to my fellow travelers and we all decided to eat it. It is delicious indeed.

It was very pleasant evening and I was looking forward to the next day monthly BookCrosser meeting (my first one!) where I’ll see more people including Lotta /Intry who is coming all the way from Turku because of me. Well at least I thought I was the reason only to find out while reading meeting journal that she was more exited with some drink while she didn’t mentioned me whatsoever! *grrr* However after “polite” intervention she fixed that horrible mistake *wink* I was very thrilled and touched by Lotta’s decision to come in Tampere and in my thrillness I think I was … how should I put this… emotionally aggressive for Finnish standards. Actually I think I scared them all a little bit with the same thing. Later I was thinking about first meeting with Rea on the street and she handled that very well but then I think I warned her in one of my emails that she shouldn’t be surprised if I forget myself and greet her the way we do here: with strong hug and three kisses. However Lotta was completely unprepared so I can only imagine how I looked!

That was one of the differences between South and North (I said South because I know Spaniards are very similar to Serbs and while I was in Spain it was as if I’m in my own country): there is one distance and one tendency to preserve this distance intact. When I mentioned this on BookObsessed forum some Finns (including dear Lotta) said it’s not that they don’t like person, it’s just they act that way. Of course I’m absolutely aware of that and when I’m speaking about that distance I’m not imposing some negativeness; it’s just an observation. And there was those moments of silence, something we experienced previous evening in Plevna as well. I must say moments of silence were utterly scary, that’s something I’m not accustomed with and I was thinking “gosh say, something; quickly!” and of course there’s no way you can start any decent conversation in that state. Anyway during that meeting I’ve learned that moments of silence are something very common when Finns are having conversation! I was quite surprised: “You mean, you’re not feeling uncomfortable when no one is speaking and the silence is ruling?” and everyone replied in one voice “Oh no, no. Silence is so Finnish!” And only when I think how I was sweating because of it!

The meeting was really fantastic and everything was great. Folks are fantastic and generally speaking Finns are very polite people, willing to help but I’m not sure I’d be able to adopt that distance between friends. I met one Serbian guy, my namesake who lives in Tampere. He was so excited when he heard that someone speaks Serbian and instantly approached us. He said that Finland is great country, that life is good, standard is high but something’s missing in this paradise and that something is closeness. He spent most of his life in Belgrade and in spite the fact that he lives in Finland for several years he just can’t transformed himself. That’s why he has to go in Belgrade from time to time.

When I was leaving the meeting since we were suppose to continue our journey further on the north I said “I suppose hugs and kisses are out of question” and again everyone replied in one tone “Oh, no, no hugs” We joked “That’s that famous Finnish coldness” but in spite joking and really great time I had with those folks I must say I do miss that last hug to close the story. It seems you shouldn’t expect icing on Finnish cake

Oh I should mention Tampere as well. The town is situated between two huge lakes that seem almost see-like at time. It is effectively Finland’s second city and is very strange with its industrial zone in the city centre. It’s very strange to see lovely lakes, parks, streets and in the middle of all this huge smoke-stacks! It’s inheritance from its days as “the Manchester of Finland”, as 19^th-century cotton mills once busily churned alongside the energetic Tammerkoski (the rapids right in the middle of the town).

It is where Lenin museum is situated in the Workers’ Hall where Lenin and Stalin first met at the conference in 1905. Speaking about this, Russian Revolution 1917 increased interest in socialism among Tampere’s large working-class population. It became the capital of the “Reds” during Civil War that followed Finnish independence.

Also what was little strange about Tampere is that is full of monuments of naked men! Indeed there are few naked women, but only few. My friend thought the reason why they are so liberated with nakedness is because of sauna. On the other hand my Finnish friends explained me they don’t hug each other and usually not expressing emotions so openly because Finns are shy. Now I’m thinking how to connect shyness with nude revolution? I can’t but after seeing monuments in Tampere I don’t have any doubts why Tom is coming from Finland! LOL!

Ok I’ll stop here. It’s 6am, I eaten box of peanuts and drunk two cans of beer.

To be continued in Lapland…

 

Birthday ramblings …

Lots of things are happening with me in last … lets say two weeks. I already wrote about our newborn. His parents have decided to be utterly merciful and have sent me MMS with Vuk but I can’t find cable at the moment to move the image on the PC (will do). Therefore there’ll be no photo again. However I can assure you that indeed he’s not ugly at all (anymore). He is one cute little baby. I was hoping I’ll see him again before I go on vacation but I’m in total mess (which is more/less my regular state) so I will not.

