Countries that no longer exist - are you as intrigued by that as I am? The melancholic atmosphere of a land forever gone; somewhere ephemeral, glimpsed through a translucent curtain that is the past, just out of our grasp. DDR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union; [...]
Can't travel. Still. (Where is that damn vaccine?) So again, I've been digging through travel memories old and older, that I've yet to write about here on Sophie's World. Fortunately, there's a lot of those. When Ali was 4, she and I took our first [...]
Have you seen Babylon Berlin? It's one of my favourite series to binge during these times where all we have is time. The series is set in late 1920s Berlin and - despite the gloom and doom of those years - well, I just want [...]
Beijing can be almost unbearably hot in summer, so getting out of town can be a relief. May I recommend taking the metro out to the scenic Shichahai district in the northern part of the city?From the centre of Beijing, several busses and a few [...]
It's January 2021, the januariest of them all. Final day of January, but still... It's long this month. It's cold, it's dark. Most noticeable this year, it's quiet. Quiet as the world after the apocalypse!Give me the opposite, please. A bright, sunny day on a [...]
Mohammed Rakhim Khan MadrassahIn the last post, I told you about our journey to see the environmental tragedy that is the disappearing Aral Sea. Time to move on. We leave Muynak and the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan and head south into the Khorezm region and [...]
Bergen is Norway’s best known city for visitors. And although I’m a Drammen patriot, I’ll happily admit Bergen is recognised for good reason, not least for its proximity to the famous world heritage-listed western fjords.King Olav Kyrre granted Bergen (then named Bjørgvin) city status in [...]