I can’t believe what kind of babies my sister in law and my brother are making. It is as if they are ordering them! Namely my niece was a fantastic baby; she was sleeping, eating and shitting. OK “fantastic” from the perspective of a parent; if you ask me she was boring! You couldn’t do anything with her. She even didn’t want to be hold in the lap/hands. The last thing was great indeed. I remember once she was crying in the cradle and my mom wanted to hold her but I didn’t let her “If you hold her too much she’ll cry every time you put her back in the cradle!” but she was persistent (both, mum and niece). The last (unsuccessful) try was “She’s not blue yet” lol
Anyhow this new baby is the same as his sister (he only sleeps more … and shit more).

OK I had lovely birthday and birthday party because party was in Saturday while my birthday was in Thursday. I decided to male a cake, my first one and it was fabulous! Everyone said it’s better than my mom’s (I changed recipe) which is huge success cause I don’t eat sweets (therefore I don’t make those). It’s “Greek Cake” with lots of almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, dark chocolate and powdered cookies.
And presents are great! Books of course: History of Beauty by Umberto Eco (something I wished ever since I saw it for the first time!); My Michael by Amos Oz; Anthology of Nigerian stories; The Ruby in her Navel by Barry Unsworth; Birthday Stories by Haruki Murakami; Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore; A Guide to the Serbian Mentality by Momo Kapor (beautiful book written by heart; I’ve read few essays from there); Keith Harring ‘paint’ (which shows pretty much how I’m feeling now); Photo album; Kitchen accessory; Lots of wine and MP4 Player, great equipment for the upcoming trip!

Last Monday I was listening my favourite radio station B92 while preparing stuff to go on the swimming. And they asked listeners to send them text message with an answer “Why is better spend summer on the mountain than on the coast on the beach?” There were lots of answers and many were sort of cheep poetry (mentioning B92); I didn’t like them so, considering I have slight problem on the swimming pool I sent reply “Because you don’t have to spend whole vacation with your stomach pulled in. Relax!” and I went on the pool.
Few days later, on my birthday, 17th July my cell phone rang:
- Hello Milan! Here is radio B92, I’m just checking are you available. You’re participating in a quiz.
- No I don’t! Is this some joke?
- No it’s not joke. Haven’t you sent us text message blah, blah
- Yes I have
- Well we like you answer a lot and you are our Monday winner. And in the semis you’ll competing with winner of Tuesday and the winner of that duel will competing with the winner of Wednesday.
- But I didn’t know it’s a game! I just replied on your question and left the house. This must be some birthday joke; If I knew it’s a game I surely wouldn’t participate! I hate being on the radio!
- Oh come on! It’s even better you didn’t know. You’ll see the questions aren’t hard at all!
- Ok but don’t mention it’s my birthday (maybe I’m lucky and no one will recognize my voice)

And so I participated in the quiz. It was like picking one number 1-30 until someone fail to give an answer. I was the first (considering that I’m Monday winner). (I’ll type questions here just for myself to remember them; I know you’re not familiar with any of these since it’s geography and culture of Serbia)
I picked #1
Q: What’s the name of the highest peak of Kopaonik Mountain?
A: Pančićev Vrh (CORRECT)
My opponent picked this:
Q: What’s the name of the mountain where Josif Pančić discovered new spruce specie, Omorika (Serbian Spruce, Picea Omorika)?
A: On Kopaonik mountain. (WRONG! It’s Tara Mountain, I knew that)
So I won and pass in the final against winner of Wednesday.
I picked #2
Q: Which town is nearest to Kopaonik mountain?
A: Brus (CORRECT)
My Wednesday opponent picked this
Q: Which monastery is the nearest to Kopaonik mountain?
A: Ravanica monastery (WRONG! It’s Studenica, of course I knew that)
Radio hostess:
- Milan, congratulations! You won 10 days vacation in the  Jat Apartments at Kopaonik mountain for four persons!
- You must be kidding!
- Nope! I’m not kidding! Happy Birthday!

Can you believe this? I hardly can, but then I looking in the voucher that is confirming I wasn’t dreaming and beside that few minutes ago, precisely while I was typing this post my cell phone rang. It was call from management of JAT Apartments from Kopaonik, congratulating me on the award and telling me that I’m welcome to come whenever I want till 13th September! And if you’d like to see how it looks like here is the link: JAT Apartments – Kopaonik.

I’ll probably go with my mother. I think she would enjoy in such vacation; She was reluctant but considering it’s not skiing season so she can walk it will be lovely for her. Beside that we don’t spend much time together since we are living in different town (and I don’t have problem to go with my mom. LOL). Also I hope we’ll be able to steal my niece (I have extra need to give her more especially now when new baby is here); and my best girl friend (that makes us four).

So this will be rest for previous BIG trip which starts tomorrow! And which makes me SO nervous!!! This is the map of the trip:

Strbske Pleso – Slovakia 23rd July
Krakow – Poland 24rd July
Tallinn, Estonia – 25th July
Helsinki, Finland – 26th-28th July
Tampere, Finland – 29th July
Rovaniemi, Finland – 30th July-01st Aug
Inari, Finland – 01st -02nd Aug
Kirkenes, Norway – 02nd Aug
Oulu, Finland – 3rd August
St Petersburg, Russia 04th–07th Aug
Riga, Latvia – 07th Aug
Krakow, Poland 08th Aug

It’s very tight schedule indeed but it will be a dream vacation. I still can’t believe I’ll visit St. Petersburg. It’s one of mine top 5 places on to-see list. Of course there are lots of other places (not listed above) I’m looking forward like the coast of Arctic Ocean, or Auschwitz. But special excitement is the fact that I’ll meet Finnish BookCrossing crew and among them two very dear friends of mine (they sometimes post comments here). I never thought I’ll meet them, especially not in their home land!
So I’m spending last days thinking about the trip, going in last minute shopping (hate that), thinking what to pack (temperature range will be 12C-35C (53F-95F) so you can imagine my problem) and of course reading books to prepare this trip in best possible way!
So my current favourite literature is this:

OK I’m off to pack myself …

 

The Islamist

The Islamist – Why I joined radical Islam in Britain, what I saw inside and why I left
Ed Husain

I’ve recently read this book and I really liked it.
It is sort of protest against politic Islam, based on personal experience. This is for the first time that we have opportunity to read about Islamic fundamentalism and life within radical Islamic organizations from an ex-member.

Namely Mr. Husain, British Muslim has become Muslim fundamentalist in sixteen an then years after he saw how wrong is that path. What has awaken his criticism (and opened his eyes) was personal experience with devastating Islamic ideas planted in the minds of Muslim teenagers in Britain that encourage them to be confronted with others in the name of religion.

Time Mr. Husain has spent in Saudi Arabia firmed his beliefs that rigid, old form of Islam: wahhabism joined with political Islam: islamism is causing only suffering all around the globe: Baghdad, Tel Aviv, Madrid, London, New York, Istanbul, etc he realized how that ideology is filled with anger, ideology that he once belonged to is not only a threat to primeval Islam and Muslims but to entire civilized world.
After he finished this road Mr. Husain thought it is his humane duty to speak against something that is presented in Britain as a “true Islam”, because the Koran orders to all Muslims to speak the truth, even if the truth is against them.

First part of the book is little slow I must admit and that maybe because I wasn’t familiar with things related with British society. Everything was new for me but there are so many information that are more/less familiar to someone who lives in Britain I guess. However, for me it from time to time it was little hard to follow.

What surprised me the most was part about Saudi Arabia. Namely, I didn’t have a clue that to love a Prophet is actually forbidden and is considered as idolatry. I was in shock what treatment believers are receiving on Prophet’s grave.

Mr. Husain has done amazing job in introducing us to creation of Wahhabi stream in Islam and I didn’t know that precisely Wahhabism is official form of Islam in Saudi Arabia! That was really surprising. Thinking about peninsula and how huge amounts of money are coming from there to help all Islamic actions all around the world (including erecting mosques in Bosnia but also financing war and sending mujahideen and Al Qaeda forces in the same Bosnia) I would never thought that Saudi Arabia is such a racist society towards Muslims (!). It’s extremely segregated and indeed the title of the chapter about it “Saudi Arabia: Where is Islam?” is perfectly chosen.

I really enjoyed in this book (enjoyed in sense I’ve learned a lot) but the main readers would (and should) be (young) Muslims in the Western world. This book is showing how enormously wrong picture about “true Islam” and the life in the cradle of Islam they have. Almost everything is wrong and artificially created completely ignoring the Holly Book. But the worst thing is that young Muslims in the west are accepting this radicalism thinking it’s how Prophet and the Koran is telling them they should believe, think and act.
And moreover Mr. Hosain has explained entire genesis of radicalism with the names that stands behind it and the books that can be purchased in regular bookshop in London. Now comes the old question (I wrote about this in my post about “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali) Why intolerance should be tolerated? In the name of religious freedom? That’s a nonsense, very expensive one! Not only because of innocent victims of radicalism but also because it produces even bigger segregation between cultures, between religions and we are all victims, on both sides of the gorge while in reality we are in our own cultures and religion much more closer then we know.

I’ll finish with two quotes which are unknown to, I’m sure many Muslims and non Muslims and that are reflects how same we are:

“Beware of extremism in religion, for it was extremism in religion that destroyed those who went before you” – The Prophet Mohammed (570-632)
“Whoever kills an innocent person, it is as though he has killed entire humanity” – The Koran

 

My birthday!

No I don’t wanna sound pathetic with this image. I’m not feeling alone or anything and certainly not be forgotten! I’m receiving whole day phone calls, text messages, emails, and personal messages on other sites so “Happy Birthday to me” doesn’t mean anything you might think. It’s just that I want to post this before midnight (i.e. on my birthday) and later, probably tomorrow will edit with what happened today (you will not believe me!).

So ’till soon